How I Learn

Readings in 2014

I like to read, it is part of who I am, and I especially like to read books. It helps me to stitch things together. As is sharing what I read. And learning from others what they are reading. Last year I began to share my reading list for the year, and I got some interesting responses to this. So here is a list of the books I read in 2014, in chronological order of when they were written.

Please share your list in the comments!

Abu Sa'id Abu'l Kheyr tr by Reza Ordoubadian   

The Poems of Abu Sa'id Abu'l Kheyr

1040

 

Akashi no Kakuichi tr by Royall Tyler        

The Tale of the Heike 

1371

 

Anonymous   

Mankind         

1475

 

Anonymous   

Everyman      

1509

 

Jonson, Ben   

Epicene           

1609

 

Webster, John           

The White Devil         

1612

 

de Gongora, Luis tr by Edith Grossman     

The Solitudes 

1613

 

Yosa Buson tr by Yuki Sawa and Edith Shiffert   

Haiku Master Buson  

1783

 

Dickinson, Emily       

Emily Dickinson: The Gorgeous Nothings    

1880

 

Soseki Natsume tr by Beongcheong Yu     

The Wayfarer 行人   

1912

 

Maurois, Andrre tr by Ella D'Arcy  

Ariel - The Life of Shelly        

1924

 

Cesaire, Aime tr by John Berger & Anna Bostock 

Return to My Native Land (Cahiers d'un retour au pays natal)       

1939

 

Wittgenstein Ludwig tr by Peter Winch    

Culture and Value      

1951

 

Wittgenstein Ludwig tr by G.E.M. Anscombe & G.H. von Wright 

On Certainty   

1951

 

Michener, James A.   

Sayonara       

1953

 

Drucker, Peter          

The Practice of Management

1954

 

Pound, Ezra  

The Cantos     

1954

 

O'Brian, Patrick        

The Road to Samarcand        

1954

 

Mishima Yukio tr by Donald Keene           

Five Modern Noh Plays         

1955

 

Alexander, Christopher       

Notes on the Synthesis of Form        

1964

 

Weiss, Peter tr by Geoffrey Skelton & Adrian Mitchell    

The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as told by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade           

1964

 

Celan, Paul tr by Ian Fairley           

Fathomsun (Fadensonnen) & Benighted (Eingedunkelt)       

1968

 

Bernal, Rafael tr by Katherine Silver         

The Mongolian Conspiracy    

1969

 

Kageyama Toshiro tr by James Davies      

Lessons in the Fundamentals of Go   

1970

 

Ono Yoko       

Grapefruit      

1971

 

Ling, Trevor  

The Buddha    

1973

 

Antin, David  

talking at the boundaries      

1974

 

Brossard, Nicole tr by Barbara Godard      

These Our Mothers or The Disintegrating Chapter  

1977

 

nichol, bp      

The Martyrology Books 1 & 2          

1977

 

O Riordain, Sean       

Selected Poems Sean O Riordain       

1977

 

O'Brian, Patrick        

Desolation Island       

1978

 

Gagnon, Madeleine tr by Howard Scott     

Lair (Antre)    

1978

 

O'Brian, Patrick        

The Fortune of War   

1979

 

Miner, Earl    

Japanese Linked Poetry         

1979

 

Oppen, Mary 

Poems & Transpositions       

1980

 

Corman, Cid  

At Least          

1981

 

Lynn, Elizabeth A.     

The Sardonyx Net      

1981

 

Dick, Philip K.

The Transmigration of Timothy Archer       

1983

 

Yoshioka Minoru tr by Eric Selland           

Kusudama      

1983

 

Hazan, Marcella        

Marcella's Italian Kitchen     

1986

 

Jones, Diana Wynne 

Howl's Moving Castle

1986

 

Crais, Robert 

Stalking the Angel      

1989

 

Grubeck, Jeff and Benjamin Friedlander   

Myth  

1989

 

Jones, Diana Wynne 

Castle in the Air         

1990

 

Moriarty, Laura        

Rondeaux       

1990

 

Kim Myung Mi          

Under Flag     

1991

 

Grubeck, Jeff and Benjamin Friedlander   

Prophecy        

1991

 

Niechoda, Irene        

A Sourcery for Books 1 & 2 of bp nichol's The Martyrology           

1992

 

Takahashi Mutsuo tr by Hiroaki Sato        

Sleeping Sinning Falling         

1992

 

Galford, Ellen

The Dyke and the Dybbuk     

1993

 

Ramirez-Christensen, Esperanza   

Heart's Flower: The Life and Poetry of Shinkei        

1994

 

Izzo, Jean-Claude tr by Howard Curtis      

Chourmo        

1996

 

Crais, Robert 

Sunset Express           

1996

 

Buruma, Ian  

The Missionary and the Libertine     

1996

 

Gould, Stephen Jay   

Full House      

1996

 

Debord, Guy tr by James Brook & John McHale    

Panegyric       

1997

 

Robb, Peter   

M        

1998

 

Hebert, Anne tr by Sheila Fischman          

Am I Disturbing You?

