"CIRCUS, n. A place where horses, ponies, and elephants are permitted to see men, women, and children acting the fool."

- Ambrose Bierce

The Circus Animals' Desertion
William Butler Yeats

I.

I sought a theme and sought for it in vain,
I sought it daily for six weeks or so.
Maybe at last, being but a broken man,
I must be satisfied with my heart, although
Winter and summer till old age began
My circus animals were all on show,
Those stilted boys, that burnished chariot,
Lion and woman and the Lord knows what.


II.

What can I but enumerate old themes,
First that sea-rider Oisin led by the nose
Through three enchanted islands, allegorical dreams,
Vain gaiety, vain battle, vain repose,
Themes of the embittered heart, or so it seems,
That might adorn old songs or courtly shows;
But what cared I that set him on to ride,
I, starved for the bosom of his faery bride.

And then a counter-truth filled out its play,
"The Countess Cathleen" was the name I gave it;
She, pity-crazed, had given her soul away,
But masterful Heaven had intervened to save it.
I thought my dear must her own soul destroy
So did fanaticism and hate enslave it,
And this brought forth a dream and soon enough
This dream itself had all my thought and love.

And when the Fool and Blind Man stole the bread
Cuchulain fought the ungovernable sea;
Heart-mysteries there, and yet when all is said
It was the dream itself enchanted me:
Character isolated by a deed
To engross the present and dominate memory.
Players and painted stage took all my love,
And not those things that they were emblems of.


III.

Those masterful images because complete
Grew in pure mind, but out of what began?
A mound of refuse or the sweepings of a street,
Old kettles, old bottles, and a broken can,
Old iron, old bones, old rags, that raving slut
Who keeps the till. Now that my ladder's gone,
I must lie down where all the ladders start
In the foul rag and bone shop of the heart.

Top Five Circus Superstitions:

5. Never sit on the circus ring facing out.
4. Never look back during the circus parade.
3. Circus bands play John Phillip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" in emergency situations only. The march is played as a warning signal to circus workers that something is wrong.
2. Elephants must always be depicted in illustrations with their trunks raised.
1. If a bird gets trapped under the canvas someone will die.

E-Verse Radio Unbelievable But Real Film Titles of the Week:

Vampire Circus (1972)

Berserk! (1967), also released as Circus of Blood and Circus of Terror in the UK

Monster Farm 5: Circus Caravan (2005)

E-Verse Plug:

n addition to being a great mom, my mom makes lovely jewelry. She sells through traditional venues, including stores and fairs, and she does quite well at it. Now she is also selling through an internet store. You may view and purchase her jewelry.

E-Verse Radio Invaluable Facts of the Week, Brought to you By Yahoo:

* The word circus derives from the Latin for ring or circle. Historically, it is the arena associated with the horse and chariot races and athletic contests known in ancient Rome as the Circensian games. The Roman circus was a round or oval structure with tiers of seats for spectators, enclosing a space in which the races, games, and gladiatorial combats took place. Underneath were dressing rooms, dens for wild beasts, and rooms where properties were stored.
* The Circus Maximus, presumably built in the reign of Tarquin I (c.616-c.578 ), and rebuilt by Julius Caesar, was reported by Pliny in his Natural History to have a capacity of 250,000, though this figure is suspiciously large. Other famous circi of Rome were the Circus Flaminius (221); the Circus Neronis, of Caligula and Nero, at which many Christians perished; and the Circus Maxentius.
* The circus of Septimius Severus at Constantinople and many others were often scenes of riot and bloodshed between factions of charioteers. The games, aside from races, were brutal and bloody, and for this reason the Greeks, even under Roman domination, never really accepted the circus.
* The modern circus, which originated in performances of equestrian feats in a horse ring strewn with sawdust, dates from the closing years of the 18th century.
* The traveling circus, in its heyday from 1880 to 1920, declined in the 1950s and 60s. By the 1980s, however, more than 30 circuses were touring the United States and Canada.
* The main tent, known as the big top, is usually surrounded by various concessions and sideshows with "freaks" and wild animals. Even before 1830, traveling circuses were common in the United States and in England. After 1873 two rings were used in the main tent and the three-ring circus, as we know it today, was initiated by James A. Bailey.
* The most celebrated circus in America was "The Greatest Show on Earth" of P. T. Barnum, which, in merging with Bailey's, became Barnum and Bailey's. On Bailey's death in 1907 the circus was purchased by Ringling Brothers, and in 1919 the two circuses were combined. Since 1969, Ringling Brothers has had two large circuses on tour that play mostly indoors and visit almost every major U.S. city annually.

