Friday's jazz featured Art Blakey and, later in the day, the cool sounds of Art Pepper. In the early evening, I listened to Paul Simon's 1983 album, Hearts and Bones and relived some pleasures I hadn't experienced for several years.
1. Natasha Trethewey served as the United States Poet Laureate from 2012-14. Today, as I prepared to walk to the high school and back, I discovered that Terry Gross interviewed Natasha Tretheway on Fresh Air a couple of weeks ago and so, as I walked, I listened to them talk about Tretheway's newly published memoir, Memorial Drive. Natasha Tretheway's stepfather murdered her mother in 1985. Natasha Trethewey was nineteen years old. After many years of trying to forget what happened, she has now written this book about the murder and the interview was harrowing to listen to, even as Natasha Tretheway answered Terry Gross's questions with elegance and great dignity.
By the way, one of the episodes of The New Yorker poetry podcast features Natasha Tretheway. Before too long, I will listen to her read two poems and have conversation with the host, Kevin Young.
2. On Thursday, Billy Collins promised that he would read and discuss, on Friday, a couple of poems by Emily Dickinson.
Wow! Did he ever!
First he read and discussed, "The brain is wider than the sky", followed by "Some keep the Sabbath going to Church". Billy Collins explained the poetic structure Emily Dickinson consistently employed, praised her deft use of language, both concrete and abstract, and dove into her what these two poems reveal about the workings of Emily Dickinson's independent and brilliant ways of thinking, both theologically and philosophically.
I sat here with Billy Collins talking live on my lap, broadcast over the internet on my modest Samsung tablet and marveled not only at his enthusiasm for Emily Dickinson's poetry, but at how, in twenty minutes, in the most matter of fact, calm, and accessible way, he taught me more about Emily Dickinson than I had really ever understood in my entire life. As Billy Collins told us, her poems require a little work. Her poems are unique. They are not a part of any tradition. She created her own poetics in a voice, with syntax, and with an economy that, to me, is both unprecedented and inimitable.
Next move? Buy the Modern Library Classic edition of The Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson with its introduction written by Billy Collins and dive into the even deeper end of the pool.
Oh! One other thing. Billy Collins ended the broadcast with a reading of his poem, "Design".
3. While Liz and Debbie enjoyed an hour of knitting and yakking on the back deck, I slipped over to the liquor store to replenish our supply of bourbon. We were also nearly out of triple sec. I began mixing cocktails with triple sec back in November and have, without giving it much thought, been buying the very inexpensive Arrow brand triple sec. It's worked fine. But, today I decided that I'd shell out an extra twenty bucks and buy a fifth of orange liqueur from a higher shelf. I brought home a fifth of Cointreau.
Back home, I poured myself a tiny bit in a shot glass. The taste of a fresh orange burst on my tongue. Immediately, I comprehended the superiority of this triple sec over the other I'd been buying and could hardly wait for Debbie to try it.
Debbie's response? "Oh no! This is baaaad!" -- which, of course, meant it's awesome.
Debbie soon learned that her current favorite cocktail, a blend of Maker's Mark, triple sec, fresh squeezed lemon juice, and orange bitters is now an even more enjoyable drink with Cointreau. I'm thinking it might be time, before too long, to buy some tequila and make a margarita and see what tasty impact this Cointreau will have.
When we went next door to visit with Christy and Everett, I poured myself a couple ounces of Ouzo. Debbie took over her sidecar like cocktail and we had a great time recapping the week's activities and news until the night air became cold enough that we decided to go back into our respective homes.
Here's a limerick by Stu:
There’s things you must do that are shoulds.
Other stuff you let slide that are coulds.
So, to choose what you might do,
And bring the world into view.
It’s tough to beat time in the woods.
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