[title is from my yogi tea bag]
A post from Vermont! In the act of finally sitting down to get some work done, I decided to blog instead.
...sometimes I forget just how wonderful Vermont is. Until I wake up to the warmth seeping onto my back, the smell of sweet grass, and the choir of birds outside my window. And I seriously forgot about dandelions until I ventured outside and they were everywhere! I couldn't help but lie in a heap of bright yellow and look up at the sky with a big smile. It reminded me of a passage in Maud Martha (by Gwendolyn Brooks) where the metaphor of dandelion as Martha comes around full circle:
But the sun was shining, and some of the people in the world had been left alive, and it was doubtful whether the ridiculousness of man would ever completely succeed in destroying the world- or, in fact, the basic equanimity of the least and the commonest flower: for would its kind not come up again in the spring?
If you haven't read this [very short] novel, I highly recommend it. It's astonishingly poetic and the voice is guided by Maud Martha's (protagonist) interiority rather than exciting/noteworthy exterior events. Like Martha, the dandelions are common and while they undergo various phases-- from sprouting, to blooming, to dying off, to lying latently for months-- they always re-emerge with strength in the spring. This passage, I think, can be seen both as a metaphor for Maud Martha and human kind alike. Life ebbs and flows, there is joy and pain, but the resilience of humanity always prevails. Clearly I like the use of dandelions as a literary trope...
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Laughing and dancing free in the pouring rain
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There's so much more to come and it's so exciting!
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Do you ever toil over something for months and then it hits you at the most random time: OH! That's what I need to do!
And it is all so clear and you wonder why there was ever a question in the first place? Yes...
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Proud of Joe for getting his poem published in Boston Literary Magazine! I was there people, when he crafted the poem. Ah, yes. Anyway, read it("Tossing the Argument")
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One day I'll get around to submitting my writing to places...my real stuff, not this "hey, look what I wrote at 4am" deliciousness that I post to my blog. I have been quite prolific lately though and editing a lot of my older works. I'd say sometime around July I'll be ready to get some of it out there...and then I'll really know how people respond to it. And, to be honest, I don't really care all that much if people love or hate it. What matters to me as a writer is that I have emotionally processed what it is that I've set to the page and that I respond to it.
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I ran into one of my favorites in the middle of Church St. today! I LOVE VERMONTERS. That is all.
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Check out a 6-page preview of Jason's new graphic novel, Low Moon:
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HAHA:
Character A: You remember that Thing*? I remember that Thing.
Character B: I remember that Thing also.
Character A: Our shared rememberance of that Thing constitutes a lasting and real human connection!
Character C: And hey, you know what’s fucking hard? Growing as a person and finding out who I am. Because, who I am is like, well, do you remember that very special Christmas episode of Three’s Company, where Jack puts a plant on his head? It was like, you know, the shitty season, after Suzanne Sommers was replaced by Priscilla Barnes? Anyways, that’s what it’s like to hate my job so much? Did I mention I hate my job?
Character A (aside to B): I never watched after Suzanne Sommers left. It's just like, when she left, my childhood seemed to evaporate. You know? How stuff was better? In the past?
Character B: I have contempt for and reverence for the same bits of cultural bric-a-brac that you do. This means love. Do you remember when Things meant things?
Reader, along with Characters A&B&C: Yes, we remember when Things meant things! Boy, did I ever have a lot of feelings, once upon a time!
A&B: Let us go forth and use our memories of feelings we once had about Things as a lazy shorthand for actual meaningful connection. That way, neither of us has to grow. The past was really neat, don’t you think? Let’s live there, because our shitty jobs make it too hard to live in the present, and thinking of a way out is just like, totes a bummer.
Character C: Wait! I have a confession: I am fearful of nuclear weapons. Also, cancer makes me sad.
Narrator: Aren’t we all a little sad about cancer? And nuclear bombs? I mean, those are sad things. Sad like when they got rid of the pirate from the McDonald’s Happy Meal Gang because he was too scary.
New York Times Magazine: Trend piece!
All: We always liked the pirate the best! McDonalds does not understand our generation!
Narrator: You should probably be feeling things right now. If not, maybe try downloading an Amish person into your iPhone?
THE END
* Wherein THING= Hiroshima, limited edition Joy Division record, episode of the Smurfs, short-lived pseudo-obscure sitcom from the ’80s, 8-track tapes.
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Ok, ok, I really do need to get some work done before I go frolic outside again
Hugs to all
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