The Trouble With Poetry And Perpetua Motion

No, I did not misspell "perpetual". See the photograph.


You can't help but love the photographs that appear in LIFE. Particularly some of the more iconic ones, the ones you don't even have to know the context of the picture to know that it first appeared in LIFE Magazine. From the soldier kissing the nurse at the end of World War II in Times Square to Harry Truman holding up the infamous "Dewey Defeats Truman" headline to the 1963 March on Washington with the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument in the background ... really, I could go on and on, but LIFE: The Classic Collection does so better than I do. ISBN 9781603200301 And of the hundred photos they showcase from the 1930s when LIFE debuted to the early 21st century, twenty-five of them are included as removable prints suitable for framing. And the photo captions are kept separate from the photos because the publishers wanted to let the pictures "speak" for themselves.


So I don't have to. Ok, I'll speak about this one I'm using today.


I wasn't able to post yesterday -- change that, I was able to but I didn't take the time because in the space of three hours snow fell and snow blew so hard my whole area was under a weather advisory to stay off the roads if you could until six this morning -- school started at ten this morning, and I got to leave my job three hours early while Martha's Burger King shift ended one hour early, so we were all home with the kids and caught the season premiere of Once Upon A Time before going to bed. "Tougher Than The Rest" I hope is heralding the series' return to a simpler cast and a better-flowing narrative without having to follow multiple storylines. At least the flashback were not overwhelming ... I've got a possible spiritual message from what I saw last night, so I'm saving the lion's share of what the episode's about (if you've seen it or if you care; I'm learning to not force it) for Friday's Ensign.


At least, that is my plan. Now can I get to the photograph?


The Duke and Duchess of Windsor, 1956. Photograph by Philippe Halsman. This happens to be the photo Halsman wound up the session with, something he'd done before with other celebrities that was meant to be whimsical. "But often" -- to quote the book -- "the joyous act of jumping allowed a mask to come off, and something true was revealed." The Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII of England (he's Queen Elizabeth's uncle) before he abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson in the photo with him who'd been twice-divorced, and the proceedings on number two weren't finalized, on the day of my birthday in 1936. (I was negative thirty-five at the time, so I wasn't consulted.) Possibly he was also encouraged to give up the throne due to his Nazi sympathies. The Duke of Windsor was Governor-General of the Bahamas during World War II and afterward retired to France with his wife the Duchess ... but yes, his expression does make you wonder what mask is coming off.


At least it does me! And there really is no trouble with poetry.


The Trouble With Poetry (ISBN 037550382X) just happens to be the Billy Collins collection I finished reading that was a lot of fun. And not just the title work with lines like, "the trouble with poetry is/that it encourages the writing of more poetry,/more guppies crowding the fish tank,/more baby rabbits/hopping out of their mothers into the dewy grass." Reading Collins has given me a few ideas to write about as well -- in fact, during this season of Lent which started on the first of March to Easter I'm writing one each day and trying to not let myself get hung up on form or even is it good! It certainly wasn't good for Perpetua, the Roman matron whose martyrdom (re: being put to death for her Christian faith, along with several others) in the year 202 is commemorated today. She, I mean they, were executed at games in Carthage celebrating the birthday of Roman emperor Septimus Severus. What a way to go.


But all these motions reveal something true,

David