Review – Yarrow by Charles de Lint

Yarrow.  Heal-All.  Heal our world of its hurts.
- page 252

Creative Writing Wednesday (2)

To celebrate the publication of my university’s literary magazine, I’m going to post an older poem of mine that was published in this semester’s edition of the magazine.  Because I am the boss-lady, I don’t actually decide what goes in the magazine.  Instead, committees of students anonymously judge the poetry, prose and art.  They send me their selections and I reveal the authors.

The Requiem

The stairwells are littered
with the carcasses of cicadas.
Their brethren hum
a rolling roar, ululation,
in litany for the dead.

For in autumn death is splendid
as the corpses of summer insects
are shrouded in a Technicolor tapestry
and the proud skeletons
of oaks and Japanese maples,
lightened of their burdens,
graze the sky with spindly fingers.
They clip the wings of a shifting
menagerie; spring songbirds
traded for geese and gander.
Owls and bats,
patrons of the evening,
skulk in their dark haunts
of corners and crevices
while the beasts retreat
to their dens.

The air smells sweet and sharp -
of rotting
earth,
the swelling of the soil,
and the frosting
of the grass.

Waiting around…

This is what I woke up to this morning.  And you can’t really tell, but it’s still still snowing, and it’s snowing fast.  So I’m sitting on the couch, in my pajamas, baffled.  I’m baffled, readers, because my professors have not emailed me yet to tell me that my classes are canceled.  Why?  Why?  Why?  You mean I have to walk approximately 1.1 miles in THIS?  Now, I know this may not look like a lot to some of you other bloggers out there, but THIS is like a blizzard where I’m from.  It’s not unheard of, but it’s rare.  We’ll get a snow like this maybe once a year.  It didn’t snow like this last year AT ALL.   Did I mention that school is UPHILL?  BOTH WAYS?  AND I HAVE NO SNOW BOOTS?  And I’ve only finished crocheting one mitten?

Oh well, kids, I’ll stop whining, put some plastic bags over my shoes, and enjoy that snowy silence we only get once a year in our neck of the woods. 

Update: Class was canceled at 2!  Woo!

Belle’s photo meme

I found this photo meme on Belle of the Books blog!  All you have to do is:

1. Go to your documents
2. Go to your 6th file
3. Go to your 6th photo
4. Blog about it!
5. Get your friends to do it!

I decided to work my way backwards, and I used facebook because all of my pictures are currently on my parents’ computer after a dastardly virus I got back over Thanksgiving break.  This is the picture that showed up!  Lots of memories packed into this itty bitty photo.  I took it over summer break the year after I graduated from high school.  I was in New Jersey with Z and my friends E and H.  It was an interesting time in my life.  I had just gotten back from my trip to Spain with my aunt, where I had bought these flip flops in a convenience store in Barcelona.  They were 3 Euros.  It was St. George’s day and kids were setting off fireworks everywhere around us.  That night on the subway, we were packed into the cars like sardines.  We went to our hotel and the party had moved to the beach across the street.  We watched the Barcelona kids dance and set off fireworks all night long.

I was growing up (not that I’m finished with that task yet, not that anyone ever is) and when I think back on that summer, I think about how different I am now from the person who took this photo.  In a good way.  The little flip flop in the middle is my sister K the younger’s.  I’m not sure why I took a picture of our shoes like this, but I probably just thought it looked cool.

Anyone can do this cute little meme!  Leave a comment with the link to your blog.  I’d especially like to see:

1. Phantom Shadow Beast
2. ROOMS (For your second blog post ever.)
3. Christ (Do it.)

Coming soon:  Two reviews of Yarrow and Árbol.

Sunday Salon (3)

Another Sunday!  Do you know what that means?  It has been 4 Sundays since I started my blog.  Sometimes I can’t believe how quickly time goes.  Sometimes it slows down to a crawl, but school has definitely made it speed up a bit lately.

I finally seem to be out of my reading funk.  I haven’t read much of anything for the past two weeks, other than Árbol for class.  It took me a long time at first because I had to look up quite a few words, but after the first 100 pages or so I had most of the vocabulary the author likes to use down.  Now I’m only looking up one or two words a page.  I have 40 pages left, and will hopefully finish tonight.

I finished reading Yarrow: An Autumn Tale by Charles DeLint this morning.  I couldn’t put it down after I got into the story.  It was interesting, but I’m fairly certain my library has it shelved under YA, where it most definitely does not belong.  It’s obvious that the book was one of his earlier ones; I was less impressed with this one than I have been with some of the other ones I have read by him, but it was still an enjoyable  (and addicting) read.  I tried to explain it to my roommate this morning, but vampires vs. gnomes/humans didn’t really do it justice.   I’m looking forward to posting two reviews this week!  Now I have the exciting task of deciding which book to read next.

I’m in a creative writing poetry class this semester and one of our projects is to read and recommend at least three books of poetry.  I’m definitely lacking in the poetry reading area.  I’m a huge fan of ee cummings, I’ve read a couple of his books of poetry.  I also have the best edition of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl ever.  Emily Dickinson is another favorite.  I read a bunch of poetry from students because I’m editor of our literary magazine, but that’s really as far as I’ve gone into the poetry world.  I’m going to be posting the reviews here, and they will then be linked to the class’s blog.  I’m going to my professor’s “library” on Tuesday afternoon to find a couple books to check out.  Also, if you spend an hour alphebetizing you get a $5 gift card to the local coffee shop, something I’m definitely going to take advantage of.   Something to look forward to this week!

In other news:

Happy birthday Virginia Woolf!

Now I’m off to eat more shepherd’s pie leftovers!  Yum.

