52 Books in 52 Weeks, it's called. The challenge is simple: read a book every week for a year.
46. Geography III.
I read this to supplement the ’69 Complete poems, and because the two poems in Hirsch’s How to read a poem—’One Art’ and ‘In the Waiting Room’—are in this collection. When she misses (I am not crazy about ’12 O’Clock News’ or the poem for Joseph Cornell), she misses. When she hits, as in ‘The Moose’ or ‘In the Waiting Room’, she knocks it out of the park. I was also particularly taken by the introduction, which is almost a collage poem made of found texts:
From “First Lessons in Geography,”
Monteith’s Geographical Series,
A. S. Barnes & Co., 1884
LESSON VI
What is Geography?
A description of the earth’s surface.
What is the Earth?
The planet or body on which we live.
What is the shape of the Earth?
Round, like a ball.
Of what is the Earth’s surface composed?
Land and water.
LESSON X
What is a Map?
A picture of the whole, or a part, of the Earth’s surface.
What are the directions on a Map?
Toward the top, North; toward the bottom, South; to the right, East; to the left, West.
In what direction from the center of the picture is the Island?
North.
In what direction is the Volcano? The Cape? The Bay? The Lake? The Strait? The Mountains? The Isthmus?
What is in the East? In the West? In the South? In the North? In the Northwest? In the Southeast? In the Northeast? In the Southwest?
