maybe that's the problem...

Looks like I missed the boat on Get Over It Day...apparently, it is exactly midway between Valentine's Day and April Fool's. I certainly could've used it this year--next year for sure!

a time to forgive

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, F22 as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you

--Ephesians 4:25-32

a time to forgive

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

--Ephesians 4:25-32

me and the kids

Taken at Katy and Don's wedding. Attempt at cropping to remove wedding cake...I sooooo need to get a Mac. And a tailor (to alter that lovely but ginormous dress so it does not make me look a size or two larger than I actually am)!

back to the BAP blog

I'm an occasional (very occasional) guest blogger again this week on the Best American Poetry Blog. I finally was able to put together some of my thoughts and feelings about the use of the "R" word. I won't post again about it here...please go, Dear Indulgent Reader, to this link to read more.

katy and don, married 3/21/09

On Saturday my baby sister was married to Don Church, a wonderful man who will be a great dad to her two little boys. The kids and I had a lot of fun (although Bobby was mortified when his sister and mom danced at the reception), and I'm so glad we were able to help welcome Don into the family.

At the beginning of the ceremony there was a brief remembrance of her first husband, Gabe Custer, who was taken from us suddenly and much too soon. His family was all there, too--very touching. I'm so impressed with his parents--who have two young sons with Down syndrome and run a dayhab for adults with developmental disabilities in their home--for their support of Katy, Don, and the little ones, Sammy and Seth.

100 days of audacity

Arielle Greenberg and Rachel Zucker, who have collaborated on so many wonderful projects, created this blog, which posts a new poem, by a different poet, each of the first 100 days of Obama's administration.

I'm honored to be the poet for Day #61--a special request on my part, because today is World Down Syndrome Day (3/21 = Trisomy 21, get it?).

on the road again...

We're heading to Ohio today--my sister Katy's wedding is Saturday! We've got miles to go, but a nice white rental minivan (and portable DVD player) will get us there safely and soundly.

trouble (jayhawks)

Trouble, that's what we had
And everything that goes around
Comes around in a bittersweet lament
Well my heart's already broken down
Looking for a sweeter sound
Looking for a brighter day
I'm face down on the pavement
Step aside, see the light, close your eyes
And let us live our lives
As they rally 'round the sinking ship
Looking for a better way
It was just the blind leading the blind

Oooh, yeah
I got my feet back on the ground
It's better than being alone
It's better than being alone

Jayhawks, Sound of Lies (1997)

closer to fine

Heard this Indigo Girls classic on the radio today--it never fails to give me a sense of hope against hope.

Well darkness has a hunger that's insatiable
And lightness has a call that's hard to hear
I wrap my fear around me like a blanket
I sailed my ship of safety till I sank it
I'm crawling on your shore....

There's more than one answer to these questions
Pointing me in a crooked line
And the less I seek my source for some definitive
The closer I am to fine

bar napkin poems

Many words (all of them not necessarily literary) have been penned (and penciled) on bar napkins. My friend Moira even has a stunning sequence of Bar Napkin Sonnets, which she printed in a limited edition on paper that looks like actual napkins. So it was natural that, when a poet friend and I stopped by the Silverleaf Tavern on Mardi Gras, we were inspired by Carly to collaborate, drawing a traveling economist/improv comedian into our circle. The result, a rather fun and meta-poetic limerick, is on Carly's bartending blog.

Cheers!

sunday morning (with apologies to wallace stevens, dylan thomas, and w.b. yeats)

It was a sacred space and a profane, holy and wholly of this world. It was Adam and maiden, the Garden and the Fall. It was bells in steeples and waxy smell of snuffed sacramental candles. It was comfort and joy, fear and lust, virtue and sin and swelling of music over the heart’s membrane. It was touching tongues and touching souls. It was you and me, it was an us, the beginning of a brand-new Us with all the pain and pleasure that entailed. It was my dark heart, your warm arms, your declaration clear and brave and not at all dramatic—but yes, it was drama, too, no doubt about that, all the risings and fallings of a complicated plot. O man who found me who I found, o body swayed to music how could I tell the dancer from that dance of tangled limbs, that warm and smarmy swarm of lips and fingers, that Dylan Thomas Wales of a preternatural supernatural all-too-natural sort and sorted?

It was coffee and oats, cream and sugar, yin and yang, on and off. It was rain, gentle enough to break your heart. It was me--you--an us that did not yet exist and how could it though now it seems (illusionary brain!) it always had been and never was. These two, these rueful soldiers limping along the road, wondering when Damascus would call us up and lightning strike. Sunday morning was new, was true. Was me. Was you.

Avery's surgery a success!

Sounds like all is well with this little one in Seattle...

I remember how amazingly quickly Stella recovered from her surgery, at nine months, to repair a ventricular septal defect (VSD). I think is took her parents awhile longer.

prayers for Avery

It had been awhile since I had caught up with Jennifer and her family. So, embarrassingly enough, it wasn't until Vicki told me that I knew Jennifer's son Avery was scheduled for surgery to repair a heart defect that had worsened in the five years since his birth.

Today is the day; they traveled to Seattle Children's Hospital for he procedure (read more here, in Jennifer's beautiful prose).

I know all too well the sense of helplessness when you give up your child and put her in the hands of others, and the tremendous fear, no matter how accomplished and celebrated those others are. I know many prayers and good thoughts are being sent their way, and many of us are waiting to hear how Avery is doing.