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# Meryl Natchez

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## Sitemaps

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## Posts

- [Blog](https://www.merylnatchez.com/blog)
- [Karma](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/like-brushing-my-teeth)
- [Into the Mystery](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/into-the-mystery) - Here is the final poem from Tony Hoagland's new book, Priest Turned Therapist Treats Fear of God. Into the Mystery Of course there is a time of afternoon, out there in the yard, a time that has never been described. There is the way the air feels among the flagstones and tropical plants xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxwith their
- [This Blog Has Moved](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/this-blog-has-moved) - Blog posts have moved to substack, Starting September 2023, all new posts are there. Of course, the archives remain here for your reading pleasure.
- [Toilets, Trains, and Tickets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/toilets-trains-and-tickets) - For those of you who want more details on our trip, read on... The rest of the world should model itself after Japan when it comes to toilets. Not only do they have wonderful gadgets, they are easy to find, plentiful and impeccably clean. Even toilets in bus and train stations and on the trains Japanese toilets, Shinkansen, tickets
- [Home Repair in Berkeley](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/home-repair-in-berkeley) - Andrew, who plumbed my house, quit the MFA program at Stanford to work in his uncle’s plumbing business. “The best writer in our group, one year ahead of me, struggled to find a job. If it was so hard for her, what hope was there for me?” He explained, while fixing my dishwasher. While he
- [Glitch with subscriptions...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/glitch-with-subscritions) - I've discovered that none of the subscribers to this blog are getting post updates, so will pause until this glitch is fixed. Feel free to explore past posts in the meantime or subscribe to my Substack here.
- [Memorial Day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/memorial-day-2) - This poem came to me from The Paris Review, sent as part of their daily email awhile ago. Somehow it seems apt for Memorial Day. The Dirt and the Willow All summer long while other trees reached for more light the willow unfurled streamers down into its own streetwise shade lower and slower until the
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/the-exemplary-sentence-23) - Despite the madness of war, we lived for a world that would be different. Several years ago, I started posting favorite passages from prose that I am reading. I stole the title “The exemplary sentence,” from Mark Doty’s blog. It seems apt. This excerpt is from Tadeusz Borowski’s amazing book, This Way for the Gas Ladies
- [Yannis Ritsos](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/yannis-ritsos) - This morning in my email I found this poem from the Paris Review. I loved the tone of it--quiet, haunting--no pretentions or duties. Achilles After Dying He was very tired—who cared about glory any longer? Enough was enough. He had come to know enemies and friends—purported friends: behind all the admiration and love they hid their
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-22) - I've been rereading Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, my favorite of her books. As it opens, lovely, graceful, and without money of her own, Lily Barth needs to find a husband. She's already 29, old for the job. But it's hard for her. She attaches herself to Percy Gryce, a rich, eligible bachelor and draws
- [Natalie Diaz](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/natalie-diaz) - I know I've posted something from her book, Post-Colonial Love Poem, but I came across this one recently and love the sensuality in contrast to the landscape and car details. If I Should Come Upon Your House Lonely in the West Texas Desert I will swing my lasso of headlights across your front porch, let
- [Keetje Kuipers](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/keetje-kuipers) - At the Minnesota Northwoods Writers' Conference, Keetje Kuipers gave a knock-out reading. I bought her most recent book, All its Charms, and have been slowly reading through it. She has the amazing ability to make her poetry seem like easy, natural speech, while at the same time packing so much into each word. I especially
- [Zagajewski](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/zagajewski) - I just finished a slim, posthumous book of Adam Zagajewski's poems. This little poem seems to me to capture exactly how it feels to long to write when you can't: Wind We always forget what poetry is (or maybe it happens only to me). Poetry is a wind blowing from the gods, says Cioran, citing
- [Raymond Carver](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/raymond-carver) - It's rare that a writer can work well in both prose and poetry. Raymond Carver, best known for his short stories, has also written some intriguing short poems. Here's one: Sunday Night Make use of the things around you. This light rain outside the window, for one. This cigarette between my fingers, these feet on
- [Elms](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/elms) - My high school had an ancient Dutch Elm on a hillside that was the logo of the school, so the blight that hit the elms was devastating, not just for itself, but for the school's identity. The school recovered, of course, though the elm did not. So the title caught my attention when I saw
- [Dreams](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/dreams) - One of the deep pleasures of this blog is discovering poets I hadn't encountered before whose work dazzles me. Today it's Megan Nichols, whose poem I first read in Poetry Daily. My mother, a psychoanalyst, was a thoughtful interpreter of dreams. It was her forté--she could ask the right questions to eke out the often
- [Not Monday, but...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/not-monday-but) - I will be rafting next week, so this post is for next Monday. I saw this lovely lobster poem in Sean the Sharpener's morning missive--poems about crustaceans. I had previously posted Nemerov's wonderful lobster poem. Kay had an "s" on flamenco, which I ruthlessly and presumptuously removed. I hope she doesn't mind. Also in Sean's
- [Back from Bemidji](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/back-from-bemidji) - I had a wonderful week in Northern Minnesota, and heard many new poems, I'm sure I will be posting some soon. But this one has been on my mind for awhile, by Louise Glück. Crossroads My body, now that we will not be traveling together much longer I begin to feel a new tenderness toward
- [Subscriptions...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/subscriptions) - I discovered by accident that the subscribe feature to this blog had broken, because a plugin from Google. is no longer supported. Not only could new users not subscribe, but previous subscribers no longer were receiving the blog. I reinstated several I was aware of, and if you know of others, please tell the to
- [Charif Shanahan](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/charif-shanahan) - I met Charif several years ago at the memorial for Linda Gregg--he had been one of her students. I'm so happy to have seen his poems popping up in magazines lately. I love especially the way this poem leads up to its terrific last stanza. His new collection, Trace Evidence, just came out from Tin
- [The Gift](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-gift) - I came across this poem again (written 52 years ago, by a man who had lived through World War II in Europe) just as the dense gray fog was tuning to tepid sun this morning. It was in another of Sean Singer's composite emails. It's uncharacteristically short and tender, and the line "To think that