1998

 

Reichl, Ruth   

Tender at the Bone    

1998

 

Izzo, Jean-Claude tr by Howard Curtis      

Solea  

1998

 

Crais, Robert 

L.A. Requiem  

1999

 

Hwang Sun-Mi tr by Chi-Young Kim         

The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly          

2000

 

Hiraide Takshi tr by Eric Selland   

The Guest Cat (Neko no Kyaku)        

2001

 

Rivers, Karen

Surviving Sam           

2001

 

Yoon, Jean     

The Yoko Ono Project

2002

 

Howe, Susan 

The Midnight 

2003

 

Brossard, Nicole tr Robert Majzels and Erin Moure         

Notebook of Roses and Civilization   

2003

 

Johnson, Jo and Martine Orange    

The Man Who Tried to Buy the World         

2004

 

Thal, Lilli tr by John Brownjohn     

Mimus

2005

 

Toppin, Gilbert and Fiona Czerniawska     

Business Consulting   

2005

 

Isozaki Arata tr by Sabu Kosho      

Japan-ness in Architecture    

2006

 

Renaud, Yannick tr by Hugh Hazelton       

All is Flesh      

2006

 

Stewart, Mathew      

The Courtier and the Heretic 

2006

 

Amirrezvani, Anita   

The Blood of Flowers

2007

 

Crais, Robert 

The Watchman          

2007

 

Ferey, Caryl tr by Howard Curtis   

Zulu    

2008

 

Last, Nana     

Wittgenstein's House 

2008

 

Jones, Diana Wynne 

House of Many Ways

2008

 

Dianova, Tzenka       

John Cage's Prepared Piano  

2008

 

Kirino Matsuo           

The Goddess Chronicle           

2008

 

Pearl, Judea  

Causality 2nd Edition

2009

 

Sandel, Michael J.     

Justice

2009

 

Hamilton, Steve        

The Lock Artist          

2009

 

Crais, Robert 

The First Rule

2010

 

Pizzolatto, Nic

Galveston       

2010

 

Dawn, Amber

Sub Rosa        

2010

 

Brossard, Nicole tr Robert Majzels and Erin Moure         

White Piano - Piano Blanc    

2011

 

Piccirilli, Tom

Every Shallow Cut     

2011

 

Blossom, Eve 

Material Change        

2011

 

Crais, Robert 

The Sentry     

2011

 

Weiss, Eben  

The Enlightened Cyclist         

2012

 

La Cecla, Franco tr by Mairin O'Mahony   

Against Architecture  

2012

 

Leyshon, Nell

The Colour of Milk     

2012

 

Maldonado, Miguel des by Kasumi Komagata tr by Akie Maezawa       

Una gota – Shizuku   

2012

 

Grisham, John           

The Racketeer

2012

 

Wayman, Tom          

Dirty Snow    

2012

 

Humes, Edward        

Garbology      

2012

 

Ferguson, Niall          

The Great Degeneration        

2012

 

Crais, Robert 

Taken 

2012

 

Schlefer, Jonathan    

The Assumptions Economists Make 

2012

 

Nilsson, Magnus       

Faviken          

2012

 

Abel, Jordan  

The Place of Scraps   

2013

 

Collis, Stephen and Jordan Scott    

Decomp          

2013

 

Hobbs, Roger

Ghostman      

2013

 

Mullen, Harryette     

Urban Tumbleweed   

2013

 

Marlatt, Daphne       

Liquidities      

2013

 

Choi, Roy       

L.A. Son          

2013

 

Eggers, Dave 

The Circle       

2013

 

Steiner, Shepherd    

Phonokinetoscpe by Rodney Graham           

2013

 

Vaughan Brian K. with Fiona Staples         

Saga Vol. 1, 2, 3          

2013

 

Ozeki, Ruth    

A Tale Told for the Time Being       

2013

 

