An Adrienne Rich's Day Celebration

     I celebrated Adrienne Rich's Day by eating breakfast at my local poet house. A poet house, you’ll find, is like a pancake house, but with better coffee.

     Adrienne Rich's Day (May 16) is a made-up holiday. It doesn’t exist, although Rich was born on the 16th of May. But that doesn’t stop me from celebrating Adrienne Rich's Day to the fullest. I’d already written out my Poets’ Day cards, trimmed the Poets’ Day tree and opened each one of my Poets’ Day gifts. All that was left to do was brunch at the Poet House.

     There I heard Lewis Carroll as he ordered the seafood omelet with extra oysters.

     "We cannot do with more than four," his server responded. "To give a hand to each."

     Carroll frowned, and when his omelet came, he complained that the lobster was baked too brown. "I must sugar my hair," he said in frustration. He had the server take away the omelet and bring the soup of the evening, beautiful soup, instead.

     George Gordon, Lord Byron said that he wasn’t hungry, but I caught him staring at Emily Dickinson’s waffles. Dickinson led the poets in saying grace in the name of the butterfly, and of the birds, and of the breeze, amen. She washed down her waffles with the sherry which the guest leaves.

     Allen Ginsberg let me have a bite of his kosher Zen New Jersey nowhere, howling as he sipped his hot matzo ball soup. Meanwhile, Lawrence Ferlinghetti ate a good deal of spaghetti.

     Along came Adrienne Rich, who ordered strong black coffee. It came nestled sensuously between the waitress’s breasts.

     Langston Hughes had the raisin toast in the sun, but said that it was dried up. Edgar Allan Poe had the toast as well. His came with cognac and three red roses. When asked if he wanted a side of bacon with that, Poe said, "Nevermore." When the check came, Poe was nowhere to be found.

     Oscar Wilde went wild when served his Oscar Meyer wiener. Robert Frost stopped by to watch the powdered sugar fall on my french toast, but he couldn’t stay. "I have promises to keep," he said. "And miles to go before I sleep."

     William Shakespeare ordered the turkey dinner, and made much ado about stuffing. But all was as he liked it in the end. He washed down his meal with a winter’s ale.

     It was impossible to tell what Robert Pinsky wanted for an entree, so we put him in charge of ordering dessert. He chose Basho, banana pudding. It was the perfect ending to the perfect Adrienne Rich's Day celebration.

***Author's Note: An earlier version of this poetic fantasy appeared in Wild Violet literary magazine. ***

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A Tribute in Pictures to My Best Feline Friend James

With a very heavy heart I must announce that I've lost my 12-year-old cat companion, James. He was a charming, adorable animal with no bad habits other than biting my shins if I wasn't paying enough attention to him while I was sitting on the toilet. The animal hospital did the best they could to save him, but he had internal illnesses that, taken together, were too much for him to overcome.

Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

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Quarantine is awfully lonely without a feline companion in the house. I'll make it through, somehow. But I miss him. 

'Spellbound' by Sylvia Day - Paranormal Erotic Romance

Spellbound by Sylvia Day

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Have I read anything else from this author? No. I've heard that she's an erotic writer better at writing consensual BDSM better than the ubiquitous 50 Shades of Grey series.

Was this book enjoyable? It was a quick, mildly amusing read requiring no deep thought. Pure escapism.

Did I learn anything new from this book? No, not at all, which was fine since it was just for fun.

Where did I get this book? I bought it at a library used book sale. It formerly belonged to the St. Joseph County (Indiana, USA) public library.

This was several years ago; I no longer live in St. Joe County. (I add that to let you know I didn't break social distancing protocol to go get a fluffy book.)

Do I recommend this book to other readers? I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys erotic romance with a touch of the paranormal. Keep in mind, there's not a lot of depth of these characters. "Sexy" isn't really a personality trait, nor is being a warlock or a house cat shapeshifter. But if you're interested in some light fluff, this may be the book for you.

Highlights From My Day in Music, April 29th, 1999

Still being in self-imposed Covid-19 quarantine, I've broken into my old diaries, day planners, and sketchbooks quite a bit lately.

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Perhaps you too have a special interest during the quarantine time; mine is music from the '90s.

April 29th, 1999 was a really good day. It was the first time I ever went to the South Bend Chocolate Cafe, but the last time as a college student I ever went to Notre Dame's Acoustic Cafe (open mike night). Although I sometimes played guitar and did a little singing at Acoustic Cafe, on that night I only listened.