How I spend most Friday nights…

I am abysmally behind on my reading, but I have zero plans for this weekend other than sitting in my sweatpants, eating, reading and doing homework.  I know exactly what I’ll be reading:  I’m almost done with El otro árbol de Guernica and I started Yarrow by Charles deLint today, so hopefully I’ll have a review of both of those by Monday.  As for homework, I have two linguistics artciles to read and summarize, an excerpt from La casa de los espiritus (The House of the Spirits) to read in Spanish… something I’m not too pleased about. I’d much rather just read the whole article.

But what about eating?  What, you ask, will you cook?  Well, I made one of my all time favorite foods and I’m going to share the recipe with you!

Shepherd’s pie!

Now, I’m very much of a cook as you go kind of person.  Sometimes I go by recipes, but I don’t usually follow them all the way.  I can’t remember where I found the original recipe for this, but I do know that one of the families I babysat for had a similar recipe that used bison.  (It was delicious.  Way more delicious than this, and this is pretty freakin delicious.)  I don’t usually measure spices, so you can tailor this recipe to your liking.  Also, I realize that this probably isn’t what a shepherd’s pie is supposed to taste like, but I can’t get enough of it.  It’s perfect cold-weather comfort food for when you’re feeling under the weather like I am.

This recipe makes one medium sized pie, enough for me to eat by myself over at least 4 or 5 meals.

Creative Writing Wednesday (Well, okay fine, Thursday…)

So… are you surprised that I didn’t get Creative Writing Wednesday off the ground in time?  No?  Me neither!  But here it is, better late than never.  I wrote this for my poetry class.  It’s not finished, but it will do for now.

Thanks to Picnik and Flickr Creative Commons search for making this button possible

The First Death in New Jersey

Under the boardwalk, the dead
fish float, bloated
and bloody, leftover hooks
in their chins.  We leaned
through the rails, crushing
our stomachs against the wood,
to count them, in the
last summer
I wore a bikini, the last
I smoked sugar
cigarettes with Chiefs
on the boxes.  We bought them clandestinely,
when our parents
thought we were buying
gummy worms and rock pops.
I let them hang from my mouth,
with fake bravery, as I tried
to mimic
my cousin’s accent.

In that last summer,
I saw my first dead body.  We ran
from the dunes,
where we were lost in the desert,
to the crowd that had already gathered
around the girl.
The lifeguard tried to pump life
back into her body, counting
one two three.  One, two, three.
Maybe her face was blue
or her ribs were broken, but all I remember
is the bathing suit – purple, with little yellow flowers.

The lifeguard stopped trying.
A small woman I hadn’t noticed before
sank next to the body.
It was all a spectator sport,
and we were only the rubberneckers.

That ending needs some work, my friends.

Blog Improvement Project, Mailbox Monday

I’m back in town after a short weekend getaway with Z.  It was really nice, lots of laying around doing nothing and going to restaurants instead of cooking.  My kind of long weekend.  Keep on reading to hear more about Mailbox Monday and the Blog Improvement Project!

Congratulations!

Daphne of Somewhere I Have Never Travelled has won my first giveaway!!  I decided to use random.org to figure out who won because all of your advice was so wonderful. Daphne’s advice, in case you were wondering, was…

My best advice is to write reviews that you would want to read, and make them personal. I always like reading reviews that include the writer’s reactions, and perhaps a tangential personal story that the book brought up, etc. I almost never read straight summaries. I can get that on Amazon. I want to know what people really *think* about books and what they mean.

Oh, and pictures are fun too

I have definitely taken Daphne’s advice to heart.  I try to make all of my reviews personal and I always include a picture .  I love reading Daphne’s blog, so I hope she enjoys the books I’m going to send her.  Daphne, just send me your information to the email regular.rumination@gmail.com.  Would you prefer an historical fiction pack, a Young Adult pack or a How-To/Writing Improvement pack?  I hope you’re as excited as I am!

Speaking of giveaways, check out this freakin awesome t-shirt over at The Book Lady!

Head on over here to enter!

Booking Through Thursday

I know I already posted today, but I couldn’t pass up this BTT question. 

If you’re anything like me, there are songs that you love because of their lyrics; writers you admire because their songs have depth, meaning, or just a sheer playfulness that has nothing to do with the tunes.

So, today’s question?

* What songs … either specific songs, or songs in general by a specific group or writer … have words that you love?
* Why?
* And … do the tunes that go with the fantastic lyrics live up to them?

Best song ever written:

Hallelujah - Leonard Cohen

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord,
that David played and it pleased the Lord
but you don’t really care for music do you?
[...]
There’s a blaze of light in every word
it doesn’t matter which you heard
the holy or the broken Hallelujah.

To me, this song is near perfection.  Like I’ve said before, I’m pretty musically challenged, but just hearing this song, whoever sings it, gives me chills.  The words match the music and the lyrics themselves are amazingly poetic.  Take that last stanza I quoted.  I’m not sure I even noticed how deep and meaningful it was until I wrote it down.

One of my all time favorite lines from a song is from Andrew Bird’s Armchairs.

I dreamed you were a cosmonaut
of the space between our chairs
and I was a cartographer
of the tangles in your hair.

When I listen to songs, I usually listen for the lyrics.  This drives my roommate insane.  She says, and I quote, “Maybe I just can’t hear the good lyrics through the ear-drum blistering noise and cat yowling.”   We agreed that we like 60% of each other’s music and the other 30% is okay and the last 10% is unlistenable.  

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant have a song on their album called “Killing the Blues” which was originally written by Rowland Salley.

Leaves were falling, just like embers,
In colors red and gold, they set us on fire
Burning just like moonbeams in our eyes.

Beautiful!