- [Hart Crane](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/hart-crane) - Hart Crane was one of my favorite poets when I was a teenager. I used to wander around reciting his musical poems aloud. His most famous poem is "To Brooklyn Bridge." Now he seems almost unnoticed, so I thought I'd post one of his that I remember. I especially love the last four lines. Island
- [Rats](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/rats) - I saw this poem in Poetry Daily a few weeks ago. I love especially the lines "For you / have been the sand to your own blaze." It says so much, so efficiently. Larry did a broadside of Adam Zagajewski's poem, "R says," about literary rats a few years ago, that had this line drawing
- [Facing Shelves](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/facing-shelves) - I first saw this poem in Poetry Daily. When I contacted the poet for permission to print it here, I had a lovely exchange with them about my time as a library volunteer, facing the books on the shelves. I love the play of the two-faced god through the poem, which comes out especially with
- [Lies!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lies) - Lying was part of my family heritage, so this poem by Peg Boyers felt very close to me. I first saw it in a selection from Sean the Sharpener. It unfolds so quietly to lead us through the "snug darkness" us to its powerful ending. The Coat At eleven I learned to lie. Disobedience and
- [Monday Bonus](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/monday-bonus) - It's been ages since I've printed anything Larry said, but this evening, I asked him a question about the man who recently repainted our fence. It's been a week and he hasn't come around to collect his fee. "Should I email him and ask him about it," I wondered aloud, "Or just wait, because it's
- [Marvin Bell](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/marvin-bell) - Marvin Bell died in 2020. I had corresponded with him--a generous man, a famous teacher of poetry. Here is one of his poems: To Dorothy You are not beautiful, exactly. You are beautiful, inexactly. You let a weed grow by the mulberry and a mulberry grow by the house. So close, in the personal quiet
- [Tony Hoagland's Last Book](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/tony-hoaglands-last-book) - I just finished Turn Up the River, written as he was dying of cancer, published posthumously. It has some terrific poems in it, including this one: On Why I Must Decline To Receive The Prayers You Say You Are Constantly Sending Because first of all, I have a feeling that they didn’t cost you anything,
- [Bert Meyers](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/bert-meyers) - There are so many new poets, sometimes it's hard to remember how many good poets have come and gone! Here's Bert Meyer's homage to a wonderful allium. The Garlic Rabbi of condiments, whose breath is a verb, wearing a thin beard and a white robe; you who are pale and small and shaped like a
- [Basho](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/basho) - I often think of this little prose poem--such an apt description of the way we go about our lives. Matsuo Basho: The Narrow Road to the Great North
- [Short poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/short-poems-2) - Given how much can be packed into a few lines, it's surprising how many long poems there are! This one even rhymes. History The past has been a mint Of blood and sorrow That must not be True of tomorrow. Langston Hughes
- [Linda Pastan](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/linda-pastan) - Linda Pastan died in January this year, and this seems an appropriate poem to post for her. She was born in 1932 and went to Radcliffe. During her senior year, Pastan won a collegiate poetry prize sponsored by Mademoiselle magazinem a contest in which Sylvia Plath placed second. I wonder how that felt later on.
- [Stormy weather](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/stormy-weather) - All week we've been getting the rain we wanted so much the last few years. I know floods and snowstorms are plaguing much of the state, but here it's just wet. I love watching the storms roll through the bay. Clouds drive westward. Waves pound shoreward. It’s not raining underwater.
- [Donald Justice](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/donald-justice) - According to legend, when John Berryman taught a poetry workshop at Iowa, his class was oversubscribed. He assigned a sonnet to everyone who wanted to attend and picked the attendees based on their work. This is the sonnet that Donald Justice submitted: The Wall The wall surrounding them they never saw; The angels, often. Angels
- [B.H. Fairchild](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/b-h-fairchild) - This poem is from Fairchild's new book, An Ordinary Life, which just came out. It's full of wonderful poetry. Often the Dying Ask for a Map So when Locie, embraced by the great softness of bed #12, her late blizzard of silver hair fanning out beneath head and shoulders, asked for one in plaintive, almost
- [Poetry and Science](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/poetry-and-science) - This poem reminds me how poems can arise from any experience. I especially love the references to Keats and how the poem contains so much. Anatomy Exam Today at the college library the students check out arms and legs—towering models of muscles and veins perched on a stand like a hat rack. The exam just
- [A Celebration](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/a-celebration) - I love the mysteriousness of this poem, the juxtapositions, the quiet ominousness, and the way it moves the way the mind moves. So lucky that translation brings this poem to us. A Celebration The thread of the story fell to the ground, so I went down on my hands and knees to hunt for it.
- [New to me...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/new-to-me) - Thanks to Sean Singer, I often get introduced to poets whose work I don't know. Nick Flynn is one, and I thought I'd share this poem, Sudden, that I first saw from Sean's post. I love how it sketches the shock of death so clearly with so little. Nick Flynn, from Some Ether
- [A.E. Stallings](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-e-stallings) - Today I read a review of Alicia Stallings new book of poems, This Afterlife, by David Orr, in which he mentions: The main thing Stallings has going for her is that she’s good at writing poems. She is!. I reviewed her book LIKE for ZYZZYVA a few years ago. She often uses form, meter, rhyme,
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-21) - I subscribe to Ben Dolnick's occasional posts about fiction, which I love. His recent missive on "the likable narrator" made me think of Tom Ripley, one of the most underrated characters in 20th century fiction. Patricia Highsmith created a complex, haunted character, with a shakey moral compass. Not likable. Nonetheless, you can't help rooting for
- [Lisel Mueller](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lisel-mueller) - I don't think I've posted anything of hers before, but I like the nuance and understatement of this poem. She died in 2020, at 96. Curriculum Vitae 1992 1) I was born in a Free City, near the North Sea. 2) In the year of my birth, money was shredded into confetti. A loaf of
- [More Haiku](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/more-haiku) - I seem to be in minimalist mode to start the year. This one, which came to me via Sean the Sharpener, resonates with all the California rain: Leaves falling, lie on one another— the rain beats on the rain Gyodai Kato (tr. from Japanese by R.H. Blyth)
- [Haiku for the New Year](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/haiku-for-the-new-year) - This lovely haiku came via Mary Ruefle: New Year's Day: The desk and bits of paper-- just as last year Matsuo
- [Haiku for the end of the year](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/haiku-for-the-end-of-the-year) - Breaking with tradition, I'm posting a poem of mine to wrap up the year. Winter Haiku (Haiku) Torn wrapping paper piled by the fireplace— holiday’s over. Hope your holidays were sweet, and the New Year engaging.
