slopoet tells all

Gathering summer

2011-08-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

I remember one spring day in Guilford, or maybe two. Then it rained again. Soon it was summer. In between there was a visit to Boston for the Early Music Festival, and we went with Harry to tour Frederick Law Olmsted's offices at his home in Brookline. There was a trolley program we put on for the GPA, and a quick visit to New York to see Jerry and Geri Fleming. Went with the Flemings to the Neue Galerie, a precious gallery on the upper East side. And Bill and I visited the Archives at Yale to read some of the 70,000 letters of William Graham Sumner stored there. We also discovered Chatfield Hollow, not so far from our house, a new place to hike and swim.

We reported dutifully to Gilmanton for the Fourth of July. Got to see Sarah and Jody's twins, Willa and Josie. And other little ones. Soon we were off to Canada, Quebec, Montreal, Kingston, and Toronto. A lovely two-week trip bracketed with overnights in Vermont, one of our favorite states. We arrived back in Gilmanton at the end of July, and Jenny and Phil and the kids blew in a few hours later with a tent, a new van, and various bicycles tied on to the back. Soon there were more, Lorie and Thomas and their kids, lucky a lot of them actually liked sleeping in the tent. We celebrated the union of Abby and Wes, and their new daughter Talia, and commemorated the lives of Joe Urner and Jimmy Johnson at beloved Loon Pond. The Rock Party was the fitting conclusion, Roger and Liz walking down in front of us under the full August moon.

Now I am in Chester, Connecticut, with a few friends from last year's workshop at the Frost Place. We are going at it full bore. I have revised two poems already. Grateful for all comments.

Waking Up the Blog

2011-04-19T10:13:00.000-07:00

a foot and a half more or less

You never know who might show up here, expecting to find an up-to-date blog. The last post was oh-so-last year. Would you like to go forwards or backwards? I prefer going forwards, on the Metro at least. We'll have to pick up just after Christmas (white) when Karen and Fede and the girls arrived to help us celebrate the new year. No champagne (we all went to bed early...) but lots of cookies. The heaviest snow came a few weeks later, one day it was a foot and a half. As February rolled in, we rolled down to D.C. to attend AWP, sold quite a few Sixteen Rivers books at our table, some great readings (one at Busboys and Poets was especially good). Bill and I also went on a tour of the Library of Congress, which took us to the top of the building where the Poet Laureate's office is...he wasn't in. For Presidents Day we had a visit from the grandchildren, walking the Stony Creek Trolley trail was a particularly nice excursion.

bnb cottage in South Pasadena

Bill and I left suddenly for California that week, as my sister's husband, Len, had passed away. Many tears, but a lot of pride watching my nieces and nephews, and my two very grownup great nephews, speak about their Nonno at the service in my childhood church, filled with hundreds of mourners. We had fun staying in the last part of my sister's bed and breakfast she hadn't yet sold, the cottage in the rear. And we had a nice dinner with Mimi, too. Not the California visit we had planned, but it turned out to be a meaningful visit with family and friends.

The Brigantine in the Pine Barrens

In March we went down to NY to hear Bob Hass, Adam Zagajewski and Claire Cavanagh read and talk about their connections with Czeslaw Milosz. A bonus was getting together for breakfast with Gwen and Norm at the M. Wells Diner, and seeing their apartment in Long Island City. At the end of the month we took our (now) annual trip to New Jersey. We met our friend Carolyn down in the Pine Barrens, where she took us on a tour of the Brigantine, a wildlife preserve in vast stretches of marshland, and a view far off of..Atlantic City. The next day Bill and I drove to Batsto, a former iron manufacturing company town--we thought we'd spend about an hour, but it was really fascinating, so of course we were there much longer! We drove up through the pine forests to Princeton, and the next day I joined my fellow U.S. 1 Poets in a reading at the Princeton Library from the new anthology. We also ate for the first time at the Blue Point Grill, had to eat at the counter, but it was really great! Dropped William at the Princeton Junction station the next morning (he was off to play bridge with Harry in NY), drove home in a little rain, stopping for lunch at the Runcible Spoon in Nyack. I think we're pretty up-to-date now. Time for Easter brunch in Gilmanton!

November eases into December

2011-01-02T14:57:00.000-08:00


Hudson, NY

After driving the nifty Volvo station wagon rental car in the Land of Altena (our Netherlands part of the trip), I didn't wait a week before I visited the New London Volvo dealer. It helped that The Broken Yolk breakfast place was nearby. I'm now learning to pronounce the new car I own. I guess it's Vahl-voh not Vohl-vo, I keep trying to turn it into an Italian car. So we set off in the new vahl-voh, driving west for Thanksgiving. First stop was Hudson where we discovered a great coffee place, The Swallow. Then we stayed in Cooperstown at the August Lodge. The next morning we had breakfast in town, and visited the Fenimore Museum, which was a delight.

Fenimore Museum

Then on to Buffalo to see Jenny and Phil and the kids. Their cousins were visiting as well, so everyone had someone to play with. Thanksgiving dinner was yummy, each family's contribution a little different, the Croatian goodies, my sweet potatoes roasted with pecans and currants, and succulent turkey roasted by Phil's parents. Snow fell while we were there so we had a nice outing in a recreation area south of the city. On the way home we stopped in Skaneateles, then stayed in Cooperstown again.

Dream Trip

2010-10-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

We've just come home from a dream trip, 8 days in Italy, 5 in Antwerp and the Netherlands. Not a long trip, but packed with wonderful experiences. We went to Italy with our friends Gwen and Norm, who had never been to Italy before, so Bill and I were the guides. We began in Rome, then drove to Country House Montali in the midst of Umbria, took day trips to Panicale (our wedding locale), Assisi, Pienza, and the Abbey of Sant'Antimo. Final 3 days were in Florence. Then we all flew from Pisa to Amsterdam and split up, Bill and I travelling by train down to Antwerp, where we spent 3 nights tasting gourmet food and exploring the city's beautiful museums and churches. We picked up a car in Breda and drove through the southern part of the Netherlands looking for the places where my Dutch ancestors lived: Den Bosch, Almkerk, Woudrichem, Heusden, Noorderloos, Laeckervelt, Lexmond, and Vianen, and then we finished out our trip by staying the last night in Utrecht, a gorgeous city of canals and more gorgeous architecture.

Now we're back in glorious Guilford in the height of autumn colors. Back to projects for the Guilford Preservation Alliance, the Guilford Citizens for Responsible Development, and the Guilford Poets Guild. So what else is new??!

July into August

2010-08-19T09:34:00.000-07:00

On our way back to Gilmanton for round two, we drove up to Northampton, had a nice dinner at Circa. Next stop, Albany, staying at the Desmond Hotel with a wedding party and a whole bunch of soldiers with their families attending seminars on supportiveness so that there were phalanxes of men in khaki camouflauge, then giggly bridesmaids, on our way to breakfast. Bill and I enjoyed the Diana at Saratoga, both had some money on the winner, Proviso, which edged out 3 other horses in a four-way photo finish.

Joining Jenny and the kids was especially lovely this year, they are all a little older and so much fun to be with. A poem I wrote about them:

Grandchildren

After they had gone, it was almost as if I had dreamed them.

The younger girl followed her sister everywhere.
They strutted past me, making crisp turns, re-enacting a parade
on the front lawn, beating sticks together like snare drummers.

Their brother pondered large questions,
such as whether, after fireworks, it were possible
to sweep up all the sparks.

And if brooms existed that wouldn’t catch fire.

Also, he had read in a local newspaper that Mars
would appear on August 27 almost the same
size as the moon. And it would crash into us.

These are exciting times.

Soooo, the second week of August I went off to attend the Advanced Seminar at The Frost Place, with Nan, a bunch of new friends, and our faculty: Gray Jacobik, Jeanne Marie Beaumont and Fred Marchant. I learned a great deal from all 3, from all the other 18 participants, really. I am going to think about each line, whether it needs to be in the poem, whether something else needs to be in the poem, whether the poem is finished, well, I should be paying more attention, I think. No dashing off poems.

Got back to Drew Farm for a few more days before we head back to Connecticut. Attended Opera North in Lebanon, a lively performance of Don Giovanni. A visit to Portland and Brunswick is in the near future. More later.

Chugging into Summer

2010-07-12T19:26:00.001-07:00

Late May brought us to Boston to help Tyler celebrate his graduation from Boston College. On hand were his Swedish sweetheart Sofia (on left in photo), his sister Corinne (on right) and his parents and grandparents...and us. Tyler and Sofia visited with us a few days in Guilford. We showed them the usual spots: the Thimble Island Cruise, Chaffinch Island, Lenny's for seafood, Stony Creek.