Saklikar, Renee Sarojini       

children of air india   

2013

 

Legris, Sylvia 

Pneumatic Antiphonal           

2013

 

Kwan, Kevin 

Crazy Rich Asians      

2013

 

Barr, Luke     

Provence 1970           

2013

 

Pentland, Alex          

Social Physics: How Good Ideas Spread       

2014

 

Selland, Eric  

Arc Tangent   

2014

 

Wendel, Stephen      

Designing for Behavior Change         

2014

 

Cole, Peter     

The Invention of Influence     

2014

 

Simpson, Natalie       

Thrum

2014

 

Queyras, Sina

MxT    

2014

 

Canty, Daniel tr by author & Oana Avasilichioei   

Worldlines (Mappenmunde)  

2014

 

Strang, Catriona       

Corked

2014

 

Carson, Anne

The Albertine Workout          

2014

 

Nicholson, Cecily       

From the Poplars      

2014

 

Taylor, Timothy        

Foodville        

2014

 

Thuy, Kim     

Man    

2014

 

Nesin, Kate    

Cy Twombly's Things

2014

 

Robertson, Lisa         

Cinema of the Present           

2014

 

Thiel, Peter with Blake Masters      

Zero to One    

2014

 

Pilling, David 

Bending Adversity     

2014

 

Crais, Robert 

Suspect           

2014

Writing in 2014

(Photo by Yoshie Hattori - Vancouver 2012)

It was a tough year in many ways. A close friend died. Work was difficult. My own writing seemed stalled. But I chipped away at some things.

Yoshie continued to take photos and to organize them into her blog It Is. Working on this with her is one of the threads of that twins our lives together.

I continued to work in the two forms I am focused on - short three line notes inspired by haiku and a field form of two lines with parallel structures that come from a study of equations, field theory, classical Chinese poetry and The Psalms. I will likely work more on these two forms this year and hope to share some thoughts on the background research I am doing in these areas. I have also been studying renga, linked poetry often written by a small group of people together, and may see if I can work in this form in 2015.

On the professional front I wrote posts on teams for TeamFit. Having a chance to go deep into the themes of team building, collaboration and decision making was a good way to better understand my own approach to these themes. This is work I will continue with in the coming year.

Some of the posts on Talk About Teams that I still think about ...

What Would a Default Design Thinking Team Look Like?  - This post let me bring together two of my passions, teams and how they are formed and design thinking.

Why TeamFit - The big decision at TeamFit was to pivot (that dreaded word) from team collaboration and team building to team assembly.

Decisions are Conversations - TeamFit is working on how to assemble teams, but in all likelihood we will come back to team decision making, and I am still convinced that conversations are a compelling way to think about decisions.

On Making the Wrong Design Decision (And Working to Fix It) - this seems dated now, as we have changed the focus of the company, but the lessons on going back and changing flawed design decisions seems important to me.

I also began to do some posts on pricing strategy for B2B SaaS companies for OpenView, a VC in Boston that does excellent work supporting and growing its investees. I will be doing more blog posts with OpenView in 2015.

The Secret to Boosting Your Software Pricing Power

You Can't Price Software Without Focus

And as part of my goal to strengthen the BC innovation economy I began to work more with New Ventures BC.

My favourite posts here were on the courage it takes to lead a start-up company.

What is the Most Important Character Trait for a Start-Up Entrepreneur?

Is It Courage or Something Else that is Critical for Start-up Company Leaders?

But New Ventures BC itself seemed to like this post best.

What Kind of Price is Free?

Lots more work to do in 2015. Writing down ideas, sharing them, debating them, and seeing what happens as they are put into action is an important part of how to learn.

Trading books at the corner (Siri's book exchange)

Book exchanges have been sprouting up all over Vancouver over the past couple of years. In my neighborhood there are three on my walking paths. South towards Broadway there is one at Fifth Avenue and Trafalgar. West on the way to my granddaughters there is one along Third Avenue just past Macdonald. But my favorite is to the North, at Fifth Avenue and Trafalgar.  Siri’s book exchange.

 

Walking by the book exchange, leaving a few books, and picking up one or two has become an important part of my day. I tend to drop by most mornings as I cycle to work to see what is new. And on weekends I often walk up with my granddaughters in tow in a rusty red wagon and a load of books to drop off.

