A Gathering of Poetry: June 2023

It's the third Thursday of the month so I'd like to welcome you to A Gathering of Poetry. I perused many of my favorite poets (Mary Oliver, Billy Collins, Ted Kooser, Wislawa Szymborska ...) and while they have all written poems about birthdays, none of them was quite what I was looking for. 

But I found a new-to-me poem by a new-to-me poet that was just right. The Academy of American Poets website Poets.org allows you to search more than 10,000 poems by occasion, theme, and form, so this is an excellent resource if you're ever looking for a poem (rather than waiting for one to come to you).

Crossroads
by Joyce Sutphen

The second half of my life will be black 

to the white rind of the old and fading moon. 
The second half of my life will be water 
over the cracked floor of these desert years. 
I will land on my feet this time, 
knowing at least two languages and who 
my friends are. I will dress for the 
occasion, and my hair shall be 
whatever color I please.
Everyone will go on celebrating the old 
birthday, counting the years as usual, 
but I will count myself new from this 
inception, this imprint of my own desire.

The second half of my life will be swift, 
past leaning fenceposts, a gravel shoulder, 
asphalt tickets, the beckon of open road. 
The second half of my life will be wide-eyed, 
fingers shifting through fine sands, 
arms loose at my sides, wandering feet. 
There will be new dreams every night, 
and the drapes will never be closed. 
I will toss my string of keys into a deep 
well and old letters into the grate.

The second half of my life will be ice
breaking up on the river, rain
soaking the fields, a hand
held out, a fire,
and smoke going
upward, always up.

====

Sutphen, Joyce. "Crossroads". Straight Out of View, Holy Cow! Press: Duluth, 1995. 

You can read more about the poet here. 

(And Happy 66th Birthday to me!)

====

Thanks for reading and joining us for our monthly Gathering of Poetry. Be sure to visit Kym and Kat so you can gather more poetry and you can add your link below if you would like to share one of your favorite poems. The more the merrier!

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Unraveled Wednesday: 6/14/23

I'm joining Kat and fellow Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday. If it's Wednesday, it must be time for yet another picture of the Hitchhiker (which might look a lot like the previous one). 

The other Wollmeise rolls that I knit with had a distinctive gradient - green to yellow and blue to purple. (I'm including photos of them here so I don't have to subject you endlessly to the same Hitchhiker!)

The one I'm knitting with now is called Vergißmeinnicht, which translates to Forget-Me-Not. So maybe there isn't going to be a distinctive gradient, but more of a tonal blue. That's what it's looking like so far. 

The books I read this week were all three stars for me. Two were pre-publication copies from Netgalley, Terrace Story and North Woods. The premise of books often sounds better to me than the actual book turns out to be, but you can click on the links to see if they might be books you would enjoy. The third book was How High We Go In the Dark. Kat recommended this one and I'm glad I read it, but I still can't figure out why it was such compelling reading. It is set in 2030 as archaeologists are excavating in Siberia when they unwittingly release a deadly virus. Yes, we've all gone through a multi-year pandemic, but this one is much worse and death becomes almost a way of life, and class and financial resources matter. The book is written as a series of interconnected chapters about the ways society finds to deal with death on a scale that has never been seen before. These include euthanasia theme parks, elegy hotels for the dead, a father trying to be a parent to a laboratory pig who has developed human speech, and lost lives and voices preserved in robo-dogs. Some of these are downright creepy and it will probably be a while before I read another dark science fiction novel, but I will be thinking about this unsettling book for a long time.

But I'm now reading a pre-publication copy of Claire Keegan's newest, So Late in the Day. It's three short stories but because Claire Keegan is one of my very favorite authors, I want to make these exquisite stories last as long as possible. 

What are you making and reading this week?

Right Now: June 2023

It's always a good time for a Right Now post, especially because I seem to have skipped them in April and May. Here's what's going on Right Now. 

Grateful - That the smoke here has dissipated. The photo above is a smoky sunrise last Thursday, and the one below was taken on our way over to Ryan's last Wednesday. Ryan said that he thought he was leaving wildfire smoke behind when he left Colorado, but that was not the case last week. At least he doesn't need a go bag, packed and ready, and he does not have to sweep up ash and cinders. But the people in Canada are still enduring wildfires and I do hope that many more of them can be controlled soon (and then there is the causal issue of climate change which isn't going to just go away).

Chuckling About - My sister called me last week to tell me not to hang my laundry outside. I think she was just being funny, and I hope she doesn't think I'm senile (yet). Thanks, Jill!

Eating - Watermelon rind pickles! They are delicious and I can see myself making more of these this summer. I even ordered whole allspice berries from Penzey's for the next time I have some watermelon rind. 

