Not a black-and-white photo, just an accurate depiction of today's weather conditions.
What I'm spending time inside doing:
I haven't read these poems in years. If memory serves me, I bought this book at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 1993, the one time I ever went. Linda Pastan was on the faculty, and I'd hoped to work one-on-one with her, but drew Paul Mariani instead, which turned out to be a blessing and a gift. I wasn't remotely a Catholic in those days; Paul of course was. He was wise and kind with my callow under-30 full-of-myself self, and years later he wrote a back-jacket endorsement for my book which was equally wise and kind.
But I still like these poems of Linda Pastan's. I'm not sure how the book got itself down off the shelf, but there it was on the coffee table, so I picked it up and have been reading a poem or two daily over the last week.
Also reading, as of yesterday:
Got into a big Twitter conversation yesterday about historical novels set in the Middle Ages, which took an interesting sidetrack into mystery novels. I was reminded of how much I had loved Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time –– note to self, read some more Josephine Tey. Various people were also recommending Frederick Buechner's Godric, which I haven't read, though I loved his Brendan, and found his Book of Beb series, which I read in my twenties, fascinating and strange. He's certainly a prose master.
At any rate, people talk about social media, and Twitter especially, as a bitter wasteland, utterly devoid of grace, but some of the best people I know are people I know via that medium. That book conversation certainly highlighted for me how much I appreciate knowing them.
Speaking of some of those people, Tessa Carman is organizing a house reading –– like a house concert, but poetry –– featuring me, in the DC area the first week in March. I'm going to be driving there and back and am looking to line up some more events, including extremely small and informal ones, up and down this part of the East Coast: in Virginia, for example, or even north into Maryland and Pennsylvania. At this point no dates are nailed down, but if you or someone you know would like to host a house reading, say with ten to twenty people, feel free to contact me. Or if you just want to have lunch . . . No plans are really set yet, but I am putting out feelers.
Meanwhile, wearing today:
My blue wool Camellia dress, over this secondhand Icebreaker merino tee in a pink micro-stripe, with my rattiest old cardigan. I didn't even have this cardigan listed in my wardrobe tracker, because I don't generally make outfits with it. It's easily ten years old, if not older, pure acrylic, and pilled like nobody's business. We're talking a real pillpilled situation. But . . . I was getting dressed, and I thought, Gee, I wish I had a charcoal-gray cardigan. Not going anywhere where I have to impress people today, so here we are. Old blue cotton-blend leggings, my second pair of Boody bamboo socks, and thrifted Birk Floridas on my feet.
Close-up of this tee, which I really love. Eating my lunch, waiting for my hair to dry, girding myself to run some errands in the gray chill of the day. BUT it's Thomas Aquinas' feast day, so here's to seeing the goodness of God manifest itself in the entire created order.
(still track-track-trackin my wardrobe habits)