Peg Duthie's Blog, page 66

QUILTBAG celebration; solstice contest; 5 Lines Showcase

* QUILTBAG celebration at the poetree comm all week long. See here for how the week is being organized.

* This week's writers' challenge at the comm "to write a poem about the longest day or longest night. It can be about the activities of the day, time itself, waiting, or anything else connected to the topic."

* Tina Nguyen has compiled a showcase of five-line poems posted during May 2012. I am honored to have one of my pieces included in it.

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shreds of prayers

(a response to Luisa A. Ingloria's Preces



All week, I've been trying to steal back enough sleep --
to feather my body back into the plumage of its prime.
This heavy dullness is the reproach of rough moons --
midnight cups of coffee now tar in my blood,
3 a.m. donuts gorgon-stones in my gut.
I know how to live, but my other eight deaths
keep nipping at my heels, demanding
that I earn the honeycakes and the glass of cold milk
they never got to taste. When I do doze off,
red pens and blue pages haunt the soapy ladders
sliding out of my dreams. But all the world is a jar
of fireflies, each blink of light
a microscopic tearing
at the veils around my heart:
joy and praise will out, though they set me apart.

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on Cornelia James Cannon, birth control advocate

She herself was delighted with her large family and would have been glad to have had a few more. But she had seen enough of life and the tragedy of poverty-stricken mothers worn out by childbearing and overwhelmed by too many children not to be outraged on their behalf.

...In her old age, she became something of an old-fashioned fanatic, traveling to the Philippines, India, and Israel, visiting clinics, and exchanging "lore." As a spry old lady of eighty-four, shod in blue sneakers and leaning on a cane, she went with my sister Linda, at that time head of an adoption agency in Washington, D.C., to an International Conference of Social Work in Rome. They stopped in London, then flew on to Istanbul, Tel Aviv, and Athens, but not until they reached Belgrade did my sister, much to her horror, discover as my mother's battered old suitcase fell open that it was stuffed with contraceptives of all sorts and sizes. As my sister rather bemusedly remarked to my mother, "Why, Mother, you never taught me to travel that way!"

...Abortion clinics seemed to be the chief answer to the birth control problem in Yugoslavia. My mother insisted on visiting various examples of the clinics, leading my long-suffering sister through malodorous back alleys and up fetid back stairs into these sordid establishments where she spread the word and apparently the contraceptives, for my sister remarked that when they reached Rome, my mother's suitcase was empty.

- Marian Cannon Schlesinger, Snatched from Oblivion: A Cambridge Memoir (Little, Brown, 1979)

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from the Dept. of Everything Is Related to Many Other Things

I could go on and on, and it seems I have. And please, don't hold me to any of this. In a month I could change my mind. That's the beauty of a play like this, the discoveries, the breakthroughs, the layers. It's like getting in an elevator and going down to the basement, thinking that's as far as you can go, and then one night you get in and see there are three more buttons leading to sublevels you hadn't seen before. It's been the high point of my theatrical career, and it has made me hungry for more.

- Nathan Lane on performing Eugene O'Neill [in the New York Times]

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Venus bright and shining nearby

Still in the thick of a thick patch, but I did steal outside for a walk right as Venus traveled across the sun earlier this month. Not that you can see it in this photo, and not that I could make it out even with my friendly neighbors' glasses, but it was still a nice break.

And the day before, alee_grrl had sent to me "Cheshire Magic," a poem she wrote that's now posted at her journal. (The subject line's from the poem.) *dances*

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galumphing along...

In the thick of annual reports and indexes, but some poetry news: the latest issue of Galatea Resurrects includes five poems and four reviews by me, and The Moment of Change is now available. :-D

Hope this finds all y'all with a beautiful June ahead!

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the occasion which is May 25th

[Subject line from Grace Paley's "Having Arrived by Bike at Battery Park," which also includes the lines "Day! I love you for your delicacy / in appearing after so many years / as an afternoon in Battery Park right / on the curved water..."]


Abby inspecting the larkspur and basil I brought home from the fields

I spent the bulk of yesterday weeding beets and onions. I brought home beets, onions, fennel, basil, a mix of lettuces, and larkspur.

Three notes to myself, and an observation:

(1) Bring gloves next time. Yes, you hate wearing them, but you have business meetings on your calendar, and disguising trashed nails = pain in the ass.

(2) You need something rated higher than SPF 15 on your shoulderblades.

(3) Pulling up thickets of weeds a hair too quickly = faceful of flying dirt.

(Observation) In spite of publishing an entire poem about thinning plants, I still find it to be a process with pangs attached: am I pulling up (and leaving behind) the right ones? is there really not enough room for all the roots?

