Thursday, February 27, 2003

Monday, February 24, 2003

Interesting tobacco document experience of the day: references to both Sub Pop and Iggy Pop can be found in tobacco industry documents.

Tried in vain to take pictures of the beauty of the ice-sheathed trees, especially enchanting at night under the streetlights. Anna said today that was one of the first things she ever wrote a poem about, when she was a young girl.

But Papa was in the house last night....



And Kim Preston sat in at John Allen's invitation....



I still feel lucky to be here, home.

I also initiated my new darts. Bull's eye in the first round! I think of them like tarot cards; imbue them with your mojo.

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Saturday, February 15, 2003

Creepy Valentines. And then some. Jill, check out #38 on the second page.

Thursday, February 13, 2003

Wage Peace (Judyth Hill)


Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,

breathe out whole buildings

and flocks of redwing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children

and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen

and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.


Wage peace with your listening:

hearing sirens, pray loud.


Remember your tools:

flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.


Make soup.

Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,

imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty

or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.


Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.

Don't wait another minute.
This is just to say...

Salon has made Lynda Barry comics a subscriber-only feature & that's just too cruel.
Pleasures

Important to list them in this cold climate & darkness.

San Francisco trees. This is beautiful, and mirrors an idea I once had of a page of flowers of San Francisco.

Astrology.

Listening:

Nickel Creek. Saw them on Austin City Limits the other day and was hooked.

Undercurrent, Bill Evans and Jim Hall. Simply, some of the most beautiful music I have ever heard.

Watching:

Dog Show.

And lots of other crap because I now have cable.

Consuming:

homemade (is there any other kind?) tuna-noodle casserole
black beans & rice
tofu & veg with peanut sauce





Friday, February 07, 2003

Gots to love it

The Rap Dictionary.
Mazeltov-ville!

Smitty's book is up on Amazon!

Austin's book is also doing well....

And I had a poem published in the Buffalo News.

Thursday, February 06, 2003

To Be Read on the Occasion of my Nephew's 18th Birthday

This is so good I think I'm going to try to write one of my own. Why don't you give it a go, too?

My favorite bit? 'If someone calls you defensive, never blurt back, "No I'm not!" '

Sunday, February 02, 2003

Between the Blows

"Lucky life isn't one long string of horrors / and there are moments of peace, and pleasure, as I lie between the blows."
- Gerald Stern

I am tremendously lucky, in so many ways I could never name them all. I am home, I have my friends around me & they'll do whatever they can to help me. I love and am loved. I have the best dog in the universe. My health is good. I like myself. I have all I really need. I am proud of my skills & accomplishments. I can cook & buy myself flowers & get rested, get massage, get out for a dose of live music or some library books or some good food when I feel sad.

Last night I made candles with my friends, had delicious Chinese food in honor of the Year of the Sheep, and I did good work at my job.

What is difficult with me is that when I am sad, I am only ever comforted by insight, or a crystallization of a thought I feel to be true and useful. No drug or experience or person or object or sensation can be guarranteed or even likely to do this. For me, most often, writing and talk with someone I trust do it.

I'm not complaining about being sad, mind you. I think there's worth in some sadness. My sadness seems often to help me get at what I think, and to find something true and useful.

May it do so always and not first or more quickly be the poison it sometimes seems to be.