Sunday, July 26, 2020

"Alignment's Wit"

After seven years together, my partner and I finally write the same poem. The odds were quite good, actually, as she approached prose poetry from verse and I from story, that we'd meet in the middle with a short strip of words about our daughter. Statistically it's bound to happen, that two lovers sharing a bed would write the same sentence, that two inventors standing on opposite ends of earth's longest sidewalk would create the same amalgam at the same time. Who gets the patent then, the riches, the byline, the fame? We don't wish to share. We do not collaborate. So we trade our sheets of paper, read them, trade them back. After seven more years, we will tire of this, but I love the way that she says, that I say, she is tumbleweed in the morning.

- Julie Gard

Monday, July 20, 2020

Point & shoot photo album: June

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Itchy, restless, anxious days settling eventually back into calm. Sirens and helicopters at night. Long evening walks. Signs in windows and car windows, everywhere. Long phone calls. Fresh basil and summer fruit. Visiting the cats, trees, and flowers of this neighborhood. CSA adventures, like cooking with cabbage for the first time. Neighborhood peacock drama. Reading (almost) only books by lesbians, in observance of Pride Month. (I wrote about this here a few years ago.)

Tuesday, July 14, 2020

Books read in June 2020

1. Fire Power, by Chrystos (1995)

What a gift. Her poems nail the balance of smarts, grace, and simplicity. Ranges over topics like: being a poet, child abuse, lesbian relationships, the alienations of being Native American in the 20th century US of A, and women's experiences in mental health "care" institutions. And bless her, she manages to do it all without sounding like she is trying to sound edgy.

2. Goat Song, by Dodici Azpadu (1984)

Strange little volume. I enjoyed the tone of it somehow. Odd and so dark in parts.

3. The Law of Return, by Alice Bloch (1983)

One of those books that changed my days, on the days when I was reading it. The story of a young American woman's immigration alone to Israel in the '60s, and her return to the US where she has a proper 1960s coming out. Lyrical and well-smattered with not-entirely-plotty scenes. Beautiful descriptions of being lonely/independent/in a foreign country as a young woman. I think that's what I liked best. Vivid, graceful, a little unusual at times. (I thought this was going to be a classic fluffy 1980s lesbian novel, but it's much more literary than that.)

4. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1818)

I read this in my two-woman book club (a.k.a. on Skype with my college best friend over a period of months). Frankenstein is an unbearable obtuse little prick. And so dramatic. This book is, to paraphrase my friend, much more about the hubris and ludicrously poor foresight of men in their early twenties than it is about actual monsters.

Sunday, July 5, 2020

Gratitudes & things that are making me happy

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• Long solitary walks on mild evenings

The Law of Return, by Alice Bloch

• The neighborhood cats - pictured above is Ted, a deeply kind, wise soul whose trust I have been rewarded with thanks to many visits. (Licorice is one of his friends.)

• One day a week in the office

• Having a respectful employer who keeps a safe workplace

• Taking on new, bigger responsibilities at work (which made me stressed, worried, and irritable for the couple weeks leading up, and now is making me feel more engaged and capable)

• Reading the dreams I wrote down in March, when I challenged myself to record all my dreams for the month

• The bravery of women who say what they think and think for themselves

• A very small translation task to re-awaken my German

• The very concise daily newsletter of world events that I  have been receiving for a few years by email, and how much one can learn from doing a little bit of reading consistently

• Goddess melons

• Holly trees

• Continued CSA adventures - learning, for example, a couple things I like that I can do with cabbage (something I have never before purchased in my life)

• The scent of walking into the shade of six enormous magnolia trees

• The scent of star jasmine