Loose Leaf Notes

1. She wanted her ex-husband to die with a happy thought, so she told him Trump had been impeached. More HERE.

2. I can’t help but wonder what I could do with all the time I spend waiting for my credit card chip to go through or waiting for my electric hair curler to curl.

3. Hop on Pop is the new Dick and Jane.

4. “I have my mother’s mouth and my father’s eyes / On my face they are still together.”  – Warsan Shire from Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth

5. You leave the mess / but vow to come back / You can’t sort it out / and your bus is arriving / It takes the long loop / of a familiar route / Just you and the driver / You sit half-way back / You watch sunset turn to dusk / as if you never left / as if there was no difference / between leaving / and coming home – Read the whole poem, When Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife Goes Wrong HERE.

6. Last week I had a dream that woke me in the middle of the night and for once I wasn’t upset that I was awake and instead thought of waking up as a gift to remember the dream, one in a handful that I consider big, a medicine dream.

7. In the dream, I was living with women and we were about to be raided and hurt, so we began making plans for our own disappearance, packing food and supplies. When the right time came, one by one we began to leave, and I began to doubt that we had to go.  But then my mind said “just stick to the plan,” and I did and wasn’t afraid.  Once that happened I realized we weren’t even going far, just to a different part of the same complex.

8. Depending on Where You Were Sitting, it was Dick’s 81st Birthday or His 18th.  See HERE.

9. Redman, a long time Floyd, Virginia resident, who is originally from the small coastal town of Hull, Massachusetts, writes about packing a suitcase before returning to her hometown to care for her ailing mother … The last of the packing comes down to one question / should I bring extra shoes or make room for a book / Guide to a Happy Life? / I’m still looking for a good Sinatra record / because he was to your generation / what the Beatles were to mine / and music is a memory that doesn’t skip…

Another poem in the collection uses a suitcase as a metaphor for life. The poem takes a metaphysical turn, questioning the reality of time and matter…The days are small / packed tightly together / Not much room / for last minute changes … Poetry is a passport / in the universal mother tongue / It’s only 4% visible / and 96% dark riddle … More from the press release of my new book of poems, Packing a Suitcase for the Afterlife HERE.

10. I recently spent some time viewing Beyonce’s videos from Lemonade, a visual record and feature-length film, which is where I discovered the poet Warsan Shire, whose poetry Beyonce recites so compellingly.  I have to say that Beyonce is breaking new ground in performance art, sharing a visually striking and raw process of reclaiming her power after her husband’s infidelity. She also made some bold statements on being black, from the south and more.

11. Warsan Shire also said, “You have to understand / that no one puts their children in a boat / unless the water is safer than land.”

12. Raining poems? It’s better than cats and dogs. See HERE.

13. Dr. Seuss is today’s Mother Goose.

__________Thirteen Thursday