Without Lifting A Finger

 

 

My new poem -- "I'm Full" -- is up at The Bookends Review. Give it a whirl and many thanks to the editor, Jordan Blum.

Very rarely does a poetry publication ask me to write about how I came to write a certain poem. Even rarer: I respond. Anyway, stumbled on this tonight, from an early edition of Glassworks . It's not the poem, it's a brief explanation of how I came to write the poem.

Finished Coetzee's The Pole in two days. An easy read. Titillating but hardly "real" and, like all good reads I suppose, leaving you wanting.:) Back to Wordsworth's Guide to the Lake District. I hope I can find a spot to build. Perhaps in the area of the old Roman fort? Or on that cloud-with-a-view WW suggested earlier in the book? WW: Our fancies could not resist the temptation; and we fixed upon a spot for a cottage, which we began to build:* and finished as easily as castles are raised in the air.—

You probably already know: I'm a fan. Got it today and started (but don't think I've given up on Wordsworth: to some extent: he'll guide me through the Lake District). Anyway, a snip from The Pole: ‘Listen to me, Witold,’ she says. ‘You barely know me, so let me tell you who I am. First and last, I am a married woman. Not a free spirit but a woman with a husband and children and a home and friends and commitments of all kinds, emotional commitments, social commitments, practical commitments. There is no room in my life for—what shall I call it?—an affair of the heart. You tell me you carry around with you an image of me. Good. But I don’t carry around an image of you. I don’t carry around an image of anyone. I am not that kind of person. You visited Barcelona, you gave a piano recital, which we all enjoyed; we had dinner together; and that was that. You passed into my life, you passed out of my life. Terminado. We have no future together, you and I. I am sorry to say so...

  Posted yesterday on my Instagram feed (rlswihart13): Ring-necked Pheasant @ WK Kellogg Bird Sanctuary. Beautiful birds. Didn't know till now that they were originally introduced from Asia. Happy Monday!!!♥️🎈 #rlswihart13 #wkkelloggbirdsanctuary #kalamazoo #pheasant #ringneckedpheasant #nature #beauty #poetry  #readmorepoetry2023 #ukraine 🇺🇦🎈