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Kingfisher
Dedicated to the appreciation of photography, painting, poetry, fiction,
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Winter
2004,
Volume Four, Number One. First Edition
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It is by Mark Tobey. Norman Sherry concludes his thirty-year crusade to pin down the elusive life of writer Graham Greene. Norman Sherry, The Life of Graham Greene, Vol. III, 1955-1991, Viking Press, 2004. 825 pp. $39.95 How well did he do?
Pretty well, considering that he was getting tired and pretty loose, there toward the end, and tended to identify so much with Greene that he often seemingly spoke for Greene, and sometimes not so accurately. But it is a brilliant job and he is the man Greene picked for the tough job. The total page count is 2,251. It was a long, tough job, but somebody had to do it, and the fact that Sherry elected himself to do it is to our benefit. And if one has to enter deeply into a life not his own, Greene's is about as interesting a life as one might encounter. Most writers live desperately quiet lives at their pen or typewriter (or computer keyboard), but Greene managed to get his daily 600-word stint in in the morning, which left the rest of the day free to travel, chase married women (for twenty years or so, it was mainly Catherine Walston, pictured below in one of those moody glamour shots of the time. She looks pretty good still. Greene was her principal lover, one might say. And she was his, though both of them fooled around to a high degree. There were three or four women, besides his wife (long abandoned) whom Greene had ongoing relations with, including Anita Bjork, and for the last twenty years of his life, and through old age, Yvonne Cloetta--a petite, immaculate Frenchwoman much younger than him. Green was a major literary figure of the twentieth century. His novels and stories are gripping and well constructed. He wastes little time getting his story underway. His Catholicism was a prevailing yet sometimes thing; he was a great doubter and often described himself as an agnostic. A wishful agnostic, one might add.
Green published 60 books, including 28 novels and 8 plays that had been performed. Countless short stories, as well. He had a wonderful knack with a story and created a laundry list of tormented male characters. The Heart of the Matter and The Power and Glory are two of the most memorable. He worked hardest, though, on A Burnt-Out Case, and it remains perhaps his most difficult to write. He traveled the world over, particularly the countries to the South, and posited his novels and stories where he had been, and where he found poverty, illness, and religious conflict imbedded in complex personalities.. The Nobel Prize eluded him. There are stories about the politics of the award and how many of the Swedish trustees disliked him for an injustice that was largely imaginary. But universities the world over lately awarded him honorary doctors of letters degrees, including his own , Oxford, plus Edinburgh and Cambridge. Cyclops Movie Thumbnails Before Sunrise (1995)
They are just kids, he American, she French, who meet on a train in Vienna, and decide to spend the day and night together. Oh, yeah. They talk and they talk, getting to know each other. A romance. Sure, but who of us is so old to be immune to the appeal of two attractive kids in their early twenties? Not I. I was young once, too. I remember, I remember . . . . They part at dawn, after a night in the park, with a blanket and a bottle of wine. Each has a life to get on with. But they half-heartedly vow to get back together six months later. They don't. but after ten years--he a successful novelist, she an environmental worker--she seeks him out at a Paris book signing, and it starts all over again. What starts? Ah, that is the story. But they are so fascinating in their fascination with each other that the old, withered heart in each of us begins to beat with hope again. Okay, so this is a sappy movie review. But you've just got to see it. Both of them. Before Sunset (2004)
He can't stand her. They live on the edge of dissolution. Celine has had lovers, of course, but nobody she is going to discuss. Her work interests her mostly. She takes Jesse home and he gets a taste of French life in a crowded urban environment. Not bad for a tardy rendezvous. Of course the romantic mind wishes them to be together forever. And there is just a hint of this happening, enough to make viewers happy. But what we are left with is just a hint. It is enough, just right. What are the ten greatest movies of all time? Tell us and maybe we will publish your list. Or add to ours. But to start things off, here are a few that we think must be included: 1. Citizen Kane 2. Apocalypse Now Redux 3. The Godfather, part 1 4. Once Upon a Time in America 5. The Third Man 6. All That Jazz 7. 8. 9. 10.
