Give It All Away

It isn't as easy as it once was to give everything away. Look around at the muchness of stuff.

You fill your life with it

and then seek to simplify

by foisting it all onto others.

When the entire populace is overburdened

with things,

who will volunteer to take what you are now so eager

to give away?

 

Best to leave.

Start over with nothing

but redwing blackbirds

shot like arrows from near copse

to far copse across the bright green meadow.

Let that sight suffice,

but you can also take in

the sound effect

of their trills and whistles when they light.

 

Or hearken to the enthusiasms of the robin

at the tip-most bough of the maple.

That song alone is worth it all.

 

Start with these and let the rest go.

 

 

Copyright © 2019Ann Tudor
Food blog: http://fastandfearlesscooking.blogspot.ca

Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/InfallibleNana

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Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00JI4758O

 

Being the Wilderness

Schooled in cities,

surrounded by degrees of urbanity,

can I be the wilderness?

Can I, through force of will,

turn my lone maple tree

into a symbol of wild growth?

Can I reclaim the reckless rebellion

of my younger days

and grow now

(my years marked by tree rings)

into the wild crone, the persona called for—

demanded—

by the times we live in?

Can I live up to this expectation

of wild growth?

Can I live down my current prim self

and move beyond to the wild blue yonder?

If I will it, will it happen?

Imagine the unfettered wildness

I can bring to all things,

setting an example for all

who would follow me

into the wildness of the wilderness.

 

 

Copyright © 2019 Ann Tudor
Food blog: http://fastandfearlesscooking.blogspot.ca

Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/InfallibleNana

FB: https://www.facebook.com/fastandfearlesscooking

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00JI4758O

 

Being Alone

Alone is not the same as lonely.

You can be lonely in a crowd

(who was it who wandered

lonely as a cloud?).

Cloud. Crowd.

Lonely is less productive

than alone,

leading more frequently to self-pity

and despondency than to creative endeavours.

For creative moments

isolate yourself

and give yourself the gift of time.

Let it stretch before you as,

pencil in hand, or paintbrush,

or lump of clay,

you play with line and form

and word and rhythm

and assonance and harmony.

Crowd. Cloud. Shower.

Slower. Snow.

Proud. Plowed. Prow. Bow.

Bower.

Blow. Know. Show. Slow.

Sow. Sew.

Rhymes of eye and ear.

Atone. Bone. Alone.

 

 

Copyright © 2019 Ann Tudor
Food blog: http://fastandfearlesscooking.blogspot.ca

Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/InfallibleNana

FB: https://www.facebook.com/fastandfearlesscooking

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00JI4758O

 

List of 2018 Books Read

This list of 72 (or so) books consists of the ones I starred after reading. In all, I began 283 books during the past year. Of these I did not finish 88, having dropped some of them after one page, others after 100 pages or more. Thus, of the 195 books I finished, only 72 were awarded my gold star.

 

 

Colm Toibin             House of Names

David Sedaris           Theft by Finding

Sara Gran               Claire DeWitt & the Bohemian

                             Highway

Sara Gran               Claire DeWitt & the City of the

                             Dead

Jeannette Wall          Half-Broke Horses

Chris Raschka           The Doorman's Repose

Barbara Kingsolver      Homeland

Laurie R. King          Dreaming Spies

Bailey White            Mama Makes Up Her Mind

Peter de Jonge          Shadows Still Remain

Peter de Jonge          Buried on Avenue B

Laurie R. King          Mary Russell's War

Muriel Spark            A Far Cry from Kensington

Oisin Curran            Blood Fable

Will Schwalbe           Books for Living

Ann Hood                Morningstar: Growing up w/ bks

David Handler           Girl w/ Kaleidoscope Eyes

Neil Olson              The Black Painting

Reginald Hill           On Beulah Height

Philip Pullman          Once Upon a Time in the North

Gabrielle Hamilton      Blood, Bones, & Butter

Laurie R. King          The Game

Gabrielle Zevin         Margaretowne

Henning Mankell         Italian Shoes

Tom Sleigh              The Land Between Two Rivers

Laurie R. King          Locked Room

Donna Leon              Temptation of Forgiveness

Martha Grimes           The Knowledge

Thomas King             The Cold Sky

Ann Cleaves             Hidden Depths

John Sandford           Deep Freeze

Robin Sloan             Sourdough

Tom Gauld               Baking with Kafka

Daniel Mendelsohn       An Odyssey

Laurie R. King          A Monstrous Regiment of Women

Laurie R. King          With Child

Laurie R. King          Night Work

Laurie R. King          O Jerusalem

Reginald Hill           Bones and Silence

Christopher Cameron     Dr. Bartolo's Umbrella

Ngaio Marsh (& S.Duffy) Money in the Morgue

Ian McEwan              On Chesil Beach

Beryl Bainbridge        The Dressmaker

Sloane Crosley          Look Alive Out There

David Sedaris           Calypso

Sara Blaedel            The Undertaker's Daughter

Emma Reyes              The Book of Emma Reyes

Kevin Kwan              Rich People's Problems

Graham Green            The Captain & the Enemy

Cheryl Strayed          Ten Beautiful Things

Laurie R. King          Garment of Shadows

Paul Doiron             Knife Creek

Sigrid Rausing          Mayhem (memoir)

Penelope Lively         The Ghost of Thomas Kempe

Larry McMurtry          Books: A Memoir

Alex. McCall Smith      The Lost Art of Gratitude

Ursula K. LeGuin        The Left Hand of Darkness

Diane Setterfield       The 13^th Tale

Laurie R. King          Island of the Mad

Elizabeth George        The Punishment She Deserves

Tara Westover           Educated

Ursula K. LeGuin        The Farthest Shore

Elisabeth Tova Bailey   The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating

Christian Donlan        The Unmapped Mind

Peter Wohllebein        The Hidden Life of Trees

Patricia Lockwood       Priestdaddy

Kerry Greenwood         Murder in the Dark

Steve Burrows           A Tiding of Magpies

James R. Doty           Into the Magic Shop

Michael Ondaatje        Warlight

Penelope Lively         Moon Tiger

Robert Galbraith        Lethal White

 

 

Copyright © 2019 Ann Tudor
Food blog: http://fastandfearlesscooking.blogspot.ca

Musings blog: http://www.scenesfromthejourney.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/InfallibleNana

FB: https://www.facebook.com/fastandfearlesscooking

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00JI4758O