Troubling Myself with Things
Too Great for Me
James Silas Rogers

For instance, the physics of red wine,
which Galileo called “sunlight held together
by water.” Sounds plausible, but how?
Or backing up a step, with the physics
of beauty itself, such as radiates
in these freshly washed Delaware grapes.
With the possible exception of a woman’s
breast, a tumbling cluster of grapes
or the globe of one full fruit
might be as nearly perfect a form
as we will see in this life.
Look at this shoulder of table grapes
in the evening sun. Know that
the old prig St. Augustine,
a too-stern and oh-so-rational man,
was right on this: it was love
that called the world into being.


James Silas Rogers, “Troubling Myself with Things Too Great for Me” from The Collector of Shadows. © 2019 Brighthorse Books. Printed with permission. (buy now)

It's the birthday of Trinidadian-Canadian writer Neil Bissoondath (books by this author), born in Arima, Trinidad (1955). He's the nephew of V.S. Naipaul. He is the author of The Unyielding Clamour of the Night (2005) and The Soul of All Great Designs (2008).

It's the birthday of children's author and illustrator Jon Agee (books by this author), born in Nyack, New York (1960). He's the author of The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau (1988),  and Flapstick: 10 Ridiculous Rhymes with Flaps (1993). He also wrote a book of palindromes — phrases that read the same forwards and backwards — called GO HANG A SALAMI! I'M A LASAGNA HOG! (1991).

It was on this day in 1943 that an uprising began in the Warsaw ghetto. There were about 300,000 Jews in Warsaw and thousands more refugees streamed in from smaller towns. In 1940 the Nazis built a wall around a small section of the city and forced all the Jews into it. Conditions were horrible. In the winter there were fuel shortages and people succumbed to influenza. A small resistance movement began to organize. Then, in 1942, the Nazis deported more than 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the concentration camp in Treblinka. Reports of mass murder leaked back to the ghetto and the resistance movement gained momentum, and on this day in 1943, the first day of Passover, hundreds of German soldiers entered the ghetto in rows of tanks, planning to destroy the ghetto in three days, but resistance fighters fought back, and they held on for almost a month.

On this spring day in 1944, three months before the family was found and arrested, Anne Frank (books by this author) wrote in her diary: "Is there anything more beautiful in the world than to sit before an open window and enjoy nature, to listen to the birds singing, feel the sun on your cheeks and have a darling boy in your arms?"

On this day in 1897 the Boston Marathon was run for the first time. It is the world's oldest annual marathon. Women were not allowed to run until 1972, but in 1967 Kathrine Switzer defied the rules and registered. She was assigned a number and started the race, but when an official named Jock Semple spotted her, he chased her and tried to rip off her number. A fellow runner pushed Semple out of the way and Switzer crossed the finish line in four hours and 20 minutes. About 45 percent of the 30,000 Marathon runners are women in recent times.

It's the birthday of poet Etheridge Knight (books by this author), born in Corinth, Mississippi (1931). He dropped out of school and ran away from home. In 1960, he was arrested for robbery and went to the Indiana State Prison. It was there that he started writing poetry. His first book, Poems from Prison, was published in 1968, a year before he was released, and he went on to publish many more books. He said, "I died in 1960 from a prison sentence and poetry brought me back to life."

In 1927, on this day, actress Mae West (books by this author) was jailed for her performance in Sex, the Broadway play she wrote, directed, and starred in. She served ten days in prison and jail time seemed to have done her good — it didn't make her change her act but it did bring her national notoriety — and helped make her one of Hollywood's most memorable and quotable stars. She said, "There are no good girls gone wrong, just bad girls found out…" and "I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.^®

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