Also in May I attended a wonderful outdoor poetry reading at Poets House in NYC, heard Bob Hass and Brenda Hillman, sat with Dan Bellm (a nice surprise to see him there!). In early June a group of us drove up in pouring rain (well, Norm drove, thank you, Norm!) and heard Galway Kinnell in a reading at the Sunken Garden poetry festival. And at the Poetry Institute reading that month I was asked to participate in a panel to present a Favorite Poem program--got to share some of my favorites with the lovely crowd at the Young Men's Institute Library in New Haven, always a nifty venue.

Fourth of July weekend we spent in Gilmanton and we're glad we did. The weather was glorious and we got to see so many friends. Wendy's grandchild Marisa was there with her parents Lisa and Mark. Carolyn and John Dickey had their annual brunch after the Fourth of July parade, and the Wilsons hosted a lovely cookout at their place. Saw Jay and Alaiyo and then at the pond we chatted with Francesca and Graham and Josh (part of the younger generation not always present)--met some new folks, too.

In mid-July we went for the day to Mystic, met Toby and Bill there, friends from a trip to Mexico in 2004. We had a nice lunch at Kitchen Little on the Mystic River, then drove to Rocky Neck State Park where Bill and I took a dip in the Sound, and finished by coming back to Stonington, a lovely walk in the Conservancy meadow, and dinner at the Water Street Cafe, which was excellent!

Back from California

2010-04-29T14:56:00.000-07:00

So April is now gone, for all intents and purposes. I am reading Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time so my time references are way off. I only know I am towards the end of book six (out of 12). But it seems we just took a two-week trip to California. We started out in San Diego and had a lovely visit with our friend Janet Richards. Sat on the beach at Wind 'n Sea and watched surfers. Watched my great niece play soccer and went on a nice trip to the beach with her sister (in San Clemente). Visited Pacific View cemetery and saw my parents' grave stone, it looked nice. Lunch with niece Kathleen. Four lovely days in South Pasadena, stayed in my sister's new home, went to Santa Anita with friend Mimi (I had the big winnings on the day, not that the winnings were large, just that 4 of 5 horses came in for me). After a yummy brunch we strolled the grounds of the Huntington Library with Kirk and Melinda. Tore ourselves away to fly to Northern California.

In Palo Alto it was mostly rainy and windy, very uncharacteristic. Dinner and poetry at Joyce's with the old group was really nice. Took great nephew Riley out to dinner the next night. Drove up to Berkeley to stay at the Shattuck Plaza. The Sixteen Rivers East Bay launch of the new anthology at Mrs. Dalloway's was a terrific reading and we were really glad we could attend this event. On Friday we ferried over to S.F., had our lunch sitting in the sun looking out at the bay. Dinner with Susan and her friend Mark at our hotel. Our last day we had breakfast at La Note and then spent the afternoon by the pool at the San Jose Hyatt, and had dinner at La Pastaia. Aaah, California, just like a dream. Compared to green Connecticut (busting out in springtime flowers everywhere) it seems a little arid. But the beaches were nice, can't complain there...

New Jersey again

2010-03-23T15:04:00.001-07:00

We find we can't keep from noodling down to New Jersey from time to time. This visit coincided with a poetry reading in Princeton at the D & R Greenway Land Trust's Johnson Education Center where our friend Carolyn Foote Edelmann is the Arts and Education Associate. The setting was the beautiful art gallery there and the topic was trees. I was selected to read along with many other local poets, some from the U.S. 1 and Delaware Valley poets' groups, some even from Princeton the school not the place (C.K.Williams and Paul Muldoon, for example). So a wide range of voices and a great audience. We went out to dinner with Carolyn afterwards, and I went on a hike with her the next day. We also managed a dinner in Hopewell, and then set off the next day for Hightstown (it's verrrry close to the Turnpike and has quite a nice little Italian cafe), and then stopped only in Larchmont (lovely weather for our picnic in Manor Park there on Long Island Sound) and Westport (a Whole Foods stop). On the way down we had lunch in Nyack, NY and expect to go back, quite an interesting town. We also visited the Great Falls in Paterson, NJ, inspected the Simonson homes in Verona (they're looking fine, Mom), and stayed overnight in Summit, our first visit there. Nice setting and fast trains to New York!

Winter definitely seems over, although spring is not officially here yet. We're down to light coats and have even started sitting out on the deck before dinner. Rooting for the Stanford women's basketball team, we'll see how far they get this year.

Photo above of Edward Hopper's birthplace in Nyack, and closer here is my mother's home in Verona. An Irish couple live there now (reason for flag, it was not so long after St. Patrick's Day).

End of 09, beginning of 10 visits

2010-02-11T11:05:00.000-08:00

By Christmas night, after a bit of a train ride, we were in Washington D.C., visiting Karen's family in Arlington. One day we went to Mount Vernon, my first visit there since about 1956...Another day Bill and I went to a John Singer Sargent show at the Corcoran Gallery. Also spent some time at Eastern Market. Not too much snow there, one day was very cold and windy, though. Coming back north we stopped off in NYC as Bill was playing in a bridge tournament there--the good news, we got to stay at the Hilton again. One day got together with Gwen so we could go to the Met to see an interesting show of portraits by American painters, then off to the Via Quadronno for a yummy coffee and lunch.

In January we made a quick trip to the upper East side so we could attend Monteverdi's Vespers performed by Artek, Piffaro and Parthenia at St. Ignatius Loyola, a breathtaking event. The next day we enjoyed visiting the New York Historical Society (and I did some photocopying of genealogical materials, pages from 1860s Newark city directories--what fun!).

At the end of the month we headed off to Buffalo via Kingston and Saugerties. Left our car in the train station in Ressalaer for an afternoon train ride to the City of Light. Had a fun time with the Radoses, visiting the Talking Leaves Bookstore in the Elmwood, lunch one day with Clare at Betty's, the older kids staying overnight with us in our hotel, celebrating Frano's ninth birthday, talking with his Croatian grandparents, Frank and Novenka.

In early February the mid-Atlantic got hit with two major snowstorms, which we heard about from Karen and Fede. Our snow arrived in more reasonable amounts, along with a barred owl who spent part of one stormy day in a tree branch practically right outside our back door. And posed for me. Whoooooo are you kidding? No, he really did!

Person of the week

2009-12-24T11:46:00.000-08:00

It is the day before Christmas. So many things to be thankful for. My dear husband Bill. Friends and family. The Guilford Poets Guild. Our new anthology, which turned out so well. And the wonderful writer for the Guilford Courier, Pam Johnson, who decided I would make a suitable "person of the week." Such a nice welcome for a new resident. You can read about it here.

book angst over

2009-12-04T10:55:00.000-08:00

The anthology, part and parcel of my dreams and untold waking hours as well, has just been signed, sealed and delivered to our door. Looks great, its lovely design, the poems lifting off the page with their authors floating in luminous gray, Richard smiling at us, Katrina at the window, the misty Grass Island scene on the cover, the whimsical bicycle holding up the rear, and all those wonderful poems people submitted beginning way last March, early this year. On display here, the postcard, send them out!

It seems we just got back home from Gilmanton, for Thanksgiving. Dinner at Heather's, a lovely walk around the Beaver Pond with Mark, Bill, Cocoa, Tyler and his friend Sofia. And now we're going back again for Joe's 80th birthday party. After the book launch party. Hmmm, have to fit in thinking about Christmas presents, cards, a tree. I'm sure it will all work out. After Christmas we're taking the train down to D.C. to spend a few days with Karen, Fede and the girls. And then back to NYC, a bridge event for Bill, visiting museums for me. Well, he might get to go to a few museums, too, I'm sure we can work that out too!

Before we know it, it will be 2010. The year 10. No more oughts. The century is gathering speed. All those things we did when we were young seem so long ago. But, just as they explain about the brain, those memories are solid, it's the things that happened last week that are first to go. Hopefully, not all of them.

California Dreaming

2009-11-01T08:38:00.001-08:00

At the end of our trip to California, we took my sister to Joan's on Third in the Fairfax area of LA, it was my birthday brunch. The sign holders here were a little upset with me when I snapped their picture, but it was so nostalgic to see folks like that, so earnest, on the street corner. Other eating adventures were at Fraiche in Culver City and Nicole's in South Pasadena. We walked all over the Arboretum in Arcadia, a whirlwind tour since we only had about 40 minutes--the wind was indeed whirling that day, too.

We started out the trip in San Jose, stopping at La Pastaia for a yummy dinner. Met with different poetry friends, and then my 40th reunion at Stanford started up. Friends from Italy XIV joined us at almost every event, and we wound up eating with them at a special dinner Sat. night in Mountain View at Vaso Azzurro. I met a really nice fellow from the class of '54 who put me in touch with some of his classmates who remembered my brother Bruce. He was interested in researching the houses of Gustav Laumeister in Palo Alto and by some coincidence I shared with him the fact that I had written a paper on Laumeister for Palo Alto Stanford Heritage. I mailed it to him this week.

