Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 175
November 3, 2012
otter magic
Yesterday I took the ninja girl to the swampy pond where I'd seen the otter, hoping we might see him again. The crows were there, loud and loud as ever, and we watched the water a while, but the otter wasn't showing himself.
But there were noises. Sounds like very distant music, at one point, and something that to the ninja girl's ears sounded like a seal barking, and later, something that to me sounded like someone singing a crow's caw. It was like someone was there, pretending to be a crow o...
But there were noises. Sounds like very distant music, at one point, and something that to the ninja girl's ears sounded like a seal barking, and later, something that to me sounded like someone singing a crow's caw. It was like someone was there, pretending to be a crow o...
November 2, 2012
après moi
My blessings are the finishing sort
The paper tray that empties
When my last page prints
"This lane closed" placed
Just after my cartons and cans
On the checkout conveyor belt
The final drops from the coffee pot
At the highway gas station
Lucky, yes, and yet
The roar of rising waters, crumbling earth
Always in the distance
Always drawing near
Makes me pull the house door closed
And never look behind
The paper tray that empties
When my last page prints
"This lane closed" placed
Just after my cartons and cans
On the checkout conveyor belt
The final drops from the coffee pot
At the highway gas station
Lucky, yes, and yet
The roar of rising waters, crumbling earth
Always in the distance
Always drawing near
Makes me pull the house door closed
And never look behind
"The Architect of Snow" by Michele Bannister
The special donation issue of Strange Horizons contains
this lovely poem
, which Michele dedicated to me--I am touched and honored!
Check it out, and consider donating to Strange Horizons, if you have some pennies to spare.
Check it out, and consider donating to Strange Horizons, if you have some pennies to spare.
November 1, 2012
another world
And when I pulled myself away from the otter, I was no longer here, but there
See? All green below, and wild above. A place for flying.
crows and otters
I set out for a walk in the woods, and from over the hill and across the railroad tracks I could hear a real clamor of crows, a raucous of crows caucusing--cawing and cussing together--or maybe telling jokes, or calling join us join us.
So I left the trail and climbed the hill and scrambled down the other side and crossed the railroad tracks (scaring two turkeys in the process), then scrambled down another hill to the street, and followed the crow voices down a gravel path to a swampy pond, w...
So I left the trail and climbed the hill and scrambled down the other side and crossed the railroad tracks (scaring two turkeys in the process), then scrambled down another hill to the street, and followed the crow voices down a gravel path to a swampy pond, w...
October 30, 2012
All's well here!
... But I do feel for the people in New York City and New Jersey, everyone dealing with flooding and power out. And the folks in West Virginia now getting two feet of snow!
Anyway, thank you everyone for the good wishes.
And to lighten the mood, here's David Mitchell on PASSION
Anyway, thank you everyone for the good wishes.
And to lighten the mood, here's David Mitchell on PASSION
October 29, 2012
storm
Wind's rising, trees are swaying back and forth, roof is muttering -- so nervous-making! But everything's warm and cozy and still electrified here. And anyway, anything I'm experiencing . . . is something approximately 50 million others are experiencing! What a thought!
I should get back to work. This document isn't going to edit itself.
I should get back to work. This document isn't going to edit itself.
October 28, 2012
shepherds and sailors take warning
This was our dawn.
Storm's coming, so I'm told. And told and told! SEVERE WEATHER EXPECTED. PLAN AHEAD said the electronic display on the highway.
Life lessons from a highway display sign, man. Further on it said
GIVE PEOPLE THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT.
OFTEN IT'S NOT MALICE; IT's MISERY
(Nah, I'm making that one up. But when I become a hacker of highway electronic displays, that might be one of my messages.)
Anyway. A storm, on the precise anniversary of the destructive Halloween storm of last year....
Storm's coming, so I'm told. And told and told! SEVERE WEATHER EXPECTED. PLAN AHEAD said the electronic display on the highway.
Life lessons from a highway display sign, man. Further on it said
GIVE PEOPLE THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT.
OFTEN IT'S NOT MALICE; IT's MISERY
(Nah, I'm making that one up. But when I become a hacker of highway electronic displays, that might be one of my messages.)
Anyway. A storm, on the precise anniversary of the destructive Halloween storm of last year....
October 25, 2012
writing on the sky, delighting in snow, writing on stone
The sky is rice paper right now. To write on it, I need only an embrace of birds, four and twenty, up they go. And then the moon for a seal.
Here is an image from a card
sartorias
sent me today. Joyful face!
Pure delight . . .
The local free paper had a story from its fifteen-years-ago file in this week's issue, a ghost story. Since the paper is free, I think they won't mind if I reprint it its entirety.
Mr. DiNuovo's self-contradictory way of speaking made me laugh, but all the same, what a grea...
Here is an image from a card
sartorias
sent me today. Joyful face!
Pure delight . . .
The local free paper had a story from its fifteen-years-ago file in this week's issue, a ghost story. Since the paper is free, I think they won't mind if I reprint it its entirety.
Mr. DiNuovo's self-contradictory way of speaking made me laugh, but all the same, what a grea...
October 23, 2012
the knife in the squash, the apple in the hand, kitfo
whosoever pulls this knife from this squash is the RIGHTFUL KING OF ALL ENGLAND
... or ... the king of the kitchen at least.
And here is a magnificent Baldwin apple.
Three of them alone made a pie that's several inches deep. The hills and valleys of its mighty crust put the Badlands of South Dakota to shame.
So, I thought "kitfo" sounded like a fox boy's rapper name, but really it's a delicious-sounding Ethiopian dish.
If there were a fox boy who were to take kitfo as his rapper name, he would hav...
... or ... the king of the kitchen at least.
And here is a magnificent Baldwin apple.
Three of them alone made a pie that's several inches deep. The hills and valleys of its mighty crust put the Badlands of South Dakota to shame.
So, I thought "kitfo" sounded like a fox boy's rapper name, but really it's a delicious-sounding Ethiopian dish.
If there were a fox boy who were to take kitfo as his rapper name, he would hav...
