Poetry Thursday

Poetry Thursday's prompt this week: "... using a phrase you hear or say over and over as a starting point for writing a poem."

Courage

“Well, we’ll see.”
Not easily understood, words struggle
Through a strange filter
That distorts , muffles, confounds meaning.

Regain use of your own hands?
“Well, we’ll see.”
Walk again?
Well, we’ll see.”

Can you feel the breeze at the sea shore?
Walking across the sand, trying to
Articulate with a mouth full of pebbles?
No vacation, eh, Demosthenes?

Can I help?
“No!”
Using precious energy to
Gain emphasis, to project the
Mumbled sounds over the waves.

“I have to learn to do it
By myself.”
Water spills from the cup,
The body shudders.

You’re doing better.
“Well, we’ll see.”

Pulp Fiction (Wow, second post of the day)

When I started The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont today (have already written about it here), I immediately thought of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Since most of the names mentioned in The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril were real people, however, it was just the similarity of the times and the context that made me think of The Amazing Adventures as Joe Kavalier and Sammy Clay are the fictitious inventions of Michael Chabon. However, Joe Kavalier has just made an entrance in Malmont's novel...and I love that. A novel about pulp fiction that includes both the real writers of pulp fiction and fictitious writers of comic books, and that becomes a more sophisticated form of pulp fiction.

A bit of "whatever comes to mind"

Here is the back of little Max's baby quilt. We are all anxiously awaiting his arrival. The detail from the front is a notation of his French Papa's heritage. See the tiny Eiffel Tower?

I've enjoyed watching Omega's work progress. Her simple forms and use of symbols intrique me. Her latest "Discomforter" pieces carry a narrative that may be different for each viewer, but certainly have tremendous impact. The Storyteller, with its mythological feel, remains one of my favorites.

Another favorite this summer has been DebR's self-portraits and poetry. How she has the time to do all that she does amazes me.
She oozes creativity in every direction.

Due date moved up

Erin called yesterday after a visit to her doctor, and little Max may arrive early. She is to avoid strenuous activity and stay hydrated and hope that Max will wait 2 more weeks.

This sent me into a speeded up time schedule, and I worked on the baby quilt until one this morning.

Came home this afternoon and finished up the binding. Still need to make a label, but think I'll wait until the little fellow is born and add it then. These pictures are after washing the quilt...because I like the wrinkled look and because it will no doubt be washed an awful lot in service to a baby. I had a lot of fun with the quilting and want to do the hand quilting again.

L.M. Montgomery

I don't understand how the weeks are passing by so quickly. It is downright scary to have days disappearing at this rate.

After reading Kate's Book Blog, I find myself needing to read the L.M. Montgomery books again. And more, I want to read Montgomery's journals (love journals and personal diaries), and something by Dr. Margaret Doody. Anne was a very important part of my growing up...and how many tens of thousands of girls (then and now) can say the same. Her work never felt dated to me; not when I read them as a child, as an adolescent, or as a parent who eagerly introduced Anne to my own children. Nor, as Kate mentions, was Montgomery's work all "sweetness and light"...Montgomery introduced subjects that were extremely unusual for her time period.

Kate is fortunate enough to be able to attend the 7th International Conference on L.M. Montgomery and will hopefully keep us updated. She's already reported on Doody's presentation. Here is an excellent entry into L.M.'s world.

Sunflowers

This sunflower is called "giant" and has re-seeded every year. It is now taller than the house! I pull up most of the seedlings because they need staking. This year, I left maybe 8 seedlings that are scattered in different places. Yesterday I cut down two of them because they were leaning so badly. Only way to get to the flowers!

Things have been hectic around here lately...and will continue to be so until late August, I guess. Trip with Laddie and my sister-in-law on Amtrak in the works, new grandchild due in July, Amelia's wedding in August.

Aunt Mary is doing much better and will soon be home with home help...fingers crossed. That will be one person who has made a drastic improvement, and I'm grateful.