Eating With Ryan - John and Justin went walleye fishing in NY last weekend, so I took the opportunity to go to Ryan's so we could eat something that John has no interest in. (Ryan thinks that John doesn't like flavor in his food.) Our choices were flavorful tacos, Thai, or Indian, and we decided to try tacos. They were delicious, flavorful, and just the right amount of spicy. 

Eating From the Garden - Snow peas. They are prolific, and of course, John planted four rows, so I'm also blanching and freezing them. That's good because I have no garden vegetables in the freezer and have been forced to buy them at the grocery store. John thinks this is a sad state of affairs but I'm starting to remedy this. Every night at dinner he asks, "Don't these peas taste great?" and they do (but I like them better raw).

Talking About at Dinner - Besides commenting on how good the peas taste and discussing the merits of raw vs. cooked snow peas, we seem to be talking about carburetors. John bought an old Jeep last year when he retired so he would have a project. It's been entertaining to me because nothing worked for a long time. He's worked on the gas tank, turn signals, and wiring in general, but after doing those things, he still had the issue that it wouldn't start and idle. So he painted it. That didn't solve the not starting problem, but the Jeep is now green instead of an ugly purple-brown. He installed a new distributor and can now start it, but he has to rebuild the carburetor and fix the connection with the gas pedal. This involves things I haven't yet learned about, but I'll be sure to tell you all about them when I do. (Ha! Just kidding!)

Making - Crispy Oven Pulled Pork that Kym told us about a while ago. I made this for dinner last night and it was delicious. John and Justin were returning from their fishing trip and I wanted to have something ready that I didn't have to rush around and make when they arrived and announced that they were starving. This was the best use of a pork roast I've had in a long time. Our dinnertime conversation was centered around fish (which was an improvement over carburetors)!

Grudgingly Keeping Up With - My PT exercises. These are not difficult but should be done two or three times each day and are painful. My hips and back felt pretty good after the cortisone injections and when I began PT but I think I'm working new muscles and feeling some pain. (At least that's what my physical therapist says.) I do usually feel better after doing the exercises, but I have to make myself do them and usually have a good audiobook saved for that purpose

Enjoying - a nice long chat on the phone with a friend who is fixing up a house in Connecticut that she and her husband bought for their son and his wife. Their son is finishing up his PhD at Cornell and his wife is starting her PhD at U Conn. Usually, we try to get together in person, but talking to her on the phone was just what I needed.   

What's going on in your world right now? 

Museum of Me: June 2023

Hello and welcome to the Museum of Me. It's the second Friday in June and time for a new installment. This month we ask the important questions: What is your happy place? Has it changed as you’ve aged? Before you enter the Museum, I think I should warn you that this may be the most boring exhibit since the Museum opened. I've thought long and hard about it and was tempted to dream up some imaginary and interesting place, but in the end, I decided to simply go with the truth. 

This is my knitting chair, at home in my living room in New Jersey. It's a love seat, so I very often have my knitting bags, Kindle, real books, notebook for important things I want to remember, and my tea mug right next to me and within easy reach. There is a good lamp over my left shoulder, perfect for knitting at night (or when there are smoky and dark skies). The lamp also makes it my reading chair, and there is a small end table just to the right that holds knitting accouterments and my TBR pile. I can see (or at least listen to) the TV in case I am watching something good for knitting. My chair is in the living room so there is a couch and other chairs which is where people tend to sit if they happen to be visiting. I'm happy to visit with people, especially if I get to knit while we're conversing. So it's not exotic, impressive, or unusual, but it is the place where I am pretty consistently happy. 

This has changed a bit as I've aged. When the boys were little I might have said that my happy place was anywhere I could have 10 minutes of peace and quiet. Now, I would love to make an occasional return to those days. When Ryan was in Colorado, I probably would have called Fort Collins my happy place. I got to visit Ryan, enjoy good food and great craft beer, hike in some interesting places, and go to The Loopy Ewe. I'm sure Fort Collins is still a lovely locale, but neither Ryan nor The Loopy Ewe is there anymore, and good food and beer are available in lots of other places. So now it's my knitting and reading chair. Sometimes I'm so happy there that I have to make an effort to get up, move around, and get some exercise. 

So how about you? I'd love to hear about your happy place and whether it's changed over the years. We'll be back on the second Friday of July with a brand-new installation. Thank you for visiting The Museum of Me!

Unraveled Wednesday: 6/7/23

I'm happy to join Kat and fellow Unravelers for Unraveled Wednesday. All I've got for you is a boring photo of the same Hitchhiker, just with a few more teeth. If I squint at it in the right light, I can convince myself that the yarn is starting to change just the slightest bit (getting a bit darker) but I'll admit that I can't see that in the picture. so I'll just keep knitting and see what happens next.

