I’m Ba-a-ack!

I have been neglecting my blog lately, but I’m back. I had too many interferences: reading tons of e-mails, writing letters, and just being totally passionate about the elections (and the results made my efforts worthwhile!); I did some volunteer work for the Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation (E4GR), which focusses on fulfilling the MDGs, from which I got much satisfaction but also proof that my disabilities are very real—I couldn’t move for two days afterwards; my son moved in with me—temporarily I hope—which robbed me of some of my space. Regarding the latter, I lost my space where I ate breakfast and read poetry every morning. I also do my longhand writing in that space. I’m still trying to adjust and to get back to my regular schedule. Another interference was illness—I spent several days in bed nursing myself back to health. I’m glad to be back here!

 

I finished Voodoo Dreams by Jewell Parker Rhodes. I could barely tear myself away from it toward the end of the book. I was in one of those states when you are anxiously wanting to know the ending but you are also not wanting the book to end. I recommend reading this book. Although I have resolved to use the word “love” as a verb sparingly and thoughtfully, I must say that I loved this book! Luckily, Rhodes has more recently written two books of a trilogy that moves the voodoo scenario from the early 19^th century to the 21^st century: Voodoo Season and Yellow Moon. (I met the author when she visited my favorite local independent book store, Left Bank Books, to read from and sign Yellow Moon.) I’ve started Voodoo Season.

 

Also, I have taken a break from Poet’s Choice, my recent breakfast poetry book, to read from Jane Kenyon’s Collected Poems (Saint Paul, Minnesota: Graywolf Press, 2005). My “boss” for the volunteer work I did recently recommended Jane Kenyon to me. I’m glad she did!

 

I do that occasionally—take a break from Poet’s Choice. The last time I did, I read Grace Paley’s last poems in Fidelity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008), which were hauntingly beautiful. I have since ordered her collected short stories. I have read some her works before; I remember reading them in Women’s Studies courses in college.

 

Perhaps I have indeed recovered from the presidential election and am now getting back to “normal.”

 

Books I’m Currently Reading

I have been busy online this week writing letters to my representive and senators about the bailout and reading many articles about this hot issue. But I am trying to get some other reading in as well. I’ll share my reading “schedule” here as well as what I am currently reading.

I like to say I have poetry for breakfast, because I’ve been doing that for awhile now. Right now I am reading Edward Hirsch’s Poet’s Choice while eating my oatmeal every morning. This is a great book for finding out about many good poets. Hirsch gives a history about a poet then gives at least one sample poem written by that poet. Occasionally instead of writing about one poet, he writes about an age or a topic, giving samples of poets who have written in that period or about that topic. The first chapter in the book, for example, is “Nightingales.” (That one inspired me to try to find out just what a nightingale’s song sounds like. Unfortunately, all I could find out was that there are no nightingales in the U.S.–they are in England.) Another example of a topic is “Women and War.” I read poetry very slowly, usually just one or maybe two poems for breakfast. I like to retain the taste of the poem I’ve read for awhile.

Lately I’ve added another breakfast item that I’ll call meditation. Currently I’m reading Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing, edited by Robert Inchausti. I have been attending a Thomas Merton Group at my church that uses a series of eight booklets under the title bridges to contemplative living with thomas merton. The title desribes the purpose of the group. I wanted to add to that reading of Thomas Moore. I’m calling the reading of Thomas Moore in the morning ”meditation” because it helps start my day in a higher frame of mind. It is said that a good breakfast is necessary to sustain your body throughout your morning activities; poetry and meditation for breakfast sustains my mind and spirit. I really should add them to my lunches and dinners as well.

At bedtime, I am currently reading Voodoo Dreams by Jewell Parker Rhodes. OK, it is a complete opposite type of reading than I do in the morning, but I’m loving this book. I met the author at a booksigning event at Left Bank Books (my favorite local independent bookstore), and we have developed an e-mail relationship since then. Anyway, as the title suggests, it is about a real-life Voodoo Queen in New Orleans in the mid-1880s. It is a historical fiction drawn from the pages of a journal kept by a white man who was quite obsessed with the beauty of the woman he met one time before she became the Voodoo Queen. I am about two-thirds of the way through the book and the two have just bumped into each other for the second time. Their relationship is the “heartbeat” of the novel in creating its underlying tension. The snippets from the man’s journal that head most of the chapters keeps the tension alive. My secret self loves dark subjects like this as well as mysteries. I can move through these types of books quickly.

In between dawn and dusk I am reading David Sirota’s The Uprising: An Unauthorized Tour of the Populist Revolt Scaring Wall Street and Washington. I met David at LBB too, when he gave a reading of this book a few months ago. He has since become my favorite political writer (his books have made the New York Times Bestseller List) AND progressive activist. He’s on the board of Campaign for America’s Future (aka Our Future). He’s on TV a lot, usually counterpointing some Republican, and he recently joined Michael Moore on Meet the Bloggers on the internet. I can’t remember if they shared time with a counterpointer or if the moderator just asked significant probing questions, but it was good. Anyway, it is taking me a long time to read his book partly because I read articles by him almost daily on the internet and partly because I don’t have a set time to read this book–it’s a catch-as-catch-can situation.

Finally, my last daily “reading” is done while I’m watching TV–usually these art books and magazines are really picture books that don’t really require much reading. I think I do this reading while “watching” TV because I don’t want to waste my time by watching TV. However there are a couple of weekly TV series I don’t want to miss, and I love the old movies on cable TV. Anyway, the art book I’m reading now is Stefan Bollmann’s Women Who Read Are Dangerous. Despite this sexist belief, a lot of artists from the middle ages to the present time have painted or drawn sketches of women in the act of reading. The author gives a historical blurb about each painting, but this is definitely a lovely picture book.

And that’s the end of this topic!