The Lint Trap

I went for a walk today and realized, truly, how much I needed a walk. Sometimes I start walking and do not want to stop. It's like Forest Gump when he started running. I just don't want to stop walking. I went to the post office and the library, and I meant to walk in the little patch of woods behind the library. But somehow I came out of the library with a backpack full of books and a head full of thoughts. My mind had begun wandering far enough that I felt the need to catch up with it or at least keep pace with it and I forgot about the patch of woods until I got home and realized I was not ready to be home. I wanted to be in a patch of woods watching birds, but somehow there I was on my front porch with a key in my hand. The walk was not sufficient. I came home and the lint trap in my head was still full. Walking is the best way to empty it, but sometimes one must walk a very long way.

7 things you never knew about me

Produced for Fyshbowl free comic anthology, given away in Dublin as part of Free Comics Day Oct 2008!

Margaret Atwood

I heard Margaret Atwood talk last night at the Wharton Center. She was funny, but her talk went something like this:

My talk this evening was titled "A Precision of Language," but that's not really what I will be talking about....I could talk about my childhood (insert a few funny stories to engage audience). I could talk about why I decided to become a writer (insert another witty story to engage audience). I could talk about my first reading, which I gave in a department store near the mens' socks (pause for laughter). Mention a few other witty things one could discuss and insert a few more anecdotes to charm the audience. Then launch into a full discussion to promote latest book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth.

I enjoyed the talk but couldn't help assuming that she uses this format for many lectures, inserting the lengthy description/discussion of whatever her latest book is.

Sketching ....

A rare moment of Live Sketching at 2D!

Workshops

Its also worth mentioning that I made my workshopping Debut at 2D (see Above).

Warm Spell

Bill Holm's poem, "Warm Spell," seems utterly appropriate for this week.

Warm Spell

A long November warm spell;
all the blizzards still asleep.
Bees hum unbelieving
around still blooming flowers.
Leaves, piled in compost heaps,
move around uneasily.
The dried branch bends down
in warm wind,
inviting them home again.

People who haven't spoken in years
smile and greet each other in the street.
Relatives forget old quarrels
over family heirlooms.
The town atheist admits that God exists;
and the town drunk drinks coffee on his porch.
The Lutheran minister forgets
St. Paul and the furrows
vanish from around his mouth.
Children are conceived in the open air
under willow trees by the river.

Like the life in the body,
this cannot last, so everyone
wastes time joyfully,
not even remembering
the old wounds they gave their spirit.
The old man on the stoop
in front of the beer joint
remembers his first lover,
and his toes begin dancing
around inside his shoes.

This Morning, These Poems

I woke to sunshine, eggs and hash browns prepared by Thad, news of change, and five poems in the NEWSPAPER! William Carolos Williams wrote, "It is difficult to get the news from poems, yet men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there." Today we get poetry in the news! News in our poems!

Ripening

I have just ordered this, by Paul Hunter. (I don't think we are related, but I might feel we are after I spend more time with his work.)