英語学習 English Reading

Hello,

Globalization continues as FIAT reassures Italians that they will be boosting productivity in Italy. FIAT will do this as it makes a new model in Serbia. As always, however, belt-tightening is not far from the scene.

Last year, trade union leaders and government representatives agreed to Fabbrica Italia, which was the plan for FIAT to increase activity in Italy. Now FIAT says the plan requires workers to accept change so FIAT can survive in today's competitive markets.

What we never understand is when belt-tightening is necessary and when it is simply a ruse for greater profits. After all, very few corporations truly think of others...

And that is a shame.

Best,

Tom

Hello,

It has been a while since I put a poem up here. This poem is about a paleontologist. My dictionary defines paleontology as the following:

The study of the forms of life existing in prehistoric or geologic times, as represented by the fossils of plants, animals, and other organisms.

But I always simplify that and think of a paleontologist as someone who studies dinosaur bones.

I have never thought of paleontologists as being romantic and indeed this poem agrees with me.

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American Life in Poetry: Column 240

BY TED KOOSER, U.S. POET LAUREATE, 2004-2006

We haven’t shown you many poems in which the poet enters another person and speaks through him or her, but it is, of course, an effective and respected way of writing. Here Philip Memmer of Deansboro, N.Y., enters the persona of a young woman having an unpleasant experience with a blind date.


The Paleontologist’s Blind Date

You have such lovely bones, he says,
holding my face in his hands,

and although I can almost feel
the stone and the sand

sifting away, his fingers
like the softest of brushes,

I realize after this touch
he would know me

years from now, even
in the dark, even

without my skin.
Thank you, I smile―

then I close the door
and never call him again.



American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Philip Memmer, whose most recent book of poetry is Lucifer: A Hagiography, Lost Horse Press, 2009. Poem reprinted from Threat of Pleasure, Word Press, 2008, by permission of Philip Memmer and the publisher. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

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Have you ever had a blind date? I imagine they are not as common in Japan as they are in America, if they happen here at all.

Blind dates are well-known for being unsuccessful as this one was.

Still, that was a beautiful poem.

Best,

Tom