- [A poem by David St. John](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poe-by-david-st-john) - Somehow this ekphrastic poem seems like a wintery one. Perhaps the huddled figures give that impression. And though I don't know the painting it refers to, it stands alone as a poem. I love the ending especially. The Park A figure in a kimono or a robe so lush it too seems foliate Stands apart
- [Barbara Guest](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/barbara-guest) - I haven't read much of Barbara Guest, two many books stacked up waiting, but this snippet makes me want to see more. I love this little poem, so vivid and mysterious. The View from Kandinsky's Window The park shows little concern with Kandinsky’s history these particular buildings are brief about his early life reflections of
- [Lucia Perillo](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lucia-perillo) - It's always a shock to discover a poet you like has died--and because I always ask permission before posting poems here, I discovered that Lucia Perillo died six years ago. Luckily, we still have her poems. I think I saw this one in Poetry Daily: To the Field of Scotch Broom That Will Be Buried
- [Tired of poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/tired-of-poetry) - Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the unread poetry books on every surface in my house. Then I can appreciate Alice's sentiment:
- [The Prose Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-prose-poem-2) - It's been awhile since I posted one of these, but I find this one so moving, it had to go up today. What is a prose poem? Hard to define, but this is one. Or maybe it's a poem and I saw a version without line breaks. I've seen it both ways and chose this
- [Rainy morning breakfast--distraction from the election](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/rainy-morning-breakfast-distraction-from-the-election) - This morning with the rain outside and the election looming, Larry came to breakfast with a story about Warren Buffet. He met with Jeff Bezos at some point and Bezos said, "You're investment strategy is so simple, why doesn't everyone try it?" Buffet's answer, "Because no one wants to get rich slowly." He also told
- [Monday, Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-monday-3) - This weekend, I went to a reading and conversation with Brenda Hillman and Bob Hass, celebrating Brenda's new book, In a Few Minutes Before Later. Most of the poems are too long and visually complex to include here, but she read this short gem that I love. How smartly this captures the strangeness of the
- [Ben Dolnick: The Exemplary Sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/ben-dolnick-the-exemplary-sentence) - For several months I had been reading Ben Dolnick's posts on literature, which I enjoyed greatly, before discovering his fiction. The Ghost Notebooks, a perfect read for this season, is what I'd call a literary thriller. Here are two excellent sentences from that book. As I was listening to it as an audio book, they
- [Forgotten](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/forgotten) - It's odd how poetic reputations ebb and flow. Delmore Schwartz' debut book, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, was a star in 1938 when he was 25, and certainly impressed me when I read it in the late 60's. The title story was thrilling, I still remember it. But now he is almost forgotten. I used to
- [Coleridge](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/coleridge) - When I think of Coleridge, I immediately think of Xanadu, of the famous interruption of the poem by the "person from Porlock," which seems to me to stand for every mundane thing that keeps one from writing. But the Writer's Almanac featured this short poem I'd never seen before, and think is quite wonderful. What
- [Dorianne Laux](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/dorianne-laux) - Dorianne is a poet who rarely disappoints--simple but profound. Against Endings On the street outside the window someone is talking to someone else, a baffling song, no words, only the music of voices—low contralto of questions, laughter’s plucked strings—voices in darkness below stars where someone straddles a bike up on the balls of his feet,
- [Merwin on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/merwin-on-monday-2) - I love the way Merwin can write in a way that seems simple and straightforward, but takes you somewhere else. There's something magical about his work. Here's one example: Looking for Mushrooms at Sunrise When it is not yet day I am walking on centuries of dead chestnut leaves In a place without grief Though
- [The poetic gigans](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-poetic-gigans) - For me, writing in form in poetry is a way to may things happen that wouldn't otherwise. This form, the gigans, was created by Ruth Ellen Kocher, named after her favorite fictional monster. You can read about form and a little about her here. The basic rules are a poem made of couplet, tercet, couplet,
- [The broken refrigerator](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-broken-refrigerator) - Hasn't everyone had refrigerator problems--the ice maker, the filtered water, or too much frost, or it's just not working? Here's a sweet take on replacing one from The Writer's Almanac. In a Dream of Chivalry My father is helping the Ledoux sisters move their old refrigerator into the basement when they buy the new one.
- [Two poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/two-poems) - Today, I am posting a poem form Poem-A-Day that I saved awhile ago, by Xan Phillips. But it also reminds me of a wonderful short poem by Stephen Crane, so I'm including them both. I Never Felt Comfortable in My Own Skin So I Made a New One I was on a walk when I
- [Agatha Christie](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/agatha-christie) - I get The Writer's Almanac from Garrison Keeler daily, and rarely read anything but the poem. But today there was this lovely photo of Agatha Christie, whose work has given me a lot of pleasure. She was born in 1890. From the detailed article about her, I selected this to share with you: She set her
- [Back from the ocean](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/back-from-the-ocean) - I spent several weeks on Cape Cod with a rotating cast of friends and relatives, an ideal vacation Because the surf is still pounding in my head, I thought I'd start the fall offerings with a poem of my own for a change, one that captures some of that experience. The Afternoon Before the Day
- [Taking a break till mid September](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/taking-a-break-till-mid-september)
- [The Big State](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-big-state) - I used to wonder how the German citizens could have let the Holocaust happen, but have since experienced the helplessness that government actions makes me feel. I think this piece by James Tate is a perfect summary of the feeling of vague guilt and helplessness in the face of the State. The Sweep A friend
- [Ruth Stone](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ruth-stone) - Ruth Stone was discovered in her 80's, which should give hope to many. What Is a Poem? Such slight changes in air pressure, tongue and palate, and the difference in teeth. Transparent words. Why do I want to say ochre, or what is green-yellow? The sisters of those leaves on the ground still lisp on
- [Another from the Writer's Almanac](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-from-the-writers-almanac) - I really like the way this poem moves, its sudden shifts and its unsentimental ending. The Beginning of Something Is Always the End of Another Take the day, for instance: How the ruff of sun’s first light shoulders the night aside and when I butt my morning cigarette, my absolute last cigarette, I begin to
- [Antidotes to Fear of Death](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/antidotes-to-fear-of-death) - Once in awhile I discover a scientist who writes a poem that moves me. That was the case with this poem, by the astronomer Rebecca Elson. I wish I'd had a chance to know her. She died at 39, but wrote, A Responsibility to Awe, edited and published after her death. Antidotes to Fear of
- [Frosty](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/frosty) - I know it's appropriate to post a patriotic poem on July 4th, but a poem by our first US Poet Laureate is the best I can do. It seems to me that this is one of the few formal poems that feels entirely natural. The Silken Tent She is as in a field a silken
- [Wendy Battin](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/wendy-battin) - This poem, courtesy of Sean Singer's Sharpener, introduced me to Wendy Battin, who died before I got to know anything about her. Seems like she would have been worth knowing.
- [For Juneteenth](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/for-juneteenth) - I heard Danez Smith read before the Pandemic. His energy from the slam tradition is ebullient, and his poems are powerful. Here is one for this holiday. As usual, I especially like the ending. C.R.E.A.M. after Morgan Parker, after Wu-Tang in the morning I
- [My work made easy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/my-work-made-easy) - Once in awhile a poem floats my way over the internet, and I post it here. Sean Singer's posts are often a source, as this one this morning from William Bronk. I like how this small poem makes me stop and think; I like those plain-spoken bones!
- [The Exemplary Sentence: Elizabeth Von Arnim](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-elizabeth-von-arnim) - If you are looking for a bon bon of a book, The Enchanted April is delectable. Not overwhelmingly sweet, amusing, light, but well-enough written that it's not a guilty pleasure. I especially enjoyed this paragraph, the musings of a woman who has long been ignored by her husband: "Why, if Frederick did come, she would
- [Hands on](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/hands-on) - I first encountered Yehuda Amichai in Chana Bloch's translation. Having slaughtered and cleaned many chickens, I love the image in this excerpt, from another translator: God’s Hand in the World God’s hand in the world like my mother’s in the guts of the slaughtered hen on Friday. What does God see beyond the window as
- [No words](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/no-words) - Another week of mourning the senseless deaths of children. This poem, by a Jewish resistance leader against the Nazi's is the best I can do. Consolation It will not last. A few more weeks, a month, two at the most, the wounds will heal. Everything will get better. Apart from what is no longer there.
