Narcissus is growing all over the place – surely a sign we’re going to have a great year…
“A poet could not but be gay in such a jocund company”
december 31, 2020 – it’s almost over Read Post »
If I leave this year with no other prayer, it has to be this: may we have the strength to overcome our separate worlds and our individual quirks and be as supportive of others as we possibly can.
Last night I had nightmares like I cannot remember having before. All about friends misunderstanding each other and betraying each other and quibbling over their misunderstandings and betrayals. There was also something about shifting and disappearing – I left my purse in some guy’s apartment and when I went back up the stairs to get it, the door was still there, but the apartment itself was moving like a train. When we get back to some kind of society I hope we can get through the idiosyncrasies we’ve acquired from living our narrow lives and be there for others.
My own incredible limitation that has been honed during this period has been that even though I pretend not to react to positive feedback, I brood over negative comments. Sometimes I can learn from criticism, but not always is it meant to be constructive, and that hurts. I want to be the kind of person that people learn from and that brings people together – and whenever that doesn’t work, I feel like I lose something valuable.
december 31, 2020 – peace among friends Read Post »
what with all the politicians changing places and creating new parties, I wasn’t surprised that my friend Rachel called to invite me to join her new political party – no name or platform – but she’s sure we’ll get more votes if we just keep quiet.
in fact, it has been suggested that we connect the vaccinations with the elections. we vote once and get a vaccine and then 21 days later, we get another vaccine and new elections.
december 30, 2020 – new political parties Read Post »
as much as i try to stay away from the post office, there’s always something that makes me drop by. Mailed packages are the worst.
Of course it depends on how the package is sent. Amazon gets delivered, and so do specially sent mail. This morning the guy who delivers our special mail called me and announced he was on his way – two minutes later a package from Heather – wrapped and rewrapped after customs – without the address on it. Apparently the address got lost in the rewrapping and until I called to see what happened, no one made any effort to find out where it belonged. But here it is – a treasure trove of necklaces that I will enjoy sharing with friends.
An hour later I got a notice of a package awaiting us in the P.O. and Ezi, hoping it is the achipor he ordered months ago, walked me the half a mile with great anticipation. “It’s lockdown,” he said, “no one will be there.” And indeed, there were only two tellers, and the usual take-a-number system.
Unfortunately, however, with only two tellers and many people happy for an excure to get out, the queue was not so empty.
What was in the package you ask? Another book by Louise Gluck. I promised to write about her for some encyclopedia and I don’t do things half-way. I read every single word.
which package did i enjoy more? You’ll soon see.
december 30, 2020 – post office under lockdown Read Post »
Use it on your zoom or wherever you’re celebrating – especially if you aren’t really celebrating.
We’re having a new years zoom poetry reading at IAWE. I may even read the poem, but the point is to celebrate what we do have, not what we’ve lost, that maybe things are getting better.
Certainly it is understandable that maybe people here are uncertain and worried. The musical chairs our politicians play before our repeated elections does not make it easier to feel secure. Many of us feel better with knowing there may be changes, but none of us feel secure.
As for the vaccines, I’m still talking to people who feel uncertain about whether they will take it. I tell them that they trusted Pfizer with their sex lives, why not with the rest of their lives.
december 29, 2020 – “we’re still here” Read Post »
We’re still here, aren’t we?
We may have lost all track of time
Maybe for us it is the 306th
day of March, but at least
it’s not the Ides. Maybe
some of us have not left our homes,
spent more time in bed than in our cribs,
kissed fewer lips and longed for more
than ever before. Maybe we have lost
folks or have endured the illness
that passes all comprehension
and maybe nothing has happened
to anyone we know. So. So.
We’re still here, you and me.
We’re still here, aren’t we?
december 28, 2020 – new years’ poem Read Post »
“it’s in your mind, some poet just told me when I started to mention the crazy things going on in my body. And maybe she’s right. Because I really am all right. but suddenly something pokes at me from inside – here, there, somewhere else. a boring stomach ache, a sharp pain in the back of my head, a jolt from my side. Totally unlike any symptom we’ve been warned against. Clearly an imagined war going on inside my body. Nevertheless, it meant a day not doing the stuff I should have done.
But maybe it’s real. And which are the forces of evil, which are the forces of good?
december 28, 2020 – crazy symptoms Read Post »
One thing about closure is that you don’t know much about what is going on around you. I’m tired of talking to people on the phone, on zoom, even of looking out the window at who’s taking a walk down the street. I know that my grandchildren are all in school, but I have no idea of how it feels to go back there and whether the teachers are terrified of catching something.
So I announced on facebook that we are half-vaccinated. And what I discovered was that many of my equally silent friends have also been vaccinated and were not sure who to tell. The estimate is that by tomorrow there will be half a million people. Out of a population of – it turns out – almost 9 million, that’s not bad.
Was anyone sick after the vaccine? I asked my friends who had written me. “Eh,” was the majority response. “A little soreness, maybe a bit more tiredness. In short: Eh.” This from a population of kvetchers.
december 28, 2020 – vaccines – before, during and after Read Post »