 

Siri used to garden around the edges of the fence. She liked to seed flowers and give them a bit of guidance and support, a nice balance of wild and cultivated plants, cosmos, some black-eyed Susan’s, long fine grasses, and the tougher plants that grow closer to the ground. And she liked to talk with people that walked by, and would sometimes slip in to get a book to share. She is missed and the book exchange keeps her memory alive. I have even dropped in some books of my father’s (he died in 2011).

 

Siri’s husband John Kidder included a bench when he built the book exchange and this has made a difference. For a while this summer, when I went in to work early, I met the fellow who was painting a house on the block. He would be sitting, having a smoke, reading a book from the box. And he brought in a lot of books too, mostly collections of short stories (not my favorite genre, but I did pick up a copy of the From Ink Lake collection edited my Michael Ondaatje). One Saturday morning I happened by when a fellow was dropping off a load of books. I focused in on Jean Yoon’s play The Yoko Ono project. I have become entranced with Yoko Ono’s early work over the past few years and the sort of action haiku (my term) in her book Grapefruit. As it turned out, this guy was also fascinated by this work, and we talked and tried to imagine actually following some of Yoko Ono’s instructions.

 

CLOUD PIECE

 

Imagine the clouds dripping. (Not hard to do in Vancouver)

Dig a whole in your garden to

put them in. (I have tried that, they keep seeping out)

 

1963 Spring

 

MAP PIECE

 

Draw a map to get lost.

 

1964 Spring

 

(Google does this for me now – and it does help me get lost some days.)

 

I later gave The Yoko Ono book on to one of the people I work with.

 

The book boxes have changed what I read and sometimes how I read it. There are a lot of interesting books around, most of which I have never heard of. The book exchange feeds my curiosity and blows open some of the barriers in my mind.

 

One of the first books I read from a book box was Elizabeth Lynn’s The Sardonyx Net. An odd book published back in 1981 that unpeels slavery, S&M and the abuse of prisons for economic gain. All are important themes today. I had never heard of this book, I live a sheltered life, but I am glad I read it.

 

This September I read the harrowing book of poems Children of Air India by Renée Sarojini Saklikar. I was aware of this book, but it is not easy to find and I probably would not have read it if I had not found it at the corner. It is a harrowing collage of memories and evidence from Air India Flight 182. Seek this book out. Memory is important. And Siri’s book exchange is becoming part of our neighbourhood memory.

 

I return most of the books after I read them. And I have noticed that other people are doing this as well. The books are being shared. A local, practical example of the sharing economy not dependent on any apps or virtual social networks.

 

In the past I tended to hoard books, and only gifted on those that were the most important to me or those that I really didn’t care about. The book exchanges have changed this. I am contributing some books that I think are important, books that matter to me and that I think may matter to others. Why has my behavior changed? One reason is the opportunity of course, it is easy and fun to drop off books at Siri’s and look to see what is new. But the availability of eBooks is also a factor. It is easier to give up a book when one knows it is easy to get a copy on-line and that you can probably find that elusive quote you are looking for when you need to. Having easy access to eBooks has made me more willing to share the books in my physical library.

 

The exception is poetry. I have kept pretty much all of my poetry books and I continue to buy more every month (I am waiting to buy Lisa Robertson’s new book Cinema of the Present at The Paper Hound down on West Pender near Cambie). The exception are the books where I have somehow ended up with multiple copies. This morning I contributed a copy of In the Presence of Absence by Mahmoud Darwish. And I have a few copies of Yoshioka Minoru’s important work Kusudama translated by Eric Selland. I will put a few more copies of this wonderful book into local circulation. And I know I should let go of more poetry books. And I will. One day. Not yet.

 

This morning I ran into Siri’s husband, widower I suppose. He noticed me walking slowly by, my nose in John Webster’s The White Devil (seems like a good play to be reading as the political season begins). We started to talk (we share interests in the start-up economy, in books, and our sons are best friends) and he asked me what I had picked up. Three Novels by Samuel Beckett: Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnnameable and Paris and London in the 18^th Century: Studies in Popular Protest by George Rudé. I was delighted to find the former, had sort of been looking for it, and was intrigued to find the latter, a book I had never heard of or even imagined.

