Where I've been...

It has been so hard, finding my way back to the boards, the blog, poetry. Back from vacation, sure, but plunged immediately into the insanity of my older son's first year of high school - a performing arts school, with auditions the second week of school, which meant hustling to help him prepare a new monologue and a contemporary jazz song. All this along with watching him take public transportation on his own, a hundred thousand anxieties on my part.

But all is well; he was cast, he met a girl, he knows the way home.

William H. Macy is a genius

Did you know that in addition to his stellar film and stage career, Bill Macy is a genuine woodturner? I am even more impressed than I was before. Fargo, Boogie Nights, State and Main, The Cooler, and now, bowls? I love it.

"All those normally incapable of happiness...

Are catching flakes on their eyelids,
On their tongues
As they run amuck in the street.

Pastry chef, I believe, you're next."

Charles Simic, "The Master of Ceremonies"

Where all the demons dine collectively on game*

That's right, I'm going home. For two weeks. Call it a family vacation. A reunion. A bloodbath. No, wait.... Let's start again.

I'm going to Vermont for two weeks. Here's what I plan to do:
1. Sit in the hammock
2. Climb Mount Hunger
3. Not get mauled by a black bear
4. Sit in the hammock
5. Eat maple creemees at Morse Farm
6. Go canoing
7. Hammock
8. Look for Mary Azarian print
9. Hammock
10. Channel some poetry.

Here's hoping there will be bells.

*Lucie Brock-Broido, "Rome Beauty"

Word of the Week is:

Bombazine: cloth made from silk and wool. High quality bombazine generally has a silk warp and a worsted weft. Often dyed black and used for mourning. Sadly, this cloth went out of fashion in the early 20th century.

What a great word, though! It makes me think of the male lead in Bedknobs and Broomsticks - David Tomlinson (who also played George Banks in Mary Poppins). Can't you just picture him saying "Bombazine!"

Some other great fabric terms include: loden; cambric; barkcloth. Mmm. Lovely.

Being Happy All Night

"Oh I think it was the books I read long ago.
It's as if I joined other readers on a long road.
We found dead men hanging in a meadow.
We took dew from the grass and washed our eyes."

~Robert Bly

Because It Was There

Because it's air-conditioned.
Because the kids wanted gelato and I said yes.
Because it's right next to Istria Cafe.
Because I am weak-willed.
Because I cannot be trusted with a stack of singles.
Because people give up their babies (blood; eggs; plasma; organs; previously-read books)

I went to Powell's and bought Morning Poems by Robert Bly.

(Re)Finished

I had an HGTV experience today. Salvaged a desk from the trash in a nearby alley - it was painted dogshit brown, had chunks of dried glue spilling out of the corners, very scratched. But all the same, it was good, solid hardwood, with an adorable craftsman-style bookcase built in on one side. I called my two mean friends - my cleaning co-op buddies - and we stripped, sanded and stabilized it (in 90 degree heat, mind you). Then we stained it mahogany, and it is currently drying under a fan in my kitchen.

I absolutely love it. It is perfect for the sun room off the living room. Okay, so it's not a "room of my own," but it is my own, my rescued, lovingly restored desk, and a fitting new home for my poetry books.