E-Verse News You Can Use from the Un-E-Versity of Life:

Paul Muldoon takes over from Alice Quinn as New Yorker poetry editor

"Very dull" was the Knopf editor's verdict on Ann Frank's Diary. Also rejected: Nabokov, Orwell, Kerouac, Tuchman, Richler, Plath, Nin, and Borges

"Fun is our New Core Value! You will come to the office dressed as your favorite super hero! It's the infantilization of corporate America!"

Thomas Jefferson had a taste for wine, and bottles from his cellar still hit the market. At least they're supposed to be from his cellar . . .

"In the first year of the German invasion of the USSR, the Red Army issued 800,000 death sentences to its own soldiers"

"Are quotation marks the new boldface? As with a cafe whose sign proclaims "FINE FOOD"? Yes, but don't expect such usage to creep into respectable English"

Fleming's Follies:

Russian Cat Circus
One can actually picture these guys sitting on a toilet reading the newspaper, snubbing their noses at kitty litter.

KISS - Psycho Circus
The only reasonably decent song on an fairly awful album. Or should I say . . . all the other songs sucked worse than this one. A good live performance though.

Monty Python's Flying Circus -- The Ministry of Silly Walks

Lou Jacobs Clown Car
Many consider Lou Jacobs the greatest clown that ever lived.

Gala Premiere of The Beatles' LOVE by Cirque du Soleil.

5. Valley of the Gwangi, not all circus, but Ray Harryhausen rules (1969)
4. Circus, directed by Charlie Chaplin (1928)
3. Trapeze, directed by Carol Reed (1956)
2. Big Top Pee Wee, of course (1988)
1. Freaks, directed by Tod Browning (1932)

E-Verse Radio Bad Book Cover of the Week,

Shamrocked! by Joy Singleton:

E-Verse tip of the week:

Eerie Vs. Eyrie

Well, this is a simple one, but folks are sometimes confused simply because of the spelling. They almost always mean "eerie," which is spooky, frightening, unsettling, having supernatural overtones, like a congressional fillibuster. The second is almost never used, but it should be. "Eyrie" (note the "y") is the nest of an eagle or other bird of prey, and has variant spelling of "eyry" and "aerie." It's a lovely word, and I hope you all will set out to use it soon in correspondence, text message, blog, fiction, poetry, or whatever it is you write.

The new crop of MacArthur "genius" grant winners has been announced:

Listen to this episode at: www.everseradio.com/audio

"Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage." - Henry Louis Mencken

E-Verse Radio town you really have to visit:

Sarasota, Florida, also known as "Circus Town" after its most famous early resident, John Ringling of Ringling Bros. Circus.

Check out the upcoming programs from our friends at Poets House in NYC:

10/4: PASSWORDS: Simon Armitage on Ted Hughes
10/5-10/6: Poetry Intensive with Simon Armitage (space is limited, register soon)
10/7: Visitations: Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain at Wave Hill
10/9: PASSWORDS: Dick Davis on Persian Poetry
10/11: Poetics of the Condensery: Elaine Equi & Aram Saroyan on Minimalist Poetry
10/13-10/14: Poetry in the Branches National Institute (space is limited, register soon)
10/16-10/17: Against All Odds: Chinese Poetry Today
10/20: Through a Marble Brightly: Art & Writing Workshop (for Children)
10/20: The Thread at Play: A Poetry of the Simplest of Objects (for Educators & Parents)

All events take place at Poets House, 72 Spring Street, 2nd Floor, New York City.

5. Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
4. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
3. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
2. The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
1. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

The Hoover Institute website posts old episodes of William F. Buckley's Firing Line program. They've recently posted the "Hippies" episode featuring Mr. Jack Kerouac. Have a look.

Hilbertian Sonnet of the Week:
In the Arena
Ernest Hilbert

"It's hard to battle someone with no brain,
Hopeless to fight one with no memory,
Pointless to show proof when a mind's made up.
One dumb remark can fill you with disdain,
But you must still respect your enemy.
Stand steady. Don't leave the outcome to luck.
Some fights are worth all the anger they cause.
Not everything is 'just your opinion.'
If that's true, then nothing is worth a damn.
Some discard rules, others cling hard to laws.
Some will dodge, duck, parry, or simply run.
You must expose frauds, cast light, disperse shams.
There may be more than just one right answer,
But there are still some wrong ones, remember."