California seemed a little arid, and how come it was so warm in October? I brought all the wrong clothes again although I did wear my coat once, I think. Nice to come back to beautiful Connecticut, there were even a few leaves on the trees for us to see. And a conference on John Brown to attend at Yale. A full calendar ahead of us.

Twas brillig

2009-10-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

October has arrived and the leaves are slowly turning into their new, bright selves. We've been going to New York a lot. One trip early in September was because, mon dieu, I remembered the James Ensor show was almost over. So off we went to the South Street Seaport (the exhibit of Dutch New York), on the way discovering a cool lunch spot named Resto (it's Belgian and I shoulda had the beer, but the hamburger and frites were delishious), and finished off the day at the MOMA Ensor exhibit. The printed material suggested Ensor's love of masks and weird costumes of course came about because of his family's souvenir store in Ostende. I was lucky to have visited there in 2002 (the James Ensorhuis). Our trip down and back in one day was pretty exhausting.

The next day I was in the Guilford Citizens Parade--twice! Well, I mean the Friends of the Library let me march with them--actually I sat in a haywagon and held up picture books as we rode by the crowds. And since the Friends haywagon was early on in the parade, when that was done I leapt down and ran to see the rest of the entries. So when the Guilford Peace Alliance came by, Edwina, Greg, Gwen and Norm marching prominently with their signs, I joined them, too. Was thinking some of the folks by the side of the road would be scratching their heads--wasn't that woman on the library haytruck earlier in the parade?

Paid for all this activity, came down with a baad cowd. But a week later we went back down to NY again, this time staying overnight to pamper ourselves. The main event was the opening of the Poets House new building near Battery Park on the Hudson. A sunny day and the lineup of poets reading was impressive: Mark Doty, Marie Howe, Philip Levine, Billy Collins, Galway Kinnell, among others. We met up with Gwen and Norm and one of Gwen's painting friends--we ate tapas together at Boqueria.

In between these trips the sun shone brightly during the month, and I discovered the walk at the end of Neck Road (the street that starts in Madison and ends up in Guilford). The beach skirts the edge of the Sound and lands you at the red shack on Grass Island. And the nice thing about it is that even though it's an "island," you don't have to cross any water to get there!

Will have more of New York starting again soon, next weekend it's back to Open House New York, trekking about various neighborhoods, sneaking into some of the most interesting buildings in NY. Til then.

The long unique summer

2009-08-27T18:26:00.001-07:00

Lots of rain in the early summer. Got to the town beach by mid-July, then we were off to Gilmanton, it seemed. Jumped into Drew Farm life with Jenny, Phil, Frano, Clare and Lucy. Craziness all day it seemed! The kids loved the "bored sheepherder" video on youtube--we had to play it at least once a day. When the kids went back to Buffalo it was verrrrry quiet. We picked up toys here and there, arranged furniture, brought out all the wine and sherbet glasses, relished the warmer weather. By our last week it was almost summer again!

The Rock Party was a beautiful afternoon again, and this year we got down to the bottom before the moskeets got us. Bill and I drove Frano home--a deer leapt in front of our car but made it across 140. Jay and Alaiyo, newlyweds, were adorable. I tried to help teach Alaiyo to swim. She who could probably hike 4 miles before I even got started was having a hard time catching on. Must be difficult to learn to swim as an adult. The Listening party at the Hottels was memorable as usual, this year it was Carmen. I found myself voting for Maria Callas but dissing Placido Domingo. And I was in the minority--che strano! Down in Guilford for a few days, catching up with mail, two poetry meetings within three days, firming up our anthology plans. Then back up by train to Boston, by bus to Concord. More silken water to float around in. One day we hiked through a cornfield and drove over to Pittsfield (see photo of dam in downtown Pittsfield).

I'm writing this in Northampton, Mass. where we've returned after 14 years, staying again at the Autumn Inn, and eating at the same good restaurant, India House. Last night the weather was perfect, the town lively, we found a good bookstore and a place that served great espresso and gelato to us 4 minutes before they closed. Earlier in the day we strolled along the old avenues of Historic Deerfield. This morning it will be Emily Dickinson, her house, her life, then on to the poetry of horses getting serious in the paddock--before they strike out on the track at Saratoga.

Home from Green Spain

2009-06-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

We've just come home from Spain. My Bill's twisted knee kept us from going to Santiago de Compostela and Portugal, so our vacation was 3 weeks instead of 4, but all pleasurable. In Madrid on the first night of our trip we found the loveliest neighborhood centered around the Plaza de la Paja. An oasis of calm in a busy city, folks sitting out in their lovely plaza, nearby the roses of the Jardin del Principe de Anglona, and the comfy permanent armchairs set into the pavement of the Plaza de Alamillo, where we ate the most exquisite Mexican food at the Taqueria del Alamillo. And the next afternoon and evening I was able to take Bill to one of my favorite places from my visit in 1984--the small city of Aranjuez where we heard a wonderful concert in the Royal Chapel of the Palacio Real.

We had a great time visiting with Ruthie and Eddie in Valencia and Denia, where they have their beach home. Then we headed north to Zaragoza and finally to San Sebastian, the place we enjoyed so much in 2003, and which didn't disappoint us. We got to know more neighborhoods this time, the Antigua and the Gros neighborhoods. It rained for 3 days but we didn't care. Falling asleep at night hearing the waves was blissful. And we went back to the Museo Chillida Leku, another oasis of green.

Bilbao was a much more interesting city than we expected. We had 2 nights there instead of the 1 night we had planned, as we had to regroup once Bill had messed up his knee. We especially enjoyed our lunches at the nearby Cafeteria Henao, which was not a cafeteria in the American sense of the word, more like a classy businessman's bar, with terrific food served at tables with white tablecloths.

Once we were able to rent an automatic vehicle for slopoet to drive, we set out into the countryside, lunch in the amiable village of Comillas, stops at the beach of the Oyambre, landing for 3 nights at the Posada del Valle in Collia, a little paradise in the foothills of the Picos. One day we spent at the beach where Bill partook of fabada and I had shrimps, garlic and "gulas"--these tasted like noodles, except that I figured out later the noodles were really...baby eels, or maybe not. Even further checking reveals that baby eels (angulas) are actually quite rare, but that "gulas" are processed fish pressed into spaghetti form. All scrumptious whatever it was. The next day we drove up to Covadonga, where a basilica commemorates the warrior Pelayo's victory over the Moors--the setting was really breathtaking.

Our last adventure was to stay one night in Oviedo, a most beautiful city with clean streets, lovely plazas and parks, and whimsical sculptures (of Woody Allen, for example), as well as more serious historical ones, at practically every few 100 feet. A woman taxi driver drove us up above the city to see the two very ancient churches (both built in the 9th century), San Miguel del Lillo and Santa Maria del Naranco. And I joined thousands of soccer fans in the town square cheering on the local team (Real Oviedo) with blue balloons, bagpipers, accordionists, fireworks, and the singing of many songs, including the team's anthem, Oviedo Adelante!

Soon we were back in Madrid and flying home to scruffy Queens. The United States, almost a backwards country, old trains and buses very unlike Spain's sparkling new equipment. But our home in Guilford is welcoming, and Bill's knee is mending. Nice to be back.

New friend gone

2009-04-21T07:22:00.001-07:00

I remember being brand-new to Guilford, and our friend Pam Carley introduced me to poet Richard Tietjen at an R.J. Julia reading. A short time later I discovered the Stony Creek Market, was sitting outside having a tuna melt and heard "Sharon!" It was Richard with his hiking friend Gemma Mathewson. They told me about the trolley trail, and the white circle trail on which they had just walked in from Highway 146. Soon I would be joining Richard with other members of the Guilford Poets Guild for our twice-monthly workshops and monthly readings. I stood with Richard on several Saturdays with the Guilford Peace Alliance on the Guilford Green. He had been battling lymphoma for 14 years and seemed so resilient, a hardy walker, a special man with a brilliant mind. Recently he had been experiencing high fevers and was eventually diagnosed with leukemia. Early on the morning of April 20 he passed away peacefully, surrounded by friends and family. I've been looking at his photos and reading many of his poems. Here is one to share:

Right now

Happiness is what I want
to tell you about.
The getting and having,
the measuring.

Here:
Live in the same place for five years
watch the cars on the road
wash your dishes in the morning
and try to see
you will never get another chance
to be all-knowing, powerful, and wise.

Living won’t always make you happy
but when you are
you’ll know why

West Acworth, 1983

What happened to February and March?