- [Jamaal May](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/jamaal-may-2) - I heard Jamaal May read about 10 years ago. A real treat, and here is a more recent poem of his I found. His book, Hum, is worth owning. I haven't yet read his newer book, The Big Book of Exit Strategies, where you can find this poem. . There are birds here for Detroit
- [Poetry and cooking](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-and-cooking) - As someone who loves both, I was so pleased to see this inventive political poem in the Paris Review archives: Little Cambray Tamales (makes 5,000,000 little tamales) —for Eduardo and Helena who asked me for a Salvadoran recipe Two pounds of mestizo cornmeal half a pound of loin of gachupin
- [Translation](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/translation-2) - How lucky we are to have so many wonderful poems translated into English. Here's a taste: Little robin bones pinned to the cosmos. Who whistles? Who calls? Tomaž Šalamun (tr. from Slovenian by Tomaž Šalamun and Michael Waltuch) I wonder if it was robin in Slovenian, or another common, backyard bird.
- [The wonderful Mary Ruefle](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-wonderful-mary-ruefle) - This poem needs no explanation. Although if you don't know Williams' poem, The Red Wheelbarrow, read it first. Red (After William Carlos Williams) I fucking depended on you and you left the fucking wheelbarrow out and it’s fucking raining and now the white chickens are fucking filthy Mary Ruefle
- [From the Japanese](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-the-japanese) - Another gem from Poetry Daily. I love naming and disintegration play against each other in this poem, vowels scattered. And benthic, a wonderful word, new to me. A Thousand Vowels A long slope. The strong sun dipped, and finally sank. No matter how long I walked, I stayed in "the middle of the road." The
- [Monday poem on Tuesday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-on-tuesday) - Another poem courtesy of Poetry Daily. Waiting for Your Call The light retreats and is generous again. No you to speak of, anywhere—neither in vicinity nor distance, so I look at the blue water, the snowy egret, the lace of its feathers shaking in the wind, the lake—no, I am lying. There are no egrets here, no
- [Back home](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/back-home) - Already the week in Costa Rica is beginning to fade in the chill morning fog of the Bay Area, but it was such a deep pleasure to experience the tropical rain forrest, a week when I was never cold, when I awoke each morning to monkeys and sometimes was awakened by them. A few times
- [In Costa Rica](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/in-costa-rica) - I took this photo yesterday in Manuel Antonio National Park, and then found this poem by Yuseff Komunyakaa. Sloth If you're one of seven Downfalls, up in your kingdom Of mulberry leaves, there are men Betting you aren't worth a bullet, That your skin won't tan into a good Wallet. As if drugged in the
- [A spring poem from the 17th Century](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-spring-poem-from-the-17th-century) - This simple poem was written around the time Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Something to ponder. In my hut this spring There is nothing There is everything. Yamaguchi Sodo (tr. from Japanese by R.H. Blyth)
- [All things Korean](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/all-things-korean) - I am a little embarrassed that I have discovered K-dramas, the vast output of Korean soap operas on Netflix. My favorite so far is Navillera (Butterfly) about a 70-year-old retired postman who has always wanted to study ballet. I like the glimpse into modern Korea they provide. I also have discovered a Korean poet whose
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-20) - Thanks to Ben Dolnick, I have discovered the mystery writer Lawrence Block. Oddly enough, he's not in my local public library catalog, but only at UC Library. Unusual for a mystery writer, even one with literary talent. His books are a little hard to find. I love this passage from his Matthew Scudder mystery, Out
- [Ukrainian Poets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ukrainian-poets) - This is from a book called Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine. Of course, the poems here come from the 2014 war, not the current one. How sad for this poor, tattered country. When a country of — overall — nice people turns — slowly — fascist nice people don’t notice this transformation all
- [From Theodore Roethke](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/from-theodore-roethke) - I've read a lot of advice on writing, much of it long, drawn out, and not very helpful. Here's some I like: Artist's problem: To get to the best in oneself. And then get away from it.
- [My Life](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/my-life) - This is a daunting title for a poem, but Lynn Emanuel pulls it off: My Life Like Jonas by the fish I was received by it, swung and sept in its dark waters, driven to the deeps by it and beyond many rocks. Without any touching of its teeth, I tumbled into it with no
- [Fragility](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/fragility) - Watching news of the ongoing invasion of the Ukraine, where my father was born, reminds me of the fragility of the equilibrium we take for granted. For today's poem, I've selected a translation of a Russian poet, Anna Akhmatova, who also lived in troubled times. It seems appropriate for all those who are standing their
- [Monday Villanelle](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-villanelle) - This French song form, made famous in English by Dylan Thomas and Elizabeth Bishop, is so tricky. The repeating first and third lines doubled at the end, is a form that it's very hard to make sound natural. I think Tim Seibles achieved this by slightly altering the lines. This arrived in my inbox today
- [Love poem for Valentine's day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/love-poem-for-valentines-day) - I have noticed over my association with many poets, that there were many times a male poet might write a stunning love poem to a woman that he treated pretty shabbily. Not always the case, but it made me less jealous that I wasn't getting so many love poems. I have a sense that E
- [A Political Poem?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-political-poem) - This poem is simply one long impression of a part of Chicago. It offers no moral or solution. But it seems to me like a political poem because of the accuracy of the description. The Bad Old Days The summer of nineteen eighteen I read The Jungle and The Research Magnificent. That fall My father died and my aunt
- [Robert Bly](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/robert-bly) - Robert Bly is a character in the poetic landscape of the 20th century, an outsider who forged a career though his passion for poetry. I wish I had known him and not just known of him. He died last November. The Call Away A cold wind flows over the cornfields; Fleets of blackbirds ride that
- [Sinchronicity](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/sinchronicity) - This weekend I had my grandsons overnight and broke out the Puffin puzzle, which we had a lot of fun with, but didn't finish. Then the Sunday NY Times arrived, with a brochure for cruise ships. It had this image on the cover. When I opened my email this morning, here was a Diane Seuss
- [Short poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/short-poems) - I have a strong preference for brevity, and this little poem packs a punch: The Carp In your pools and in your ponds Carp, how long you live Is it that death forgets you Fish of melancholy Guillaume Apollinaire Translated from the French by Michael Zapruder (from Poetry Society of America)
- [From the Portuguese](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-the-portuguese) - This came from the Academy of American Poets. I know it's not May, but it seemed appropriate anyway. Previsão do Tempo O espírito de rebelião também chamado de tristeza e desânimo começou de novo sua ronda sinistra. Sua treva e seu frio são de inferno. Por causa de maio, esperava dias felizes; e ensolarado até
- [From Women's Voices for Change](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-womens-voices-for-change) - Among the poems I receive is this one, from Women's Voices for Change which posts a poem with commentary every Sunday. This seemed like a good one to start 2022: Even Now we are permitted to celebrate. even now. “not like it was so great in the middle ages,” says my son, the new father.
