Aus Einem April

     We dust the walls.
     And of course we are weeping larks
falling all over the heavens with our shoulders clasped
in someone's armpits, so tightly! and our throats are full.
     Haven't you ever fallen down at Christmas
     and didn't it move everyone who saw you?
     isn't that what the tree means? the pure pleasure
of making weep those whom you cannot move by your flights!
     It's enough to drive one to suicide.
And the rooftops are falling apart like applause

of rough, long-nailed, intimate, roughened-by-kisses, hands.
Fingers more breathless than a tongue laid upon the lips
in the hour of sunlight, early morning, before the mist rolls
in from the sea; and out there everything is turbulent and green.

Frank O'Hara 
Meditations In An Emergency
Grove Press 1957

Meditative Knitting

Well, it's a new year and  I am still picking away at the 2014 Summerworks Socks. With every knit stitch twisted and every row being one of a 20 row repeat, this is slow going. Sock #1 was completed in the car coming back from Rhinebeck. Sock #2 is about half done. Of course there have been other projects - Christmas knitting comes to mind - and yes, I have more things on the needles concurrently (a cardigan, mittens, The Sagano shawl). This sock however has become my meditation knit. The pattern is quite geometric with yarn overs and double knit stitches moving along in one direction and then the other. One needs to count. Rather than being annoyed at the complexity, I've embraced it. I've taken to knitting a row or two first thing in the morning while I wait for my caffeine to hit. Or I pick it up when job hunting becomes too frustrating and I need to calm my brain by patiently counting twelve stitch repeats. At this rate it's going to be a while before I have new socks and this is perfectly fine with me.

Every knitting project has its purpose. That's one of the wonderful things about the craft.