Missing the Rain

I wish I
had known you in some time
many years from tonight; learned your name
just after I became so very uncertain.

And these nights,
I miss rain: or dances
in between the dark and the raw glass;
I miss sky unending, blue behind the deep blacks,
purple streaks of God's own grey-mist soul, cautious, unsteady hands

I wish I
knew to mark the second;
or had met you passing at the end
of all things and without you lived till my hundred,
to just then - before the final breath, or the crescendo raised,
just before the squeal and the answer, the crash of spirits, my soul unmade-
be in love again.

What Better?

My friend Haj Ross has been working on a problem that, in typical fashion, he has avoided giving a name to. It centers around sentences like the ones in (1) .

(1)
a. What better place than this to make a fire?
b. What better time than now to eat dinner?

Variations exist, as in (2), but the basic form of (1) consists of the elements in (3).

(2)
a. What better place to make a fire than this?
b. What better time to eat dinner than now?

(3)
What + better + [NP1] + than + [NP2] + [InfVP]

A moment ago I argued that the form of (3) was more basic than that used in (2)'s examples. On first intuition, this seems the most likely because [[NP1] + than + [Np2]] defends against a long infinitive phrase. (4) gives two examples. While (4a) is fine, (4b) is marked by a '?' because, though it is grammatical, it is simply too odd for my ear.

(4)
a. What better place than this to hold our own ground against the enemy and savagely find mastery of our own doom?
b. ?What better place to hold our own ground against the enemy and savagely find mastery of our own doom than this ?

While (3) does seem to be the most natural form, subjugating the InfVP to the end; there are certainly counter-examples, as those found in (5).

(5)
a. What better man to lead us than Caesar himself?
a'. ?What better man than Caesar himself to lead us?
b. What better form to take than that of a friend?
b'. ?What better form than that of a friend to take?

The use of [[NP1]+[InfVP]+than+[NP2]] in (5a) and (5b) proves substantially better, at least to my intuitions, than the form of (3) used in (5a') and (5b') - perhaps because of the possible confusion of the subject of the infinitive phrase.

There are many other issues that arise from this troublesome little quirk of English - many more when we begin to consider other [Wh-] words such as the last set of both good and bad examples in (6), which is where I leave it (for now) for Haj to decipher.

One last note to comment on the hopelessness of neat rules for this data: notice that the sentences in (6) contain only one NP and that those with "How" contain two infinitive phrases (and semantically REQUIRE what would be the only InfP in (6a) and (6b) to come first.

(6)
a. Who better than Caesar to lead us?
b. Where better than Chipotle to eat?
c. How better to travel than to take a train?

d. *?How better to take a train than to travel?
e. *How better than train to travel?
f. *Which better to drive than the Corvette?
g. *Why better to play than to win a prize?

On Her Wedding

I.
The night before, hushed at home
scotching, and remembering
the summers, the midnight air
when everyone was in love
with ev'ryone.

And also: this whole long line
of instants, tracking on from
meeting you in the widening
zoom out of adolescence
and a decade.

II.
The ranch in Paris, gone in flames,
and envelopes in airplanes.
Colorado. Newport Beach.
Lawn chairs instead of haybales.
The same albums, played again,
and then again.

III.
Three hundred million seconds ago I knew you just as you are tonight:
baptized to joy beyond all those years, beyond all seconds and all instants
where Love Himself is.

IV.
The second day of summer
and a good, warm night for brides
who steady on, so she goes
to a love she alone knows,
ready she goes.

for Elise