Poetry . Writers
The Moon, Ten Times by Pat Schneider
On January 20, 2021 by Speranza
O round, cool face of forever
float free
for me
Saucer without a teacup
without the tyranny
of tea
Owl eye without a pupil
blind
to contradiction
My white balloon
has lost its string
and me
Round, open mouth
of the goddess
of light
The night sky’s
exclamation:
Oh!
Puppeteer
of tides,
rock the shore of the world
Bright Frisbee
the dog star lost
in the night
Perfect pearl
crown of cornfields
and night watchmen’s hair
Bellybutton
of God
Permission granted to post here by: Pat Schneider, Writing Alone and with others, Oxford Univ.Press, 2003.
I have truly adored this poem since the first time I read it – the descriptions are exquisite and everything about it is full of unselfconscious whimsy and joy. I’ve been a huge fan of Pat Schneider’s work for years now and when I originally emailed her directly to ask permission to eventually put this on the blog, she was supremely gracious and we began a brief bit of back and forth correspondence which was absolutely thrilling to me.
Getting Older . History . Reading
Eleanor, gee I think you’re Swell!
On September 9, 2018 by Speranza
Not sure why, but I notice that my reading tastes have been rather mired in memoir of late: The Fish Ladder (Katharine Norbury); Drinking the Rain (Alix Kates Shulman); Are you Somebody (Nuala (O’Faolain); Leaving before the Rains come (Alexandra Fuller); and Hourglass:Time, Memory, Marriage Dani Shapiro) with just a brief recent hiatus into the new Julian Barnes, The Only Story. Barnes is one of my favorite writers although his talent and intellect always leave me feeling distinctly lacking.
Anyway, I have taken to jotting down vocabulary I am not familiar with from his books lest I am ever in attendance at a clever party with him. This will never happen – obviously – but I like to pretend, in case someone drops “atavistic” into the conversation or mentions their vast collection of embroidered “antimacassars.” (Which sounds painful but really isn’t …)
Uncategorized
To Blog or Not to Blog
On August 24, 2015 by Speranza
I haven’t been here for a while (hola, you ten faithful readers in Brazil who keep on visiting!) and I have no excuse, save the fact that my blogging mojo has been seriously depleted of late and I have devoted more time than I care to admit to feeling badly about my writing and being completely intimidated by other more polished blogs and writers who look edgy and are all geometric-hipster-haircuts and matte lip colour.
I’ve been writing on and off my whole life and certainly I have been published regularly in that short blasts of non-fiction/fiction here and there kind of way but it’s not really satisfying to me. It’s like making do with cheese and crackers and pretending it’s enough when actually, you are still starving; in fact, it’s like you are pretending you even like cheese and crackers in the first place.
I don’t know why short fiction has an inferiority complex but to me it does. I want the depth of a novel behind me, something I can point at and say, there, see that? I wrote that and there is my name and photo even if the same book is now wedged in the remainder bin …