Now Listening to: “Open Book” by Cake
Dear Reader,
It has been a long, full day but Word Raccoon, while quite tired, is also feeling triumphant. The hallway? Successfully painted. The bookshelf? It had two coats and might need a third. I’ll assess tomorrow morning, but it’s looking so much better.
I’m excited now to reimagine the hall. I found myself eyeing mirrors on the show Friends and Neighbors tonight that might suit the hallway. I’m thinking of a thin console table, or a shelf, maybe a plant on it? Definitely a colorful runner.
Also, WR did indeed get her Reese’s though she asked for it after the first coat, and I gave in, just to keep her moving. But I had to remember where I put it first.
During one of our breaks (the one before we missed a step on the ladder but mercifully caught ourselves; WR refuses to climb a ladder one more time today), we watched a YouTube video by Adam Walker, “Don’t Wait Until Your Deathbed to Notice the World.” WR bounced up and down when she heard him say he’s teaching a course in June, “Rilke & The Poetry of Things.” We are definitely considering it!
Here’s his syllabus. (Yes, I’m a lit geek.)
Apparently he left teaching at Harvard and is making his own poetry niche online. I think more people of the academic bent ought to consider that.
WR is ready to move from household projects back to poetry. I think.
She did pick up a line while watching TV: “the calculus of compromise.” That would make a great title for a lead poem in a collection of the same name, yes?
Now reading: The Eleventh Hour, Salman Rushdie’s latest book, a short story collection on death. I read the first (very) short story of the quintet and found it moving and memorable, even though as I’ve said before, I get impatient with short story collections because I get invested in characters, and then the book isn’t over, but the story is, and I’m asked to let go of those characters and get to know new ones.
I don’t mind short stories in journals, only in collections. Linked stories are a different animal. And collections with a strong theme are fine, too. In case you were curious, this one does have a strong theme.
Now to wait for the bookshelf to finish drying so I can put the wallpaper in, let the paint cure for 48 hours, and then see how I want to arrange the books…for once I’d like to be intentional about it. Although I’m very casual about books. I prefer trade paperbacks, and I like to write in them and crinkle the pages like, “See, I don’t need you. You’re not so important to me,” when they absolutely are, even more so than those few gorgeous hardcovers I can’t really bring myself to open. And I know that’s wrong because what’s in the book is the thing.
At any rate, I know I mentioned arranging books by color before, but I’ve never done it. I do like the look of it, but for me, there’s something about just shoving beach reads in with classics that makes me feel well-rounded. I’m all about the texture.
Watching paint dry over here. If there’s a poem in that, I haven’t found it.
Drema
dremadrudge.com 