 

John told me about his plans for the corner. He is going to build a children’s book and toy exchange. Something down low, with a door that opens down to make it safer for small hands. I can hardly wait to go by with my granddaughters. I hope it becomes a place where kids go and meet each other

 

Some August Notes

In three parts of a form

---

Wood soft along the seams

Some moss and dry damp punk

Is structurally weak

 

 

Blood pressure thrum

Costing concentration as

Dull pressure continues

 

 

Air striped with

Humidity and the threat of rain

Tightening in

 

 

Rain sullen anticipation

Of smoke drifting and ash

In the lungs

 

 

Washing four chopsticks

One at a time because two of us

Ate together

 

 

Paper strips caught

In wire loops held tight

By elastic thread

 

 

Four in the morning

The temperature of water

Closer to earth

 

Readings in 2013

Readings in 2013 in chronolgical order. Keeping notes of what I have read helps with my memory. Kind of scary looking though this to see how patchy and skewed my reading is. Just one year of reading but still ...

 

Theogony & Works and Days, Hesiod tr by C.S. Morrissey, 650 BC

 

The Mountain Poems of Meng Hao-jan, Meng Hao-jan孟浩然(Meng Haoran) tr by David Hinton, 740

 

The Sayings of Layman P'ang, Layman P'ang tr by James Green, 808

 

Beowulf, Heaney, Seamus translator, 950

 

Sarashina Diary 更級日記, Lady Sarashina tr by Ivan Morris, 1060

 

Awesome Nightfall, Saigyo with bio and tr by William R. Lafleur, 1190

 

Ryojin-hisho (梁塵秘抄) The Dance of Dust on Rafters, Goshirakawa-Joko (後白河上皇) compiler tr by Yasuhiko Moriguchi & David Jenkins, 1192

 

The Zen Poetry of Dogen, Dogen tr by Steven Heine, 1253

 

La Vita Nuova, Dante Alighieri tr by Barbara Reynolds, 1294

 

Dido, Queen of Carthage, Marlowe, Christopher, 1586

 

Tamburlaine the Great Part 1, Marlowe, Christopher, 1588

 

Tamburlaine the Great Part 2, Marlowe, Christopher, 1588

 

The Jew of Malta, Marlowe, Christopher, 1592

 

Doctor Faustus, Marlowe, Christopher, 1592

 

Edward the Second, Marlowe, Christopher, 1592

 

The Spanish Tragedy, Kyd, Thomas, 1592

 

The Massacre at Paris, Marlowe, Christopher, 1593

 

Volpone, Jonson, Ben, 1606

 

A Tomb for Anatole, Mallarme, Stephane tr by Paul Auster, 1877

 

The Three Cornered World (Kusamakura), Soseki Natsume tr by Alan Turney, 1906

 

Tristia, Mandelstan, Osip tr by Bruce McClelland, 1922

 

The Dain Curse, Hammett, Dashiell, 1928

 

The Maltese Falcon, Hammett, Dashiell, 1929

 

The Big Sleep, Chandler, Raymond, 1939

 

Remarks on the Foundations of Mathematics, Wittgenstein, Ludwig tr by G.E.M. Anscombe, 1944

 

Watchfiends & Rack Screams, Artaud, Antonin tr by Clayton Eshleman & Bernard Bador, 1948

 

The Little Sister, Chandler, Raymond, 1949

 

The Long Good-Bye, Chandler, Raymond, 1953

 

Where Are the Victors, Richie, Donald, 1955

 

Howl, Ginsburg, Allen, 1956

 

Rip Rap and Cold Mountain Poems, Snyder, Gary, 1958

 

First Snow on Fuji, Kawabata Yasunari, 1959

 

The Samurai Banner of Furinkazan, Inoue Yasushi tr by Yoko Riley, 1959

 

Written in Water (Ocnos, Variaciones sobre tema mexicano), Cernuda, Luis tr by

Stephen Kessler, 1963

 

The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Tsutsui Yasutaka tr by David Karashima, 1967

 

Dialogs With Marcel Duchamp, Duchamp, Marcel & Pierre Cabane tr by Ron Padgett, 1967

 

The Menacers, Hamilton, Donald, 1968

 

Crow, Hughes, Ted, 1971

 

Master and Commander, O'Brian, Patrick, 1971

 

Ayako, Osamu Tezuka tr by Mari Morimoto, 1972

 

Post Captain, O'Brian, Patrick, 1972

 

Agua Viva, Lispector, Clarice tr by Stefan Tobler, 1973

 

Saborami, Vicuna, Cecilia, 1973

 

HMS Surprise, O'Brian, Patrick, 1973

 

Turtle Island, Snyder, Gary, 1975

 

Heligenanstalt, Mayrocker, Friederike tr by Rosmarie Waldrop, 1978

 

Writing is an Aid to Memory, Hejinian, Lyn, 1978

 

Field Work, Heaney, Seamus, 1979

 

