Short Talks by Anne Carson

Short Talk On Orchids
We live by tunnelling for we are people buried alive. To me, the tunnels you make will seem strangely aimless, uprooted orchids. But the fragrance is undying. A Little Boy has run away from Amherst a few Days ago, writes Emily Dickenson in a letter of 1883, and when asked where he was going replied, Vermont or Asia.


Short Talk On The Sensation Of Aeroplane Takeoff
Well you know I wonder, it could be love running towards my life with its arms up yelling let's buy it what a bargain!

Short Talk On Hopes
Soon I hope to live in a totally rubber house. Think how quickly I will be able to get from room to room! One good bounce and you're there. I have a friend whose hands were melted off by a firebomb during the war. Now, once again, he will learn to pass the bread at the dinner table. Learning is life. I hope to invite him over this evening in fact. Learning is the same colour as life. He says things like that.


Short Talk On Housing
Here is one thing you can do if you have no house. Wear several hats - maybe three, four. In the event of rain or snow, remove the one(s) that get(s) wet. Secondly, to be a householder is a matter of rituals. Rituals function cheifly to differentiate horizontal from vertical. To begin the day in your house is to 'get up'. At night you will 'lie down'. When old Tio Pedro comes over for tea you will 'speak up', for these days his hearing is 'on the decline'. If his wife is with him you will be sure to have 'cleaned up' the kitchen and parlour so as not to 'fall' in her opinion. Watching the two of them, as they sit side by side on the couch smoking one cigarette, you feel your 'heart lift'. These patterns of up and down can be imitated, outside the house, in vertical and horizontal designs upon the clothing. The lines are not hard to make. Hats do not need to be decorated for they will 'pile up' on your head, in and of themselves, qua hats, if you have understood my original instruction.

White Nationalism Put U In Bondage

by Autum Ashante, 7 years old

White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirate and vampires like Columbus,
Morgan, and Darwin
Drank the blood of the sheep,
trampled all over them with
Steel, tricks and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look in our streets
The mis-education of she and Hegro –
leaves you on your knee2grow
Black lands taken from your hands,
by vampires with no remorse
They took the gold, the wisdom
and all of the storytellers
They took the black women,
with the black man weak
Made to watch as they changed the paradigm
Of our village
They killed the blind, they killed the lazy, they went
So far as to kill the unborn baby
Yeah White nationalism is what put you in bondage
Pirates and vampires like Columbus,
Morgan, and Darwin
They drank the blood of the sheep,
trampled all over them with
Steel laden feet, throw in the tricks alcohol and deceit.
Nothing has changed take a look at our streets.

Billie Holiday

"Easy To Remember" Lyrics

Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers

Your sweet expression
The smile you gave me,
The way you looked when we meet
It’s easy to remember
But so hard to forget.
I hear you whisper,
I’ll always lave you
I know it’s over and yet
It’s easy to remember
But so hard to forget.

So I must dream
To have your hand caress me,
Fingers press me tight.
I’d rather dream
Than have the lonely feeling
Stealing through the night.

Each little moment
Is clear before me,
And though it brings me regret
It’s easy to remember
But so hard to forget.



"Please Keep Me In Your Dreams"

Tot Seymour / Vee Lawnhurst

Please keep me in your dreams
In your sweet dreams let me hold you
When through your window
The breeze comes swingin’
It’s just bringin’ this love song that I’m singin’
Please keep me in your dreams
My kiss it seems must have told you
My heart you’ll borrow until tomorrow
So please keep me in your dreams