birthday cake

my favorite cake, cream meringue tart cockaigne

julie, our birthdays are coming up.  what kind of cake are you craving this year?

have you read this week's horoscope from rob brezsny?  do you follow him?  

everyone, if you don't get your horoscope from brezsny sent to your inbox every week, do it now! he's my favorite.

here it is:  

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Every 10,000 years or so, reports the
*Weekly World News,* hell actually does freeze over. A rare storm brings
a massive amount of snow and ice to the infernal regions, and even the
Lake of Fire looks like a glacier. "Satan himself was seen wearing earmuffs
and making a snowman," the story says about the last time it happened. I
foresee a hell-freezes-over type of event happening for you in the coming
months, Cancerian -- and I mean that in a good way. The seemingly
impossible will become possible; what's lost will be found and what's bent
will be made straight; the lion will lie down not only with the lamb but also
with the sasquatch. For best results, be ready to shed your expectations
at a moment's notice.

well, i love being a cancer, and having a birthday in july.  even though it's june, and my birthday isn't until next week, i began celebrating tonight at dinner at sundance, with a piece of fresh blueberry pie.

julie, we both know that birthdays can bring a lot of mixed feelings, but this year i'm gonna do it up, even if it just means letting go of ambivalence.  i'm sick of ambivalence.  

maybe the upside of getting older can be a greater ability to enjoy what life has to offer and letting go of some of my hang ups about all that.

sorry for the premature birthday celebrating, but sorry i'm not sorry.  i'm looking for a big break through this year.  

this year i can't get enough poetry.  i'm reading and writing a lot of it every single day.  today i read alice notley, a favorite & wise poet.  also an old friend's story which, though not a poem, was poetic.  so that already made today a good one.

30th Birthday

by alice notley

May I never be afraid

                     especially of myself   

                                                      but

Muhammed Ali are you telling

the truth?      

                     Well you’re being true aren’t you and   

you talk so wonderfully in your body

                     that protects you with physique of voice   

      raps within dance

                              May I never be afraid

                     rocked and quaked         

                                                      the mantilla is lace   

                                                      whose black is oak   

But if I’m dark I’m strong

                                       as my own darkness

my strength the universe      

                                       whose blackness is air

                                       only starry

                                       lace

But if I’m alive I’m strong   

                                           as life

Strong as the violets

in Marlon Brando’s fist   

                                  his dissemblance flourished into truth   

                                                                                              She   

took them

I’d take me too      

                           I do

                  and my Ali I see you      

                                                   a hard bright speck of me   

the savage formalist   

                               authentic deed of gossip

                   a kind body