In the spirit of women's poetry....

...here's a cento that I wrote using Mina Loy lines from this book:

Blue Nun: A Mina Loy Cento

The open window is full of a voice
That taught him of earthquakes and women.

Mumbling Mumbling.
The longing and the lack
Of vocabulary;
A thousand women’s eyes
Splinters on the opal angle of the sun
A radium of the word.

(Bad little boy
Licking is larger than mouths)

All quicks and cores
Of lunar lusts
Birth-breaths and orgasms

And feeding upon itself
The animal woman
Who wore lamp-shade red dresses
In the milk of the Moon -

This is the Devil.

Put curtains at our windows
If the shutters were not shut.

happy, happy.

Melissa and I have had a bit of wonderful news this week!!

Check out the sidebar here to see why we are in an especially celebratory mood!

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I also picked up this yesterday, because I am determined to hone my techie skills in order to make sure the January issue of blossombones looks good!

walking the labyrinth

Of course, it wasn't quite as fancy as the one shown here, but I just got back from the Spirit, Mind, and Body fair at the lovely Portiuncula Center for Prayer, where I took a labyrinth walk, among other things.

I've always had a fascination with the concept of the labyrinth. As a symbol, the labyrinth is found everywhere: from our oldest myths to the most post-modern types of literature. Borges wrote about them endlessly, it seems. Pilgrims have walked them in cathedrals and woods. Some people even take a metaphorical walk with a wooden board and a single finger.



Bear in mind that a labyrinth is not a maze. There are no dead ends, merely a single, circular path that eventually brings the traveler to a central destination.

One of the things that really struck me about the labyrinth was the way in which the path brought me so close to my destination, and then outward again, toward the periphery several times on this miniature journey. I suppose it's quite similar to striving toward any other goal. It requires mindfulness and patience.

When we walk straight toward the center, something is lost. I guess we just learn more on a circuitous path.

Anyway, it gave me a little something to think about regarding the pursuit of certain goals. Every time I think I'm where I want to be, I suddenly find myself far removed from the center. It's good to know that no matter how many times I wander toward the edge, I'll reach my destination as long as I keep on walking.

Random first lines from books on my shelf...

"Wildlife and the Wild Woman are both endangered species."
--Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run with the Wolves

"Is a pen a metaphorical penis?"
--Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar, The Madwoman in the Attic

"Time is not a line, but a dimension, like a dimension in space."
--Margaret Atwood, Cat's Eye

"'The continuous work of our life,' says Montaigne, 'is to build death.'"
--Simone de Beauvior, The Ethics of Ambiguity

"The moon is full."
--Starhawk, The Spiral Dance

I was saddened to hear that writer Madeleine L'Engle passed away last week. I've always loved her books, and I consider her a brilliant writer. Her work definitely transcends genre, and is worthy of attention from adult readers, as well as young people.

I think I'll dig out A Wrinkle in Time, and re-read it. Soon.

Susan's moody writer bio

Susan Slaviero writes about dismemberment, existentialist funerary images, peyote dreams, and the absence of color. Her hobbies include hunting for geoduck clams and whittling gravestones from bars of Ivory soap. She can peel an orange with her feet. She once owned a black beret.

She is currently writing her own eulogy, a fragmented narrative constructed entirely in iambic pentameter.

My crappy mood calls for.....

some moody writer photos....

I can see clearly now...

Harley is looking much happier with his snazzy new haircut (and his delightful polka-dot bandanna).

I'm hoping he'll be less mopey, now that he can see properly.


Oh! And check out my new pet. Yikes!

Blame it on the blood loss...

So I made the most of having to get bloodwork done today. (again!)

I still can't bring myself to rip off that tape. Z. saw me taking a picture of my arm, and said:

"I think you're going a little crazy with this blogging thing."

Anyway, today was my day for going a little crazy. If I have to go out to do something crappy, I like to improve the overall quality of the day and join unpleasant tasks with pleasant ones.

Besides, I had a gift certificate for Barnes and Noble in my bag.

I should never, ever, be allowed to roam free in bookstores. It's dangerous to my bank account.

Exhibit A:


I also went to Trader Joe's (which is way cooler than regular grocery shopping) and bought such awesome stuff as: TJ's organic marinara sauce, pizza bagels, and vanilla bean cake mix. (I also picked up broccoli, but that's not really awesome, is it?)

*I must add that I had every intention of buying GRE prep materials at the bookstore. However, (if you want to get Freudian about it) my id took over, and I bought a bunch of fun stuff instead. I'm blaming it on that little vial of blood taken from my arm almost an hour before book shopping...

speaking of teen angst...

Our recent discussions of YA novels and my attempts to organize the chaotic boxes of photographs in the spare room got me thinking about the influence of one's teenage years. (See above: circa 1988! Nice bangs, huh? And to think, that photo is almost twenty years old. Scary.)

Of course, these thoughts may have something to do with having a teenager in the house, too...

Do we ever really outgrow the anxieties we associate with youth?

Last night I had an anxiety dream, and (as always) it took place at school. I was taking an exam, and ran out of time. Half the test was left blank and I had to turn it in unfinished. I woke up feeling really, really stressed.

Whenever someone refers to adolescence as "the best years of your life," it makes me cringe...There must be some reason why we associate anxiety with teenagerdom. It seems contradictory that we also associate these years with being carefree.

Just an observation.

As an aside, I married the nice young man in that dance photo. We've aged a bit since 1988, yet I still have bad dreams about unfinished exams. And bad hair days.

To distract myself from studying....

Hey all. One week of classes down, fourteen or so to go. I'm already burnt out! I'm sure once graduation rolls around I'll be in this weird state of happy/sad, but right now I'm counting down the long weeks! I need a break already!

Our recent moon oddities continued last night when I looked into the sky and noticed that the moon looked as if it had quadrupled in size. I know this has something to do with water vapor magnifying the moon, but I wonder if this will impact my recent moon-induced string of bad luck. Let's hope not. I'm sure I'm in need of another card reading by the lovely Susan.

In other news, I've decided to go ahead and get that tattoo that I was talking about a couple of entries ago, and I picked a date to go get it done! And it didn't take much convincing to get my boyfriend pumped about going with me. He'll probably get another tattoo as well. He actually doesn't mind the burning pain. Let's hope I don't mind it either.....

I haven't had the chance to do much writing - quality writing, anyway - but I have managed to write a decent funny poem about Bear Grylls, who can be seen on the Discovery Channel show Man vs. Wild and in my wildest dreams. Who can't help but have a crush on a man who isn't afraid to scale the deepest crevasse of a glacier? The poem uses the words "rainslicker" and "flint" in a whole new way....

As for what I've been reading, outside of schoolwork, I've been trying to keep it light and easy. Right now I'm almost done with Twilight. Yes, the book is intended for young teenage girls, which I'm not, but my youngest sister C. is a teenage girl and she loved the book. Plus it has vampires and werewolves in it to even out all that high school angst. I actually like it, and it's refreshing compared to all of the dense art history reading I've had to do lately. I recommend it.