A Taste of the Sun, David, Elizabeth, 1980

 

Getting Up: Subway Graffiti in New York, Castleman, Craig, 1982

 

The Modern Fable, Nishiwaki Junzaburo tr by Hiroaki Sato, 1983

 

Total Loss, Coote, Jack H., 1985

 

Claw Morraine, Schelling, Andrew, 1987

 

Election, Perrota, Tom, 1988

 

The New Room, Zwicky, Jan, 1989

 

A Lesson in Music, Daive, Jean tr by Julie Kalendek, 1990

 

like roads, Moriarty, Laura, 1990

 

Concordat Provisio Ascendant, Dewdney, Christopher, 1991

 

Salvage, Marlatt, Daphne, 1991

 

My Bird Book, Cole, Norma, 1991

 

Vocative Figure, Albiac, Anne-Marie tr by Anthony Barnett & Joseph Simas, 1991

 

stare decisis, Nelson, Gale, 1991

 

Trimmings, Mullen, Harryette, 1991

 

Unreasonable Behaviour, McCullin, Don, 1992

 

Trog, Evans, John Mackie, 1992

 

Team Roles at Work, Belbin, Meredith, 1993

 

The Nonconformist's Memorial, Howe, Susan, 1993

 

Pearls in Graph Theory, Hartsfield, Nora & Gerhard Ringel, 1994

 

Hologram, Page, P.K. , 1994

 

The Garcia Family Co-Mercy, Wolsak, Mellisa, 1994

 

Endocrinology, Berssenbrugge, Mei-mei & Kiki Smith, 1997

 

Memoirs of the Warrior Kumagai, Richie, Donald, 1999

 

Ogress Oblige, Lusk, Dorothy Trujilo, 2001

 

Dante A Life, Lewis, R.W.B., 2001

 

The Sake Handbook, Gauntner, John, 2002

 

Between the Eyes, Levi Strauss, David, 2003

 

a woman with several lives (une femme de qulque vies), Daive, Jean tr by Paul Celan, 2003

 

Dream I Tell You, Cixous, Helene tr by Beverly Bie Brahic, 2003

 

Ana Mendieta Earth Body, Viso, Olga M., 2004

 

The Rainbow Troops (Laskar Pelangi), Hirata, Andrea tr by Angie Kilbane, 2005

 

Tokyo Cancelled, Dasgupta, Rana, 2005

 

Squeezed Light, Wolsak, Mellisa, 2005

 

Tooling, Aranda, Benjamin and Chris Lasch, 2006

 

Momentary Dark, Avison, Margaret, 2006

 

Bento Box in the Heartland, Furiya, Linda, 2006

 

Wittgenstein Flies a Kite, Sterrett, Susan G., 2006

 

Shattered, Walters, Eric, 2006

 

Trudeau, Ricci, Nino, 2007

 

Stardust, Serafin, Bruce, 2007

 

Return to Dragon Mountain, Spence, Jonathon D., 2007

 

Alice Waters & Chez Panisse, McNamee, Thomas, 2007

 

The Reason I Jump, Higashida Naoki tr by Ka Yoshida & David Mitchell, 2007

 

The Given, Marlatt, Daphne, 2008

 

1Q84, Murakami Haruki tr by Jay Rubin & Philip Gabriel, 2008

 

How do teams learn?, Nandkeolyar, Amit Kumar, 2008

 

Old Tale Road, Schelling, Andrew, 2008

 

Private Grief and Public Mourning, Belshaw, John and Diane Purvey, 2009

 

Who Was Jacques Derrida?, Mikics, David, 2009

 

The Major Verbs, Nepveu, Pierre tr by Donald Winkler, 2009

 

The Checklist Manifesto, Gawande, Atul, 2009

 

App Savy, Yarmosh, Ken, 2010

 

So Lovely A Country Will Never Perish, Keene, Donald, 2010

 

Inside Out, Eisler, Barry, 2010

 

Digital Manufacturing, Agkathidis, Asterios, 2010

 

Monsoon, Kaplan, Robert D., 2010

 

Waiting for Joe, Birdswell, Sandra, 2010

 

From Head to Hand, Levi Strauss, David, 2010

 

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist, Batchelor, Stephen, 2010

 

The Silent Oligarch, Jones, Chris Morgan, 2011

 

Wigrum, Canty, Daniel tr by Oana Avasilichioaei, 2011

 

Operator, Canty, Daniel with Mikko Hynninen, 2011

 

