The house is shaking itself out and I'm starting to find long silent stretches to write in. Last week I found two entire days! This week promises three or four! So I've started a project, a book length erasure that you can see the very beginnings of below. Blogger doesn't cooperate with the formatting issues, so I probably won't be posting more. But rest assurred I'm happy and busy.
In other news:
Once school started Jojo overcame her homesickness and is apparently having the time of her life at Humboldt. She's only calling now for things like money or computer problems...
Tom is back and forth between here and Kalamazoo. He's played enough gigs he had to buy a couple of new suits. As ZZ Top says, "Women go crazy bout a sharp dressed man."
Gene is a traveling fiend, earning all those reward points. He's going to wear his suitcase out.
I hope you're busy and happy, too, in these pockets of fall air.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 24, 2009
Late Cretaceous II
1.
Say the hummingbird's a home wrecker
Spider-cropped or furious
How else to account for
The missing orbs
The white fields of porches
Heather filling the salvage yard
2.
My landlord is dying
The man in love with the idea
Of being loved
Is building an igloo
Sewing morning glory into the seams
Such timing!
3.
The City of God segues into
The half life of urban decay
100,000 years out from the homeland
We're still dreaming
Of a mother tongue or a passport
Something personal
To lush against our skin
Say the hummingbird's a home wrecker
Spider-cropped or furious
How else to account for
The missing orbs
The white fields of porches
Heather filling the salvage yard
2.
My landlord is dying
The man in love with the idea
Of being loved
Is building an igloo
Sewing morning glory into the seams
Such timing!
3.
The City of God segues into
The half life of urban decay
100,000 years out from the homeland
We're still dreaming
Of a mother tongue or a passport
Something personal
To lush against our skin
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Squirmish
I dreamed last night that I was pregnant with twins, due in two months, but that I had forgotten all about it because I was consumed with getting Jojo off to college. I just woke up one morning wondering why I was so fat! While I was looking at my belly, I saw the babies moving and I suddenly remembered. Oh, shit. I forgot about that! Gene was mad at me because I had no clue where the OB office had moved to and those babies were squirming.
No fears, friends, my fat at this point is all my own and my baby equipment is gone, gone, gone. But I guess it is time to look around and see what has escaped my attention lately. Probably wouldn't hurt to lose the mama fat I've been carrying around for 18 plus years. Also, I need to figure out how to turn on my writing switch again. And I'm going to clean. That's as far as I've gotten, but I'm sure other squirming babies that I've been overlooking will appear. I hope they're friendly little critters and not biters.
No fears, friends, my fat at this point is all my own and my baby equipment is gone, gone, gone. But I guess it is time to look around and see what has escaped my attention lately. Probably wouldn't hurt to lose the mama fat I've been carrying around for 18 plus years. Also, I need to figure out how to turn on my writing switch again. And I'm going to clean. That's as far as I've gotten, but I'm sure other squirming babies that I've been overlooking will appear. I hope they're friendly little critters and not biters.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Woo-Hoo!
Naoko has had two poems accepted by ep;phany/a literary journal! Congrats!
And I'm back home! Woo-Hoo!
And I'm back home! Woo-Hoo!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Lassen Volcanic National Park
We found some great hiking trails yesterday and wore ourselves out so thoroughly that we're heading straight to Eureka today. My back needs a day of rest!The weather was beautiful, too. At 9000 feet the temperature drops to a merciful 60-something degrees. Back in the valley, however, it shoots back up to 100.
Good news, the rest of the trip will be in the 60s, oceanside!
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Late Cretaceous
(A section, at least)
2.
My landlord is dying
The man in love with the idea
of being loved
Is building an igloo
Sewing morning glory into the seams
Such timing!
It's a problem
The City of God segues into
the half-life of urban decay
100,000 years out from the homeland
We're still dreaming
Of a mother tongue or a passport
Something personal
To touch against our skin
2.
My landlord is dying
The man in love with the idea
of being loved
Is building an igloo
Sewing morning glory into the seams
Such timing!
It's a problem
The City of God segues into
the half-life of urban decay
100,000 years out from the homeland
We're still dreaming
Of a mother tongue or a passport
Something personal
To touch against our skin
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Daughters Departing
by Rutger Kopland
They had to go, of course, I'd seen it
in their faces slowly changing from those
of children into those of friends,
from those of then into those of now.
And felt and smelt when they kissed me,
their skin, their hair, no longer intended
for me, not as before,
when we still had time.
In our house a world had grown of desire,
joy, pain and sorrow, in their rooms,
where they collected what they would
be taking with them, their memories.
Now they're gone I look out of their windows and see
exactly the same scene, exactly the same
world of twenty years ago,
when I came here to live.
They had to go, of course, I'd seen it
in their faces slowly changing from those
of children into those of friends,
from those of then into those of now.
And felt and smelt when they kissed me,
their skin, their hair, no longer intended
for me, not as before,
when we still had time.
In our house a world had grown of desire,
joy, pain and sorrow, in their rooms,
where they collected what they would
be taking with them, their memories.
Now they're gone I look out of their windows and see
exactly the same scene, exactly the same
world of twenty years ago,
when I came here to live.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Woo-Hoo!
Everywhere I look, the publications are streaming in! Wonderful news! Today Sarah has a poem at Juked and a poem at Camroc Press Review. Congrats!
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Monday, August 03, 2009
Almost
The blog has been somewhat quiet lately, but my body has a charming way of expressing what I refuse to put into words, written or otherwise. So, I'm rereading Brautigan and my back is killing me, as in, I can't bend over killing me. This probably means it's time to take Jojo to California. Almost at least. Brautigan was really an afterthought. A mood setter.
Come September, Gene & I will have both kids in college, near and far. I think I probably talked more about Tom's impending Kalamazoo move than Jojo's California move. Maybe not. However, California is further a way than, say, Kalamazoo. I won't be able to run over to California on a Sunday afternoon and take Jojo out to lunch whenever I want to.
I think it's the waiting that's bothering me. Jojo's bags are packed. We're all ready. Every last item on our checklist has been checked. Now we're just saying good-bye.
Come September, Gene & I will have both kids in college, near and far. I think I probably talked more about Tom's impending Kalamazoo move than Jojo's California move. Maybe not. However, California is further a way than, say, Kalamazoo. I won't be able to run over to California on a Sunday afternoon and take Jojo out to lunch whenever I want to.
I think it's the waiting that's bothering me. Jojo's bags are packed. We're all ready. Every last item on our checklist has been checked. Now we're just saying good-bye.
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