I tell a story about her, and she is me.
When we tell a story about our past selves, we are in fact telling a story about another person. And we, the one telling it, are quite different than that person.
that was the gift
Oh boy, I’m writing a bunch of poems at once which is really disconcerting, and also really satisfying–well not satisfying, but kind of exciting. Like there are all these ideas that pop up as I’m walking around or drinking coffee or talking to someone about something unrelated (and just now I stopped typing this…
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The Dream Sequence
Friday I’m reading at East City Bookshop with Faisal Mohyuddin and Simone Roberts. They are stunning humans and you should come. A few weeks ago I reread The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera. I first read it some time ago, then lent my copy to someone. Then a month ago I had the…
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Imagining
I’m still swimming deep against the current of a deadline and trying to tread water through all the ordinary things and then moving against the waves of extra things that I add, because who am I to pass up an opportunity? I tell myself these things that cost the present pay off in the future.…
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Weekends of Bedhead
I had the best weekend I’ve had in a long time. Maybe ever. Is that possible? One sunny day and one rainy day. Friday night we made tacos using tortillas made from this really great recipe (cut into 32 sections instead of 16 for street taco size), which turned out really well and reheated easily for snacking…
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How to Love
My sons don’t know a world without 9/11. There will soon be adults who have only existed in a post-9/11 world. What a hard place they’ve arrived in. In an interview (read it, she’s so lovely and it shines and shines in this interview) for a series with the Library of Congress, Aracelis Girmay says, I am amazed…
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Writing a Love Story
I’m reading at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe this Friday at 10 pm, which is pretty thrilling/I’m nauseous. I’m planning to read some of the body poems, poems that were liberating to write and are uncomfortable to read. One of my favorite books about love and sensuality is Written on the Body by Jeannette Winterson. I lent it…
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Overwhelming Beauty
I’m reading this amazing, beautiful, life-sucking book called Abandon Me by Melissa Febos–I mentioned it last week. I have a serious list of Books To Read and this was not next,but it’s quickly become the front runner. It’s so stunning, everything else has fallen to the side. Febos writes, in a chapter about hickeys (tell me you…
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Who you are
Oh dear dear dear ones. I missed posting last week entirely. It was a busy time. There was that incredible performance and the aftermath, and there was an important sad-anniversary for me. Now I am sitting at the airport, about to get on a plane and fly across the world. Away from my children, and…
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The things we teach
Say you lived in a household where delicious baked treats were often kept under a glass dome on a pretty plate on the dining table. Say you ate the last treat–maybe it was an iced cinnamon roll from a can, maybe a lovely fluffy homemade biscuit. Would you then place the glass dome back on…
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