poetry crush marosa di giorgio

uruguayan poet maroso di giorgio

tonight i heard the wonderful adam giannelli read his translations of marosa di giorgio, after he handed out a quail egg for each audience member to hold.  adam played recordings of maroso reading in spanish, and her readings were stunning.

buy this book, people.  i'm serious

i look forward to spending more time with the poems, and i recommend picking up this gorgeous book with facing page translations, for holiday presents.

(this is a plug for making poetry a bigger part of your life and sending some love in the form of money to publishers of poetry by doing a radical thing called buying volumes of poems.)

"I saw them open their lips, black as the night, their gold teeth, after an almond, a pumpkin seed.

To face one's own mark, playing and fighting; and in love without others, to twist until death."

xo, y'all.

thursday: a list

i wore these tights for good luck on election day.   it worked!

1. arose at 5.30 a.m., which feels incredibly easy what with daylight savings and all.  selected orange skinny jeans to wear.  regretted that decision all day long.

2. taught students about stasis, definitional & resemblance arguments, ethical/evaluation arguments, proposal arguments, & causal arguments.  obviously we had a rockin' good time.

3.  read byron's don juan, canto II.  discussed why byron disliked the lake poets (too obscure and blah, blah, blah-ish, too sure that the lack of book sales during their lifetimes was an indication of genius and future place in the great cannon.)

4. got a good response on my letitia landon paper.  super relieved about that.

5.  picked up car from the mechanics.  again.

6. ate fajitas at beto's with christian.  sat for a half-hour and did nothing.  finished reading manuscripts for writer's group.

7.  attended my writer's group.  they seemed to like my poem about 7-11, slurpees, hot dogs, and curbside philosophers.

8.  picked up groceries at day's market on the way home. lula requested that i buy pesto for her to eat with the homemade bread she was making while i was at writing group.  i bought it for her, because i love that girl so much i'll do pretty much anything for her.

9. came home to the smell of baking bread.  put away the groceries.  ate a slice of lula's homemade bread with butter and honey.  she had used half almond flour in the bread and it really worked.  she's culinarily gifted.

10.  tucked the kids into bed.  about to sink into my own bed and watch elementary, the new sherlock holmes, starring aidan quinn as holmes and lucy liu as watson.

legwear:  cropped orange skinny jeans

inspiration: writing something new for next month's writer's group

looking forward to: thursday night t.v.  on dvr.  isn't that pathetic?

a thursday in fourth quarter list

this is the very unzipped dress in item one, a find from my fashion idol julie turley

here's what happened today:

1) taught my first class, an 80 minute doozy, in a dress that was half-way unzipped.  the entire class.  no one told me.  this troubles one on several different levels.

2) re-read some totally insane wordsworth poems from the lyrical ballads.  for my 18th c. seminar.  decided to probably write my seminar paper on letitia landon, known as l.e.l.  why did i not think of the name letitia when i was naming my daughters?  it seems like it should have at least entered my mind.  did i tell you that wordsworth is quite nutty?

3) ate hand-shaved hot pastrami sandwich at caputo's deli, university of utah location.  listen, people, discovering caputo's on campus has changed my life.  all other food available on campus is utterly inedible.  i'm so happy that locavore is becoming more mainstream.

4) speaking of locavore, today i wondered if i should go to this conference in november.

5) revised a newish poem for the 25th time.  it's turning compulsive.

6) picked up some treats for various people at mrs. backers.  had the best molasses cookie of my life.

7) talked to my sister for an hour on the phone.  love sisters!!!!!!

8) did i mention that i woke up at 4.45 a.m.?  and spent some time reading richard bushman's on the road with joseph smith: an author's diary, a book that is currently blowing my mind.

9) went to writer's group.  it's a lovely little group, i think.  i hope they feel the same.

10) currently trying to decide from all the rad thursday night t.v. shows on my dvr:  the office?  30 rock?  up all night? project runway? elementary? the daily show?  colbert?  i only have 30 minutes max before i collapse, so i have to choose wisely.

hard week: a list

cecily's favorite sunday dinner, chicken n' dumplings.  now that bammy's back, we'll be having sunday dinner at her house again.  i'll be in charge of dessert.

it's been a rough week.

that tends to happen the week after you have a week away from work, right?

therefore, next week will be better, right?

so i'm gonna try to make myself feel better and write a list.

things i'm grateful for:


1.  i'm almost done reading james and the giant peach  to my youngest child.  i've read it to all of my children.  i have five children.  therefore, i will never, ever again have to read james and the giant peach out loud again.  i'm also grateful to have five beautiful children to read to, even if i hate some of the books i have to read.

2.  eva's new, for realz, legit job.

3.  craig dworkin's a handbook of protocols for literary listening and his pamphlet do or d.i.y.

4.  coleridge's a lime-tree bower my prison.

5.  extra-strength tylenol.

6.  my '98 green isuzu oasis.  after an unmentionably priced set of repairs this week, she drives like a dream, and i still have no car payment.

7.  bammy's return from canada after six months away.  sundays are about to get a lot radder.

8.  the daily show, the colbert report, and a new show based on sherlock holmes with lucy liu as dr. watson.  we're watching it in mere moments.  please god, let it be good!

9.  the carillon.  how many people have a carillon nearby?  it's pretty rad. also, how many people have a spouse who composes experimental music for carillon?  that's what i thought.

10. the fact that project runway's baby design challenge wasn't as lame as i thought it would be.  can you tell how i've spent my thursday night?  (in bed, with the remote.  i'm so ashamed, julie turley.  you're probably out watching avant-garde theatre on the street with philip glass).

thursday night

and i'm so relaxed after such an intense week that i'm having trouble finding one last ounce of adrenaline left over to write this post.

so great having the little kids back in school.  routines at last.  everyone's happier.

just starting haywire.  soderbergh always has the best music.

here's a rundown on the day:

1) left the house at 6.30 a.m.

2) taught class #1, wearing dress julie gave me.  i always get lots of compliments in that dress, including once in nyc from a woman on the street, which is like two compliments.

3) prepped for next week's classes.

4) read in-class essays from class # 1.  for my own personal reasons, designated writers "E" for emerging (i.e. not ready for college writing yet), "P" for proficient, and "A" for advanced.  don't know why i did that.  just got the urge.

5) taught class #2.

6) went to seminar, discussed habermas, byron, abrams, and the rise of the mass reading public.

7) commuted home.

8) printed out copies of a creative non-fiction piece i've been working on for writer's group.

9) went to walden back to school picnic in southfork.

10) brought warm peach cake to writer's group.  thanks to ingrid for making it.  it was one of the best cakes i've ever eaten.  custardy and peachy.

11) new writer's group!  more on that later.  i'm excited.

12)  watching haywire with c.  so looking forward to several hours of writing time tomorrow.