Last night we were on the way home from the reading and dinner about 11:00 when I looked ahead toward a rather dark corner and saw a deer just about to step into the street, so I said, "Deer!" Himself said, "What?" and the delicate beast was halfway across the street before he realized that I hadn't said "Dear. . . . " Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!

A miserably hot night, but the a/c held up as we did Wilfred Owen, Randall Jarrell, Rolando Hinojosa, Sherman Alexie (and two other Native American writers whose names I wasn't familiar with), Marilyn McMahon, Bruce Weigl, and Brian Turner for 2 1/2 hours. The poems were powerful and often heartbreaking, but we all agreed they were necessary: the ( Read more... )

Kevin McFadden, "Ad Tacitum: Renderings from Tacitus" (VIRGINIA QUARTERLY) at
http://www.poems.com/today.htm .

Please send thoughts of healing and strength toward the University of Minnesota bone marrow transplant section for the next few weeks. Our friend is beginning the next phase of his ordeal by combat.

In another TODAY segment (okay, it's my alarm clock), Mike Leonard had a hilarious film of himself with a more sanguine father and small son in a motorboat on a river in southern Illinois, he said, where the fish--carp, I believe he said--were literally leaping high into the air, many of them into the boat--big fish too. I've seen an occasional ( Read more... )

The TODAY show yesterday had a fashion show of children's summer clothes. In the first group-- maybe four or five years old--one little girl was wearing a screen-printed t-shirt and a denim skirt with a frayed hem, the two pieces setting somebody back a mere $70. For slightly older children, there were jeans for $50, likewise pj's, and for one who ( Read more... )

At the south side of the house is a big butterfly weed (these days renamed "butterfly plant," I note). I'd been watching it for monarch larvae, but this afternoon i couldn't believe my eyes: there were something in the neighborhood of THREE DOZEN monarch caterpillars variously draped upon, variously munching upon the butterfly weed. Oh, please, let ( Read more... )

Hope you've had a good flight, luv, and managed lots of writing and research while sojourning in Skipholl (sp?). We miss you already.

Hugs!

Went looking for a computer table today, since what I've been using is going to mrs. henry and mythworker, and I've really needed something that doesn't take up half the room. Of the new stuff available, the pickings are discouragingly lean, but I'm going to start searching for used office furniture. I bought three really good desk chairs for $20 ( Read more... )

It's 1:10 p.m. Eight hours and ten minutes ago the tv alarm came on or went off or whatever alarms do; forty-five minutes later, approximately, I heard it. Can't understand: I USED to be able to get by on 4 hours of sleep ( Read more... )