Sweet Adelines

"I wish I hadn't thrown away my time/
On so much human/And so much less divine."
{Lou Reed, "Dime Store Mystery" New York}

Feeling lately, with so many loved ones not of this earth now, those deeper vibrations that come when watching an osprey soar high against the white of the clouds and the blue of the sky. Awareness settling in, acceptance of the unkown, of NOT KNOWING and BEING in it, simply in it, all of it. I guess these days my life feels longer, more rooted--my presence not necessarily substantive--but something has changed. Maybe in my soul, maybe in my more opened ears, my clearer thoughts, my moving forward, out of my own command. My body moving more toward a pattern of a more conscious life--treaded by repetition into a groove of healthfulness, an empty bowl filling with water, the water poured into growing things, the bowl empty again, awareness shimmering around its glass rim like the sweet adelines of a wine glass coaxed into song. { Image Via Be Whoever You Have to Be Tumbr}

My Work Is Loving the World

"My work is loving the world.

Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird —
equal seekers of sweetness.

Here the quickening yeast;
there the blue plums.
Here the clam deep in the speckled sand.

Are my boots old? Is my coat torn?
Am I no longer young, and still not half-perfect? Let me
Keep my mind on what matters,which is my work
which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished."
—from "Messenger" in Thirst (2006), Mary Oliver

Image: Sunset Over Paris by KMSF on Flickr, via 315 Thomas

In The Night Orchard

In The Night Orchard

by R. T. Smith

I know, because Paul has told me
a hundred times, that the deer
gliding tonight through tangleweed
and trashwood, then bounding across
Mount Atlas Road, are after his pears.

And who could blame them?
On the threshold of autumn, the Asian
imports, more amazing than any Seckle
or indigenous apple, start to ripen.
Then a passing crow will peck one open.

That's when the whitetails who bed
and gather beyond Matson's pasture
will catch the scent and begin to stir.
It's a dry time, and they go slowly mad
for sweetness. No fence can stop them.

The farmers like Paul will admit
it starts in hunger, but how suddenly
need goes to frenzy and sheer plunder.
When the blush-gold windfalls are gone
and the low boughs are stripped

of anything resembling bounty, bucks
will rise on their hind legs and clamber
up the trunks. Last week Cecil Emore
found one strangled in a fork,
his twisted antlers tangled as if

some hunter had hung him there
to cure. We all remember what it's like,
this driven season, this delirium
for something not yet given a name,
but the world turns us practical, tames

us to yearn for milder pleasures.
For Augustine, it was actual pears
that brought him out of the shadows
and over a wall, for Eve, the secret
inside what we now say was an apple.

Others have given up safety for less,
and I wonder, catching an eight-point
buck outlined on the ridge amid spruce,
if it's this moonstruck nature that renders
the ruminants beautiful, or if we stalk

them out of envy, not for the grace
of their gliding, but for the unadorned
instinct that draws them after dark
into trespass and the need to ruin
the sweetest thing they've ever known.


"In The Night Orchard" by R. T. Smith, from Brightwood.© Louisiana State University Press, 2004. Beautiful painting by Melody Lea Lamb.

Be A Sublime Fool

To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling.

You must write every single day of your life.

You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next.

You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads.

I wish for you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime.

I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you.

May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories—science fiction or otherwise.

Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days.

And out of that love, remake a world.

Ray Bradbury {Via Advice to Writers} {Image via Ffffound }

The Sweet Transparent Truth

Sober Song by Barton Sutter

Farewell to the starlight in whiskey,
So long to the sunshine in beer.
The booze made me cocky and frisky
But worried the man in the mirror.

Good night to the moonlight in brandy,
Adieu to the warmth of the wine.
I think I can finally stand me
Without a glass or a stein.

Bye-bye to the balm in the vodka,
Ta-ta to the menthol in gin.
I'm trying to do what I ought to,
Rejecting that snake medicine.

I won't miss the blackouts and vomit,
The accidents and regret.
If I can stay off the rotgut,
There might be a chance for me yet.

So so long to God in a bottle,
To the lies of rum and vermouth.
Let me slake my thirst with water
And the sweet, transparent truth.

"Sober Song" by Barton Sutter, from Farewell to the Starlight in Whiskey.
© BOA Editions, 2004. Printed with permission on Writer's Almanac.

Photo by Stephanie Jones via {frolic} who found it on flickr right here.

Maru is Big in Japan

He even has his own website with fantastic Japanese to English translations (lost), such as
"His buttocks have no defense!" He also wears crabshells as crowns, which are QUITE fitting for felines. All this glory, of course, comes courtesy of Cute Overload. You're welcome.

This is Where Genius Lives

Tofutti Break. It tastes just like ice cream.

Prince's seminal Purple Rain album is 25 years old. For my 10th birthday, I received a boom box, a Purple Rain cassette, and a friend-filled trip to see the movie in the theater. I have a very deep love for Prince. I am buying this issue of Spin, which commemorates the fact that Purple Rain is now an antique with a (free) eponymous collection of covers, and have almost decided to throw myself a Purple Rain themed birthday party. The End.

{Purplish Rain tracklisting: 1. "Let's Go Crazy" RIVERBOAT GAMBLERS 2. "Take Me With U" SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS 3. "The Beautiful Ones" FOL CHEN 4. "Computer Blue" OF MONTREAL 5. "Darling Nikki" CHAIRLIFT 6. "When Doves Cry" THE TWILIGHT SINGERS 7. "I Would Die 4 U" MARIACHI EL BRONX 8. "Baby I'm a Star" CRAIG WEDREN 9. "Purple Rain" LAVENDER DIAMOND}

India Rose Bath Lurv

Pretty bath mat.

The hot pink ruffle curtain. Yes!

I Want This Cookbook

So I'm putting it here. In case I forget.
This photo is by Mav of the
beautiful photog blog 3191 Miles Apart.
Oh, Babycakes.

Elements of Style

"If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second-greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first-greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they're happy." -- Dorothy Parker

It's the birthday of grammarian William Strunk, Jr. He was a professor at Cornell University for 46 years, and during that time, he created the "little book" known as The Elements of Style (1918) in order to make it easier to grade his students' composition papers.