Several months ago, one of the nuns asked me to type in her journal. For some reason I put this off but recently pulled out the envelope. These are daily meditations done through a Benedictine style of reading called lexio divina.
As I type these in, the room always fills with the scent of sweet smelling [...]
Archive for November, 2007
Sister M.’s journals and a question of faith
Posted in Creative Nonfiction on 29 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Poem of the day, Nov. 26
Posted in Poem of the day on 26 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
At the Movie: Virginia, 1956
This is how it was:
they had their own churches, their own schools,
schoolbuses, football teams, bands and majorettes,
Poem of the day, Nov. 24
Posted in Poem of the day on 24 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, “The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.”
The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.
Poem of the day, Nov. 23
Posted in Poem of the day on 23 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
At Donald Justice’s (1925-2004) reading, he was asked about the difficulties of rhyming and writing in forms. He laughed and said it was more difficult for him not to rhyme and not to use forms.
Another American poet, Mark Strand (born 1934), said about Justice, “From the very beginning Justice has fashioned his poems, honed them [...]
Thanksgiving Day
Posted in Creative Nonfiction on 22 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
23 Nov. 2006 (12:30 p.m.) Big Sur, Calif., Thanksgiving Day
I’m looking out again over the ocean. We climbed up on a trail through some thick brush to a cliff. I can see the curve of the world from here, and the haze makes the ocean look flat and blue.
The forest we climbed in was cool [...]
Poem of the day, Nov. 22
Posted in Poem of the day on 21 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I don’t remember much about my workshop with Mona Van Duyn (1921-2004). She told us a story about applying for her driver’s license and being laughed at by the people at the license bureau when she filled in her profession as “poet.”
Aside from being the first woman poet laureate of the U.S., she won three [...]
Poem of the day, Nov. 21
Posted in Poem of the day on 21 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
James Merrill (1926-1995) is a poet I feel like I know but never actually met. I worked for his nephew F. for seven years at a sports magazine. In the non-literary world the name Merrill is associated with Merrill Lynch, the company James Merrill’s father founded.
But in the literary world, James Merrill is associated with [...]
Poem of the day, Nov. 20
Posted in Poem of the day on 19 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
I met Seamus Heaney (born 1939) briefly at a reading he gave a few years before he won the Nobel Prize in 1995. Only 17 poets have won the Nobel Prize in literature since the prize was first awarded in 1901.
Of those 17 poets, only two are women: Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957), a Chilean poet, won [...]
Poem of the day, Nov. 19
Posted in Poem of the day on 18 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
In searching through my poetry books, I ran across a book I haven’t seen for years. It is the first book of poetry ever given to me and is called A Wild Patience Has Taken Me This Far by Adrienne Rich (born 1929).
A thin, off-white pamphlet, it was pushed behind my others on the shelf. [...]
Turkey Trot 5K
Posted in Creative Nonfiction on 17 November 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Today S. and I participated in a 5K run her company put on to benefit two people in the company who have cancer.
S. is able to walk a mile and a half now without the aid of crutches, but 3.2 miles was longer than she could handle, so once again we pulled out the wheelchair.
