Reading…

I recorded and shared my first #InternationalPoetryCircle poem yesterday. I chose a poem from the book I’m reading currently, Mary Oliver’s Dream Work, which I think I bought during my last trip to the bookstore—back when I didn’t know how long it would be before I could return again. I pre-ordered a book that day, and I regret that I didn’t get in to pick it up in the week or so between when it was released and when I started social distancing in earnest.

Now, I miss my library and book store terribly, even while I have an enormous pile of unread books at home. To be honest, I have several large piles, scattered throughout the house.

If there are silver linings to our current situation—and I believe we have to look for silver linings because they help stave off despair—surely one of them is the imperative to read some of these unread books. I’m first working my way through the handful of library books I had at home when the library closed down. Then I plan to tap into my own lending library, a.k.a. those piles of books.

In between poems I’ve just started Doris Lessing’s The Cleft, one of my library books. It’s a faux history that in its early pages has raised fascinating questions about the origins of men vs. women. Think of a time when only one gender existed, and the other suddenly appeared, and that’s where Lessing’s book starts. The Christian tale of creation tells us man was created first, and woman from him, but Lessing posits the opposite and explores what might have been the thoughts and feelings of women and men when the second gender appeared.

I’ve just started the book, really, so that’s all I have to offer at this point, except tp say I’m intrigued and have enjoyed Lessing’s work before so am eager to spend more time with this tale.

…and writing

I’ve started a couple of poems during this isolation, and published one (Pi Day, over at Headline Poetry & Press), but this blog has prompted, and houses, the bulk of what I’ve written outside of work. I’m starting a new project, though, to write postcards or letters to the people I care about. I read yesterday that the Post Office is under serious threat of being closed down by summer with so little mail being sent out because of COVID-19. We need the Post Office to help keep us connected always, and to support mail-in voting both for the remaining spring primaries and in November if this pandemic lingers as I fear it will. So I’m seizing the opportunity to reconnect with loved ones both near and far. That leads me, of course, to today’s goals, as this will be one of them.

Goal setting

First, my performance on yesterday’s goals:

• Photo of the day—check
• Read poetry—check
• Record a poem to share with others—check
• Dog walk and exercise walk—check
• This blog post—check
• Figure out if I need to go to the Post Office to purchase stamps—check
• Dinner with friends via FaceTime if I’m able to quit work on time—worked late
• Check the status of my seed order—check(ed) and reordered

Today? More modest:

• Read a poem for #InternationalPoetryCircle
• Photo of the day
• Get those stamps (task delegated to the husband, who is our designated shopper)
• Start putting stamps on voter postcards
• Write to at least one person
• Dog walk

exercise walk is an important stretch goal, along with enjoy the sunshine (hope it lasts). Since it’s a workday, an added goal is to work well, so I’m off to do that now, ending this post quite abruptly, but not before…

Photo of the day

I actually took quite a few photos that I was happy with yesterday, including everything shown in this post. Here are two. The first one I like aesthetically, just a shadow on the sidewalk:

This one is my real choice for Photo of the Day because it’s the message I want to leave everyone with: