Allegro

I decided on allegro. It's a good representation of me - I'm the kind of person who speeds through things (including life!) and likes to run a lot. So I thought allegro was the best choice, since it describes me accurately.

How do you like it?

I think my blog needed a renovation - and it's kind of coincidental that I chose to renovate it just before the new year. I didn't think about that when I changed the look on Monday.

I like my "new" blog.

Confession: What do you do when you can't decide?

I'm really really really bad when it comes to making decisions and sticking to them. In the beginning this blog was called "the bridge," then "Words of Verse," and now it's back to "the bridge" again.

I'm finding myself in this conflict about my blog's name/title again, because for some reason I'm just not happy with "the bridge". I discovered today that I was thinking of new titles while shopping.

So...

here are a few possible titles:

allegro

a cup of coffee

on my axis (I don't really like this but I put it in anyway)

the bridge

and if you have any suggestions, I'm open.

Playing around

I didn't really like the old template too much so I decided to switch to a look I liked: simple, light, and airy.

What do you think of the new look?

This Cloud is My Cloud

That's a line from my poem "What I Don't Know" (which is in my book). The "cloud" part makes sense - it was pretty cloudy and rainy this morning. Though it's sunny now.

I spent the first bit of the afternoon goofing off with the video camera and laughing on the couch. I'm a little sleepy but can't seem to fall asleep if I settle down in bed. I'm kind of hyper, actually.

So here are a few pictures from Christmas (taken by my sister):

Books in '08 and '09

It's time to look ahead to 2009 - and enjoy the last 5 days of 2008. It's crazy to think that 2008 is so nearly over.

Books read in 2008 (in no particular order):

Thirst by Mary Oliver

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

Small Knots by Kelli Russell Agodon (best book EVER. Read it now.)

The Leaf and the Cloud by Mary Oliver

Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver

Red Bird by Mary Oliver

and I'm sure there's more that I can't remember.

To be read in 2009 (in no particular order):

The Sudden Drown of Knowing by Katherine Grace Bond

Geography by Kelli Russell Agodon (if I can find a copy! It's sold out everywhere.)

What Do We Know by Mary Oliver

Seasons of Mangoes and Brainfire by Carolyne Wright

and I need help finding more reading material.

Merry Christmas

We haven't opened our presents yet, and I haven't seen mine at all, since I got my gifts underneath the tree first. I'm trying my hardest to not look at them until it's time to open.

I finished "Negative Four Hundred" in bed - I've yet to type up the ending I found and perfected. Things are going my way today...so far.

Merry Christmas!

Saturday Update

Snow again. This time, with fierce wind.

We managed to do our holiday shopping on ice yesterday, around nine pm. We returned from Borders at ten. Between wrapping presents, I'm blogging.

I've still not found gifts for everyone on my list. I've only covered two - well, three, depending on whether you consider "parents" as one person or not. I'm kind of worried as to whether people are going to be all-over-the-place excited about what I'm giving them or if they'll be pretending to like their presents. I know for a fact that my sister's going to love her gifts this year and that makes me super-happy already.

I returned to writing a couple of days ago, after letting my poems fall to the ground limp for a few weeks. I'm so, so close to finishing up one of my earlier-written, still-unfinished poems, tentatively titled "Negative Four Hundred" (I'm so in love with that title). The ending just isn't quite there yet.

I'm writing surrounded by ribbon, gift bags, wrapped presents inside Borders bags ;) , scissors, and a bunch of giftwrap. A constant reminder that I've got to get back to my original plan - wrapping presents.

Let it Snow

Snowflakes

I woke up this morning to streets covered with four inches of snow. It's still snowing - I'm surrounded by a gorgeous world of white. Perfect.

Here's instructions to add the flakes to your blog. Too many blogs with snowflakes zipping around!

Poem

A Mermaid Questions God

As a girl, she hated the grain of anything
on her fins. Now she is part fire ant, part centipede.
Where dunes stretch into pathways, arteries appear.
Her blood pressure is temperature plus wind speed.

Where religion is a thousand miles of coastline,
she is familiar with moon size, with tide changes.
She wears the cream of waves like a vestment,
knows undertow is imaginary, not something to pray to.

Now her questions involve fairytales, begin
in a garden and lead to hands painted on a chapel’s ceiling.
She wants to hold the ribbon grass, the shadow of angles
across the shore. She steals a Bible from the Seahorse Inn;

she will trust it only if it floats.

~Kelli Russell Agodon

*****

I posted this up here because it has got to be my absolute favorite poem in the world. It blew me away the first time I read it - Kelli's work is amazing.

Wow.

My Favorite Christmas Song

...of all time has got to be this:

Simple (Or Not-So-Simple) Thoughts

Two nights ago it snowed, and it's been melting in this below-freezing weather ever since. It's truly very cold outside; it feels as if the wind rips you apart, tears you, pulls you...

*****

I've learned something. In this world, there's you and only you, and no one else will jump to save you every time. It's just you, and you've got to be strong enough to not curl up in a miserable little ball and hide from the world forever, but to keep your face pointed towards the wind - however cold it is - all the time.

*****

My mood is gray...shades of gray. It's always gray, some days more of a white-gray, most days a darker, gloomier gray.

*****

Someone lift the curtains. All I want to do is flop down on my bed and read.

Now playing: "Already Gone" by Sugarland

Cover

Last week was poetry week for me, definitely. I edited one poem, wrote a new one (which I'm still editing and perfecting), and read a lot of poetry.

On top of that, the cover for "Apologies to an Apple" has been finalized:

Is it December already?

It really is.

I did a little poetry brainstorming the other day. I wrote down everything that came to mind - and I'd post it here, but it's too long. Here's a little portion of it:

-harvest
-branches
-blank
-bleak
-autumn
-acorns
-pumpkin
-squash
-leaves
-trees
-night
-shadow
-move
-run
-wind
-hair
-shape
-smell
-pine
-wheat
-wave
-breeze

It seems that I'm not thinking of holidays and Christmas, but rain and coziness and lamps:

-sunrise
-sky
-darkness
-purple
-quiet
-rain
-lamps
-magazines
-fall
-break

This Thanksgiving...

I'm thankful for:

-books
-sleepiness
-comfortable beds (you can tell I'm sleepy, can't you?)
-cozy hats
-love
-laughter and jokes
-terrific stories
-light
-tons of poetry
-Christmas
-the smell of coffee
-rain
-music
-lamps
-and Erin, for getting me fueled and on the blogging road. And for being a true inspiration.

Typealyzer

I found this on both Poet Mom and Book of Kells and decided to try. Typealyzer determines the personality of your blog.

My results?

ESTP - The Doers
The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical outdoor activities. The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

Yep, I'd say that's mostly true. I wouldn't say yes to the "physical outdoor activities" - I'm not much of a sporty person. But the rest is surprisingly true.

Pass it on. What's your blog's personality?

Five Happy Addictions

1. Music

2. Books - especially good ones!

3. New clothes (don't you love the smell of brand-new clothes?)

4. Cities with bright lights at night (Do I live in one? Hmm...I've never checked.)

5. Friends - the kind that make you smile :)


What are your happy addictions?

Apologies to an Apple

My book of poems, 'Apologies to an Apple,' will be released in February - March 2009! It features an introduction by author and poet Katherine Grace Bond, as well as reviews from other writers, including Janet Lee Carey and Lorie Ann Grover.

Here's a selection:

Gentle Twilight

I visit
Nothing
In starry dreams.

I only find a silence
And an owl.

Where
Shall I go?

After daybreak crumples,
Where?

Can I reach out
Into empty darkness
And find a handful
Of stars?

Requiem

His eyes
are the suns of my earth.

I am still alive.

Ribbons, and Bibles
stolen from chapels.

I trust
every single of a thousand coastlines,
the requiem of the folding
and unfolding waves.


I wrote that one while staring at a vanilla candle. I originally had a line in there about "essence of vanilla" but I took it out later on.

This is one of my more abstract poems. It doesn't make much sense, but I find a sort of mystery in it. Maybe that's why I like it so much.

Opening

First blog. I'll start with a poem.

Moths

Look outside at the blooming stars
and the yellow-green
moths beating against the window.

Don’t let my words turn you
away from innocent.
Don’t let me turn you into
all-knower.

You are the poem that doesn’t know
and has been unknowing
for a while now.

But you are the poem that
wants to know
and wonders.