Spotify gets it right with William Prince; The unspeakable sexiness of the male forearm; Watch out maple syrup, Canada now has a gold heist.
3 Things this week and the reading of a poem about desire.
Happy weekend. Thanks for spending some of it with Things I Wrote Down. I hope you’re finding some rest and refreshing in your corner of the world.
Here’s this week’s link round up and a poem that weaves in and out of history to explore desire.
1. Spotify gets it right with William Prince
Spotify tends to get it wrong for me. I usually don’t like the recommendations its algorithm serves up to me. Perhaps the algorithim can’t quite place me because Petra has played Sia's Cheap Thrills so many times while we drive. Or maybe it’s because the kids have overplayed 1812 Ofarture, the completely inappropriate and excessive fart symphony from the Captain Underpants soundtrack.
But this week it served up William Prince whose storytelling croon has completely won me over. Is it Johnny Cash? Is this Gordon Lightfoot? The first time I heard him I actually thought it was Alexi Murdoch. His voice summons all these great artist, and I've been listening to him a lot this week. His music is exactly what I need right now.
It’s soulful and winsome and it makes you want to hold onto someone you love and slow dance while you're doing dishes after supper.
Breathless and Sing Me a Song, his duet with Serena Ryder, are great places to start. Read his bio and then listen to his music and it will make you believe in what artists do all over again.
2. The unspeakable sexiness of the exposed male forearm
This article has made me laugh so much. If you are or know a single male who is looking to make an impression, read this list.
The Art of Manliness compiled a list from a popular blog of 50 things that women shared that inexplicably attract them to the opposite sex.
Here’s a sampling:
Forearms
Backing up the car using one hand
Crinkles around the eyes when smiling
A neatly trimmed back of the neck
Stubble
Wearing a tool belt
If you need a laugh go check it out. And make sure you buy that Henley.
3. Watch out maple syrup, Canada now has a gold heist
Remember that story way back about the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist that limited the supply and spiked prices? This is almost as bizarre, a right-before-our-eyes-in-daylight caper that involves Canada’s biggest airport and a heist of millions of dollars in gold.
The gold has likely all been melted down, reforged into other forms, and made its way into local or international markets.
~ National Post
It involves international borders, failing airlines, lax security, a Brinks shipment and looks like an inside job.
A poem about a leaky bucket named desire
The longing that emerges from William Prince’s music reminded me about a series of poems I wrote about desire.
The short, imagist poems invoke the stories of the faithless Gomer and her prophet husband Hosea, Solomon and the Shulamite woman from the famous Old Testament Song, and Jesus tempted in the desert, walking the earth.
desire 1. I reach for you quake feel around blind blood caked to my eardrums in the rubble of a world scorched by light, cut fingers on split concrete memory exposed rebar you are somewhere buried deep below screams for air, water horrors imagination won’t produce breathing 2. try to find the language words to describe desire a kiss the full embrace the one last breath of passion fleeting, urged but moments there’s a hole in my bucket dear Liza dear, dear Liza deep need with what shall I fix it? 3. pathway at night lake mating pairs of faithful mallards float among the reeds darkness makes trees a silhouette darkness makes trees not trees surround the lake a harem of lovers 4. my voice makes sound you do not hear 5. flesh hungry so long without food so long about the work of his father so long alone with a growing appetite to satisfy blowjobs birthrights Bathsheba bowls of soup why men fall and stray 6. touch outside the lines of sexgenderbodies where are you now and where will you be? 7. I slept but my heart was awake, she said a lock of her lover’s hair tied to a string hanging between her breasts I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and was gone awake to love My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but did not find him; I called him, but he gave no answer. her longing for him a hot brand against her skin madness 8. the words, love, I will say to you 9. meet me again by the water where I walked alone on the path where we touched without touch in the shadows of this world 10. my heart makes sound you do not hear 11. ah, the words that will be said back 12. you hide there unseen behind rags of glory behind rays of the sun 13. she said, I will go after my lovers; they give me my bread and my water my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink strands of their hair tied to the gold chain hanging between her breasts blood, meat between her teeth hungry to spread her lips chew more flesh another, little, death 14. marry her that faithless one allure her with tender speech as when she was young before her breasts sagged with age before they were touched by many lovers when she was lovely 15. husband! 16. lake early morning blue lines of sky edge the green-edged water I look up clouds see a rainbow tracing glory fading real, like your love, untouchable it must have rained this morning the arc of its spine its familiar unknowable beauty remind me of stories promises things written down if I did not look up at that precise moment I would not have seen it 17. coupez mon couer jusqu’ il y a sang la nuit chante vous me sauvez avec la chair de votre bouche
© 2024 Andrew Kooman