Cool Stuff on the Intranet

I leisurely poked around the Internet yesteday while on bed rest, something I almost never do anymore. (So fun!) A few things especially resonated with me...thought I'd share...

"Live in the present, and make it so beautiful that it will be worth remembering."

--Ida Scott Taylor (via Creature Comforts)

"Let the day know more

than you. Say it is raining.

Say there is a tree. Though it does

not keep you dry, there is a swing

hidden in the branches within reach.

Swing. Though you are drenched,

my god, it is fine to swing."

--Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer (via A Hundred Falling Veils)

And this clothing line...oh, I want to fill my closet full of these clothes (and the accompanying photos are so dreamy and pretty): Sundry Clothing (via Tomboy Style)

And these pictures of San Francisco...1) They me soooooo homesick for California, and 2) Make me wish I could take pictures like this. Make me want to devote time to learning how to take pictures that rival these... (via sfgirlbybay)

XOXO

Image Credit: Sundry Clothing.

Going Through Old Files Getting Ready to Write Again, and Finding a Poem That Makes Me Think of My Brother Luke

Hi Everyone! Happy Friday!

One of the things I want to do this year is write again...I mean, I write here, and for my job Monday through Friday...but I mean work on some of my book-length projects...things I haven't touched in a year or more, being hugely pregnant and then with the twins...

The first step is getting organized, seeing where I left off...no small feat. And interesting what you find when doing so...

I found a poem, one of only two poems I've ever memorized in my life, I love it because it says to me what writing is about, not giving up on your dreams, you know? What the real reward for doing it is.

Also, it's by Charles Bukowski, one of my favorite writers of all time. My brother Luke's (the one who died), too. When we were living together our house was full of his books, and one night we went to see a documentary about him up at UCSB with the drummer in Luke's band. The drummer's girlfriend was always involved in these fancy party-type things and we met the drummer at one of them, there was a photographer taking pictures of people for the society pages of the newspaper or whatever, and a picture of us ended up there, with the same last name it looked like we were a married couple. "This is why I can't get a date in this town," Luke said. Actually, that crowd, where we made the occasional appearance (not really our scene)...pretty much everyone assumed we were just some "cute surfer couple," as the drummer's girlfriend (now wife) tells the story, not brother and sister, I'm assuming because wherever we went we were always together, plus having the same last name...

Missing Luke...wish I had a copy of that picture...I know the drummer's girlfriend has one because she mentioned it last time I saw her...

But, I hugely digress...

Anyway, here's the poem. Excited to be starting to write again...feels good.

afternoons into night

Charles Bukowski

looking out the window

smoking rolled cigarettes

drinking Sanka

and watching the workers

come on in

I wonder, how much longer

can I get away with this?

stories and poems and

paintings

surviving on that.

an insane girlfriend

years younger

who loves me

types at her novel

in the kitchen

my stories, my poems...

what is a poem?

a book by Celine sits on

the edge of the bathtub.

I read it when I bathe

and laugh.

the workers come in now

I see their faces,

the insides scraped away,

the outsides

missing.

I've had their jobs,

their goldfish 

security

Segovia plays to me 

so softly from the

radio, the daylight's going.

look here--

the trip's been worth it,

while jetliners go to New York and

Georgia and Texas

I sit surrounded by hymns that

nobody can ever take away

as the workers bend over

hot soup and cold

wives.

Thanks for spending some time here this week. Hope you have a lovely weekend. :)

XOXO

Image Credit: luckyfish.

This Made My Day When I Read It...

Hi Everyone!

A lovely little poem to start your week...this is from Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, one of my very favorite poets (and bloggers) right now...check her out here. Thanks for letting me share, Rosemerry! :)

Happy Monday!

XOXO

Do you believe in always, the wind said to the rain

--poem on a line from e.e. cummings

Rubble, smoke, sparrow, stone,

she wakes in darkness all alone.

Angel, master, docent, thief,

she wears the scars of love and grief.

Furrow, honey, Chopin, moss,

those are veils that are her loss.

There’s more, there’s more to be undone--

milk, lattice, lily, plum.

--Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Being in the Moment vs Wishing for Something Yet to Come

There's a poetry blog I love, and a few lines I read there yesterday have stayed with me as I struggle through the nausea and exhaustion of early pregnancy, often wishing for the first trimester to be over so feeling so sick will (hopefully) dissipate.

"...I prayed for--a second chance," the lines go. "Not for the world to be different, but for me to lean into wherever I am."

--From "Daily Practice," by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, March 19, 2011