- [New Year's Resolutions](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/new-years-resolutions) - I read this about New Year's resolutions in the Paris Review this morning: "One estimate suggests that almost half of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, and yet fewer than 10 percent successfully follow through... It might be tempting to do away with this farce altogether, but before we commit to being noncommittal about the New
- [The sweetness of life](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-sweetness-of-life) - An appropriate poem after rain. I especially love the last verse.
- [Chi Po & the Sorcerer](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/chi-po-and-the-sorcerer) - This book, for "children and philosophers" has been a staple in our house for years. It's the tale of a young painter in China and his relationship to the local sorcerer. In one chapter, the sorcerer, teaching the painter to focus, asks him to imagine everything he wants, and the boy thinks of toys and
- [Hard to beat](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/hard-to-beat) - I was reading through a volume of contemporary poetry this morning and came across an old favorite. It's been awhile since I published a Dream Song, so here goes: Dream Song #1 Huffy Henry hid the day, unappeasable Henry sulked. I see his point,—a trying to put things over. It was the thought that they
- [Love poem for Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/love-poem-for-monday) - This one, by Li Young-Lee is one of my favorites: from Living with Her She opens her eyes and I see. She counts the birds and I hear the names of the months and days. A girl, one of her names is Change. And my childhood lasted all of an evening. Called light, she breathes,
- [Another view of the mole](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-view-of-the-mole) - One morning recently, my cat brought in a dead mole--it had the softest fur I'd ever touched. And here is a poem (from Poetry Daily) in praise of the mole, so despised by gardeners. Mole Earth is his occupation, and the mole works the turf in his native breaststroke, swimming hallways into the sod—a geonaut
- [Thomas Lux](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/thomas-lux) - Here is a poem from a little-known poet whose work I like: A Little Tooth Your baby grows a tooth, then two, and four, and five, then she wants some meat directly from the bone. It's all over: she'll learn some words, she'll fall in love with cretins, dolts, a sweet talker on his way
- [The exemplary paragraph](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-paragraph) - I just finished reading all four of Katie Kitamura's novels, in reverse order. I love her writing. Here is a sample, the first paragraph of her new (and I think best) book, Intimacies. "It is never easy to move to a new country, but in truth I was happy to be away from New York.
- [Anne Sexton](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/anne-sexton) - I've always felt that Sylvia Plath's work was much more compelling than her contemporary, Anne Sexton, though they seem equally unhappy. But I saw a poem of Sexton's from Paris Review recently that I like, though I still think Plath is far the better poet. Here is the poem--I especially like it up until God
- [Yehuda Amichai](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/yehuda-amichai) - I was lucky to know Chana Bloch, a generous spirit, a poet and a translator. Here is a poem she translated from the Hebrew with Stephen Mitchell. I often feel that I come from a world that no longer exists, a world where maids polished the silver and made little textured butter balls with wooden
- [A prose poem?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-prose-poem-2) - I saw this in my daily email from Sean the Sharpener--seems like a prose poem to me: Franz Kafka (trans. from German by Ernst Kaiser and Eithne Wilkins):
- [Rita Dove's Incantation](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/rita-doves-incantation) - A few years ago, I heard Rita Dove read at the Berkeley Lunch Poems, when it was still a live event. I waited in line to have her sign her most recent book. The line was long and in front of me was an older man with two shopping bags full of books. Rita cheerfully
- [Citrus Freeze](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/citrus-freeze) - This phenomenon, of smudge pots or wind machines trying to keep fragile trees (or grape vines) from freezing, has always made me think how small and ineffectual humans are in the face of the natural world. We do our best to believe we have control, but... I especially love how the poem ends...with a snap!
- [The Exemplary Sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/the-exemplary-sentence-19) - It's been awhile since I published a prose piece. This snippet is from Wisława Szymborska’s How to Start Writing (and When to Stop) and first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter. It comes from the advice she gave—anonymously—for many years in “Literary Mailbox,” a regular column in the Polish journal Literary Life, and is translated by
- [Eavan Boland](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/eavan-boland) - Eavan Boland died over a year ago. For a long time, she was head of the creative writing department at Stanford, and I worked with her to bring several poets to California for readings. She was unfailingly courteous and helpful. And I love this poem of hers--I think she gets it just right: The Necessity
- [Lorine Neidecker](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lorine-neidecker) - Sometimes the simplest poem can charm me, like this one from Sean Singer's "The Sharpener" this morning: You are my friend-- you bring me peaches and the high bush cranberry . you carry my fishpole you water my worms you patch my boots
- [The full moon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-full-moon) - This last week there was one clear night, the full moon peeping between the branches of the oak. And here's Borges' take on the moon, dedicated to his secretary and later wife (from Paris Review): The Moon . to María Kodama There is so much loneliness in that gold. The
- [One more from June Jordan](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/one-more-from-june-jordan) - This poem reminds me a little of Evie Shockley's "Ode to My Blackness." But it was written long before "writing black" was common. You can read this and more in The Essential June Jordan. What Would I Do White? What would I do white? What would I do clearly full of not exactly beans nor
- [New voices](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/new-voices) - The world of poetry is expanding to include new voices and new forms. It can be daunting, but also energizing. Here is a poem from a poet new to me whose work came to me online. I remember those fox stoles, my mother had one--something you'd never see today, but fascinating to me as a
- [In lieu of a poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/in-lieu-of-a-poem) - I subscribe to Sean Singer's "The Sharpener" email, which I enjoy very much. This is from his email today:
- [New collection of June Jordan's poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/new-collection-of-june-jordans-poems) - There's a new selection of June Jordan's poetry out, The Essential June Jordan. Here is a short sample--a poem I love for so many reasons, not least because of the way the complexity of title plays against the simplicity of the poem: Poem Number Two on Bell's Theorem, or The New Physicality of Long Distance
- [Hurricane watch](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/hurricane-watch) - Here on Cape Cod, the hurricane is just a summer storm, mostly passed by. I had fallen into a lovely rhythm of early morning reading and writing, a swim, a meal, repeat. But this morning, my laptop refused to start, and despite the best efforts of Apple support, refused again and again. On my own
- [Forrest Gander](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/forrest-gander) - I reviewed Forrest Gander's recent book, Twice Alive, for LA Review of Books recently. LARB is one of the few places that prints in-depth reviews, more than just a quick scan. You can read the review here. And here is a poem from the book that appeared in the New Yorker. It's a complex poem
- [More about William Dickey](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/more-about-william-dickey) - There are so many good poets who write in relative obscurity. Bill Dickey (whose poem I posted yesterday), was part of Berryman's famous class at Iowa and taught poetry for over 30 years at San Francisco State. Don't confuse Bill with another poet, James Dickey, who is very well known (and in my view a much
- [Exemplary sentences](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/exemplary-sentences-2) - It's been a long time since I've posted an exemplary sentence, but The Transit of Venus, by Shirley Hazzard, is full of them. Very arch, and often funny. I'm only about half-way through, but here are a few: "Dora sat on a corner of the spread rug, longing to be assigned a task so she
- [The narrative poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-narrative-poem) - I love this form that tells a story but is more than a story. When it works, it really works, as this, by Robert Bly: The Russians “The Russians had few doctors on the front line. My father's job was this: after the battle Was over, he'd walk among the men hit, Sit down and
- [Old friends](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/old-friends) - This has been a week a travel, visiting family and childhood friends I haven't seen since before the lockdown. Often the part of our catching up is about health, what one friend calls "the organ recital." This poem, then, feels appropriate: Waking After the Surgery And just like that, I was whole again, seam like
- [Prose poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/prose-poem) - What makes a paragraph a prose poem? Hard to say... The first one I posted remains one of my favorites, A Story about the Body, by Robert Hass. It does tell a story, but it's more than a story. This one, by Tom Hennen, starts out simply as prose, but then goes somewhere else. Report
- [Lost wisdom](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lost-wisdom) - Perhaps this has happened to you: you wake in the night with a revelation--the solution to a problem, the perfect start or end of a poem, something important and unforgettable. You know you should write it down, this has happened before and you never remember in the morning, but THIS time it's too memorable. You
- [The summer garden](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/the-summer-garden) - In response to the drought, I'm cutting back on my drip irrigation, but the garden to date has never been so beautiful. Before it withers a bit, here are some shots: Front Garden Walking Iris Back Garden Snow Peas
- [Aimee Nezhukumatathil](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/aimee-nezhukumatathil) - Something a little different for summer. The form is from the Japanese, a prose paragraph (or two) followed by a haiku. In the original form, it was usually a travelog with an apposite haiku at the end. But the form has morphed and this is a wonderful example of where it can go. Summer Haibun
- [No poem this week](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/no-poem-this-week) - Gone camping!