Last year, I competed in 3 Tai Chi events. Thomas and I went to the New Orleans and Orlando competitions, and Jimmy joined us in Dallas for Taiji Legacy. This year I'm doubtful about even Taiji Legacy, but after a rigorous round of push hands last night with Jimmy, I came home wondering if I could get some routines ready and make that tournament. If the baby doesn't decide to come early.... [Thomas, we need to be looking ahead for something after your California sojourn.]

Calla lilies, Hepburn, quilting

I was looking for more information about Kate's line about the calla lilies in Stage Door and found this poetic tribute by Lisa Lindley. Don't you love it? I especially like the lines: "You were a general in a party dress,/ A butterfly in trousers and a vest" and that last stanza! So one last calla for Kate...

And the hand quilting is still going on. I've been up until 1:00 AM the last couple of nights, and I'm getting a bit faster. Deb Lactiva made some suggestions that I liked, but I'd already quilted in straight slanted lines and was working on some circles. However, I liked her idea about carrying lines through the little squares, and last night, added some circles in the blue squares. Will go back and add length to the some of the straight lines and carry them through some of the blocks. I think.

curves and callas

I love callas for the color and the shapes. They are so sweetly curved, swirled, spiraled, blended...

Poetry Thursday and update

Spring and Fall: To a Young Child

Márgarét, are you gríeving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leáves, líke the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! ás the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By and by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep and know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What heart heard of, ghost guessed:
It ís the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

--Gerard Manley Hopkins

I particularly love the last three lines.
......
Yesterday after work, I came home and rested for a while before going to the hospital to visit a friend. Sometimes, as they say, "bad things happen to good people." Sometimes, it seems that some people have to deal with more set backs than others. Life isn't fair. But some people manage to retain a kind of glowing spirit and fight back as hard as they are able. There is a long row ahead, but she will approach it with courage and with all the energy she can muster.
.......
An update: Just found this poem by Judy Johns on A Reader's Journal and decided to add it here on Poetry Thursday.

The Bad Poets Prayer

Lord,
Let me wake up with the gift
to see humor in grass,
pathos in telephone poles,
rhythm in parking lots,
and color in pigeons.
Lift me from the quicksand
of cliche and tired images
which weigh like cement shoes
on my poor murdered verse.
Others have this gift,I have a craving as
strong as any addict
for the rush, the high
of knowing that no other poet
could capture this same moment
as perfectly.
And if that is too much to ask,
then take away this urge
to commit to paper
evidence that I lack the gift.
--Judy Johns

hand quilting...

After getting home from Tai Chi last night, I quilted some more. This hand quilting thing is very relaxing, and I'm so glad for the comments that encouraged skipping the frame. I draw a line or two and quilt; this is definitely a learning experience. After quilting for a few minutes, my fingers manage better and stitches improve a bit, but a great deal of practice is yet needed for any kind of decent work. Still, the process is fun, the experimenting with drawing a few lines, then quilting them puts a completable goal in front of me. The process is slow, the bulk (even of this relatively small piece) is awkward, the area around seams a bit more difficult, the tips of my fingers are perforated. But one line at a time, learning is taking place.

This piece can serve as a kind of sampler for me as I play with different designs. I do need to consider (in advance, for once) what to do about the large bottom area, but right now, doing something different in the squares and rectangles is fun.

Still enjoying The Historian and put some comments on the book blog.

I heard it on NPR...

the other day and forgot and then remembered again as I talked to Erin today and listened to Mila in the background. This poem by Galway Kinnell is such a sweet example of parental love:

After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

For I can snore like a bullhorn
or play loud music
or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman
and Fergus will only sink deeper
into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash,
but let there be that heavy breathing
or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house
and he will wrench himself awake
and make for it on the run - as now, we lie together,
after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies, familiar touch of the long-married,
and he appears - in his baseball pajamas, it happens,
the neck opening so small
he has to screw them on, which one day may make him wonder
about the mental capacity of baseball players -
and flops down between us and hugs us and snuggles himself to sleep,
his face gleaming with satisfaction at being this very child.

