book of love

fuz got hitched! the wedding was exemplary of weddings done right (and they planned it all themselves!) - a true expression of the individuals themselves

and wholehearted celebration by all.

i'm sure these sounds of celebration are ringing from all corners of the internet, what with the eclectic, expressive and connected group of friends these two have. the following are the lyrics to 'book of love' by magnetic fields, the song played by their royally gifted musician buddies as the to-be-weds walked down the aisle... (i have it on repeat)

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing

But I, I love it when you read to me
And you, you can read me anything

The book of love has music in it
In fact, that's where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb, but

I, I love it when you sing to me, and
You, you can sing me anything

The book of love is long and boring

And written very long ago

It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes

And things we're all too young to know, but

I, I love it when you give me things
And you, you ought to give me wedding rings

---------

(photos from stl --> philly. none from the wedding,

as i brilliantly forgot my camera. the evo came through

and kept me entertained

on the flight, at least, but then broke just in time

for the ceremony...)

near misses

(taken after rigby and i huddled in the basement while

funnel clouds passed overhead one afternoon in

a terrifyingly tornadoey may)

The truck that swerved to miss the stroller in which I slept.

My mother turning from the laundry basket just in time to see me open the third-story window to call to the cat.

In the car, on ice, something spinning and made of history snatched me back from the guardrail and set me down between two gentle trees. And that time I thought to look both ways on the one-way street.

And when the doorbell rang, and I didn’t answer, and just before I slipped one night into a drunken dream, I remembered to blow out the candle burning on the table beside me.

It's a miracle, I tell you, this middle-aged woman scanning the cans on the grocery store shelf. Hidden in the works of a mysterious clock are her many deaths, and yet the whole world is piled up before her on a banquet table again today. The timer, broken. The sunset smeared across the horizon in the girlish cursive of the ocean, Forever, For You.

And still she can offer only her body as proof:

The way it moves a little slower every day. And the cells, ticking away. A crow pecking at a sweater. The last hour waiting patiently on a tray for her somewhere in the future. The spoon slipping quietly into the beautiful soup.

--Laura Kasischke

early 90s mystery solved

FINALLY -- my roommate and i were reexploring our youth through disney singalongs this weekend when a key moment unfolded -- the discovery of the actual lyrics to the beginning of 'the circle of life' in the lion king, PLUS their meaning. paradigm shift.

also, pure nostalgia: according to my father, i used to watch dumbo everyday when i was four or five and BAWL at the same part - when his mother sings dumbo this song. it is still SO. SAD.

traveling light

I'm only leaving you

for a handful of days,

but it feels as though

I'll be gone forever—

the way the door closes

behind me with such solidity,

the way my suitcase

carries everything

I'd need for an eternity

of traveling light.

I've left my hotel number

on your desk, instructions

about the dog

and heating dinner. But

like the weather front

they warn is on its way

with its switchblades

of wind and ice,

our lives have minds

of their own.

- linda pastan

turn it up to eleven!!

i concur, sir

i'm on my psychiatry rotation right now and finally feel like i've found a home in medicine. for many reasons, and here was one:

[background: this patient was admitted for exacerbation of schizophrenic symptoms (he vehemently insists he is a voodoo priest) after not taking his medication for several months. he told nurses at an outside hospital that he was planning on storming the illinois state capitol and harming the state attorney, because he has not yet received the financial retribution he deserves for housing drug dealers and using his voodoo powers to prevent them from killing themselves and others. aside from the fact that he wanted to possibly murder a man, he was a pleasant guy and we talked over the course of the week about how he wanted to change his life when he got out, how he was illiterate and wanted to learn how to read, how much he had enjoyed reading classes before, etc.

this conversation took place on his last day before discharge...]

me: hi mr. X, i wrote down a couple numbers of places you can call to find reading classes, so you can maybe get back into learning how to read in the next couple weeks...

patient (eyes really big, huge smile, nodding head emphatically): oh yeaaaa! thank you! man, i tried a class here one time, i know i'll never be smart enough for college classes, but i even passed this reading class and it was really fun!

me: [heart breaking, increased eye moisture and blinking]

patient: thanks so much, i'll give them a call tomorrow. but you know [tone turns serious], if you're gonna work in this place [psych ward], man, you know, you should be taking classes, like martial arts, self-defense shit, you know what i mean? cause people in here [voice drops to a whisper, sideway glances ensue]...

