thinking about our trip to crete, which was almost exactly a little over a year ago. . .

a reading & writing plan for the summer plus the work of songwork (enceinte, suasions, humanbirdsong!)

This is week one of summer self-ed class (inspired by melissa's)! There will be 13 weeks of me doing this, this summer. Every Monday I will make a plan to complete for the week--hopefully I can keep it in the realistic.

This week I gave myself 7 goals:

1, 2, & 3: Finish reading the 3 books I've been reading forever (Dark Night of the Soul, Selected Poems by A.R. Ammons, and American Women Poets in the 21st Century)and comment on each book in my notebook

4: Everyday this week, do some songwork for at least half an hour (songwork is what i'm calling me making up melody lines along with Finn; working on lines of poems that way, with guitar and piano; so far it's awesomely happening! someday, if i ever find the battery-charger for the camera, i will post the videos and pictures I've been taking, of these funny songs we've been making.)

5: Pick out books to read for next week!

6: Spend several hours at the university library reading and noting

7: Write one new poem and finish one old (unrevised) poem

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And that, my people, is that.

Would you care to join me in a little weekly goal-setting this summer? Do tell what you are doing if you desire!! Also you can count on it that I will be posting about this all summer long. . .

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from jorie graham poem "in/silence":

"How for song/ I looked today long and hard at a singing bird,/ small as my hand, inches from me, seeming/ to puff out and hold something within, something that/ makes/ wind ruffle his exterior more. . .

[. . .he sings...] not so much to let/ anything out but more to carve and then to place firmly in the/listening space/ around him/ a piece of inwardness"

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good words from Ammons:

suasions

enceinte

nonparlant

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duck& finn/ linden tree/ the discovered trail (& thinking about the shiny surfaces about re-entering a city i left)

and i must say that while i do feel much happier lately than i have in quite awhile, the insidious thing about blogs is how they create a shiny surface gloss of one's entire life. seems ill to me; seems a lie. humm. well i'll say that i have come to a new understanding of the word 'difficult' in the past 6 months or so. good & difficult, good and difficult, Good and Difficult. that's how it's been. i am hoping to approach life now with an appreciation of that;;;; and with a deliberateness, that i hope will come to bear on this space here/ blog-space brain-space. i am setting forth across this summer, boots on you know. poet! mother! wife! teacher!? child!? person! person! person! and who?

i will also say, funny enough, that i've been reading the book, by st. john of the cross called//Dark Night of the Soul// and this quote is analogous to what i feel i've been doing! (mentally/spiritually/physically)::::;;;

"And so the soul finds herself rejecting the things of God and yet harvesting no benefit on her own. In searching for spirit, she actually loses the spirit of peace and tranquility in which she has been spontaneously dwelling. She is like someone who abandons what he has been doing in order to turn around and do it all over again, or someone who leaves the city only to come right back and reenter it. . ."

in other words, i realize that i know nothing.

a baby named juniper in our midst

on a lovely recent day, finn and i got to hang out with stella and her baby sister juniper and their mama violet at creekside park--which is our new awesome close-by park. and! as you will see in my next post, a trail starts there that goes along the creek and behind people's backyards and i love it--but for now, onto this amazing wide awake baby and then the playing kiddos!::::::::::

one place where i love to write

on this day, i wrote and watched people moving out of an apartement above the sports column. i do not love the sports column at all, but i do love this place where i write. which is. the upstairs cafe in prairie lights!

ode to joy!

feeling happy.

of late, baby showers and settling into home and finishing the semester (yay!)

finn enamored with inga at lauren's baby shower:::

what i made for katie's baby shower (indeed, burp cloths):::

today, finn & papa p. planting tomatoes and peppers! also note the already-sprouted basil and thyme i got at the farmer's market and promptly re-potted mm-hmmmm:::::

finnegan in the glamorous adjunct english faculty office at kirkwood community college;;;;he came with me to pass back student portfolios (note that he is attempting escape):::::

baby love card i painted for lauren;;;;;;;

and now, my friends, i am done blogging for the night and i will mention i am also done grading and looooord am i ever happy about that! i feel summer is coming don't you-----hallelujah!!

rainy day people, number 2

on the day we explored the trail with native prairie plants, we also visited the natural history museum, where these very plants were on display behind glass!

rainy day people

recently, on a rainy day, finn & Q. & i explored the little prairie-restored nature trail by the creek by our house. . .

child portrait with self or self's portrait with child (or no self?)

to the mamas

here's an old poem list i found whilst moving; and finn with it


and here's new fun thing to do: make playdough (orange) in a new house

and here's to the mamas, who build their nests every which where (for example, this mama sparrow has laid here eggs in a big glass hanging thing on our porch) and who love their babies past, past, past what they knew before as love. what i mean is here's to my mama, and your mama, and you, and myself. we are awesome and wild and who knew we could do such amazing things?

the day before moving and moving day

the new place (notice old swingset on which we get to hang finn's swing!)



finn with his doll in our old backyard