In the half darkness we look at each other
and smile
and touch arms across his little, startling muscled body -
this one whom habit of memory propels to the ground of his making, sleeper only the mortal sounds can sing awake,
this blessing love gives again into our arms.

Galway Kinnell

Miscellanea

Happy Birthday, Erin! I love you very much! Wish my scanner was working, I'd post pictures of you as a little girl. Must get on to your father about fixing the scanner.

Thanks to Sande, I've added a cluster map so I can see the locations of people who visit here. She suggested it in a comment, I checked her blog and thought it a wonderful idea.

My Chaucer t-shirt arrived in short order, and I wore it last Friday. Must have Fee take a picture of me wearing it, although I doubt that I will particpate in his Tournament of Photographie Readere Conteste.

The calla lillies are

in bloom again.







The damage that one small grasshopper can do.... There he is in the middle, satiated.


This is definitely a brilliant orange.
















Checked on Aunt Janice after work on Friday, but she was asleep, so I just left her some crossword puzzle books, etc. After Tai Chi on Saturday (new move on straight sword), picked up Laddie and drove him to Minden to see Aunt Mary who is doing a bit better, then to Counter Culture for sandwiches..

Last night, after I got home, I put on the Boston Legal disk and watched as I hand quilted. Things got worse before getting better, but I finally achieved the "rocking" motion and made some progress.

on comments, Tai Chi, and reading

I love comments on my blogs. Well, who doesn't? I always try to respond by email as soon as I can, but so many commenters are "no reply." If you don't receive an email after commenting here, please realize that I'm not ignoring you. Usually, I respond immediately without noticing the "no reply"and later find that Mailer Daemon has returned them; they've been dumped in my Spam box...which I don't check very often. I appreciate all comments and love to comment on other blogs; the communication is one of the best parts of the blogging world. It's fun to see that someone from New Zealand, London, or Mississippi (right next door) has visited.

Last night's Tai Chi class was an excellent one, and I didn't get home until after 9:00, but felt relaxed and alert. Missed Tuesday night's class and Wednesday in the park, so I especially needed last night.

I'm reading The Lightning Keeper, Leonardo's Notebook, and Liberated Quilting at the moment. Of course, the last two are mostly visual pleasures!

Well, best go braid my wet hair and get ready for work.

in progress

I've been working on this quilt when I have time. This is the front. There are also shots of the back and some details. I've done just a tiny bit of handquilting, but decided to take an in-progress picture.








I already had the front done when the library called to tell me the Gwen Marston book was in, but as soon as I began reading it, I decided to play with the scrappy, ad libbing idea and put together the block used in the center of the back. I've read through several sections and gone back to the photographs several times. It is a fun and "liberated" approach.

Yesterday was a long day...didn't get home until after 7:30 because Marty, Laddie, and I went to Minden to visit Aunt Mary after work. She is in the hospital there with pneumonia.

flowers, books, and advertisements

Inner Moss Rose, one of the simplest of flowers, it has such a remarkable and complex center. It is also drought resistant and an abundant bloomer with no care.

I have to hurry this morning because I'm picking Amelia up and hoping to get her into the salt mines (filing cabinets) so that I don't have to make an appearance as often. What are daughters for, anyway?

Lopate's The Art of the Personal Essay has been mentioned several times on various book blogs lately. It is, simply said, one of my favorite books of all times because I can return to it at will, pick an essay by Seneca, or Charles Lamb, or F. Scott Fitzgerald, or M. K. Fisher and be filled with satisfaction. Rarely does a novel entice me to reread, but essays and nonfiction do often call for rereading. I should probably move this discussion to my book blog and continue when I have more time.

Just one more picture of an old advertisement that will eventually be gone from the urban landscape.

More murals

Here are more mural pictures from downtown Shreveport. Bossier has quite a few, but very different in character. I'll get around to getting more pictures soon.