- [Li-Young Lee](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/li-young-lee) - This seems to me like a love poem--the love of being in this world. And so rare to see the word heart used without sentimentality. One Heart Look at the birds. Even flying is born out of nothing. The first sky is inside you, open at either end of day. The work of wings was
- [Pulitzer Prize](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/pulitzer-prize) - I am gratified that the last three winners of the Pulitzer Prize are poets I deeply admire, most recently Natalie Diaz. Here is a poem from her fierce, sensual book, Postcolonial Love Poem. The Beauty of a Busted Fruit When we were children, we traced our knees, shins, and elbows for the slightest hint of
- [Curses!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/curses) - We don't have very many contemporary poems that are curses, but it's a genre that fascinates me. Here is one from the Paris Review daily poems: To Her Husband for Beating Her Through your heart’s lining let there be pressed—slanting down— .
- [From Paris Review](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-paris-review) - Sometimes just scrolling through poems that pepper my inbox can seem a chore, but once in awhile, one captures my attention. This morning it was this: Hair There is a falling of hair, continuous upon the earth. And the sweepers sweep it away with their long brooms— away, where mice retrieve it to line their
- [Cornelius Eady](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/cornelius-eady-2) - The Paris Review originally published this in their 2019 Summer Issue (#229). As summer is coming up again, it seems like time for a reprise. If you'd like to hear some of Cornelius' original blues/jazz compositions, they are part of the Community of Writers' Anthology Launch. The Second Amendment Driving out to Long Island over
- [Ishmael Reed](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ishmael-reed) - As you get older, so many aches and pains! They are distracting and boring, but this irreverent take on the body kept me engaged. You can see his poetry books here. Poetry is just one of his creative outlets, which include many volumes of fiction, non-fiction and even drama. Skin Tight The internal organs were
- [A haiku--sort of](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-haiku-sort-of) - This little poem arrived from somewhere a few weeks ago: Cicada Sick of his own face, sick of his skin, of the dark, he crawls outside himself to sing – a better poet than most. Hosho McCreesh
- [April in Paris](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/april-in-paris) - No, wait, it's May in California, still it will always be ... Paris by Moonlight Oh my god, it’s Paris by moonlight Even the trees are drunk and walking A single pink slipper floats down the Seine What kind of trees are those? Those are trees in Paris by moonlight And what size is her
- [Canasta](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/canasta) - Does anyone play Canasta anymore? My mother played with her suburban friends. They wore flowered dresses and sat at a table set up in the living room. Two decks of cards, ashtrays on the table while they played and smoked and joked and gossiped. They usually played in the afternoons, but sometimes in the evenings
- [Fresh from Martha](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/fresh-from-martha) - It's national poetry month, and Martha, whoever she is, has been sending me a poem each morning. I like her selections. You can probably get these, too. She's nationalpoetrymonth@gmail.com. Here's today's poem, a reminder to us all, I think. Cindy Comes To Hear Me Read Cindy: not her real name. I met her in prison,
- [No more Dactyls-and-Drakes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/no-more-dactyls-and-drakes) - For several years now, the "real" name of this blog has been www.MerylNatchez.com. I kept Dacytls-and-Drakes, the original title, alive. But when it came time to renew this year, I decided to let it go. This may mean if you are a long-time subscriber, you need to resubscribe--I'm not sure. But it won't hurt... And
- [Spring is sprung](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/spring-is-sprung-2) - In California it's full spring. The colors have changed from white and pink to yellows and purple. The hens are laying, the garden growing full tilt. This poem by Jamaal May is a good spring into the season: I Have This Way of Being I have this, and this isn’t a mouth full of the
- [Lorena](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lorena) - Remember the news article about Lorena Bobbitt? 1989! Lucille Clifton wrote this about it. It needs no explication: Lorena . Woman cuts off husband 's penis, later throws it from car window. . -News Report it lay in my palm soft and trembled as a new bird and i thought about
- [Take me out to the ballgame](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/take-me-out-to-the-ballgame) - Today, after a year of shutdown, Larry's senior softball team finally gets to play. Here he is in his championship hat. Yay! To celebrate, a long poem by B.H. Fairchild, that master of the long poem: Body and Soul Half-numb, guzzling bourbon and Coke from coffee mugs, our fathers fall in love with their own
- [Late, again...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/late-again) - The days seem to slip by in the most astonishing way, perhaps because of the absence of events. This poem seems to speak at least in part to a way to measure the time, as the distance between point A and point B. It came to me via the Writer's Almanac: What Love Cannot Do
- [Capitalism](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/capitalism) - I often wonder when I hear screeds against capitalism and its manifold injustices, whether people think this system was invented and foisted upon us. It seems to me it evolved as species evolved, and that it should adjust in the same way. In any case, I love the title and the movement of this poem
- [The Clerihew](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-clerihew) - I learned the name of this four-line from an excellent review of Sylvia Plath and Seamus Heaney in the Hudson Review, by David Mason. You can find this online. He quoted this one (by Edna Longley, Michael's wife): Michael Longley Is inclined to feel strongly About being less famous Than Seamus. As you see, the
- [Poem and more poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poem-and-more-poetry) - I love that expression "a day late and a dollar early" although I'm not quite sure what it means. In any case, I'm a day late with today's Monday poem because I've been helping with the book launch for the Community of Writers 50th Anniversary poetry anthology, Why to These Rocks. That event will be
- [So many love poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/so-many-love-poems) - The American Academy of poets sent me a link to "Poems for Valentine's Day." I chose this one to share: I Loved You Before I Was Born I loved you before I was born. It doesn't make sense, I know. I saw your eyes before I had eyes to see. And I've lived longing for
- [Reprise](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/reprise) - Today in my email was the Atlantic Gallery of Owls, including this stock photo by Liu Guoxing, from Getty. It reminded me of a poem I posted in 2013 by M. Wyrebeck. It's the opening poem in her book Be Properly Scared, and I think the best one. She died in 2003, from the cancer
- [Icarus](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/icarus) - So many wonderful poems about Icarus--probably my two favorites are Jack Gilbert's Failing and Flying and Auden's Musee des Beaux Arts. I love Muriel Rukeyser's Waiting for Icarus too. This one by Robert Cording (from Poetry Daily) adds something new to the assemblage. It takes flight from a stark opening: Icarus After our son died,
- [New beginnings](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/new-beginnings) - Is everyone feeling a sense that this existential dread is lifting? I know I am. This poem seems apt for this moment of uncertainty and hope. Gestational Size Equivalency Chart Your baby is the size of a sweet pea. Your baby is the size of a cherry. Your baby is the size of a single
- [So many poems...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/so-many-poems) - I subscribe to five or six "poem a day" type lists, and scroll through them to see if there is something I might like to post. This one, from Academy of American Poets, is by José Olivarez.. I think the mix of Spanish and English works especially well, and the narrative is vivid and compelling.