2009-03-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

We came back home from California and soon had a visit from Jenny, Phil, Frano, Clare and Lucy. Had a memorable day in Mystic, and some nice visits to Stony Creek and Chaffinch Island State Park. Bill and I went on a field trip to Norwich. We stopped for brunch at the Griswold Inn in Essex, and then arrived in Norwich for a tour of the Perkins-Rockwell house, the current home of the local D.A.R. As the woman asked, which family is your husband descended from, the Perkins or the Rockwells? The answer was, well, both. We also went to Yantic Cemetery where all the Perkins and Rockwells were buried. In late afternoon towards sunset we arrived in Stonington for a lovely dinner at Noah's. Stayed overnight at Mystic, when you're retired, why drive back home? Breakfast at Kitchen Little in Mystic, then good strong lattes at the Leaf and Bean in New London. What's not to like?

Towards the end of March we went down for the day to Manhattan, took in the exquisite Bonnard show at the Met. Dinner at vegetarian Candle Cafe, then train back home. May have to buy that catalog, Pierre Bonnard, what an eye for beauty.

Finally met Carl Balestracci, our first selectman, after Bill and I, severely under-dressed for a brisk winter's day, held up the Guilford Peace Alliance banner during an hour-long V.A. event on the Green. A few days later Nancy, Gordon and Andrea helped me put up my poem "Guilford Song" and a few of my photos in the new Poets Corner glass case in the Guilford Town Hall. Will be up five weeks until the end of April.

Waiting for the Dive

2009-01-29T09:50:00.001-08:00

It feels like we are standing beside a large pool, waiting to dive in. We've been in California since January 13, and every day almost has been in the 60s or 70s with blue skies. In a few days we will return to our home in Guilford. We just have to be brave enough to dive into the pool...of cold weather, that is! We think the worst is over. We didn't really expect there would be single digit temps this month while we were gone. Doesn't seem fair to our new friends to even mention where we've been this month. We'll just have to slip into the cold water and start paddling along with the flow.

Our friend Margaret got us situated in her apartment on Nob Hill for the first week. We got bus passes and jumped on buses and cable cars like we were residents, but at all times of day like we were visitors. I won't say tourists. We got library cards, went to Sausalito by ferry, roamed around Russian Hill and North Beach. Ate well (we especially recommend Boulange de Polk and Boulange de Hayes--twins). Then we skipped down to Palo Alto in our rental car (after making sure Obama got sworn in). The poetry group welcomed me back like a prodigal daughter. Technical Services has two new catalogers--yay! I used Bistro Maxine for my power lunching/business meetings. We met Riley over at the Stanford Museum. He had to choose 10 items in the Stanford Family room and write about them. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut and let him do his notes (I love those kinds of assignments!).

Flying south made my incipient cold worse, but we were picked up by my sister, her husband, and Vanilla, their special dog. On to Emerald Bay! More insults to our eastern friends. Brilliant skies, walks on the beach. Erika and Grace came to stay the night--we had pizza and apfelskivvers and played Monopoly. Then we drove up to San Marino Sunday night. Back to the stomping grounds of my childhood. Went to the LA County Art Museum (exhibit about the Two Germanys after WWWII) entirely by public transportation! Today we're planning to go to the Huntington Library, I want to see an exhibit on the history of science.

Home soon. Snow and ice. And the comforts of home. Should be great!!

Beginnings

2009-01-06T19:40:00.000-08:00

New presences. Smoky the cat plunging through the snow on his daily route, leaving his deep prints. White-throated sparrow's unique song: Old Sam Peabody, Peabody, which I found at random by punching in numbers in the Audubon book/audio-player. Five clicks and I got the one I had heard on the way home from the mailboxes. It's a mournful tune which starts high, then drops, then follows with some short, bursts.

At the end of 2008 we spent two nights in NY, saw an embroidery exhibit at Bard College, heard a lovely Early Music concert at St. Bartholomew's. Then we continued by train to DC to check in with Karen, Fede, Elena and Marina, a lively crew. Marina is a princess, as she insists by donning various regal outfits. She is only two but most of the time knows what she wants. Elena just turned five, but she shows much wisdom beyond her years.

At the end of 2007 I was inputting all the books I own into librarything.com. 942 books. A sort of obsessive-compulsive thing. Then somebody told me about goodreads.com. On this one you put in all the books you've READ (get it? not the same group...!). That was two days ago, I think. 816 books. More obsession! More fun!

Shortly before the end of 2008 I heard the peabody, I mean the white-throated sparrow. And wrote a poem about him/her. Seems a good way to start the year. With a poem.

Thoughts of the White-Throated Sparrow

Our song is Poor Sam Peabody Peabody in the US but Oh Sweet Canada, Canada across the border. I know it sounds like we are thinking too hard,starting out with a moody rumination, then switching downward in pitch,as if one idea led to another, ohhh no, what was I thinking of? They say we are abundant but declining over much of the breeding range. Must be the fault of those juncos, Mr. Dark Eyes. Spend a little time with one of them and your children will be hybrids, grayish, dully-marked, no yellow lores, those splashes of face paint below the eyes, no white throat either, and how would we look for them in the dark? Best stick with our kind, tan stripes are our thing, easy to spot in the hedgerows. Ohhh, where did I leave my shopping list? Ohhh sweetgum-amaranth-chickweed. Ohhh you with the bike-helmeted head. Ohhh who is this Sam Peabody, Peabody?

The December Post

2008-12-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

My root canal specialist reminded me of the saying, if you don't like the weather in New England, just wait five minutes! So a few nights back I woke up to Quiet. That's how I would describe it. Only one inch of snow, but it was like a blanket over everything. So of course I got out my camera. Good thing, too, because the snow was almost all gone by the next day. And today, just a few days later, it's 60 degrees!

December is starting out well. Bill had a nice visit in Buffalo with the kids, got to attend Clare's 4th birthday party. Breakwater Books in town is carrying my book on consignment. Jane and I attended the Christmas tree lighting on the Guilford Green. And the turkeys are back! I guess they thought it was safe to show up around here after Thanksgiving. What do our turkeys look like? Well, I would describe them as looking like an oversized pheasant. They were milling around our front door on the snow day--left their huge feetprints in the snow, like some sci-fi mutant movie. And I spotted some deer in our woods recently.

We spent Thanksgiving week first in Boston (Bill playing bridge in a duplicate tournament), then in Gilmanton. Got Drew Farm ready for its winter slumber, making sure all the windows were tight, bringing Christmas ornaments down from the attic, shining up the kitchen floor. Good news, our teenage hoodlum "visitors" had been apprehended by the police, so we hope Drew Farm will be left in peace. The day after Thanksgiving there was a light snow there, also, gone the next day. Here's what it looked like up at Drew Farm in early morning:

Six Oh Obama

2008-11-08T10:48:00.000-08:00

My present for my sixtieth birthday came one week late, an Obama victory! October was a lovely month here in Connecticut. I've come to enjoy the Guilford Poets Guild workshops, and I have new material to write about. For Columbus Day weekend we went up to Gilmanton, saw our good friends there, gawked at the colorful leaves. If here in Connecticut the colors might be rated an "8," in New Hampshire everywhere is a "10."

Towards the end of the month we went north again to Boston for a few days. Attended a Jordi Savall-Hesperion XXI concert in the very beautiful Saunders Hall on the Harvard Campus. We stayed at the Hyatt Harborside, had fun getting around town on the T, walking through East Boston (great breakfast place, 303), and taking the ferry across the bay. We had brunch with Vicki and Steve in Back Bay, and they took us to the top of the Prudential Center for a birthday flan.

My new poetry friend and neighbor, Jane, is going to whip me into shape. Yesterday morning we played tennis with two guys she had arranged to join us. Since I hadn't played in probably five years or so, it took me awhile to get warmed up. And my serve is still iffy. But my net play was pretty darned good. I'm going to think about continuing this line of exercise, but I think I'd rather just rally with Jane. Going through the humiliation of playing actual games, and having to actually get serves in, is too much pressure. On election day I walked up Long Hill Road two miles to our voting place. Then Bill drove up the hill, I took the car home, and he walked back! We're trying "enforced marches" as an exercise routine. Of course, when we get in shape, we'll just walk the 4 or 5 miles, to town and back together for instance. Steve and Vicki can be our inspiration. They already cover 4 miles about 3 times a week, so I'm sure we can do it. In the meantime, we pass all these lovely streets of Guilford on our walks. Makes you want to break into song:

Guilford Song

The birds all knew the local language—

two short bursts, and then a moment of silence

step stone

A pairing of adjective-noun, as if the subject

could not be left unattended

flag marsh

The frogs tossed out all sorts of ideas

but kept to the code

still meadow

The cemetery didn’t wish to limit itself

to just one name

Foote-Ward

A rhythmic two-step along the shoreline

salt marsh

Her Puritan forebears wouldn’t have known

anything more complicated

flat meadow

tangling forbidden anyway

nut plains

two friends, a quickening of the pulse,

you lay down a card and I’ll tell you what it is

red queen fox glove hearts ease

saw mill red coat long hill

All's well at Stony Creek

2008-10-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

The Guilford harbor has a parking lot and a nice view. And the beach nearby is decent, but not as long and white as Madison's. Swimming in Lake Quonnipaug is great, though, but the season is now over. Moving here to the coast I had in mind being able to drive to a harbor town, where there would be a nice place to stop for lunch (and you could stay a long time with no one hassling you), enjoying, say, a tuna melt at an outdoor table, looking out to the boats. Enter...Stony Creek! Has all the above amenities, even the place with the good tuna melt (Stony Creek Market). A shorter drive, for sure, than from Palo Alto to Half Moon Bay. The really exciting thing is its location near a lovely branch library, and between two fabulous Branford walks.

