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percy-l - Re: [percy-l] percy-l Digest Fri, 07 Feb 2025 (1/1)

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Subject: Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Marcus Smith <marcus AT loyno.edu>
  • To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [percy-l] percy-l Digest Fri, 07 Feb 2025 (1/1)
  • Date: Sun, 9 Feb 2025 16:46:01 -0600

In my errant youth, in the Bekaah Valley, I've chased the great God B'al and his golden hallucinations that are sold openly in Baalbek, near the great Roman columns.  He was a great god!  Bold, reliable, inexpensive.

But this new orange B'al is a fake and a phoney, this B'al with his black Sharpie.

Why, you ask, how can you say that when he bestrides the world and grabs them by their fussies?

Well, it's 4:30 in New Orleans, only hours from the biggest game in the Empire.  And,  Goddammit, "The sky is darkening overall", and it is raining!!

On Fri, Feb 7, 2025 at 11:00 AM <percy-l-request AT lists.ibiblio.org> wrote:
percy-l digest Fri, 07 Feb 2025

Table of contents:

* 1 - [percy-l] "Weather Alert", by Larry Rhu, a poem about Walker Percy at
  the Waffle House - "Henry P. Mills III" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>
* 2 - Re: [percy-l] "Weather Alert", by Larry Rhu, a poem about Walker Percy
  at the Waffle House - John Pearson <jp AT jlarsp.com>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message-ID:
 <CAPHQa6ROMQeBAxykUHb8ZMKVCujHMdEjnsrXbm_mWbaefxnu9g AT mail.gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2025 06:40:23 -0500
From: "Henry P. Mills III" <wppdirector AT gmail.com>
Subject: [percy-l] "Weather Alert", by Larry Rhu, a poem about Walker Percy at
 the Waffle House

Dear Percy-L,


I’m delighted to share with you Percy-L member Larry Rhu’s poem about his
imagined meeting with Walker Percy at the Waffle House. The selection comes
from his recently published poetry collection, *Pre-owned Odyssey & Rented
Rooms* (2024). I also attach a PDF version of the poem that includes his
poem "Amor Fati” (pps. 98-99).


See the listserv book announcement from last week at the following link,
which includes a YouTube video of Larry reading several of his poems:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/2025-01/msg00000.html Larry
hails from Columbia, SC.


Thank you for giving your permission for us to enjoy your fine work, Larry!
I'm
certain Larry would be glad for any responses or interest to his poem.


Best wishes,

Henry Mills

Director / Percy-L Manager



*-----------------------*


*Weather Alert*

*The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) uses the*

*Waffle House Index as an unofficial metric to determine the effect*

*of a storm and to estimate the scale of assistance necessary for*

*recovery.*


As the hurricane approaches, I imagine

breakfast conversation over eggs over

easy with biscuits at the Waffle House


in Covington with Walker Percy.

*Don't go so easy on Binx Bolling,* he wrote

about a piece of mine about *The Moviegoer*


and invited me across the Lake to visit.

Binx can get cozy with the reader! Charmed,

the unsuspecting esthete drops his guard.


Florence is storming Florence, and Columbia

is next. Historic flooding washed away

canals, fouling our water four months after


a boy from here massacred a prayer group

(hoping to start a race war, so he said).

*I never knew a Florentine more honest,*


Cassio remarks about Iago, a Venetian,

namesake of the angelic militant

against the Moors, Santiago Matamoros.


Far from the Grand Canal, in storm-tossed Cyprus

a few acts later, Iago tries to murder

Cassio. The sky is darkening overall.


Denying facts and stats in tweets, our Ba'al,

the god of storms, ignores the Waffle House.

His Sharpie stroke reroutes the hurricane.



(c) Lawrence F. Rhu, 2024

[An attachment of type application/pdf was included here]


------------------------------
Message-ID: <927A84B5-9024-41EF-AD9A-1B0DCA0826EE AT jlarsp.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2025 13:27:40 -0600
From: John Pearson <jp AT jlarsp.com>
Subject: Re: [percy-l] "Weather Alert", by Larry Rhu, a poem about Walker
 Percy at the Waffle House

Larry,
Thanks for sharing the poem. There is a lot going on there in a few lines.
It’ll take a few readings for all the layers to sink in.
I appreciate the abrupt transitions, which is how life often is. A storm bears
down while you’re trying to have a conversation with Percy, i.e. life gets in
the way, and you can’t escape the effects of the storm, sharpie be damned.
It seems a fine poem for our present moment, as well as containing more
universal insights about our life on the planet,
Thanks again for sharing it with the Percy group!

Best,

John Pearson

> On Feb 1, 2025, at 5:40 AM, Henry P. Mills III <wppdirector AT gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Dear Percy-L,
>
> I’m delighted to share with you Percy-L member Larry Rhu’s poem about his
imagined meeting with Walker Percy at the Waffle House. The selection comes
from his recently published poetry collection, Pre-owned Odyssey & Rented
Rooms (2024). I also attach a PDF version of the poem that includes his poem
"Amor Fati” (pps. 98-99).
>
> See the listserv book announcement from last week at the following link,
which includes a YouTube video of Larry reading several of his poems:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/2025-01/msg00000.html
<https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/2025-01/msg00000.html> Larry
hails from Columbia, SC.
>
> Thank you for giving your permission for us to enjoy your fine work, Larry!
I'm certain Larry would be glad for any responses or interest to his poem.
>
> Best wishes,
> Henry Mills
> Director / Percy-L Manager
>
>
> -----------------------
>
> Weather Alert
> The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) uses the
> Waffle House Index as an unofficial metric to determine the effect
> of a storm and to estimate the scale of assistance necessary for
> recovery.
>
> As the hurricane approaches, I imagine
> breakfast conversation over eggs over
> easy with biscuits at the Waffle House
>
> in Covington with Walker Percy.
> Don't go so easy on Binx Bolling, he wrote
> about a piece of mine about The Moviegoer
>
> and invited me across the Lake to visit.
> Binx can get cozy with the reader! Charmed,
> the unsuspecting esthete drops his guard.
>
> Florence is storming Florence, and Columbia
> is next. Historic flooding washed away
> canals, fouling our water four months after
>
> a boy from here massacred a prayer group
> (hoping to start a race war, so he said).
> I never knew a Florentine more honest,
>
> Cassio remarks about Iago, a Venetian,
> namesake of the angelic militant
> against the Moors, Santiago Matamoros.
>
> Far from the Grand Canal, in storm-tossed Cyprus
> a few acts later, Iago tries to murder
> Cassio. The sky is darkening overall.
>
> Denying facts and stats in tweets, our Ba'al,
> the god of storms, ignores the Waffle House.
> His Sharpie stroke reroutes the hurricane.
>
>
> (c) Lawrence F. Rhu, 2024
>
>
> ----------------------------------
> USING PERCY-L
> * Read Percy-L Charter and Policies:
https://ibiblio.org/wpercy/listserv/charter-policies.html
> * Manage Your Membership: https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/info/percy-l
> * Submit a Post to Percy-L: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org (Members only)
> * Contact the Listserv Manager: percy.listserv.manager AT gmail.com
>
> LISTSERV ARCHIVES
> * View Percy-L Discussion Archives:
https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/percy-l/
>
> THE WALKER PERCY PROJECT
> * Visit The Walker Percy Project website: https://www.ibiblio.org/wpercy
>
> <(c)Larry-Rhu-Pre-owned-Odyssey-&-Rented-Rooms-Sample(2024).pdf>


------------------------------

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End of percy-l Digest Fri, 07 Feb 2025




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