We are open to suggestions and revisions. Send us your recommendation at the email address below in the right-hand column. Once Upon a Time in America Flesh and The Devil Ingmar Bergman Revisited The Past Recaptured Dune Again? Nora Things You Can Tell Lord of the Rings House of Sand and Fog Sylvia The Hours Return of the Lord of The Rings Girl With a Pearl Earring
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POETRY SECTION
Poems From Ish
River Country, Friends of Poet Robert Sund (saluted in the first issue of Kingfisher Journal, and dedicated to him) have published a fine, hardcover edition of what will be known widely as his Collected Poems. It combines his three earlier books, along with material garnered from various chapbooks Sund published up to his death in September 2001. They were often illustrated with a Sumi sketch or a short, personalized poem. Tim McNulty, Jeff Winston, and Chip Hughes performed the editorial function, and Clearsnap Company provided to the funding. Shoemaker & Hoard of Washington D.C. are the publishers. It is available from the Poet's House, P.O. Box 1567, Anacortes, WA 98221 or from the publisher. Book may be ordered by phoning 1-800-778-3123 and charging it to a credit card. Poems from Ish River Country collects the poems of poet, painter and calligrapher Robert Sund . His few published volumes of poetry and frequent public readings established his reputation as one of the most distinctive poetic voices of the Pacific Northwest, where he enjoyed a tremendous popularity. His short, imagistic poems are in the tradition of Williams Carlos Williams and Kenneth Rexroth. They distill the essence of the Northwest landscape and in plain speech celebrate themes of family, friends, work and contemplation.
Included here are the poet's long out of print and award-winning collections, Bunch Grass, which gave literary voice to the rolling wheat country East of the Cascade Mountains in his native Washington state, and Ish River, which celebrated the misty, riverine landscape of the Puget Sound country, a place, in the poets words, "between two mountain ranges where/many rivers/run down to an inland sea." [The above is taken from Tim McNulty's afterword and used as a publicity blurb by the publisher.] The greater part of this collection, however, is poems unpublished during the poet's lifetime, or else published in very limited editions for friends. They have not been easily accessible and Sund didn't strive not to make them small. In a way, they were written for a close group of friends. And many include personal dedications: "This poem is for . . . ." And was perhaps written in repayment for a meal or two, and a bed for a night or for a week. There is also a selection of his translations from Zen writers Issa, Buson, Basho, and from the Swedish poet, Rabbe Enckell, with whom Sund felt a close affinity. As time passes, and it has been three years since his death, my own opinion of Sund's literary importance has increased. To close friends I have referred to him (a bit apologetically) as a holy man. A holy man, in my definition, is a blessed fool, a man whose talent may exceed his human limitations (Sund could be difficult, a sponge, both kind and generous, and a bit cruel), but he had that rare talent of being narrowly admired and loved. When he made a friend, the friend remained one throughout life. He influenced regional poetry and did for poetry; what Ted Roethke did for him. Sund did this for many others. They are now returning the favor by subsidizing this book. I find myself reading Sund again and again. Our intellectual lives began about the same time, in the same place, with the same friends, and it is ending (his did earlier) under similar circumstances. He is dead, but then most good poets are. Their poems remain. They are his testimony and testament; they are his legacy. Their economy is wonderful. There are few wasted words and bad lines. This book will make him known to many people who weren't fortunate enough to know him during his lifetime, and enjoy his myriad wit and idiosyncrasies. His poems live. They will live on. Robert C. Arnold, Editor
Poets highlighted in past issues of Kingfisher Journal
The Three Ms: Merwin, Heather McHugh [pictured], and Paul Muldoon
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NEWLY PUBLISHED POEMS BY ROBERT SUND Five Oranges Nothing is lost. How the Dancer is Carried into the Hall of Light 1 The wide wide spaces This is the biggest gift! "Everything
that light You will and you will the clearest light 2 streaks of beam light Tell the scoffers "My pen is powerful. 3 and the whisper of its Looking into the face and you will come to rest and there will be crowned break into dance, things of the world For this is the hall of light And then some fine poems from a selection the editors entitled, "Bringing Friends Over, Versions of Issa, Buson, Basho, and Friends." These are famous Buddhist poets and monks. Sund may have read them in ancient Chinese, or in translations, and seems to have gotten the feeling just right--terse, easy, gentle, with not an extra word or syllable any place. I quote from Basho, but my favorite is Issa, whom I dearly love. Basho Spring again-- Now that the damn cat If you have no rice In the cool of autumn Ah! wild roses The best poetry is out in the
country-- Silly scarecrow, The autumn wind-- In the pile of branches The butterflies A sudden rain, (c) Copyright 2004 by Poet's House Trust. Used by permission of the publisher
BACK ISSUES Kingfisher Journal, Vol. 2, No 3, W.S.Merwin/Richard Ford issue Kingfisher Journal, Vol.2, No. 4, Fishtown Issue Kingfisher Journal, Vol. 3, No. 1, William Stafford Issue Kingfisher Journal, Vol 3, No. 2, David Wagoner Edition Kingfisher Journal, Vol. 3, No. 3, Edna O'Brien Issue Robert C. Arnold
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