Mr. Maggio (or his family) has this sign repainted every year. It is never faded, but always fresh and pristine. All of his delivery trucks have pictures of Italian scenes, including the Mona Lisa. I love them all. I love the sentiment of an immigrant who became an American success, never forgot his roots, and expresses his love for his adopted country. I love the fact that a mundane delivery truck becomes a work of art and the personality that decides that it is worth the extra expense to create a mobile visual feast.

of murals and talking cats

Laddie and I stalked the downtown murals today before going for a late lunch at El Chico's. This "architectural detail" is one of my favorites, but I have no idea who painted any of them.


The next one is in less than perfect shape, but I don't think it detracts from its beauty. They both make the parking lots they grace so much more pleasant.



This video (borrowed the link from Two Lime Leaves) is too funny...talking cats. Yes, they do talk. Do they know what they're saying? Doubtful, but hilarious anyway!



The inner flower. Datura. I love the way the early morning sun glows through.

Street Art

On the way out of Fondren (a charming neighborhood in Jackson) last week, I took photos of these whimsical street sculptures. Delightful, aren't they? Some day, it would be fun to just walk down the street and photograph this little town within a town. Eric bought the wonderful chickens for Mila's birthday at a shop that sells handmade items of local artists.

Today, Laddie and I are going to do a photographic survey of Shreveport's downtown area today. If I can get him to accompany me... Old buildings fascinate me and there are so many architectural details and murals that I'd like to photograph. When my computer crashed, all the mural photos I had were lost.

Chaucer...again

Not only does Geoffrey Chaucer have a blog, but he is now selling tee shirts, and I may succumb to temptation on this one. Or this one, or this one, or well... decisions, decisions. But I must have one!

In March, I posted this excerpt from an entry and think several of these would make great tee shirts. Especially this one:

Oh newfanglenesse! Y have learned the privitees of the manye abbreviaciouns ywritten on the internette.
OMG: "oh mine ++DOMINUS++".
ROFL: "rollinge on the floore laughinge".
IRL: "in reale lyfe."

From the garden to a vase.



There is a new Lincoln Rhymes novel out called Cold Moon that I must begin checking the library for. I've enjoyed Jeffrey Deaver's series and look forward to this one.

The library called and two of the books I asked for on inter-library loan are in... the Gwen Marston book on liberated quilting and Kingsolver's Small Wonders.
I'm a little more than half way through May and Amy and am enjoying it very much: Victorian period, Burne-Jones the Pre-Raphaelite painter, May Gaskell and her family, with guest appearances by Gladstone, Kipling, William Morris and other famous Victorians. Non-fiction, the book depends largely on letters written during the lifetime of May Gaskell and is accompanied by wonderful family photographs and funny drawings that Burne-Jones included with his letters.

Today I got hung up in traffic returning to work from Tai Chi in the park as the movie people were shooting downtown again. I've yet to spot a star, but find all of the equipment, trucks, and crew pretty interesting. May as well enjoy it as you are simply waiting for them to let the traffic flow again.

Beauty and Function

"Like medals struck by a great savage khan..."

Annielf posted about manhole covers the other day, so I looked for
Karl Shapiro's poem on the subject. Then I found this manhole "connection" to Quilts . The most ordinary and mundane objects can be beautiful, and I love the effort to make something purely functional into an object whose beauty can be admired each day.

And the fact that some cities commission artists for their "hatchcovers" (is "manhole cover" no longer pc?) is something I find endearing. Doesn't it say something about the personality of the city itself? Seattle decided to do this in the 1950's: "Seattle was one of the first places in the country to pass a law that sets aside funds to pay for art in public places....From manhole covers to electrical substations to the downtown Metro Bus Tunnel, public art is everywhere." Way to go, Seattle!

How about these from Japan? And here is a Japanese Manhole Cover Museum. This artist makes rubbings of manhole covers. What do you think? Aren't they wonderful? Maybe we should join those legions of folks taking pictures and post our own...

I just checked my Spam folder and discovered quite a few replies returned because of "no reply" comments. I always dash off a reply, and rarely manage to notice the "no reply" so they are all returned. Only, they go to the spam folder, and I never realize it. No matter how many times I say: "Mailer Daemon is NOT SpAm!" They still go into the Spam folder.