... people in here are CRAZY.

aaaaaaaaand END SCENE

samurai song

When I had no roof I made

Audacity my roof. When I had

No supper my eyes dined.

When I had no eyes I listened.

When I had no ears I thought.

When I had no thought I waited.

When I had no father I made

Care my father. When I had

No mother I embraced order.

When I had no friend I made

Quiet my friend. When I had no

Enemy I opposed my body.

When I had no temple I made

My voice my temple. I have

No priest, my tongue is my choir.

When I have no means fortune

Is my means. When I have

Nothing, death will be my fortune.

Need is my tactic, detachment

Is my strategy. When I had

No lover I courted my sleep.

- robert pinsky

bring me your first-born sun

Tower Grove Park is an unbelievable treat in the spring, and, as it's directly across the street, oftentimes where I gravitate towards in the afternoon, whether I'm planning to run or be as stationary as possible on a cozy towel in the warm sun.

In lieu of a poem, some info on this slice of heaven in the city. Wikipedia almost does it justice, so I copped their entire article (click link to see their pics, cause mine certainly don't correlate AT ALL, aside from the fact they were taken there):

Tower Grove Park is a municipal park in the City of Saint Louis. Most of its land was donated to the city by Henry Shawin 1868. It is on 289 acres (1.17 km²) adjacent to the Missouri Botanical Garden, another of Shaw’s legacies.

The park features eleven pavilions of picturesque design, dating from the Victorian era, which provide shady rests from which visitors can enjoy the many lovely views. Its landscape includes a lily pond and formal plantings; the Piper Palm House, the site of music and other special events; as well as tennis courts; a wading pool for small children; open expanses of green; softball diamonds and soccer fields; and tall specimen trees and a great variety of bushes. The park has been designated a National Historic Landmark.

Many events, from picnics to weddings, are held in the park throughout the year. During the summer, a number of large festivals are held in the park, including ones featuring themes such as international, pagan, and Gay Pride.

Since 2005, from May through October, a farmers' market is held from 8:30-12:30 Saturday mornings just west of the Wading Pool Pavilion. It features local and organic farmers offering fresh produce, baked goods and preserves, as well as prepared foods and drinks, teas and coffees.

The park features nearly 400 species of trees and bushes. The park is a well-known birdwatching area, particularly during the spring and fall bird migration seasons.

It is part of the Mississippi Flyway and migrating birds rest in the park along their journey. Forty percent of North American songbirds and waterbirds use this route. Examples are many types of warblers, orioles, and Canadian geese.

maybe janet, maybe not

Maybe Janet, Maybe Not
2011
Digital Photograph
8”x11”

on display at St. Louis Artist's Guild Gallery June 25 to August 19

as part of the 'Drift' exhibition

glory, then, in the springs that are yours

I stuck my head out the window this morning

and spring kissed me bang in the face.

-- Langston Hughes

Spring has returned. The earth is like a child that knows poems.

-- Rainer Maria Rilke

April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

-- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring.

-- Nelson Algren

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.

-- Margaret Atwood

I want to do to you what spring does with the cherry trees.

-- Pablo Neruda

Sweet springtime is my time

is your time

is our time for springtime

is love time and

viva sweet love.

-- e.e. cummings

A little Madness in the spring

Is wholesome even for the King.

-- Emily Dickinson

For every person who has ever lived there has come,

at last, a spring he will never see.

Glory then in the springs that are yours.

-- Pam Brown

Science has never drummed up quite as effective a tranquilizing agent

as a sunny spring day.

-- W. Earl Hall

Winter is on my head,

but eternal spring is in my heart.

-- Victor Hugo

To be interested in the changing seasons

is a happier state of mind than

to be hopelessly in love with spring.

-- George Santayana

the libraries didn't burn

despite books kindled in electronic flames.

The locket of bookish love

still opens and shuts.

But its words have migrated

to a luminous elsewhere.

Neither completely oral nor written —

a somewhere in between.

Then will oak, willow,

birch, and olive poets return

to their digital tribes —

trees wander back to the forest?

- elaine equi

(discovered by my roommate and ardent lover of books, L!)