White Piano, Brossard, Nicole tr by Erin Moure & Robert Majzels, 2011

 

Moodle 2 Administration, Buchner, Alex, 2011

 

Straphanger, Grescoe, Taras, 2012

 

The Signal and the Noise, Silver, Nate, 2012

 

419, Ferguson, Will, 2012

 

New Theatre, Steudel, Susan, 2012

 

Andreas Gursky Bangkok, Gursky, Andreas texts by Beat Wismer, Hans Irrek, John Yau, 2012

 

Coit, Neveu, Chantal tr by Angela Carr, 2012

 

Testament, Lee, Dennis, 2012

 

The Victory Lab, Issenberg, Sasha, 2012

 

We Are Anonymous, Olson, Parmy, 2012

 

Railtracks, Berger, John, Anne Michaels, Tereza Stehlikova, 2012

 

The Ocean Ranger: Remaking the Promise of Oil, Dodd, Susan, 2012

 

The Secret Race, Hamilton, Tyler and Daniel Cole, 2012

 

Istanbul Passage, Kanon, Joseph, 2012

 

We, Beasts, Avasilichioaei, Oana, 2012

 

Means, Farr, Roger, 2012

 

Stan Douglas Abbott & Cordova, 7 August 1971, Douglas, Stan with many others, 2012

 

Where'd You Go Bernadette, Semple, Maria, 2012

 

Fabricated, Lipson, Hod & Melba Kurman, 2013

 

The Big Shift, Bricker, Darrell and John Ibbitson, 2013

 

red doc >, Carson, Anne, 2013

 

On Teams, HBR, 2013

 

Massacre Street, Zits, Paul, 2013

 

The Great Indian Phone Book, Doron, Assa & Robin Jeffrey, 2013

 

The Loving Detail of the Living & the Dead, Sikelianos, Eleni, 2013

 

Lean Analytics, Croll, Allister and Benjamin Yoskovitz, 2013

 

Virtualis Topologies of the Unreal, Dowker, David and Christine Stewart, 2013

 

The Wind From Vulture Peak, Miller, Stephen D. and Patrick Donnelly, 2013

 

How Poetry Saved My Life, Dawn, Amber, 2013

 

Service Design, Polaine, Andy Lavrans Lovlie and Ben Reason, 2013

 

Hooking, Dalton, Mary, 2013

 

Never Go Back, Child, Lee, 2013

 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Gaiman, Neil, 2013

 

Block Experiments in Cosmococa (Helio Oiticica & Neville D'Almeida), Buchmann Sabeth & Max Jorge Hinderer Cruz, 2013

 

Tuft, Minkus, Kim, 2013

 

Dogfight, Vogeistein, Fred, 2013

 

Recovering

The year got off to a rough start, as I caught the flue and for two weeks was as sick as I can remember being. Yoshie nursed me through it though with love, and care and soups. I did not know it was possible to sleep so much. Finally I am on the mend.

---

Washing the ozoni pot

Until it’s clean New Year’s

Celebrations over

 

Chinese cabbage broccoli

Shitake kale grated potato salt pepper

Ginger soy milk

 

Tired enough to squeeze

Toothpaste onto the cap

Lie down and sleep

 

Coughing up

Bloody phlegm seems

Hardly worth it

 

Too sick to

Drink tea and even

Water cloys

 

Sleep repeated

Sleep until sleep is

Hard to distinguish

 

Water then juice

Finally on the 17^th sake then

On the 18^th tea

 

Kisarazu 木更津 dream

This dream is some days old now, so is being remembered at some distance in time without the crutch of notes. It is inevitably different from the dream recalled on waking, which is already something different from the dream itself.

In the 1980s we kept a sailboat in at Kisarazu, an industrial town in Chiba near the entrance to Tokyo Bay. The harbor was mostly used by sand barges and fishing boats, but there was a ferry back them that would churn up and shift the sandbanks, and a small group of hardcore sailors who preferred Kisarazu to the fancier marinas like Aburatsubo on the other side of the bay.

“My wife Yoshie, her brother Sadatoshi and I are walking along the wharf in Kisarazu. It is a high spring day, still a bit cold, and with a good wind. There is a C&C 39 tied up. The skinny guy with the beard who is the local boat wrangler and very good at tuning up boats asks us if we would like to take her out. 