- [After a crazy week](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/after-a-crazy-week) - As Bette Davis once said, "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night." Only in this case, a bumpy 10 days. I came again to this Robert Duncan poem, imagining a quiet and sacred place. But this poem, by Ishion Hutchinson also seems to resonate. The Difference They talk oil in heavy jackets
- [Starting fresh](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/starting-fresh) - With hope for a better new year, a poem that seems appropriate--of course, right now no flying to Rome or Greece. Still... The New Experience I was ready for a new experience. All the old ones had burned out. They lay in little ashy heaps along the roadside And blew in drifts across the fairgrounds
- [Goodbye 2020](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/goodbye-202) - This little poem by Emily Dickinson seems as fitting as any for this ending. How sly her title and first line! Here's to the slow shifting towards what used to be normal. As imperceptibly as Grief As imperceptibly as Grief The Summer lapsed away— Too imperceptible at last, To seem like Perfidy— A Quietness distilled
- [Solstice](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/solstice) - Each evening I watch the sun set further toward San Francisco each day, until it hits the south end of the Golden Gate. Tonight is its furthest stretch, and the return begins. I looked hard to find a poem about solstice I liked, and here's the title poem from Timothy Steele's book that seems to
- [How it feels while you are waiting](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/how-it-feels-while-you-are-waiting) - This poem, by Catherine Pierce, does a great job of encompassing the hopes, fears, anticipation and strangeness of pregnancy: Gestational Size Equivalency Chart Your baby is the size of a sweet pea. Your baby is the size of a cherry. Your baby is the size of a single red leaf in early September. Your baby
- [Kindness](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/kindness) - I live in the hills above the bay--tiny winding streets that are nonetheless open to two-way traffic, so we are all having to find a spot to pull to the side to let each other pass. We do this daily, with a nod or a wave, and it always makes me feel there is hope
- [Almost over](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/almost-over) - Today is the last day of November of a year I will be happy to see fade into memory. Also, woke this morning to a gorgeous moon golden over the horizon, the second full moon of the month, a blue moon. But today's selection has nothing to do with either of these. It's a poetic
- [Reading with Jane Hirshfield on Thursday, November 19 @7pm Pacific time](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/reading-with-jane-hirshfield-on-thursday-november-19-7pm-pacific-time) - I am so lucky to be reading with the incomparable Jane Hirshfield this week, sponsored by Marin Poetry Canter and Osher Marin JCC. It's free, and you can register here. It's going to be a back and forth conversation, and I am pretty sure Jane will start with this poem:
- [A. R. Ammons](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-r-ammons) - I came across this poem and thought it a good one to share with you, even though it references September. On the East Coast, September is very much like November here. Day On a cold late September morning, wider than sky-wide discs of lit-shale clouds skim the hills, crescents, chords of sunlight now and then
- [A small poem for a tense time](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-small-poem-for-a-tense-time) - Sometimes I see a poem and just want to translate it for myself. Maybe I don't like the translation I see, maybe it hasn't been translated, maybe it just seems a challenge. I can't remember why I translated this, but it seemed a good poem for this tense week: Consolación Es tan estrepitoso nuestro
- [A penny for your prayer](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-penny-for-your-prayer) - I really try to ignore the political scene. It's just too depressing, and like the changing of time for Daylight Savings and back, feels totally outside my control. But after reading today about prayer breakfasts on Capitol Hill, I felt moved to compose this: Prayer’s a very private thing— a scouring of the soul, a
- [after Louise Glück](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/after-louise-gluck) - Last week I posted a poem by Louise Glück, who won the Nobel Prize, but I wrote this homage long before that happened--earlier this year, really, thinking about the virus: October after Louise Glück Aren’t the days skimping on light again, mornings dark and darker doesn’t the time change soon, shifting the scant light
- [And the winner is...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/and-the-winner-is) - Louise Glück won the Nobel Prize in literature this week, and I'm so pleased. I really admire her work. And each book is different. Here's a sample, from Averno. October (section 1) Is it winter again, is it cold again, didn’t Frank just slip on the ice, didn’t he heal, weren’t the spring seeds planted
- [Derek Mahon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/derek-mahon) - For those of you who follow such things, the Irish poet, Derek Mahon, died this week. He was 78. I've posted a poem of his before (one that they included in his NY Times obituary, as it happens), but this one if also a favorite, though a very different tone. Afterlives (for James Simmons)
- [From the Lithuanian](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-the-lithuanian) - The Eastern European poets are often astonishing. Here's one by a poet who recently died that I found odd and intriguing and kind of wonderful. Archaeopteryx you’re home. eating lentils. talking to your loved one. you’re abroad. eating lentils. talking to your loved one. you’re not yourself. you’ve been stolen. you’re talking to your lentils.
- [A little late](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-little-late) - Sorry this is late this week--busy with local and national activism, poetry had to wait. But this came in my email from the Writers' Almanac this morning, and thought I'd share it. I found that George Bilgere also hosts a radio show. Musial My father once sold a Chevy to Stan Musial, the story goes,
- [Wait](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/wait) - Seeing as we all seem to be in a semi-permanent mode of waiting: waiting for life to return to normal, for the pandemic to end, for the election, for the air to be breathable again, this seemed a good time for Galway Kinnell's poem, "Wait." Wait Wait, for now. Distrust everything, if you have to.