The following songs were songs I heard covered by fellow students. First a group of two women performed this 10,000 Maniacs song:

They followed up this performance with an Indigo Girls cover:

Next up was another group of two women. (Unfortunately, I didn't record any of the names of the performers that night.) They first performed this Ani DiFranco song:

That's probably my favorite Ani DiFranco song, still to this day. Their next cover of the same artist was the following:

Also a very good one. The young women were followed up by a male solo singer who sang an original song about waffles, which he warned us in advance would have an "inappropriate" verse. This verse was about wanting to have sex with dining hall waffles. It contained a lyric something along the lines of:

"I'm gonna eat you...
And I wish you could eat me!"

I quite enjoyed this orally fixated tune. This young man was followed by a friend of a friend (Nina) of a friend (Alissa), who did a Foo Fighters cover, but I don't remember which one. The last act I enjoyed that night was a performance by a male friend of Alissa's friend Carla. He played and sang this U2 classic:

In the past I've been a very big fan of U2. Then in 2016 I got quite upset at Paul "Bono Vox" Hewson for making sexist comments, as you can read about here. Since he appears to have sincerely learned from and grown from the reaction to his sexist remarks, I'm not upset with Bono anymore.

Which is good, because I still really enjoy an occasional U2 oldie.

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Stay safe, wash your hands, and continue to support your favorite artists in all genres!

Poetry, Collage, and List Zine for #NationalPoetryMonth

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***Get the zine here.***

'Looking for Alaska' (Book) by John Green - No Spoilers

Looking for Alaska by John Green

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Have I read anything else from this author? Yes, I've read The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns.

Was this book better than this author's other book(s)? I still think The Fault In Our Stars is the best of the three.

Was this book enjoyable? Parts of it were enjoyable and parts of it were very sad.

Did I learn anything new from this book? I learned about the last words of some famous people, since that's the interest of the main character, Miles "Pudge" Halter. (Exceptionally thin, Pudge has an ironic nickname.)

Where did I get this book? I bought this book from the Book Rack at 1930 E. Stop 13 Road, Greenwood, Indiana. I was under no obligation to review it.

Do I recommend this book to other readers? Yes, if they're not going to get too sad by the sad things that happen.

Here's a fun fact about this book: John Green got the name "Alaska" from the Velvet Underground song "Stephanie Says."

Diary Entry for March 17, 1997

Music

At noon I went to the Little Theater of Moreau Hall and heard Noah and Irene Carver, folk singers. They're a husband and wife. They sang two Joni Mitchell songs ("Big Yellow Taxi" and "Both Sides Now"), a James Taylor song, "Here Comes the Sun," "This Land Is Your Land" (with one guitar and one autoharp), a couple of traditional folk songs, and some of their own. 

The first song Irene sang was:

"Baby, now that I found you, I can't let you go,

I built my world around you, I need you so,

Baby even though you don't need me..."

I think she said the writer's name was Alison Proust.* I've heard it on the radio, performed by ? I had a lot of fun at this performance. 

While I was home for "spring" break I got into the [vinyl] records, and I found a single, some unknown group's cover of "Big Yellow Taxi." It sounded familiar; I think a new cover of it was on the charts within the past year. 

Furthermore, I found old country-western records; Johnny Cash singing "Goodnight Irene," a version of "Stand By Your Man," some cool stuff. 

*Alison Krauss

Cultural Activity

I took a look at the Women's Art Exhibition which is set up in LeMans Hall. Cool. Someone made a dress out of ties, and there was another cloth sculpture which incorporated a live goldfish in a bowl. 

The only name I recognized was Poogie Sherer. She had two sculptures in the exhibit. The better one was "One Woman Army," consisting of a girl-sized ceramic bulletproof vest over a small red satin dress. The other looked rather like a tortoise shell being used as a gong. 

Joke

Noah Carver told this one:

There were two clams, Sam and Dave, They were friends, but they couldn't agree on what kind of music to listen to. Sam liked disco; Dave liked Classical.

One day someone stepped on Sam, and he died. Eventually Dave died, and when he got up to heaven he asked St. Peter if he could see Sam.

St. Peter said, "I'm sorry, Sam's not here, he's down there." 

Dave asked if he could go see Sam, and St. Peter said, "Okay, but I can't let you back in without your harp."

So Dave went "down there" and Sam was having a good time with all the clams, listening to disco music. After a while Dave went back up to heaven. 

St. Peter said, "Where's your harp?"

Dave said, "I left my harp in Sam's clam disco."