We get underway, just the three of us, avoid the ferry (which would not have been running three years ago) and start to go out along the long breakwater. For some reason I take the boat off to port of the normal course, to the south, and as we get towards the end of the break water the water gets shallower. Many years earlier, soon after we had bought the boat, we had been driven into this water in a sharp squall and I had been nervous of it ever since. The water’s colours changed, greens and muddy browns coming into the grey and blue, and there was more seaweed. The boat seemed to be dragging, the propeller fouling with weed.

We got sail on and the boat heeled nicely. We worked out way out of the shallows and out from the shelter of the breakwater. There was bout two feet of chop and the boat sailed well. We fell off onto a beam reach and headed out towards Daini Kaihou. I may have drifted into a different dream or I may have woken up.”

I was in my 20s and the kids were young. The boat, the hard light on the sea, the waves, the salt and the stroking motions, the way the sea changed on entering the Black Current, are all still part of me.

and then November notes

The shimmy now

A wobble then a shake

Down hill

Kitsilano November 2013

 

The wheel trued

By equal tension around

Each spoke

Kitsilano November 2013

 

Something we knew

That we have forgotten

We have forgotten

Kitsilano November 2013

 

Rebar coming off

The flatbed bends in

The sky is blue

Kitsilano November 2013

 

Any or as

Ambiguous as clouds

Taste of salt

Kitsilano November 2013

 

Salt keeping the

Street dry wrecks

The drive train

Kitsilano November 2013

 

Air colder

At the top of the house

Under the roof

Kitsilano November 2013

 

Morning water

Cold enough that

Teeth ache

Kitsilano November 2013

 

some October notes

Removing water spots

Drying forks and spoons with

A damp cloth

...

 

Mid October the deck

Slimy and our footprints

Green black

...

 

Burning matches

Up a hill to get in a dig

Paid for later

...

 

Three for Olivia Mei

Breathing mist

The cars slower and slower

‘Up a hill’

---

At every corner

She says ‘let’s go find out’

And we do

---

‘Run in circles’

Till the world turns with you

‘Run in circles’ 

...

 

A shimmy on

Flat pavement when

The speed is fast

 ...

A wasted day

With a lot of sleep

A valuable thing

 ...

 

Three crows eat

A dead grey squirrel in

The middle of the road

 ...

 

Halloween night

Hiding behind the chair

And in the closet

 

 

Three crows ...

Three crows eat

A dead grey squirrel in

The middle of the road

 

Why bother with this? The lines have no other meaning. A dead squirrel, likely killed by a car, is not uncommon.  I ride up this street most days and have seen other road kill. More often birds, but also squirrels. There are many squirrels in this neighbourhood and some die on the road. There have also been dead raccoons and dead skunks. I have no particular memory of any of them.

Iconic modifiers like ‘three’ and ‘middle’ that crept in suggests that this wants to say more than it does. Or can. Or should. And this latent pull weakens the words as they are. But that morning there were three crows and the squirrel was in the middle of the road. When I went by in the evening on my way home the squirel had been moved to the gutter.

Part of it was the colours. The black of the crows and the shinier black of their beaks. The black pavement. The street had been repaved a couple of weeks earlier and still had a tarry sheen. The rougher grey-black of the crows’ claws. And the grey of the squirrel’s fur, flecked with small but very red gashes.

And part of it is cycling on Vancouver streets, which the oblivious arrogance of many car drivers makes more dangerous than they need to be. Cycling keeps me sharply aware of my peripheries, I see out of the corner of my eye and listen to what is coming up behind me. I imagine the squirrel did too. Not that it helped 

Of course Basho has a famous ‘crow’ haiku.

 

枯れ枝に鴉のとまりけり秋の暮 

Kare eda ni

Karasu no tomari keri

Aki no kure

---

On a withered branch

A crow has perched ---

Autumn evening

 

I am not sure that “has perched” is good for “tomari” and the cutting word “keri” is not “---“. I am buying the book The Connectives by Lloyd Humberstone for my birthday present to myself but I doubt it will help me think more clearly about poetic mechanisms like “keri” or “ya”.

See many more translations of this haiku here.

And I recently reread Ted Hughes disturbing collection Crow, a bloody bawdy book.

So crows are often at the back of my mind. Hard for them not to be given that I live in Vancouver where there are a lot of crows, contesting the local space with sea gulls and keeping the eagles away. I notice crows and try to listen to them. I stopped and listened to these three but they did not seem to have anything to say to me.

I suppose I kept these three lines as I wanted to remember something I frequently forget. And that is part of the work that poetry does for me.

 

Three crows eat

A dead grey squirrel in

The middle of the road

 

Keri. Ya.