Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Every year there is usually one Christmas song that kind of sticks with me. This year it’s “Happy Christmas,” originally by John Lennon, but I like Sarah McLachlan’s take on it too. It’s fairly bittersweet as Christmas carols go—that crazy John Lennon and his messages to the people—but that suits my mood right now.

Maybe because of the state of the world at the moment, maybe because friends and family are far away, maybe because weather in San Antonio is gray with a chance of grayness, maybe because I’d rather be at home frosting sugar cookies with family right now rather than killing time in a cubicle because I’m low on vacation days…

Whatever the reason, “Happy Christmas” is the song I’m humming this year. Even though there is an air of melancholy to it, I like the impetus for change at the end. War is over, if you want it. Want things to be better? Make them better. Good stuff.

Much Love to You and Yours

Tag Tag Tag

List seven unusual things about yourself.

1. I dabble in chiromancy and oneiromancy.

2. My Dad has one leg. (Or one leg, two spares, and a two switchable feet, depending on how you look at it.) This has never seemed unusual to me as he’s been this way as long as I’ve known him, but it tends to surprise others. In fact, when friends find out they tend to say something like, “You never told me that!” I find this unusual because when was I supposed to bring that up in conversation. “Yes, I would like another slice of pizza and my father is an amputee. Vietnam. Go figure.”

3. I have a fascination with sunken ships. It all started when they discovered the Titanic. I remember cutting out pictures of the debris from my mother’s Time magazine. I now own several books on the subject—not just the Titanic, but all sunken ships. My mother has theorized that in a past life I drowned on the Titanic. Recently I discovered that Saint Anne is credited with saving a group of sailors from a storm at Beaupré, and therefore the Quebecois consider her the patron saint of sailors.

4. My college roommate’s nickname for me was Satan. She seemed to think I was trying to get her to choke, but it was only an accident. That happened more than once. Seriously, we’d be having an innocent conversation among friends, when Miss A of the big D clan would say something along the lines of, “That’s because Anne is Satan!” I mean, really. It’s not like I caused her to vomit. More than that one time.

5. I don’t really want to see the new Star Trek movie. I am a through and through Star Trek fan. I watched all the shows. I insert quotes from the movies into everyday conversation (“This gazpacho is good. You know what else is best served cold?”). I know the difference between a Trekkie and a Trekker. I went to the Las Vegas Star Trek Experience twice. I love, truly love, Star Trek. But I think they’re totally gonna mess it all up with this stupid-ass prequel.

6. I, for a dark brief span of time, played World of Warcraft. It’s a long story that might involve an attractive male…

7. I read War and Peace mostly so I could tell people that I read War and Peace. Luckily for me, it turned out to be a pretty good yarn.

Tag Tag

Pick up the nearest book (not your favorite or the coolest, the nearest) and find the fifth sentence on the 46th page. Then add the next two to five sentences.

Race Across Alaska: First Woman to Win the Iditarod Tells Her Story
by Libby Riddles and Tim Jones

We couldn’t tell who they were or what they were doing. Another team came across the lake. John and I tried to figure out who it was. Finally the team trotted close enough for us to holler, “Who the heck is that?” The bearded driver passed by, shouting, “Paulsen. I’m one of those darn Minnesota drivers. That’s why you don’t know me.”

Tag

Choose books for each of the following categories and explain why they are must-reads in 30 words or less. (Or, as in my case, 30 words exactly for maximum fun.)

Fiction: Shogun by James Clavell
The story line is almost unimportant compared to James Clavell’s storytelling. His ability to develop characters and to describe places is what makes this novel such a quick read.

Autobiography: Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T. E. Lawrence
A compilation of history, an ode to the desert, an honest account by a victim, an apology, a litany of regret, and astounding moments of clarity amongst the swirling sands.

Non-fiction: Outwitting History by Aaron Lansky
Any literary geek or history buff or sentimental fool can’t help but love a tale such as this: saving Yiddish literature from woes of time. It’s a cultural survival story.

Any book of your choosing: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

Historical fiction tends to be romances in costume, but this novel is the hard, thoroughly researched, facts of the Battle of Gettysburg humanized and accessible through the precepts of fiction.

Sea Change

sea change: a marked change, transformation

this: that which is existent, now, complete, here
is: the am, the are, the great gloriousness of be
my: that which is own, defined by its relation and its comparison to self
country: place defined, precisely and particularly, as symbolic representation of a quality of being, belonging, begetting of a culture, home, heart, ambition, and other words imbued with a meaning much greater than themselves because sometimes it (that which is which wells which gathers and splays) cannot be defined with just words

Halloween

the dour-doored long haul of bureaucracy
blinking fluorescently in its complicity
to seep away all of last comma em
period first (please print clearly)
dusty little lively-hooded you
sliced into file folders with precision
naming of thee conventionalities
splaying you digitally, rigidly,
alone and cold in the dark oh my
winding and whining your way
through the twisties and roundabouts
of cemented impetuosity and
paved hesitancies clutching
and resisting among the poisonous
residue of possibilities worn
(pot-holed even)
and tiring, oh the weariness,
not nearly debating before the jangling
heraldry of the next ensnarement
of no just really this is just an innocent
piece of meat hanging, swaying,
its not really a problem
or a mortuary with a good sound system
nope no traps here and that scent
is not the imposing intimidation
of imminent intimacies with
iconoclastic ideologues a go go
(ay caramba)
it's just a holiday and you’re just
doing your best with what you’ve
been given skulls and bones and all
the eyeballs melting away
no, no, just kidding,
it’s fine

my sweet subconscious

this and then
black patent promises
sweetly made by my subconscious
quietly humming
that it’s just a careful study in patience
a shyly made line drawing
of which flooring material
I would choose, so carefully,
should you opt to floor me
this day or then
as I step carefully
in black patent promises
my subconscious assures me
are all the rage