The day I was at Stony Creek I heard someone call my name. Hard to believe, since we hardly know anyone around here! Two fellow poets, of course. It's a poetic place, the Thimble Islands a short distance away. After lunch I found the TrolleyTrail, perfect for duffers like us, straight as an arrow and almost entirely flat, at least the part I walked. Landed me in the center of a salt marsh, a nest for ospreys nearby. You can sit on a bench and look out to sea, or sit on the other bench and look inland towards the marshes. A fellow there was delighted to learn my husband and I had moved here from California. He's from Branford, lived here all his life, went to California once, pronounced it very scenic but prefers New England. I think I'm learning to.

I've printed off some maps of the Guilford Westwoods trail system. Compared to the

simplicity of the Branford trails, the Westwoods circuit looks like a de Kooning. I'm sure we'll get the hang of it, the white circle trails, the red triangles, the blue thingamajig. And what to do when a cross is on top of the circle, or an arrow. We could be circling for a long time, like the Leather Man, only he knew where he was going. He was featured in the Litchfield Hills magazine

of 1952. He had suffered some misfortune in his native France, had ruined his future father-in-law's business, lost the woman he would marry and fled to Connecticut, where he donned heavy leather clothes as a sort of penance, and lived in the woods, fed by strangers, a mysterious figure of his time.

On vacation from moving

2008-08-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

It was so hard tearing ourselves away from those boxes...even though we had tackled almost all of them before we went on vacation. Hugs from Frano, Clare and the sometimes standoffish Lucy (15 mos. into the world) awaited us in Gilmanton, as did the black satin water of Loon Pond. The loons made almost a daily appearance this year. There was too much rain (helping take care of the grandchildren indoors always seems more daunting!). But the sun shone bright for the Rock Party, Mark Mallory's annual party high up in the blueberry fields above the Beaver Pond. Don and Luann's party on the deck at Green Pastures was going strong until a sudden thunderstorm, but there was room for all indoors. Much wrangling ensued at the annual Hottel Listening Party. The subject was "Madame Butterfly," and I made such a good case for Renata Tebaldi's rendition of Un Bel Di over Maria Callas' I managed to convince our group to swing to her side. When we joined the parlor group imagine our surprise they were all going for Victoria de los Angeles!

I have to announce here the stunning victory of my spouse William in the annual croquet match beside Faculty Glade at the Wight House. Tasty hors d'oeuvres (salmon smoked in Alaska by Josh Onion!) and various liquid refreshments helped keep us on track as the light was dimming.

Last night we helped Wendy and Allan Berlind celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary at Jordan's Ice Creamery in Belmont. And tonight we'll be joining Roger and Liz Clark for dinner in Meredith. Tomorrow, on to Albany, and Thursday--Saratoga!!

Then we'll go home on Friday, to Guilford, that is. I think we own a home there. With some boxes in it.

Two months later...

2008-07-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

July 9th. For our last night in Palo Alto, the temperature was in the mid-90's. During the day we had emptied the house of all of its contents, piece by piece, into the arms of our movers, who finished around 2 p.m., but then had to come back again because we opened our hall closet and discovered our 2 vacuum cleaners were still there! We tried to sleep in our second-floor room at the Cowper Bed and Breakfast, the fan valiantly trying to cool us off.

July 10. The next day, off to LA. Dinner at Fraiche in Culver City, a French place with excellent food. We arrived at the Fair Oaks Pharmacy in South Pasadena just in time to be served ice cream by great-nephew Riley, at his summer job. His parents joined us, Melinda trying hard not to say embarrassing things to her son, calling him by endearing names, etc.

July 11. Killing time, trying not to go anywhere where we thought my sister and her husband might be. Stayed in hiding, ready for the surprise for their 50th wedding annivesary. At 4 p.m. we joined 100+ well-wishers at San Marino Community Church, waiting for Kathleen to arrive with her parents. They were given a quick choice--be blessed or renew your vows (Janet: "What's a blessing?"--tough choice, it was), but they chose to do the vows, and headed down the aisle. I gave a short little speech and Riley showed the fantastic photo show he had assembled. Then hors d'oeuvres and drinks at the Artist's Inn, a nice way for all of Janet's friends to finally see her bed and breakfast.

On Monday, July 14, we flew to Hartford. On the flight I happened to look over Bill's shoulder as he was reading the NY Times, an article about the early Dutch days in New Amsterdam. The picture of my ancestor Cornelius Melyn (see below posting of March 13th) illustrated the article but mon dieu, the caption said it was a picture of Peter Minuit buying Manhattan from the Indians. So I wrote in to the Times that night at our hotel near the airport, and they printed a correction a few days later. And they thanked me in a separate email. Nice of them. On Tuesday we drove down to see our new house. Already had received the news that the truck with all our belongings would be delayed in coming, something about it being the busy part of the moving season, a shortage of drivers. So we've been getting to know our new town of Guilford, and the nearby towns of Branford and Madison. We have our library cards, of course, and our beach pass. There are two town beaches, one on the Sound with a nice view of salt marshes, the other on a lake--the latter is especially nice to swim in, and it's open til 7 in the evening.

Will have more to report once we actually move in...that should be on Thursday, July 24th. We're sending good thoughts to our driver. His name is Mike.

Connecticut bound

2008-05-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

It has been more than a month since the last post. Something to do with buying/selling houses, obtaining a loan. So the dream you read about in the last post is soon to become a reality. In a few months (or sooner!) we will be living in Guilford, Connecticut. And be Nutmeggers.

I believe I am truly lucky. As a child I was entranced with New England, whenever my family travelled there. And the electoral map, well, in those Republican landslides only New England and the SF Bay Area are depicted as blue. The place we are going to has a beautiful public library, excellent local independent bookstores, 2 town beaches, forest paths, and strong, local conservation
groups. A place to write, I think--about time!

This post will be brief. You don't want to hear about how many boxes we have packed so far, and many to come. We've never moved this far. The last time I moved it was...around the block. Please wish us luck. We'll keep in touch. Watch for the next post.

Dreaming of Connecticut

2008-04-02T15:20:00.001-07:00

New Jersey does that for you. The scary speed the Jersey drivers take a right turn. The jug handles (and the need to memorize each intersection, whether to get over to the left to make a left turn, or over to the right because there's a jug handle). The varicose-vein map of roads. One can zero in on a Google New Jersey map and there are more roads the closer you look. So we're dreaming of Connecticut. More about that later.

Got to catch up the blog. After my poetry reading in Bridgewater, we took a whirlwind trip to Alexandria on the following weekend. My friend Peggy drove, and we actually arrived at our friend Susan's house in Alexandria almost exactly three-and-a-half hours after we left Princeton. Bill was already there, having taken the train with a daytime stop in Philly. We managed only one art museum in D.C., the Phillips, but it's one of our favorites. Saturday night Susan and Bob put on a nice spread for dinner. Peggy's two daughters, Alicia and Sarah, came along with two of Alicia's friends. And my niece Karen, her husband Fede, and little Elena and Marina came too! A great time was had by all. And on the way home we stopped off in Baltimore's Fells Point, had brunch at the Blue Moon Cafe.

Two days later Bill and I drove up to New England. Our first stop was Guilford, CT, to inspect a condo I had seen on the Internet. We really liked it. I mean we REALLY liked it. Our next stop was Brewster, Mass. on Cape Cod. Even though it was mostly rainy the two days we were there, we had a great time, especially our two dinners out at the Nauset Beach Club and the Brewster Fish House.

On Friday, March 21st, we picked up great nephew Tyler at Boston College, and then met Vicki and Steve Burris in Newton for lunch. Then Tyler came with us up to Gilmanton. The surprise was that we weren't able to stay at Drew Farm, which was surrounded by a fairly high pile of hard-packed snow and ice. We were able to get inside to see that it looked great, no evidence of intruders (the mice/squirrel crew). But we stayed with Bill's cousins, Mark and Nancy. We took Tyler to visit Joe and Lorian, and we also met our downhill neighbors at Drew Farm, a family who is tapping the maple trees at Drew Farm--they presented us with a jug of syrup from our own trees!