There is darker yarn coming; I can see it more clearly in the ball!

Reading was fairly productive this past week, mainly because I had to catch up on a few Netgalley titles and some library holds I had placed. I read plenty of average three-star (or even 2.5 stars) books that I won't elaborate on here; you can always follow the links to goodreads and see if they might be your cup of tea. The books were While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams, Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano, and The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks. The Tom Hanks book was such a disappointment, but maybe my expectations were too high. Let's just say it badly needed an editor. 

I finally read Educated by Tara Westover and it was a wild ride, full of violence, accidents, abuse, mental health issues, and thankfully, education. I thought the book deserved four stars and she deserves all the accolades for becoming her own person and her writing. 

Last, I finished a pre-publication copy of Return to Valetto, recommended by Kat. It was another four-star book for me, and since it will be published on June 13, you'll be able to find it next week. I loved The Last Painting of Sara de Vos and even as I requested Return to Valetto from NetGalley, I wondered if the author could come close to recreating that same magic. The answer is yes. This novel tells the story of historian Hugh Fisher heading to a tiny Italian village where his aging aunts still live. This is six years after his wife has died and his daughter Susan is afraid that going to Valetto is just another opportunity to wallow in sadness and never be happy again. Hugh's mother has just died and left him an old stone cottage in Valetto but he finds it occupied by Elsa Tomassi who says that it was promised to her family. There are secrets, betrayals, and wrongs that need to be righted, but the writing was never overly melodramatic, just Smith's lovely prose. I also loved this quote from the book:

"We want history to be a unified narrative, a casual, linear plot that cantilevers across the centuries, but I’ve always pictured it like a filigree of a wrought-iron gate, our unaccountable lives twisting and swooping against a few vertical lines."

What are you making and reading this week?

Read With Us: Trespasses Discussion Time

Today is the discussion day for our Read With Us Spring selection, Trespasses by Louise Kennedy. Kym, Carole, and I are each posting discussion questions on our blogs today, and you are welcome to respond in the comments. I would also encourage you to reply to others' comments if you choose. This is a book discussion, after all, so there are no correct answers or right opinions. I've been looking forward to discussing this book ever since I finished it, and I don't know of a better bunch of people for a book discussion than all of you.

I was especially intrigued by the UK cover, just as I was interested in how Kennedy chose to bookend the beginning and end of the story with the art installation in 2015. 

This is a bronze sculpture by F.E. McWilliams entitled Woman in a Bomb Blast. I can imagine the sculpture that Kennedy describes as similar but the sculpture in the book is made of "resin, fabric, glass fiber. A white figure on a plinth, chalky, sarcophagal, a shrouded look about the face, features indistinct. The body is oddly sexless, though it is a male; there is breadth in the torso, bulk at the chest. From the waist up he looks peaceful, sleeping head near the bend of an arm. There is something not right about the pose, though; his limbs are splayed awkwardly, have not been arranged. ... the disordered configuration is shocking, hinting at the violence of the moment of the subject's murder and the chaos of the hours that followed."

So the questions I'd like to pose are these: In its final section, the book continues with the year 2015 when Cushla and Davy encounter each other again. What has changed for them, and about them? How does Cushla seem to look back at the events of their shared past? What does the ending leave indefinite?

What do you think? I can't wait to hear your thoughts!

And don't forget we will have an in-person Zoom discussion at 7:00 pm Eastern this evening. You can send me an email (the email address is in the upper right) to RSVP and I will make sure you get an invitation with the Zoom link if you haven't already. I hope to see you there!

In a Pickle

I've been buying one of those small round watermelons each week for the past month and have been surprised at how good they've been. I usually cut them up into bite-sized pieces and then John and I have a ready supply of nice cold watermelon (especially welcome when it's 95 degrees like it was on Friday).

I was a little disappointed when I cut this one in half; it's not the bright red of a really ripe watermelon. But it still tastes okay, and then I remembered something that Vera mentioned - pickled watermelon rind! I looked for a recipe and decided to give it a try. 

I cut off the dark outer rind and then cut the rind pieces into spears, enough to fill two quart jars. Then I made the brine.

It looks a little dark and murky, thanks to the apple cider vinegar, but it smells delicious, thanks to the vanilla and pickling spices. The recipe calls for whole allspice berries but I didn't have any, so I just added an extra tablespoon of pickling spices. I doubled the brine recipe and had enough to fill both of my quart jars. 

I ladled the brine into the jars, and voilà - watermelon rind pickles! You're supposed to cool and refrigerate them for at least 24 hours to let the flavors develop, so I haven't tried them yet. I'll report back when I do. The brine smelled so delicious, so I'm hoping the pickles are just as delectable. Fingers crossed!