Daily Theory on Daily Theory

Do you have hope for the future?
someone asked Robert Frost, toward the end.
Yes, and even for the past, he replied,
that it will turn out to have been all right
for what it was, something we can accept,
mistakes made by the selves we had to be,
not able to be, perhaps, what we wished,
or what looking back half the time it seems
we could so easily have been, or ought...
The future, yes, and even for the past,
that it will become something we can bear.
And I too, and my children, so I hope,
will recall as not too heavy the tug
of those albatrosses I sadly placed
upon their tender necks. Hope for the past,
yes, old Frost, your words provide that courage,
and it brings strange peace that itself passes
into past, easier to bear because
you said it, rather casually, as snow
went on falling in Vermont years ago.


David Ray, © The Backwaters Press.

(April 29, 2003 – January 29, 2007)


Sire: Dynaformer
Dam: La Ville Rouge
Damsire: Carson City
Sex: Stallion
Foaled: 2003
Country: United States
Colour: Bay
Breeder: Lael Stables
Owner: Roy and Gretchen Jackson
Trainer: Michael Matz
Record: 7:6-0-0
Earnings: $2,302,200
Major Racing Wins: Laurel Futurity (2005), Florida Derby (2006), Kentucky Derby (2006)

Kentucky Derby Highlights:

Undefeated going into the race, Barbaro was sent off as the second choice of the betting public, at odds of 6:1, in a full field of 20 horses. Barbaro charged ahead during the last turn and straightaway of the race to win by 7 lengths. Barbaro's lead in the final furlong expanded even as jockey Edgar Prado did not ask for his top speed. This margin of victory at the Kentucky Derby was the largest since 1946, when Triple Crown winner Assault took the Run for the Roses by eight lengths. Barbaro's win made him only the sixth undefeated horse to win the Kentucky Derby.[1] During the gallop-out after the wire, Barbaro's lead extended to 20 lengths, which is rare during post-race gallop-outs. The manner of his Derby victory led to speculation that Barbaro might be a "superhorse," the likes of which had not been seen since Affirmed and perhaps even Secretariat, arguably the greatest American thoroughbred of all time. Barbaro is also one of the few horses to have won the "Run for the Roses" after more than a 5-week lay-off.

When German painter Paul Klee lived at the Henry Hudson Hotel on 59th & 9th Avenue he hired Fritz Lownbrau to physically remove him from his studio each night. Klee feared he'd over-paint and kill the art if someone did not stop him.

Lowenbrau's contract was to arrive every night at 9PM (Klee tended to start painting around noon) with a bottle of whiskey and an itinerary that usually involved going to Harlem for any number of distractions.

"Paul usually put down the brushes after two drinks," said Lownenbrau. "But he was a son of a bitch to budge if Dali was in town..."

Windy today and I feel less than brilliant,
driving over the hills from work.
There are the dark parts on the road
when you pass through clumps of wood
and the bright spots where you have a view of the ocean,
but that doesn't make the road an allegory.

I should call Marie and apologize
for being so boring at dinner last night,
but can I really promise not to be that way again?
And anyway, I'd rather watch the trees, tossing
in what certainly looks like sexual arousal.

Otherwise it's spring, and everything looks frail;
the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves
are full of infant chlorophyll,
the very tint of inexperience.

Last summer's song is making a comeback on the radio,
and on the highway overpass,
the only metaphysical vandal in America has written
MEMORY LOVES TIME
in big black spraypaint letters,

which makes us wonder if Time loves Memory back.

Last night I dreamed of X again.
She's like a stain on my subconscious sheets.
Years ago she penetrated me
but though I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed,
I never got her out,
but now I'm glad.

What I thought was an end turned out to be a middle.
What I thought was a brick wall turned out to be a tunnel.
What I thought was an injustice
turned out to be a color of the sky.

Outside the youth center, between the liquor store
and the police station,
a little dogwood tree is losing its mind;

overflowing with blossomfoam,
like a sudsy mug of beer;
like a bride ripping off her clothes,

dropping snow white petals to the ground in clouds,

so Nature's wastefulness seems quietly obscene.
It's been doing that all week:
making beauty,
and throwing it away,
and making more.

Tony Hoagland, from What Narcissism Means to Me. © Graywolf Pr