Welcome to the second installment of A Gathering of Poetry.
Today, I am going to introduce you all to a poet I discovered late last month on the Poetry For All podcast. I had never heard of Rafael Campo but I was so enamored of the poem, Primary Care, that I checked out two of his books of poetry (and he is a prolific poet) and have been reading one or two every morning.
I tried to find online links to Rafael’s poetry and The Poetry Foundation just has two of his poems listed. My list of favorites are long in just the few weeks I have begun reading his poetry. He writes such beautiful poetry that moves me deeply.
I was going to share Primary Care, but you can listen to Dr. Campo read it here. I just love this poem… so much but I might love the poem I am sharing today the tiniest bit more and I hope you like it as well.
Nude
by Rafael Campo
I enter unexpectedly, and see
your hair cascading white-and-gray in loose,
long tresses down the full length of your back.
The nurse is bathing you in a honeyed light,
when sunrise in the hospital makes all
seem gorgeous, even the gleaming bedpan,
even the scuffed but bright linoleum,
even the faces peering into death.
Your heart is failing, yet you have the strength
to turn, your breasts still the world’s nourishment,
your eyes, though I have diagnosed in them
thick cataracts, alight again with youth’s
demure, coquettish indignation. “Please,
excuse me Doctor, I am indisposed!”
For just a moment, as you pull the sheet
to safeguard your imperiled modesty—
your operatic thighs, your blatant hips,
your ruined neck with its distended veins—
I think you are like Goya’s ageless nude,
eternal beckoning of human form,
inviolable, innocent, a gift
that both of us acknowledge, knowing that
such love is too sweet ever to be shared.
Nude from Alternative Medicine by Rafael Campo. Duke University Press copyright 2014.
First up… before any fun begins… I want to give a bit of a reminder to check your voting registration… in PA you have until October 24th to register to vote in the November election AND there is still time to get your mail-in ballot! You will find your state information here! There is so much that is not on the ballot, so who you vote for has never been more important.
No matter who you vote for, the most important thing is that you vote! (and with that I will get off my soap box and return you to your regularly scheduled blog post)
Now how about some excellent RIFFs for this chilly Friday!
Radiant —
A clip of the video below showed up in my Twitter feed one afternoon this week and I just needed more. I thought this might be the perfect way to usher in Friday. Brilliant, joyful, so uplifting and I believe that this was exactly what Mr. Vivaldi was hoping would happen with his music! This week, the Goede Hoop Marimba Band has given me the best “ear worm” ever! I hope you enjoy it as well!
Indigenous (Mapping) —
Steve had the day off on Monday for The Holiday Formerly Known as Columbus Day. In all honesty, I never spent much time thinking about the greatness of Columbus on this day. But recently I have been thinking much more about the silliness of celebrating a day of discovery of a land that was already discovered… and had been for roughly 25,000 years. I had so much fun with this map that NPR shared this week. It shows a well-inhabited North America… and drilling down to my neighborhood, I now know that I live on lands of Osage and Shawnee as well as the ancient tribe of Monongahela Indians.
My library does not contain many books so the fact that I have a copy of Dryer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style should tell you that I thought this book was important and very necessary. Reading his article has reminded me that I am long overdue for a reread.
But… this could have been written for me: “Good writing, I think, ultimately exists between the twin goal posts of as-few-words-as-you-need and as-many-words-as-you-want. I, a natural natterer, lean toward the latterer.”
I am thankful for Dryer’s reminder on my over use of very and actually… at least for the moment! LOL
(and) Finally —
A bit of a vacation blogging schedule notice. Next Thursday (10/20), we head off to my most favored of places on the planet – Mississauga Lands (otherwise known as Presque Isle in Erie, PA) for a bit of a rest and rejuvenation! There will be an Unraveled post on Wednesday (10/26) but that is it. I don’t know how much making and reading I will have accomplished while on vacation, but you never know… I might even surprise myself! Ha!
I will be here as usual next week. On Monday the docent will have a new Museum of Me exhibit, and of course, there will be some Unraveling on Wednesday. I will be closing the week out on Thursday with A Gathering of Poetry installment and I’d like to invite you all to join in with us and share a poem that you might have stumbled across recently. Or share a poem that is near and dear to your heart. Really. The more the merrier… life can never have too little poetry!
