Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Blue headed Rock Thrush

Another of the migratory bird that i happen to click just about the time it was leaving. Blue headed Rock Thrush is a winter migrant from Himalayas, not really a lifer (meaning first spotting ever. Picked up these words from some professional recently) for me but i did take some time to place this one. A bird with striking looks- blue head and a black band along the eyes -Blue headed Rock Thrush is difficult to spot but once located these birds don’t seem to be intimidated by human proximity, indeed i was just few meters away from this pretty looking bird. Some spotting makes your day, this one did. Not to forget some awesome pictures.

Gertrude Stein: "A writer should write with his eyes and a painter paint with his ears"

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) was Jewish American writer and Poet. She was also known for her enviable art collection (Stein Art Collection) in Paris that attracted many artists. Stein helped to launch the careers of Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, among others, and she attempted to translate their experiments in art into writing. Much of her poems are difficult to understand as she rejected the traditional linear form to more fractured form. She lacked widespread popularity and for a long time was not well known across her immediate circle  until when she published her very popular memoir, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. Stein is highly regarded as modernist writer/poet, testimony to the fact that even six decades after her death her books are reprinted and always in demand. The painting herein of Gertrude Stein is by Picasso. And this poem by Stein is on Picasso (it is a long, and must say complicated one, i am taking the first stanza...readers can visit the website)

If I Told Him
(A Completed Portrait of Picasso)

If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him.
Would he like it would Napoleon would Napoleon would would he like it.
If Napoleon if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if Napoleon if
Napoleon if I told him. If I told him if Napoleon if Napoleon if I told him. If I told him would he like it would he like it if I told him.
Now.
Not now.
And now.
Now.
Exactly as as kings.
Feeling full for it.
Exactitude as kings.
..........

America

Once in English they said America. Was it English to them.
Once they said Belgian.
We like a fog.
Do you for weather.
Are we brave.
Are we true.
Have we the national colour.
Can we stand ditches.
Can we mean well.
Do we talk together.
Have we red cross.
A great many people speak of feet.
And socks.

Daughter

Why is the world at peace. This may astonish you a little but when you realise how easily Mrs. Charles Bianco sells the work of American painters to American millionaires you will recognize that authorities are constrained to be relieved. Let me tell you a story. A painter loved a woman. A musician did not sing. A South African loved books. An American was a woman and needed help. Are Americans the same as incubators. But this is the rest of the story. He became an authority.

A Long Dress

What is the current that makes machinery, that makes it crackle, what is the current that presents a long line and a necessary waist. What is this current. What is the wind, what is it.
Where is the serene length, it is there and a dark place is not a dark place, only a white and red are black, only a yellow and green are blue, a pink is scarlet, a bow is every color. A line distinguishes it. A line just distinguishes it.

A Mounted Umbrella

What was the use of not leaving it there where it would hang what was the use if there was no chance of ever seeing it come there and show that it was handsome and right in the way it showed it. The lesson is to learn that it does show it, that it shows it and that nothing, that there is nothing, that there is no more to do about it and just so much more is there plenty of reason for making an exchange.

Negligible Old Star

Negligible old star.
Pour even.
It was a sad per cent.
Does on sun day.
Watch or water.
So soon a moon or a old heavy press.

Stanzas in Meditation

She may count three little daisies very well
By multiplying to either six nine or fourteen
Or she can be well mentioned as twelve
Which they may like which they can like soon
Or more than ever which they wish as a button
Just as much as they arrange which they wish
Or they can attire where they need as which say
Can they call a hat or a hat a day
Made merry because it is so.

Red Faces

Red flags the reason for pretty flags.
And ribbons.
Ribbons of flags
And wearing material
Reason for wearing material.
Give pleasure.
Can you give me the regions.
The regions and the land.
The regions and wheels.
All wheels are perfect.
Enthusiasm.

From my scribble pad....

At the Talkies
(Watching movie in Allahabad)

The hero and heroine had decided
to do an impromptu
(most likely as a token of acknowledgment on mutual desirability)
at the snap of the finger
appeared accompaniments
bright colours and loud music
immaculate rhythmic steps,
practised to perfection.

The large fan sliced the moist air
of the damp theatre.
A disoriented pigeon appeared briefly in the glare of
the projector and crashed into the whirling fan
a detonation of white feathers
scatter across the hall
and float steadily as if playing to the scene.
It was snowing.
The hero chased the heroine
both wearing black
they stare each other and the camera
through their big black goggles
and did a 60s twist, retro effect.

Some hurry across to the dying pigeon
and drip drops of water from plastic bottle
into the mutilated beak.
All in vain.
I am thinking the pigeon
has come alive and flew straight into
the bright day of the scene
in the movie.

There is a garden with lots of flowers
and birds chirping,
the hero and heroine lay on the bright green
carpet of faultless grass,
in faultless outfit,
almost copulating,
a white pigeon by their side.