On Easter Sunday we attended the annual Easter brunch at Chris and Heather's house. We helped deliver some of the 57 decorated eggs (small egg-shaped cakes with icing on them) that Jo Anna, Nancy, Emily, and even Sharon labored over (I did 3). The food was wonderful, the day was sunny, and we got to talk to lots of family and friends.

On our way home, Bill and I stopped at Guilford again to look at that condo. Hmmm...one could almost imagine living there. Bookcases in every room. A fireplace with Dutch tiles. Beautiful windows everywhere. A view towards woods. A pleasant and private deck. Three bathrooms! A kitchen with a gas stove and a view towards those woods. And the town of Guilford has a decent independent bookstore (the next town over has a fabulous one), a fair coffee place, a couple of really nice restaurants, a beautiful town green, old colonial houses, a town beach, lots of hiking trails, proximity to New Haven and Yale's cultural amenities, and one can get there by train (or bus when the commuter train times don't cooperate). Or get to NYC. Or Boston. And it's not too far from Gilmanton, either. Wendy and Allan Berlind are just up the road in Middletown. What's not to like?

No time to think. Jenny, Phil and the kids arrived in Princeton on Tuesday! A whirlwind of activities. Sharon stayed home one day while the rest of the family went off to Philly for the day. And what was she doing? Well, something to do with real estate, and loans. On Friday we drove up to Millburn with Jenny and Lucy (Phil and the other kids went in their car). Then Bill and I visited with my cousin Betsy Foster and her husband Steve in their home in Verona. It had been a long time since I had seen her--perhaps around 50 years?? The most exciting thing that happened was our stop at my mother's home on South Prospect. The last time we went there, in 2004, the place was delapidated, and we learned later a home for drug trade. The most wonderful surprise was that a young couple with small children have bought it and are fixing it up, making it a beautiful home again. The young wife is Irish, and we have corresponded already via email. I am telling her stories of the people who built the house, my Dutch great grandfather and his two sons.

Back to the Guilford house. It's a condo that's more like a house. Like our home in Palo Alto. But bigger (twice as big). And there are all those bookcases. Let's see what happens. Today as I write this, it is looking very promising. More later.

Catch-up, the blogging treadmill

2008-03-13T12:10:00.000-07:00

It's even harder to catch up when you've let this blog go another month without all the highlights missing since the last post. We began our Princeton sojourn on January 16th, had Internet and our library cards by the second day. I started my participation in the poetry world here by attending the U.S. 1 poets reading at the Princeton Public Library on the 23rd, meeting my email friend Carolyn Foote Edelmann, who has put Bill and me in touch with an amazing array of friendly and interesting folks. Bill and I took our first mini-trip to New Brunswick on the 25th, discovered the free-open-to-everyone library there, was able to do some genealogical lookups. On the 29th we were off to NYC for AWP!

What I especially remember from our week in NY: dinners with Bill at 2 restaurants he discovered for us, Boqueria (lively tapas place) and The Little Owl (in Greenwich Village), the latter especially charming; Dan Bellm's wonderful reading at the 92nd St. Y with a stellar group of Jewish poets; a concert by the early music group Parthenia at the Corpus Christi Church on the Upper West side (also another restaurant, Community, nearby); the tiny but absolutely authentic Italian espresso bar, Zibetto, two blocks from the Hilton; and dinner with our friends in Brooklyn at Ozzie's. Oh, and AWP was wonderful, too! Readings by Galway Kinnell, Sharon Olds, Carolyn Forche, Alicia Ostriker, Robert Pinsky--and we sold lots of Rivers books too!

In early February we drove one day to Bryn Mawr and Ardmore, walked around the beautiful campus at Haverford, and attended a poetry reading given by J.C. Todd and Francine Sterle at Robin's Bookstore. Then we wheeled back to Philly that weekend, checked out Moorestown, NJ on the way down (of note is the Gelateria Dolce Crema Artisan Gelato...) and went to a lovely concert in the Old Pine St. Church played by the Philadelphia Ensemble.

The first really lovely snowfall in Princeton occured on Tuesday, Feb. 12. Bill and I walked around the campus, the snow crunchy and strangely silent under our feet. That night I showed up for a U.S. 1 Poets workshop but it seems that I, the Californian, was the only one to brave the "snowy" weather (it really wasn't that bad!). Other Princeton events that week: Philip Lopate on the 13th, and a Schubert concert that evening at the Westminster Choir College.

On Sunday, Feb. 17, after a scary tooth incident (my fragile lower molar attacked by a large nut, then set upon by dentists with silver mallets--does it hurt here? how about there?--luckily my tooth decided to calm down and behave), we headed off to Buffalo, but first we went to visit Joel and Susan in Brooklyn and attended with them a "concert of viols" at the Church of the Transfiguration in lower Manhattan, an amazing English-style church where Bill's parents were married.

On Monday, Feb. 18, we drove to Ithaca (short afternoon stop in Binghamton) and had dinner at the Moosewood Cafe. The next morning we had a lovely snowy walk around the Cornell campus, and especially enjoyed the Art Museum, which had an amazing view of the lake, town, and campus from its top floor. As our car got closer and closer to Buffalo, the weather got snowier and snowier. With Bill's superb snow navigation skills, we "glided" into downtown Buffalo, then managed the elevated highway to the south of town so we could arrive in time for dinner with Jenny, Phil and the kids. Phil escorted us back to our hotel at the end of the evening, which was much appreciated.

On Wednesday we got to see all the kids sledding on the hill next to the Conservatory in the Botanical Gardens. On Thursday Bill and I changed our quarters to the Roycroft Hotel in East Aurora, a lovely arts-and-crafts-style building that was the center of Elbert Hubbard's "Roycroft" experiment in the late 19th and early 20th century. Dinner in the library by the fire was very romantic. We went on a tour of the hotel the next morning, and then Jenny and the girls arrived, and then Phil's sister Annie with her girls and our Frano, and we all had a tasty dinner at Tantalus.

On Saturday, Feb. 23, we drove east to Corning, stopped in at the Corning Glass Museum, decided we HAD to come back the next morning, and did--actually spent another half day. Quite an amazing museum, everything very well displayed and labeled, and truly some miraculous creations in glass. That night we were back "home" in Princeton.

I could mention another trip to Philly for the day (March 2), spent at the Philadelphia Art Museum, mostly to see the very-well-attended (trans.: crowded) Frida Kahlo exhibit. And another visit to Brooklyn (Mar. 5), a tour of Grand Central Terminal with our friends Ruth and Ed, a long lunch at their favorite (and now one of ours...) French cafe on the Lower East Side, Lucien. And then the next day, a gorgeous, clear, sunny day, Bill and I rode the Staten Island ferry. In St. George we visited the Staten Island Borough Hall, saw the WPA murals that depicted scenes from SI history, including a portrait of my ancestor, Cornelius Melyn, who was a patroon of the island in the 1640s. I then walked over to the public library across the street and found lots of info about him I hadn't known before, all photocopied dutifully (80+ pages).

More highlights: attending the monologue The Mad 7, performed by Yehuda Hyman at the Rehearsal Room in the McCarter Theater. That was on March 7.

On March 12th I made my New Jersey debut, reading at the Somerset County Library in Bridgewater. A very nice group that meets to discuss poetry and hear invited poets like myself. Nine in attendance and I sold 3 books!

That should bring us up to date, are you satisfied??

Santa Fe, fever in the snow

2008-02-11T05:07:00.000-08:00

This blog is not being kept in an orderly fashion. For instance, you'll notice that the day of posting is February 11, and that we are way behind. Our 3 nights in Santa Fe was like a dream, mostly because I had a 99-100 degree temperature most of the time, and the beginning of a flu-like cough that had the nasty habit of continuing on and on and on. So I would rest in our casita at the Santa Fe Motel and Inn and watch the snow coming down. Bill would show up with delicacies for lunch and dinner we would heat in our microwave. We managed about one major site a day, so we saw the Palace of the Governors and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. And we hung out at Ecco Espresso and Gelato, where the hot chocolate was truly wonderful and everything else terrific as well.

Tues. morning, January 9, we drove down to Albuquerque where we would catch our train. I was sorry to miss seeing much of the town. Instead we found the Grove Cafe, which I would recommend to anyone, as the menu says, all coffee drinks made with a double shot. The train (Amtrak) was on time, actually it was early--how many times can one say that? We were finally off across the country. The scenery in Northeast New Mexico is stunning. At sunset we arrived at the stop for Raton, where my friend Janine grew up. A lighted star shone from the hill above the town. The next thing I knew it was morning and we were stopped outside Kansas City, which looked a lot like Pittsburgh at that time of day (another stop later on). We spent a few days with Jeanne and Bill in Sleepy Hollow, Illinois, a suburb far west of Chicago that seemed not to have a drop of Chicago blood.