And with that I will let you all get on with your day! Happy Friday All!
…brings rain! And that, my friends, is a very, very good thing!
My focus is still on keeping things simple this week, despite an incredibly unsimple event that might occur this week… Jury Duty. I got the summons a couple of months ago and this is the week when I *might* be called up to serve. Err, rather I need to “log-in” Wednesday night to see if I have to report on Thursday.
What makes this unsimple event a bit more troublesome… I got a notification from the Colonoscopy Office… if I get COVID between *now and the date of my colonoscopy* I cannot get the procedure…because of course, right? I am not exactly stressing… I will of course wear a mask if I have to report for Jury Duty but I don’t want to delay my colonscopy… at all. I am sort of hoping that my reporting group will not have to report.
To keep my mind occupied and not dwelling on a situation that I have no control over, I am going to continue in with my sewing theme. Okay, maybe not actual sewing, but rather the cutting out bits. I *thought* a lot about that part last week but did not do one second of the *doing* of the pinning out. That is the ONLY thing on my Start List this week.
And with that, I am off to begin my week! Happy Monday all, I will be back on Wednesday with a rather Whimsical Unraveled post!
“Art is the highest form of hope.” ― Gerhard Richter
This week I really noticed mornings that were lighter. It is just so nice to walk Sherman and greet the morning at.the.same.time! (rather that stumbling around in the darkness!) This morning it was mild but windy. And those winds were moving the clouds right along…almost painting the sky with shades of grey tinged with oranges and reds. A lovely morning to walk!
It was a slower paced week where I appreciated the beauty of small things.
The gradual changes in my Hitchhiker… it is “42 teeth big” and I am almost to the final color of my yarn. I will keep knitting until I am almost out of yarn and then bind off. This project has been so inspiring to make, and I am currently spinning some yarn that I think will make another hitchhiker. Some unexpected inspiration from Bonny this week… a beaded hitchhiker! I found some beads in my recently organizing. I am eager to get this fiber spun up so I can cast on!
The other beauty I have been appreciating is the #WOMENSART Twitter account! What a lovely little rabbit hole to travel down! All the art is breath-taking, but the fiber arts are truly spectacular! I am sharing a few that have caught my eye!
Lucy Sparrow, UK textile artist known as a ‘Feltist’ who plays with and subverts representations of everyday objects #womensartpic.twitter.com/wlUtXmYRkI
Contemporary Nova Scotia textile artist and quilter Laurie Swim creates quilt art which captures her local landscapes #womensartpic.twitter.com/95pXyWOIbI
And finally, did you know the Brontë sisters quilted?
The hand-sewn patchwork quilt created by the Brontë sisters, consisting of silks, taffetas, velvets and cotton which may have been taken from old Brontë dresses #womensartpic.twitter.com/n1UePaf3HI
Another week… another Friday…and joy of joys, it is snowing in Pittsburgh this morning. Yes, that’s right… snow! On all the tender new leaves. On the lilac blooms. On the magnolia blooms. Sigh.
Today is day four of my 100 Day Project and these moments of creatively stitching have been rays of sunshine in my day! You can follow my journey via Instagram, which I think is the perfect platform for sharing my days progress. I am happy that the plan in my head is flowing beautifully into my stitches.
To avoid any new temptations, I have been **trying** to avoid Ravelry this week. Key word…trying! LOL It seems that it was a “cloudy” week there! Did you see Cloudesley and Cloud Cover? Yeah…they are awesome, and both have been rattling around my head a bit. I also cannot get Mary’s inky navy sweater out of my head and I might have identified a “hole” in my warm weather wardrobe! However, I have not begun looking for any inky navy yarns…yet.
It was a week of lots.of.baking! Yesterday I made these brownies…and yowza, they are so good! And today I am baking my first loaf of sourdough bread! (I have my fingers crossed that it rises!)
If you, like me, are doing all kinds of Zoom get togethers… I found these tips and tricks to be exceedingly helpful!
