It’s getting to be ludicrous how lax I’ve been as a blogger, so I won’t even bother apologizing but will just skip right on by. Because the year is late and time is short but there’s always much to be thankful for:
- Journals whose new issues include my poems, to my everlasting gratitude and delight:
- Homemade mascarpone, for which I have no photo, but I promise you is rich lovely velvet and divine on pumpkin bread.
- Big fat novels like In Sunlight and In Shadow by Mark Helprin (I’ve read, loved, & what’s more own every book he’s written) and Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.
- Late fall days, made for sinking into the couch with hot sweet and creamy tea and one of those good books. Distract the kids with a Can You See What I See? book and you’ll have some time to yourself for your own reading.
- Poetry: Braiding the Storm by Laura Davis, Mother Desert by Jo Sarzotti, Afterworld by Christine Garren…
- My mother’s old wooden rolling pin. This week alone I’ve used it for making apple pie and Christmas ornaments with the boys. A well-used and well-loved hand-me-down.
In the failing afternoon light we hunted up more candles — the nubs of old tapers and half-spent Christmas pillars. As I warmed up some canned soup on the stove I was reminded how my father would cook chestnuts and popcorn on its top. “Dad would have enjoyed this,” I said softly to the air as I stirred the pot, and I saw the pain of remembrance flicker across my mother’s face. I don’t know if silence or remembrance is best, but I was longing to press a hurt simply to remind myself it was there.
— from “Storm,” in Five Thousand Days Like This One, by Jane Brox
- You, if you’re still here, and even if you’re not. Thanks for thinking of me every now and again.
Marie Gauthier 
Thanks so much, Marie. I’m grateful to have awesome poet-friends like you! Also, I’d like use your chapbook as an example in an upcoming post about autographing your own book. Would that be ok with you?
I should add thanks-be to the internet, without which I’d never have met you and so many other precious poet-friends! And of course! Sounds like another fascinating post over at Dear Outer Space — thanks for the inclusion.
Congrats on the publications!
Now, about that homemade marscapone…
So, so thankful to know you!!
Oh Frabjous Joy! I just had to stop and google the new Helprin book to verify that it is in this world, and it’s not something I’ve missed in previous years. But how did I miss this? Oh who cares! It’s here and I can read another Helprin book! I love your list, and your quote from the Brox book…lovely. And poems in four fine journals: congratulations! Pumpkin bread, tea, books, your mother’s old rolling pin, kids…it is indeed a wonderful world. Thanks for sharing it.
Thank you, Sandy & Cindy — I count you also among the precious. xo
And Cindy, yes! It’s brand brand new! I haven’t finished, but he writes as beautifully as ever.
That’s okay, abandon your family for five minutes and tend to your bloggin’ – we’ll get by, somehow – (sniff) – really, it’s okay…..
Marie, congrats on all those publications! And thanks for sharing your tender, cherished moments.
Congrats on all your publications! I have my mother’s old rolling pin too — since Anthony does most of the cooking and/or baking in this household, he says he loves it!