Monday morning, January 14, we followed a beautiful river down through parts of Pennsylvania and West Virginia, stopped for a bit in Cumberland, MD, and then arrived in Wash. D.C. Had a nice dinner with Karen, Elena and Marina at a nearby cafe in Arlington (Whitlow's), also visited a little with Fede, who was preparing for his classes. The next morning we went to the Edward Hopper show at the National Gallery--and I remember one painting I had never seen before of a young couple preparing to go out for the evening, except the man had just gotten home and was catching up on the newspaper, and the women looked bored and ready to just-leave-the-house this minute, one of those Hopper paintings with a heavy plot.

That day we took the train to Philadelphia, stayed in the Alexander Inn, a nice "boutique" hotel right in the center of town [picture at the top of this entry is taken from our room], found Brew-Ha-Ha, now our favorite hangout for espresso in Philly, and hopped a bus to Melograno for dinner, temporarily forgot it was BYOB, so Bill hopped a bus to the nearest liquor store to buy some wine for his sweetheart (effort duly noted), and we proceeded to have a lovely dinner. My ravioli filled with short ribs in a heavenly jus were memorable.

The next morning we went to Morning Glory for breakfast, another regular stop, got the car, had lunch at Caribou, and headed off to Princeton. Well, slo took a short stop to see the condos at the Western Union building, actually I just saw the office which was in a "display" version of the condos, took away literature, head spinning, great neighborhood, is this us??

3rd leg of our cross-country trip: New Mexico

2008-01-11T10:20:00.000-08:00

The cows were munching on pale grasses as we glided past them on the road from Deming to Hillsboro, New Mexico. A few times we had to slow down because cows were actually ON the road. After Hillsboro highway 152 narrows through a gorge, at the bottom of which is Percha Creek. We found the lodge where we would be holed up for a few days, The Black Range Lodge, with a group of geologists from the University of Wisconsin Eau Clair. We would have dinner with them and then early the next morning they would disappear, off with their heavy packs full of compasses and rock hammers and orienteering equipment of all types.

I decided it would be good for my brain to try to see how many of them I can still remember. There was Brian, the leader, then another Brian, a swimmer who was avoiding alcohol to keep in training, Herald (interesting story as to how he got the spelling of his name), Anna (formerly an art student, I told her about Judy Chicago), Heidi (a very earnest geologist), Liz (who could talk a mile a minute and we could almost follow her...!), Nathan (who had the cutest Simpsons lounging pants), Shane (whose birthday was celebrated the first night), then there was Aaron and Michelle and Greg, the T.A. from Canada but I can't remember his wife's name...if I think of any others I guess I will get extra credit.

When Bill and I drove to the Emory Pass vista point the sign described the Tertiary Volcanic layers we were looking at, which was nice to share with the students. Our hosts at the lodge were straw bale building enthusiasts. They knew Drew Hubbell, son of Jim Hubbell and friend of Janet and Bruce Richards (see San Diego post), so it was a nice circular connection.

After the 2nd night there, we headed north to Santa Fe.

2nd leg of our cross-country trip: Arizona

2008-01-02T07:57:00.000-08:00

Boulders lay on top of each other in surreal piles. Our rented car snaked around bends that the wagon trains once traversed. Outside Yuma helmeted children of all ages surfed down the dune hillsides in dune buggies of all sizes, and there were RV's as far as the eye could see. From Yuma we drove east to Gila Bend for lunch at the Space Age restaurant. Then southeast to Ajo, a delightful and surprising town with arcades on three sides of a grassy plaza. At sunset we were gliding across the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation, stopped at the Shell station in Sells, the colors of the mountains and sky purple against electric blue.

The next day in Tucson we walked around the downtown civic center, St. Augustine Cathedral, the Pima County Courthouse, City Hall and the Federal Building. The latter structure's glass entryway served up a luscious photo op.

1st leg of our cross-country trip: California

2008-01-02T07:38:00.000-08:00

On December 24th we drove straight down 5 (not "the 5" as they say in So Cal), and sometimes on 33 (the Busy Bee Bakery fellow made us nice sandwiches in Coalinga: white bread, squirted-on mayonnaise, triangles of American cheese, turkey, lettuce, peppers, tomato). We arrived at San Marino Community Church just in time to see a determined angel rushing up the aisle (the others were gliding or otherwise drifting angel-like)--the determined one was my great-niece Elena, she did a great job.

On Christmas Day the family took the traditional Christmas Day walk. And the day after, William and I headed out to Santa Anita for opening day at the track. Had a great time, beautiful horses, the mariachi bands, none of the beautiful horses won for us so neither of us could gloat.

On Saturday we took the Surfliner down to San Diego and arrived in Point Loma to visit with our friend Janet Richards. At 90+ she took the lead on our walk on Shelter Island. The sky at sunset was lovely, Jim Hubbell's sculptures gleamed, a hulking cruise ship edged its way in the harbor, symbols of danger and waste side by side with Hubbell's gates of peace.

Narrative tangles

2007-11-17T18:51:00.000-08:00

The other night I was reading a book about Kandinsky in Munich, looking at so many wonderful paintings. Also read about him making costumes for the theater. Some of his early works showed his interest in folklore, patterns and decoration. Hitler chose several Kandinsky paintings to be in his famous traveling exhibition of degenerate art. And I was reading about Kandinsky's use of "dots" or blobs, how he used them to fill out black figures against a black background. I was also thinking about the work of Vuillard, and Kathleen Fraser's poem about Vuillard and his mother, who was a seamstress. Somehow all of these threads (!) got tangled up in a poem I wrote. When I got to the end I realized I had made Kandinsky's mother into a seamstress. So I thought I'd better check the facts. Didn't seem likely. Kandinsky's mother left when he was 4 to marry another man, hardly the homemaker type. So I had to "adjust" the poem. Pulled in Jackson Pollock, too, and Mick Jagger, why not?

All this would make a good discussion about narrative ethics. Okay to have characters from different time periods in your poem, but making up a fact about one's mother, well that has to be out of line. You can have an imaginary tribunal, but not rewrite someone's childhood. So here's the poem.

Wassily Kandinsky’s Defense at the (Imaginary) Tribunal of Degenerate Artists

Yellow’s unstitching itself from the sun
— Kathleen Fraser

So you’d like me to connect the dots.

I was born too early to be a language poet, and I couldn’t have known Mr. Pollock.

Let’s take a look at one of my early works, “The Night,” from 1907.

The black that is not a being

backing up the black that is being

dots forming the outline, then filling in . . .

How do I know how close to come without re-entering the void?

The answer is simply that I had access to the seamstress’ muslins,

used her patterns to measure the torso, the waist, the width of the shoulders.

That said, all of this information internalized leaves me free to apply

the pigment in a manner you seem to find capricious, degenerate, even.

Mick Jagger, please meet Kathleen Fraser, I’d be happy to give you

pointers in your own presentations to the (imaginary) tribunal.

What part of black on black do you not understand?

Slip on a pair of glasses that magnify, perhaps you will find yourself in Paris,

on top of the Eiffel Tower surveying the city below, flashes of yellow on black.

Whether you find human figures or buildings, my dots are there to signify.

slopoet

The Ward/Harrison angle

2007-10-17T08:58:00.000-07:00

A bit of space has crept into the blog. After I retired we went on a six-week-long vacation. We discovered a six-week vacation might be too long. Not the part in New Hampshire with the grandkids, long afternoons at the pond. One of the highlights of the second half, when we were on the go, was an eco-cruise of the Hackensack River. Another highlight was visiting Wendy and Allan in Middletown, and learning that Wendy and I are related. We are both doing genealogy and we were astonished one night to learn our lists of names were...the same! It's those Ward children, one winds its way down to Wendy, another down to me. The Wards came down to Newark with all their Puritan friends from Branford, Connecticut, looking for a purer settlement, perhaps that's where they got the word Puritan. On the eco-cruise we learned when our dear ancestors, the Wards, came down to New Jersey in 1666, the entire area would have been covered with white cedar. So we couldn't exactly re-create what their boating experiences would have been like on the Hackensack and the Passaic. They certainly wouldn't have seen the Empire State Building across the meadowlands. You can send money to the Riverkeepers of the Hackensack (see http://www.hackensackriverkeeper.org/) to keep the river clean and pure, make it more appealing for osprey and egrets than the occasional Mafia dump. Stay tuned on this blog for information about the whole eastern experiment, more information coming soon.

slopoet begins a new life

2007-07-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

I still have one job, treasurer of the nonprofit known as Sixteen Rivers Press. Can't get too lax, now that I don't have to report to the library anymore. Should get busy juggling some books, not 16 Rivers' -- maybe my own. One could spend half a day traipsing between banks. My grandfather started out as a bank teller, but I never got the idea he amounted to much. I remember him boasting to me when I was a little girl that he dealt with "salvage..." whatever that meant. My grandparents were close friends of Hannah and Frank Nixon in Whittier, you know, the folks with two sons, one of whom had to resign his job at the White House. Here's a picture of me and the Nixons. They always promised me I could play with their grandchildren, Julie and Trisha, but somehow that never came about. Later I took a left turn, never looked back.

