Went For A Walk Today

Sakura Park
The park admits the wind, the petals lift and scatter like versions of myself I was on the verge of becoming; and ten years on and ten blocks down I still can't tell whether this dispersal resembles a fist unclenching or waving goodbye. But the petals scatter faster, seeking the rose, the cigarette vendor, and at least I've got by pumping heart some rules of conduct: refuse to choose between turning pages and turning heads though the stubborn dine alone. Get over "getting over": dark clouds don't fade but drift with ever deeper colors. Give up on rooted happiness (the stolid trees on fire!) and sweet reprieve (a poor park but my own) will follow. There is still a chance the empty gazebo will draw crowds from the greater world. And meanwhile, meanwhile's far from nothing: the humming moment, the rustle of cherry trees. Rachel Wetzsteon

Sakura Park (Persea, 2006)

An Update

Yes, I did watch some Gray's Anatomy after which I took a long nap.  I also did some vacuuming, had an afternoon workout and even managed a bit of evening knitting.  So, not so bad after all.

Yarn

It's everywhere.

It peeks out of baskets all over my apartment.

It takes the form of three quarters done socks.

It's a barely begun cardigan.

It's in bags and plastic storage tubs and half finished shawls.  There's no seeming end to the possible projects that could be worked on this Saturday, my first day off in a while.  Or I could sort that cupboard I've been meaning to get to.  Or hem that skirt.  Or clean the unpleasantness from the bathroom. Yet I suspect I'll work on none of these things.  Here it is, nearly noon and  here I sit at the computer, still wearing my robe. All I've managed this morning is to take a few stash photos and drink two cups of coffee.   I am deep in a February funk my friends - listless and exhausted. I've just been reading some of your wonderful blogs and pondering with vague jealousy, where anyone finds the energy to accomplish all that?  
So, despite the presence of all this yarn and all these unfinished tasks, I'll probably just watch past episodes of Gray's Anatomy on line and wait for this to pass.

Very Lovely

The internet is truly the gift that keeps on giving
I discovered the Poetry Foundation website a while back and have casually dipped in and out of its archive since,  Yet it's only recently that I've paid serious attention to their podcast "Poetry Off the Shelf"  I download several at a time onto my tiny Creative Zen mp3 player and take them with me onto the oppressively crowded mid-winter streetcars and subways.  Thus it was that I sat, stuck in traffic this morning, knitting a sock, listening to Gertrude Stein's own voice reading in 1934 from Tender Buttons,
"She is sweetly here and I am very near and that is very lovely"
Priceless.

Here I am hanging with Gertrude in Bryant Park NYC in 2006