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Showing posts from January, 2015

Writing for a compassionate, companion named Elizabeth

Taste: molasses; grade B maple syrup Sight: doggie diapers; a spring in her step Sound: "Diabolical!","Barbaric!" Touch: velcro; "Each extension of a hand or paw is toward contact....When we touch we go from being observers to being included; things seen become things felt.  In silence or in speech, reading and being read to are other forms of touch. The words of poets and writers stir us." — Ann Hamilton, " On Touch " Smell: woodsmoke; worst of the year candidate: the stench that comes from the nearby Burger King and permeates the air around the running track Extra: a moral quandary, a conflict of interest; a commonplace book - the v. commonplacing - reading, copying out and managing selections from one's books; "If I can think my way into the existence of a being who has never existed, then I can think my way into the existence of a bat or a chimpanzee or an oyster, any being with whom I share the substrate of lif...

On a quest for the missing, exotic ingredients

Taste: coconut aminos, medjool dates, grade B maple syrup, fresh lemon juice, cinnamon Sight: Mexican Oregano with flower buds; viscous Grand Reserve Napa balsamic Sound: turkey cluck and purr, grunting pigs Touch: velvet pants Smell: oregano, cinnamon Extra:  "Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious." — George Orwell Grateful for: fancy ingredients, simple ingredients; Seattle; the eagle

When did she become so in love with Roman apples?

Taste: mild cocoa powder Sight: pink fog, pink under wings; shades of pink - petal, orchid, champagne, rose, blush, coral, carnation; the perfect red blush, warm, vibrant appearance of a Rome apple Sound: creaking door, grunting dog, thump! Touch: the mushy inside of a Rome apple; tripping over the dog Smell: lipsticks and lipbalms - raspberry, shea, coconut Extra: a horrific sci-fi dream with surgery tanks and many small men; phases of the moon; a warm, comforting animal; a Bohemian getaway Grateful for: work; healthy teeth

Macaroni, marshmallowing, Magdalena — Whee!

Taste: cherry wine Sight: a colonial-style abandoned bank imagined as a perfect vampire lair; a stealthy black low-rider, imagined as the ideal vampire ride Sound: half overheard jazzy hip-hop lyrics, "Macaroni...Whee!" Touch: a chest clenched with anxiety; a harrowing sensation and experience Smell: dill Extra: scansorial: adapted for climbing; the way the power lies with the person telling the story; "Art is our reply to weariness. Gather it to you, emulate the tulip, shed your petals one by one, and dance." — "Saturday, Sunday," Sister Fox's Field Guide to the Writing Life , Jane Yolen "Let my heart of ink be rivers feeding the landscape where a thousand flowers spill over river's banks, and animals as yet without names drink deep of the water." — "Wings of Paper, Heart of Ink," Sister Fox's Field Guide to the Writing Life,  Jane Yolen  Grateful for: book club, trying new things, friends acr...

Strange things forgotten by the side of the road — and found

Taste: coconut creme Sight: heart-shaped sunglasses Sound: a grunting dog Touch: smooth keys Smell: truffle oil Extra: a baby orca ;  "I spent the following day roaming through the valley. I stood beside the sources of the Aveiron, which take their rise in a glacier, that with slow pace is advancing down form the summit of the hills to barricade the valley...These sublime and magnificent scenes afforded me the greatest consolation that I was capable of receiving. They elevated me from all littleness of feeling, and although they did not remove my grief, they subdued and tranquilized it." — Mary Shelley, Frankenstein   "'There are stars in your hair'— it was truth I brought down with me to this sullen and dingy place that we must make golden make precious and mythical somehow, it is our nature," — Diane di Prima, " A Buddhist New Year "  Grateful for: a new year, events to look forward to, time to write