Schwanengesong

2007-06-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

I’m going to write a swan song for my last day on the job. This swan has been swimming around the same pond for twenty-nine years. Think of the old duck pond at Rickey’s Hyatt House, the one with the arched bridge. Now imagine they have opened up a channel out of there, straight through the baylands towards the bay, and then you pick up your wings and maybe fly over to New England, if you’ve got the legs. And the new habitat will take getting used to. Got to figure out what to do during the snow months. Compiling new genealogy charts could take up an entire winter (see how far back you can go...). Writing that biography of Catherine Raftor, aka Kitty Clive, will then take up the next big chunk of time. Add in a few trips to Europe. And to read books and actually finish them in a timely manner. Long before they are due back at the library. I imagine I could learn to cook up some casseroles and other tasty dishes to freeze and bring out to share with wonderful spouse, who has looked on as I heated up deli items for dinner night after night, what kind of wife did he marry, anyway? These goodies would go well with his homemade soup. Some discipline would be required for the computer time, some timeouts for walks up to the top of the nearest hill. Maybe a dog would help, nipping at my heels to remind me—out, out in the world. After a suitable time I could go back to work, that’s right. Maybe get those final three quarters I need to qualify for Social Security and Medicare. At a bookstore where my skills should come in handy. Work when I want to—could you take the afternoon shift? Sounds lovely! But when those three quarters are over, maybe call it quits for awhile. Start, stop, at will. This swan is psyched. Remember the old opera story, the actor playing Lohengrin watched as the swan boat that was to take him to heaven sped across the stage and off to the other side. He paused, turned to the audience and asked “When does the next swan leave?” Seems prudent not to wait too long. Start flapping those wings!

new poetic form

2007-06-20T00:20:00.000-07:00

I think the blog may have influenced my writing, specifically my poetry writing. My latest poem is roughly the size and shape of a blog entry. It looks like this:

Approaching Retirement

The agricultural specialist has approved root removal and transplant
to one of the lower-scored hardiness zones as long as the difference
in number does not exceed three, or maybe four, which would require
transformation from poet to novelist, perhaps, or even biographer,
writing about subjects living preferably in the 17th to 18th century,
requiring multiple requests for archival material to be sent to the new
zone, work being done primarily in the hothouse Florida room, which
most zone six homes seem to flaunt, even though they are boarded up
much of the year, I was thinking this would necessitate covering bare
limbs with woolen material, and layers of down, a kind of mulch
for the brain, the heart of the plant raring to go, no distractions,
no excuses, nothing but the blank page to be filled, and time to do it,
the specialist has promised there will be time, though the growing
period has actually stopped, he suddenly reminded me, several
decades ago.

Perhaps my poetry will now be in this form, prose poetry in this nice
boxy shape. And here are the hardiness zones for the Eastern
seaboard, in case you were interested.

The door-fastener

2007-06-14T23:06:00.000-07:00

One thing you need to know about my great-grandfather, Fillmore Condit--he was persistent. If he wanted to know how something worked, he would study until he got it right. Never went to college, but he invented a refrigerator door fastener for meat lockers. Got it patented and sold lots of them, traveled to the Midwest (from New Jersey) and up to New England. Got him enough money to switch from being a grocer to a real estate developer. And later worked for Union Oil.

I kept thinking I'd like to see the patent he supposedly obtained, what it looked like. After years of checking every once in a while with the U.S. Patent Office online databases--they never seemed to include Fillmore's year--I discovered today that Google has a patent search. It's very simple. I just put in Fillmore's name and there it was. Easy to download as a pdf. I like to imagine him waiting around, rustling up the lawyers and witnesses, what it must have been like to register this invention. Here's his diagram, take it straight to your local manufacturer.

lucy comes into the world

2007-05-30T08:19:00.000-07:00

On May 5th, 2007, Lucy Margaret Rados came into the world. She is my husband Bill's granddaughter, his third grandchild. Of course, she is beautiful, as you can see. She will be three months old when we get to see her, hold her, greet her, coo.

I liked Jenny's (Jenny is Lucy's mother, and Bill's daughter) comment: "She is the most easygoing of our babies so far--though maybe we just finally have a vague idea of what we're doing!" A few weeks later she said, "We can't wait for Gilmanton [N.H]. Am thinking we need to instate the 5pm cocktail hour!" So that's it, and Drew Farm will have to participate.

Years ago when there were no grandchildren Jenny and I (with help from others...) gave a cocktail party at Green Pastures, a place where we stayed, that was "in the family," because Drew Farm was being rented. We endured strange evenings there listening to the high-pitched songs of the skunk litter in the basement. Anyway, Jenny and I rustled up prosciutto and melon (we were ahead of the curve) and my mother's cheese puffs hot from the oven. A good time was had by all. Now we have our own recently remodeled bee-yoo-tiful kitchen at Drew Farm. Should be a snap. Let the word out, 5pm, come up to Drew Farm. You won't be disappointed. And Lucy will be on display, fresh from her nap!

slopoet meditates on the saltbox

2007-05-07T23:57:00.000-07:00

Nice saltbox for sale in Guilford, CT. [This isn't the "saltbox"--it's a historic house in Guilford, the Whitfield house, very near the Village Green]. Back to the house for sale--vintage 1970s, so it wouldn't be an ancient structure with low counters for Revolutionary War-vintage short people. Don't want to be hunched over stirring the pot on the stove. Pond on the property. Brings up the mosquito issue. How do you ask people politely how the mosquitoes are, well, year-round. Only bad in the summer? Only at dusk? Can you spend time in the backyard between May and October?

Houses in the East seem primarily to be 2-story. All the nice ones, at least. Some ranch houses. Who likes a ranch house. Too Californian. Then again, what do we do about our knees? Can they be trusted to behave? For me, the left one keeps giving way, all of a sudden, halfway up or down the stairs. The other knee gives me grief when I sit down. They are feeling better this week, not sure what to think. When will the "giving way" start to manifest itself?

We'll just have to save up money to install an elevator in whatever charming house we decide we have to have. It'll be a two-story one, I guarantee it. Maybe we can find one where our predecessors were old, too, and lame. House comes with...elevator.

slopoet visits plymouth church

2007-04-29T10:37:00.000-07:00

We'd crossed over from Hoboken to Manhattan by ferry, a gorgeous, clear day. Then we descended to the subway, zipped over to Brooklyn Heights. We were going to visit Plymouth Church, where Henry Ward Beecher preached for many years, also an important stop on the Underground Railway. Glad to find the station had an elevator, shaky knees. Imagine our delight rounding the corner in the station and finding this lovely tile representation of Plymouth Church, our very destination.

When we got to the actual church, it was locked, but we could see into the courtyard we had first viewed in the "tile" version. We rounded another corner, saw the church office door, also locked. But we buzzed. The woman who answered the buzz not only let us in, but gave us an impromptu tour of the sanctuary.

slopoet contemplates moving to the East coast

2007-04-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

Going to turn in my retirement papers soon, by the end of the month.

Next step, get an apartment, sell the house, figure out where we're going to move.

Why not swap one university town for another? Princeton and Charlottesville are both very appealing. Full-strength coffee bars, vegetarian food markets, excellent public libraries and bookstores, all the basics. Well, Princeton just lost a first-class independent bookstore--the university bookstore might have to do.

We found great bookstores in Philadelphia (Joseph Fox and Big Jar Books). And there's always NYC.

slopoet tells terry about the new blog

2007-04-18T23:53:00.000-07:00

This is a special message for Terry, who wants to create a personal website. I've never actually done that, but if you go to Google and register with them, you can set up a blog, through blogger. You could certainly have a journal, with pictures. Or you can create Picasa picture albums (you've seen mine). Each album can have a long introduction, which could be part of a journal, and each picture can have captions.But this is the blog. Your friends and family could write responses to your blog entries. I just set this up tonight, never have done it before.

Signed, slopoet

By the way, the photo is of the Fulton Ferry Landing under the Brooklyn Bridge.

slopoet goes to the presbyterian burial ground

2007-04-18T23:50:00.000-07:00