Keeping Faith

Based on an exercise in In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop on taking a figure of speech and turning it into a fantasy:

Keeping Faith

 

Cached in a glass flask

she is fed

sweet cake crumbs

silver dragees

shredded coconut

confetti hearts.

They even gave her

a tiny sailing ship

full-masted as if

a fine wind would

whisk her forward

as if not stoppered-in

propped on a counter

beside that crystal clock

with its cursed ticking

and oh that little plastic captain

his feet affixed to the deck.

11:20:17 PM      trackback [] 

Mirabilia

Virgos, says the horoscope, are now poised to see, create, and attract mirabilia:

Virgo Horoscope for week of September 9, 2004:

As the relentless nihilism of the mass media threatens to quash our ability to even perceive, let alone exult in life's glorious beauty, we need new words to remind us to see with our own eyes. I have one: mirabilia, which is actually an old term that hasn't been used much in the last 400 years. Its literal definition is "marvels that inspire wonder," but I'd like to add the following nuances: beguiling curiosities, enigmatic joys, changes that inspire amused awe, and sudden deliverance from boring evils. I'm happy to report that you Virgos, more than any other sign, are currently poised to see, create, and attract mirabilia.

 

(Courtesy of Free Will Astrology, which also feeds the horoscope page at The Village Voice.)

6:09:53 PM      trackback [] 

Blog dreaming again

This morning I dreamed I was making the rounds of my neighborhood (not where I live in actuality, but what in my dream was my neighborhood) and I sat down next to Roberta on this swing chair in front of her place. It was nice to sit and chat with her. But then I just got up and moved on. I thought later that maybe I was rude, to just get up and leave without saying good-bye.

But that's sorta how blogs work, isn't it? You drop in, listen, maybe chat a bit, then you go click somewhere else. Anyway, it was nice visiting with you, Roberta!

10:31:59 AM      trackback [] 

Curatives

To sum up where we are to date, I’ve had the poetry cure, the astro “like cures like” cure, the Allegra 24-hour panic treatment with attending dose of retail therapy, the aphorism capsule, the love-by-example behavior therapy, the taking-in-the-waters restorative, and a vicarious The Cure cure. Over the weekend, I took the address-the-problem-directly cure, including an exploratory that uncovered things I’d rather not have seen, but alas it was necessary. An airing out, an extraction, a statement of limits: a choosing for health and vitality, engagement in life, a willingness to leave behind whatever can't fit on that bus, a belief that a willing companion can be found for the journey. Instead of feeling sad and discouraged, it left me feeling surprisingly energized. I did minister another good dose of retail therapy on Sunday just to be on the safe side, but all-in-all I think this cure was the right one.

Which doesn't mean sadness won't catch up with me. I know it's there, I can hear it puffing behind me. Even doing the right thing for oneself isn't always without pain.

10:06:39 AM      trackback []