... but I also now have a pan full of culled beets to roast. And Mavis Staples on the stereo, and my beloved White Sox are leading the Indians at the top of the 3rd inning, and I have sheaves of work to plunge back into. (Yes, it's technically a holiday weekend. I'll probably make pesto for a cookout...)

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signal boost: sacred poetry challenges at poetree

Deadline is Friday, May 25, 2012 at 11:59 EST. Winners can choose to receive either 30 dreamwidth points (= 1 month paid time) or a poem written for them by alee_grrl .

For Writers:
Challenge #11: This week ysabetwordsmith [Elizabeth Barrette] introduced us to some lovely examples of sacred poetry. Sacred poetry can reflect many religions and spiritual traditions. This week's challenge is to write a sacred poem.

For Readers:
Challenge #12: Pick one of the poems shared [last] week [at poetree] and write a comment about that poem. What struck you particularly, what did you like? Doesn't have to be a long or complicated comment.

.

More details at http://poetree.dreamwidth.org/58575.html, which is also where to post links to entries.



I'll heading to the farm today. I have missed it. Past entries about working there:

http://journalscape.com/mechaieh/2011-05-21-23:02
http://journalscape.com/mechaieh/2011-06-01-05:58
http://journalscape.com/mechaieh/2011-06-16-14:35
http://journalscape.com/mechaieh/2011-07-14-09:04

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on frustration and fear

My dog:


A bunny next door:



And never the twain shall meet. ;-)

That kind of sums up how today felt, truth be told -- even though, objectively speaking, I can recognize that I got a fair bit done (one article written, one shift at the hospital, various drafts and notes and what-have-you, etc., etc., boom). It just was one of those days where there was a lot of barking at windows (both literally -- the entire household got woken up to the sound of tumbling glass in the middle of the night -- and figuratively, aka me swearing under the hood of M$Word while trying to extricate bat skeletons out of its chassis) and me getting in my own damn way.

Fortunately, there is also the love of friends and doggies and the BYM. And clean sheets and strong tea and running water and city libraries and fireflies. Yes, yes, yes, yes, and YES. :-)

I just sat with my fear. I connected with its energy, and it felt sickening. I felt my throat begin to close and could hear my heartbeat through my chest. I watched as my mind filled up with dreadful, detailed thoughts about how inadequate I was. ...

I sat with myself in this way for about an hour. Many times I thought, Okay, that's it, I feel better now, back to work. But I waited a little bit longer, and the fear uncoiled like a snake at the base of my spine and moved up and down, up and down, until the energy of fear seemed to fill the room. Although I still felt tremendously uncomfortable, I also noticed a kind of growing warmth. I was paying attention to myself. I was sitting with myself as I would hold a still sleeping child twisting from a nightmare. I wasn't angry with her, and there was no sense in trying to talk her out of it. All I could do was hold her gently until she was awake enough to know where she was. The Zen teacher and poet John Tarrant says, "Attention is the most basic form of love; through it we bless and are blessed," and that seemed really true.

- Susan Piver, How Not To Be Afraid of Your Own Life

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Fiesta de Libros

From the May Mid-South District (of the Unitarian Universalist Association) newsletter (should've posted this last week, but note that it takes place every Saturday, in Atlanta):

Atlanta Area Mobile Library Project Update

Join us Saturday, May 19 at Plaza Fiesta to celebrate the official launch of the Mobile Library - Fiesta de Libros! The library project had its soft opening April 14 and has been received with great enthusiasm and appreciation by the children and their parents. We are very proud of this UU project and we want to celebrate the launch with our UU community. The celebration will be from 1:00pm to 2:00pm in front of the playground by the food court. We will have musical entertainment, community speakers, including Rev. David, and a Ribbon Cutting ceremony. Bring the family and friends, celebrate with us and enjoy all that Plaza Fiesta has to offer!

The goal of the mobile library project "Fiesta de Libros" is to expose children to age-appropriate bilingual literature at Plaza Fiesta (a Latino mall off of Buford Highway). The idea of the program is to create a library-type setting where the children will be encouraged to browse the book selection, sit down and read, take a book home or exchange one of their own books for a new book. Fiesta de Libros will be set up every Saturday from 1pm to 5pm at Plaza Fiesta.

If you are interested in supporting this project, there are three ways in which you can help:

1) Donate books - Bring books for children up to the age of 12 written in Spanish, English or both languages.

2) Sign up to be a Saturday volunteer - You, your family, friends, or organization can sign up for one of the Saturday shifts to staff the library. The shifts will be from 12:30pm to 3:00pm and 3:00pm to 5:30pm.

3) Join a committee - Join one of the five committees to help administer the program.

Please contact Laura Murvartian at Laura_Murvartian@Bellsouth.net or 770-841-9672 for further information or to sign up as a volunteer.

My tribe: we set up libraries and "smuggle" books. Onward!

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