Reading, Reading, Reading

Beyond writing a poem a day, I do little writing.

That seems okay. Instead, I read and read and read, unconcerned. Could be, I'm a very slow-ripening fruit. . . or nothing matters except what actually happens or following my inclinations.

Here are the books that attracted me in February and March:

• The Bird : A Natural History of Who Birds Are, Where They Came From, and How They Live Tudge, Colin
• Animal / editors-in-chief, David Burnie & Don E. Wilson.
• No country for old men [large print]/ Cormac McCarthy.
• Animal life / editor in chief, Charlotte Uhlenbroek.
• The case for books : past, present, future / Robert Darnton.
• The eco diary of Kirin Singer / by Sue Ann Alderson ; illustrated by Millie Ballance.
• The road / Cormac McCarthy.
• Poetry speaks expanded : hear poets from Tennyson to Plath read their own work / Elise Paschen & Rebekah Presson Mosby, editors ; Charles Osgood, narrator.
• Ten poems to open your heart / Roger Housden.
• I can't keep my own secrets : six-word memoirs by teens famous & obscure : from Smith magazine / edited by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith.
• Knockout : interviews with doctors who are curing cancer-- and how to prevent getting it in the first place / Suzanne Somers.
• Mirrors : stories of almost everyone / Eduardo Galeano ; English translation by Mark Fried.
• Origami tessellations : awe-inspiring geometric designs / by Eric Gjerde. Gjerde, Eric, 1978-
• Poems, prose, and letters / Elizabeth Bishop.
• Tao te ching : a new English version / with foreword and notes by Stephen Mitchell. Laozi.
• Native American wisdom : a spiritual tradition at one with nature / edited by Alan Jacobs ; introduction by Mick Gidley.
• The gift : poems by the great Sufi master / Hafiz ; translated by Daniel James Ladinsky.
• The winged energy of delight : selected translations / [translated by] Robert Bly.
• Unexpected miracles : hope and holistic healing for pets / Shawn Messonnier.
• The glance : songs of soul-meeting / Rumi ; translated by Coleman Barks with Nevit Ergin.
• Tao te ching : the new translation from tao te ching : the definative edition / Lao Tzu ; translation by Jonathan Star.
• On writing / Eudora Welty ; introduction by Richard Bausch.
• The Duke encyclopedia of new medicine : conventional and alternative medicine for all ages / foreword by Tracy W. Gaudet ; [chief medical editors, Richard Leibowitz, Linda Smith].
• Making & keeping creative journals / Suzanne J.E. Tourtillott.
• Speak to win : how to present with power in any situation / Brian Tracy.
• The house of wisdom : how the Arabs transformed Western civilization / Jonathan
• Green barbarians : how to live bravely on your home planet / Ellen Sandbeck.
• Zero : the biography of a dangerous idea / Charles Seife.
  You've got to read this book! : 55 people tell the story of the book that changed their life / [compiled by] Jack Canfield, Gay Hendricks, with Carol Kline.
• 77 love sonnets / by Garrison Keillor.

I highly recommend Mirrors and Knockout as explorations of non-mainstream perspectives on history, culture and medicine. I can't keep my own secrets actually opens up some very poignant secrets. And The gift made my heart sing. I learned later that the translator took great liberties with the original text, but for my purposes that may have been all to the good.

The house of wisdom greatly expanded my understanding of political and religious history and my appreciation of science and math. Garrison Keillor's sonnets didn't let me down; in fact their artistry, depth and humor did the opposite.

I was disappointed that A case for books seemed hastily thrown together (though it probably had to be, to captialize on recent Google news). Native American wisdom, for my tastes, did not focus enough on what I consider more traditional sources or viewpoints. Cormack McCarthy's books intrigued me with their mostly spare style of letting the action tell the story; but for me this was spoiled by some overt insertions of political/moral commentary. I have not yet read the Green barbarians or Zero, or Speak to win.

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Books and Buzzards

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I need a place to set down thoughts;

I'm weary of carrying so many.

"A crisis is a terrible thing to waste."
A quotation of that variety appeared in my life this week. For me, it meant to quit forever-postponing ay progress with sharing my writing through books. The nature and proliferation of books is advancing at such a rate that my creations may not find a home in the marketplace soon. But that is a worry not worth worrying about; that will take care of itself.

Who else reads books at a rate like mine? My business and social friends say, generally, that they read few. Of course, they have other information channels, many of which are visual.

My favorite book of the moment is The Gift, a translation of Kabir poems. With any poetry book, I am always delighted to find 2 or 3 poems between the covers that I thrill to. In this case, it was almost all, and I have begun a full re-read of the texts.

Tomorrow, March 15, is Buzzard Day. I think it was chosen to coincide with the Ides of March. But, being a self-appointed Buzzard Lady, I intend to read some of my buzzard poems at tomorrow's Professional Wordsmiths meeting.

I tried to insert a picture of a buzzard and had great difficulty getting size and placement right. Then I realized that I should probably be using a creative commons pic. But I can't figure out how to upload one of those.

I talked my WORDS for Hard Times book possibilities over with a friend on Friday morning. I want to set some of Ron's ideas down here as a way to remember them and refer to them later. He suggests that I print off the version that I have now and begin selling it and/or showing it to people and organizations I already work with now. Offer it to non-profit groups as a fundraising opportunity for them. Follow my own best guesses about when and whether to use a publishing service like Wisdom House. That applies to every other step of the process, including cover design.

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