E-Verse Radio collective noun of the week:

A carload of clowns.

Reports from the E-Verse Universe

A reader from Ireland on last week's Tip of the Week:

"The difference between immanent, eminent and imminent in the context of a special on law reminded me of a typically Dublin story. The story involves a well-known balladeer and self-termed Transparent Wall Maintenance Engineer for Dublin's prestigious Grafton Street (otherwise known as a window cleaner) named Luke Cheevers. He claims to occasionally frequent a pub called the Legal Eagle, close to the Four Courts and frequented by the solicitors and barristers. One day the esteemed drinkers on the other side of the pub got into contentious discussion, which he couldn't help but overhear, concerning clarifying the difference between something which is illegal and something which is an unlawful act. To their surprise Luke walked over and announced that he would be happy to settle the matter for them. To a stunned and bemused silence he went about enlightening them as follows; 'an unlawful act is when you do something against the law, and an ill eagle is a sick bird.'"


A reader writes in with more law songs:

"Lawman" by Jefferson Airplane
"Legalize It" by Peter Tosh
"Julie's Been Working In the Drug Squad" by The Clash
"Tennessee Plates" bu John Hiatt
"Jackson Cage" by Bruce Springsteen
"Know Your Rights" by The Clash
"Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley" by the Kingston Trio
"Police And Thieves" by The Clash
"The Guns Of Brixton" by The Clash
"Chain Gang " by Sam Cooke
"Knockin' On Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan
"Concrete And Barbed Wire" by Lucinda Williams
"Lawyers, Guns, And Money" by Warren Zevon
"Working On The Highway" by Bruce Springsteen
"Police On My Back" by The Clash
"Hurricane" by Bob Dylan
"Bank Robber" by The Clash

And last but not least . . .

"Jazz Police" by Leonard Cohen


Another with more Law songs:

"Both by Chris Whitley, a consummate outlaw: 'Phone Call From Leavenworth' and 'Living With The Law.'"

Another reader sends these in:

"God Bless the Child" (Biblical laws)
"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" by Lloyd Price
"Alice's Restaurant Massacre" by Arlo Guthrie.
"Frankie and Johnny" and all the songs from the musical Chicago.

And another:

"Here Come the Judge" (I wish knew the name of the group)
"Not Guilty" from the Beatles' Hot as Sun album.

[Is the first song by Pigmeat Markham? - E]


A reader writes in on two English treats, W.H. Auden and Judas Priest:

"As someone who keeps a photograph of Old Craggle Face on his desk (or door, as the case may be), I thought you'd be interested in these articles about some early (as in early early) Auden poems which have turned up in his old school magazine:

Another.

Though I can hardly hope to be the first to point it out. I enjoyed the past week's broadcast. I was once subjected to the video for Judas Priest's 'Breaking the Law' on a Tilt-a-Whirl ride at a county fair in Minnesota, and it forever left an impression on me (unfortunately). Thanks for E-Versifying, and best regards."

[The Tilt-a-Whirl is where bad music goes to live on in Limbo at county fairs around the US. I used to like Judas Priest in junior high, but even then I didn't like that song. It's got to be the dumbest chorus ever recorded. Then, I wound up in a band playing it. On bass, it's just those three notes played in an eighth-note drone over and over. It's the Pachelbel's canon effect only much louder. - E]


A reader writes in with another story about Leonard Cohen:

"I was at the tiny club Largo in Los Angeles circa 2001 to see Rufus Wainwright (he was already too big for Largo but not nearly as big as he was going to get) and sitting at a table with some friends when one nudged me and was like, 'check out the old guy next to us.' (The average age of the crowd being, you know, twenty-five.) I choked on my drink because it was Leonard Cohen. I worked at a celebrity-studded antiquarian bookstore, I saw movie and TV stars all the time and it wasn't a big deal. But, Leonard Cohen? I was totally speechless. What should I do? My friend had a great idea. She was like, 'buy him a drink.' So when the waitress came over I told her I would get his next drink. When the next round came to his table there was a little commotion and everyone looked over to our table, and then he, elegantly and perfectly, raised his glass. I never said a word to him, which was good because I would have just said something stupid. (As a side note, LC was sitting with Loudon Wainwright, who later sang 'One Man Guy' with Rufus and Martha Wainwright as an encore.)"

Next episode: Money! Great when you have it, awful when you don't.