my FIFTH book-- Launch May 5

**
So, the last  entry on this blog, I was too tired to be able to articulate much of anything...
My fatigue by last night was so great, I couldn't even stay awake for the
 delightful presentation of pictures, bringing humor to the "stuff of everyday life"--
I do recall the selfies... someone hailing a cab, but all you see are the arms doing an
"I'm a little teapot dance".

Perhaps the exhaustion aside from little sleep and too many projects, is also the
looming question of why I write the blog... no one reads it, as far as I know... rather
like me writing morning pages of words... they are little bridges to thoughts... most
of which are temporary scaffolds in which to imagine beautiful buildings...

We returned from Europe, family, friends and Rennes (sister city) connections...
followed by my presentation at the NYSAFLT conference on livening up the French class with poetry...  and Michael Czarnecki's new book, and my query to him about publishing my
new and revised.  The answer was yes -- and let's do it for poetry month -- so the ms went
to him March 25.  Since then:
April 14: Pittsford Library Talk : When Words Come Alive
April 15: Nice Boots Collaboration
April 18: The Fun of Nuts & Bolts & Possibilities (Rundel)
April 23: MCC French Club -- poetry
April 26: Ad Hoc at W&B
April 28: Poetry, Potluck

Hosting of Chinese Film Maker, Ermao Zhong April 25-29
2 sessions prepared for W&B, but cancelled April 21, 28
ready for May:
May 5:  BOOK LAUNCH!!!
May 9 : Garden Club tour of the MAG
Teacher In-Service on using Centennial Park and Poets Walk

Here is the flyer the library put together for me.  Picture is from 2010 I believe...
same picture as the one used by Susan Trien in her write up about O Pen...




I have been up sometimes before 4 am, thinking poetry... looking at the voices in my head
who nag me about why I think I should even consider putting a book together.
I try to treat them with kindness.  They come from feelings I gathered along the way
that I didn't matter, was not important, forgetting that indeed, although there was a time
when my mother couldn't be herself, much less a mother, there was also a time she gave
me the gifts I enjoy so much:  enthusiasm and energy to connect people (her teaching
of Sunday school; my writing of poems for Church holy days when a choir member 2 years ago)
my joy of teaching French, art and poetry appreciation; her joy of teaching tennis, and being a counselor at Aloha Hive with nature puzzles...

So many parallels... and finally, I can separate from her -- not be afraid that her struggle indicates
my struggle -- that I will have failed for 20 years not to be the mother my children deserved...
that the next step is to be institutionalized for another 25 years in a locked ward.  How she
maintained her dignity and was able to survive is an inspiring story.

The poems in Twilight Venus do not dwell on her, on my working out of complex relationships,
but reflect the work of a poet eager to mediate the ability to see the sacred in the natural world
with the ability to view injustice, pain and sorrow with greater compassion.

I learn from the generosity of the people who wrote blurbs-- as I steal from MJ above and from
Bart: Oh yes, I'm mercurial, but also capable of writing an ode to a broom, "making room to mirror
time's sweep... in time with each heartbeat, making room for the quiet...

and from Tony: resplendent, elegant surfaces... to encircle life's bone-stark realities, says Tony...
all of us wanting-- our exquisite longings that lead us further than we thought we had a right to go.

and Sylvie:  colors, rhythms, images gathered through my love of music, visual arts, personal life journey.

I push my humble rock of poetry up the slopes...  do not childe myself for having chosen this route,
but feel like a seven year old... curious and eager to see where I am going next.

**
People who know me like my book.  People who don't know me well don't ask about it...
What to make of that?