On Vacation

Bye for now -- a funny thing about vacations -- I still do as much laundry when I'm away from home as I do all the time -- I need less soap in Tahoe (softer water) -- wonder what the water is like in Montana. (Montana Ghost Towns Photography)

Totally Nuts about Knitting!

You will not believe this (whoever you are) -- my favorite knitting store, Jimmy Beans Wool -- in Truckee -- has a whole collection of knitting YouTube videos! OMG they are spectacular -- colorful, friendly, funny, heartwarming and footwarming and lapwarming, too! Check them out. They also have a great blog. Link below in my "We Blog Alike" list.

Closet Auditing?

I had to post this -- not very academic or intellectual -- but definitely about laundry. Urban Darling is a website that FaceBook advertised on my site -- I think it's absolutely hysterical but also very interesting and I like the idea of a Closet Audit -- maybe that's the regulatory compliance side of my personality (shhh -- don't tell anyone!). This is their photo. I like the yellow ducky bathrobe. Excellent!

Photos from National Geographic

National Geographic's recent issue had this great photo of two girls taking off their coats and letting them fly into the oncoming storm -- I located the photo on their website, but I'm sure I'm not sure I'm supposed to post it here -- so go to National Geographic and look at all their terrific stuff!!

One poem forward, two poems back

So, I heard today that maybe my thesis prospectus is not good enough yet -- I think they are probably right, I am all over the place, not focused enough, and I didn't really try hard enough in those areas before I submitted it. Can't always fly by the seat of your pants, no matter how smart your pants are.

It's been suggested that I focus on Eavan Boland's poetry, still taking a look at domestic imagery. Does she qualify as an American Poet? She didn't even raise her kids here -- will I let that stop me? What can I find in Boland that will start me up? Here is Poets.org's bio of Boland. It's not a great photo, but it's a start. This is a link to a lovely poem "Pomegranate" about how Boland can find herself in both halves of the Persephone/Ceres myth -- any daughter who is now a mother of a daughter can imagine herself here -- Boland has done it with a Coke can. This is Norton's site, her publisher, and links to her books and other goodies. They also have this photo, which is much better.

Here's a poem, "It's A Woman's World" and criticism of the poem. Maybe I'll be okay in her company. (And because blogspot will not let me put in the line breaks, I do not know why, you have to go to another site to see them -- or better yet, buy the book --)

It's a Woman's World

Our way of life

has hardly changed

since a wheel first

whetted a knife.

Maybe flame

burns more greedily

and wheels are steadier,

but we're the same:

we milestone

our lives

with oversights,

living by the lights

of the loaf left

by the cash register,

the washing powder

paid for and wrapped,

the wash left wet:

like most historic peoples

we are defined

by what we forget

and what we never will be:

star-gazers,

fire-eaters.

It's our alibi

for all time:

as far as history goes

we were never

on the scene of the crime.

When the king's head

gored its basket,

grim harvest,

we were gristing bread

or getting the recipe

for a good soup.

It's still the same:

our windows

moth our children

to the flame

of hearth not history.

And still no page

scores the low music

of our outrage.

Appearances reassure:

that woman there,

craned to

the starry mystery,

is merely getting a breath

of evening air.

While this one here,

her mouth a burning plume -

she's no fire-eater,

just my frosty neighbour

coming home.

Lady Madonna

Hi again -- it's been a long time and I have a lot of ideas. Trying to clean up my desk so I can write -- and I came across a note that I wanted to post the lyrics to "Lady Madonna" on this site. We drove home from Alpine Meadows Sunday afternoon, July 6, listening to Beatles "Love" album. For some reason that music doesn't give me a headache loud -- Love to Paul and John who thought it all up --

Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder how you manage to make ends meet
Who find the money when you pay the rent
Did you think that money was heaven sent

Friday night arrives without a suitcase
Sunday morning creeping like a nun
Monday's child has learned to tie his bootlegs
See how they run

Lady Madonna, baby at your breast
Wonders how you manage to feed the rest
Pa pa pa pa...
See how they run

Lady Madonna lying on the bed
Listen to the music playing in your head
Tuesday afternoon is never ending
Wednesday morning papers didn't come
Thursday night you stocking needed mending
See how they run

Lady Madonna, children at your feet
Wonder how you manage to make ends meet

Milk Bottle and Poem

Okay: So here's a link to a blog by Justin Clayton, a painter who does a painting a day for his blog, "Daily Paintings." Very cool. Reminds me of my poem a day resolutions. I hope he's more successful than I am. The painting I'm including here is his Milk Bottle painting, which I needed to go with my funny story about moms and milk (last post). You can go to his blog if you want to buy his paintings. He seems to have the most paintings about chocolate and food and candy. Which makes sense. I think I might ask him to paint something with laundry in it. Wouldn't that be great?

Okay: So here's a poem about milk. By Anonymous (I think you can tell why)

Carnation milk is the best in the land;

Here I sit with a can in my hand.

No tits to pull, no hay to pitch,

You just punch a hole in the son of a bitch

And for people who come to my blog (where ARE you?) expecting serious domestic scholarship: Here's a link to Tory Dent's poem "Black Milk" as read by Adrienne Rich on ATC, January 3, 2006. And, here's a link to AAP's web page about Paul Celan, whose lovely poem "Fugue of Death" opens with the words "Black milk of daybreak we drink it at evening / we drink it at midday and morning we drink it at night." The poem goes on to offer a stark evocation of life in the Nazi death camps.

I'm still looking for happy, not silly, milk poems. Maybe I'll have to write one.

And for those of you who have read this far, a special treat. A video of Jimmy Stewart reading a "No Milk Poem" on the Johnny Carson show. Now this is the true miracle of the internet. That I could find such a thing.

"Life's truest truth, it's that truth itself / unravels in ways that reveal less not more sense or comfort." Tory Dent