...as part of a class requirement, I had to go to a poetry reading in Pittsburgh. When I got there, Terrance Hayes was reading. I got out Hip Logic today. The last poem in the book is one of my favorite poems in the entire world. It is called The Same City. I also really love the poem of his that was included in last year's Best American Poetry. I can't remember for sure, but I think that poem is called Talk. In a class I am taking this spring, we will be reading Hayes' book Wind In A Box. Maybe that's what triggered my dream. You can hear Hayes read The Same City at : poetsonline.blogspot.com/2007/10/terrance-hayes-two-poems-in-same-city.html
I emailed my thesis to my committee today (aka the poetry dream team). I thought it would feel really good, but I feel strange...sorta unproductive. I always complain about being so busy, but I think it is what saves me from craziness. Cheesy quote time. I cannot do without something which is greater than I, the power to create. -VvG
Telemachus and I just returned from visiting my grandma and grandpa who live in Southern Ohio. I love to visit there because I feel like I am in a completely different country.My goals were to work on my manuscript and spend some time with my grandparents.Telemachus is a big help as you can see from the picture. In between bouts of flirting with grandma's dogs (Angel & Crystal), Telemachus finds it useful to sit on my thesis.In the background, Grandma and Grandpa are stomping around to some bluegrass music, a glass of moonshine in grandpa's hand.
Santa left the book Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert in my stocking. I am obligated to read what Santa leaves for me though in the past Santa has pushed it a bit. I won't name any particulars, Mom (Five People You Will Meet in Heaven could have been called Five Books You Shouldn't Read on Earth). I really love the following passage from Gilbert's book and am looking forward to finishing it."Traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless newborn baby-I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to-I just don't care."I am remembering being so sick in Ireland that I had to see a doctor. I had somehow managed to lodge a fish bone in my throat a few nights before in Galway (a whole other story) and my throat became infected. I took the advice of many Irish friends...bread, milk and a wee bit of Jameson, but I eventually came down with a fever. I had to take the bus from Doolin to Lisdoonvarna to see a Dr. Collins. When I got there I had to sit outside Dr. Collins office/cottage until he opened up. I was so afraid he wouldn't see me because I didn't have my insurance card or an appointment. When a man opened the door at 10am I said, holding my throat for dramatic effect, "I'm really sick, I don't have my insurance card and I don't have an appointment, do you think Doctor Collins will see me?" The man replied, "I don't know love, that Doctor Collins is a mean, nasty ole fellow." I started to dig through my purse for Euros and the man started laughing. The Irish love to make jokes. The man was Dr. Collins. In less than an hour he had me fixed up with antibiotics and cough syrup....ALL FOR LESS than 10 Euros. What a deal! And, with the hills of County Clare as a backdrop. Sweet, sweet Ireland.
The above picture is Telemachus pre-slumber party. Unfortunately, his girlfriend Zoey did not find his lime green polo shirt as charming as he had hoped. Zoey, a 70 lb adorable but bossy lab, spent most of the evening bullying Telemachus. She refused to let him play with any of his own toys and pretty much tried to attack him a dozen times or more. She did give him a little Christmas kiss goodbye.Telemachus and I are having my mom and aunt over this evening. This is our first Christmas without Bubba (my grandma). Though I imagine there will be a general air of melancholy, I feel thankful about the family and friends I do have.Merry Christmas
Telemachus has an array of women in his life. The above picture is of his main squeeze, Lola. How do you know you are old and ridiculous? When you and your friends are having a pre-Christmas Eve sleepover where your dogs exchange gifts. Lola doesn't know it yet, but a very large golden lab named Zoey is coming to spend the night.On a more serious note, two more poems of mine were picked up for publication. Both of them are van Gogh poems. One is a pantoum and the other is a prose poem.
I've been tagged by Sara to reveal seven facts or strange things about me. The sad thing is that I am supposed to tag seven people to do this same exercise, but the few people I know who have blogs have already been tagged. So, I tag seven random people, somewhere in the universe.1. I used to make fun of dog people and I never thought pugs were cute until Telemachus.
2. One of my biggest fears is the witch from “The Wizard of Oz.” I watched the movie once when I was three or four and that was it for me. For months my mother had to take a broom and sweep underneath my bed and say, “Okay, all you witches, get out!”
3. The song “Born to Run” rips me up. When Springsteen says, “Together Wendy we can live with the sadness, I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul,” the hair on my arms sticks up. It is definitely one of the top five love songs ever written.
4. At the apartment where I grew up, I never ever ever touched the sixth step down (fifth step up). I hate the number six.
5. I make up nicknames and secret lives about all of my neighbors.
6. Once (only once), in honors English 10, I put a chain through my nose and pulled it out from my throat. Unfortunately, this is what several people from my high school remember about me.
7. Every time I go to Ireland I end up kissing the Blarney Stone even though it is the most touristy, American thing to do. And I know the locals pee on it at night, but I get caught up in the moment and can’t resist puckering up to the germ soaked slab.
