thecurioustable

Reader. Storyteller. Curious at every table. Books, food, poetry, art & cities.

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

I walked into the Metropolitan Opera not speaking a word of Italian.
Somewhere in the second act, I stopped reading the subtitles.
New post: La Traviata: When the Voices Became the Orchestra
https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM   #latraviata #opera #artsandculture #thecurioustable

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

I stopped in the middle of Central Park and stood in front of a flower I first met in Colorado decades ago. It asked me something I couldn't answer until I walked into the Frick. New post at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

Daniel Radcliffe was in the crowd before the show began. Standing two rows in front of me. What followed was the most quietly devastating piece of theater I've seen in years. New post at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

Atwood doesn't let Penelope off the hook. That's what makes Part 2 of this series the harder read — and the more honest one. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

I spent weeks inside The Odyssey watching Penelope wait. Then I read Atwood — and realized I hadn't understood what she was doing at all. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

A wood-fired bakery in Mykonos. An open door. My wife at a table in the back. I've been sitting with this photograph for a week and here is the poem it asked me to write. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

I walked into a café in Greenwich Village and found a 16th-century painting, Lorenzo de' Medici's bench, and a 1902 espresso machine. I also had two cappuccinos. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

I've just closed The Odyssey. Homer is behind me. Virgil is ahead. And I find myself wanting to pause at the threshold for just a moment. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

Rilke didn't tell the young poet whether to write. He told him to go inward and live the question. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

He brought his childhood upright piano to Carnegie Hall. It was his first performance there — and what should have been his mother's 100th birthday. Some evenings you don't expect to carry home with you. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

Homer ends the Odyssey not with triumph but with a question. After twenty years, who exactly came home? New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

A trail through the pines. A still pond. A Mary Oliver poem in hand. Sometimes the quietest moments teach the loudest lessons. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

Odysseus reaches Ithaca in Book 13 and doesn’t recognize it. Homer spends four books asking whether home is a place or something you have to become. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

I spent 65 years thinking ballet wasn’t for me. Then Sherlock walked onto a Victorian stage and lip-synced a radio broadcast. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

Books 9–12 of The Odyssey — Lotus eaters, a Cyclops, Circe, the Sirens. In 1896 a Swiss painter named Arnold Böcklin saw the same thing in this story that Gen Z sees today. Some monsters are timeless. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

I sat down on a bench at the MFA in front of a Childe Hassam and twenty minutes later I had a poem. Some paintings do that. New bonus post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

Calypso offers Odysseus immortality. He chooses Penelope and a rocky island. Homer spends four books asking why. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

Telemachus begins the Odyssey as a boy who doesn’t know what to do with his grief. Homer knows exactly what to do with it. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

I spent a Sunday night watching Yo-Yo Ma fill the Grand Ole Opry House with the sound of a single cello. A month earlier, I'd heard him in Boston. Same artist. Two very different rooms. New post today at The Curious Table. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM

[thecurioustable @thecurioustable]

They tell me I am what I eat. In retirement I've discovered something closer to the truth — I am what I read. And some days I think I'm still becoming. https://t.co/WvDnHvrixM