- [Monday's Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/mondays-poem) - I don't usually post my own poems, but today I'm posting a video of one of the poems from Catwalk. I am hosting an online event with poetry, art and music on September 11 at 7 pm PDT to celebrate my new book. Register here: https://conta.cc/3lpULZj
- [Lynn Emanuel on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lynn-emanuel-on-monday) - I've posted poems by Lynn Emanuel twice before, but I can't resist posting this one, which feels so appropriate at this moment when everything is so provisional. I was lucky to meet Lynn and her husband when Lynn came to read at Marin Poetry Center two years ago. Larry did a wonderful broadside of her
- [Crepe de Chine](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/crepe-de-chine) - I went to a poetry workshop online, and this was one of the poems discussed, by the incomparable Mark Doty. You have it now, even though you didn't go to the workshop! Sorry to be late with it...but this virus seems to eat time! Crepe de Chine These drugstore windows —one frame in the mile-long
- [A poet I thought I didn't much care for](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poet-i-thought-i-didnt-much-care-for) - A couple of years ago, I heard Anne Carson read at Stanford. I didn't enjoy the reading or Autobiography of Red, and then never read anything else. But I came across this poem, which I like very much. I guess I'll have to dig more deeply. God’s Justice In the beginning there were days set
- [Gratitude](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/gratitude-2) - Because of the way this word is often used, as if it is a duty or in some very smarmy context, I rarely use it. But the poet Ross Gay has managed to integrate this into his daily life in a conscious and engaging way. Here is one of his odes: Ode to buttoning and
- [Elegy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/elegy) - The elegy is a form that has been around a long time, and can be so moving. I've written a few myself. I particularly love the ending of this one. Elegy, Surrounded by Seven Trees . All Saints Cemetery, Wilmington, Delaware Ordinary days deliver joy easily again & I can’t take
- [Something unusual on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/something-unusual-on-monday) - I wrote a post about how publication in the Harvard Advocate changed my life... This is a part of a fundraiser for the Advocate. If you buy Catwalk directly from Longship press using the code HARVARD, the publisher will contribute 20% of the sale price to the Advocate, and I will match the full price.
- [Tired of yourself?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/tired-of-yourself) - As Berryman famously said, "ever to confess you are bored / means you have no / Inner Resources." This period is stretching all of our inner resources, as it goes on and on. Here's a short, powerful poem by Tracy K. Smith that should resonate. The Everlasting Self Comes in from a downpour Shaking water
- [Protest poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/protest-poems) - Protest poems abound right now, but the genre is not new. Here's one from Adrienne Rich that is almost 50 years old. Trying to Talk with a Man Out in this desert we are testing bombs, that's why we came here.Sometimes I feel an underground river forcing its way between deformed cliffs an acute angle
- [Marathon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/marathon) - Everything before mid-March is beginning to feel like the far past as the uncertainty of the future stretches. It's hard to remember what getting up and going somewhere feels like. A month into this long ordeal, I created a poetic form I called the viral. It's a poem about the virus that doesn't use any
- [Ars Poetica](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ars-poetica) - Poets have a form called "Ars Poetica" that they use to spell out their belief about their work. Here is one I love from Elizabeth Alexander. It's simplicity, and the quick turns it makes are pretty darn good: Ars Poetica #100: I Believe Poetry, I tell my students, is idiosyncratic. Poetry is where we are
- [Sean Hill](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/sean-hill) - I had the good luck to host a reading by Elizabeth Bradfield on Saturday. We did this online, including several of her friends. I thought I'd post this poem by one of them, Sean Hill. He also hosts the Minnesota Northwoods Writers' Conference, which starts Thursday. His most recent book is Dangerous Goods, from Milkweed
- [Baldwin Redux](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/baldwin-redux) - I posted some excerpts from The Fire Next Time last year. It seems appropriate to repost this one today. "If one is permitted to treat any group of people with special disfavor because of their race or the color of their skin, there is no limit to what one will force them to endure, and
- [Troubles...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/troubles) - Sometimes it's hard to pick a poem I think will offer some solace. Right now, the world seems so broken. I'm not sure this does the trick, but there is much we can't do anything about, and some we can. Balancing those is key to remaining sane. I hope this poem helps. Whatever It Is
- [The perfect poem for this period](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-perfect-poem-for-this-period) - I came across this poem in a group I had saved and it felt like it had been written for this moment: Everything is Going to Be All Right How should I not be glad to contemplate the clouds clearing beyond the dormer window and a high tide reflected on the ceiling? There will be
- [Unexpected events](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/unexpected-events) - On Friday, I took a dawn hot tub steam curling tranquilly around the sweet peas, heading towards the bay just visible between oak branches. Then I noticed that the electric fence, which guards my chickens from predators, was not blinking, which meant it was shorted out somewhere. I dressed and went down to find a
- [A good poem for now](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-good-poem-for-now) - You may know Raymond Carver for his short stories, but he also wrote poetry. Here's an example, appropriate for this moment: Sunday Night Make use of the things around you. This light rain Outside the window, for one. This cigarette between my fingers, These feet on the couch. The faint sound of rock-and-roll, The red
- [A day of no particular importance...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-day-of-no-particular-importance) - For over 50 years, Larry and I have ignored Mother's Day, Father's Day...I mean, really, showing up for each other for the other 364 days of the year is what counts. But for some unknown reason, Larry made me breakfast yesterday. And later in the day, my grandson brought over this bouquet that he picked
- [Au revoir Little Richard](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/au-revoir-little-richard) - Although I'm posting this in Stuff Larry Sez, Larry is not the protagonist here (though he did know Little Richard's last name)--just forwarded on an email from a friend about Little Richard. Here's someone's story: I recorded little Richard for a commercial about 30 years ago. He nailed the commercial in two takes… Total pro.
- [Witter Bynner](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/witter-bynner) - In my early twenties I wrote a letter to John Berrryman, and he replied saying something about my "witchy name." But surely Witter Bynner has the witchiest name of all, and though born in 1881, his work seems utterly contemporary: Undressing You Fiercely I remove from you All the little vestiges— Garments that confine you,
- [First night of Passover, 2017](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/first-night-of-passover-2017) - A poem as relevant today as it was in 1999. It seems we are always bombing something. during the bombing of Kosovo Hevel may be translated vanity or mist or vapor the name of the first man whose brother was not his keeper It is evening it is morning one day like mist from ten
- [A Meal in Winter](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/a-meal-in-winter) - This extraordinary little book is told as if a memoir, in very straightforward, matter-or-fact prose, which makes it all the more chilling. It is translated from the French by Sam Taylor. The basic plot concerns three German soldiers who no longer want to shoot Jews. They go to the commander, who is "a reservist like
- [For Veteran's Day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/for-veterans-day) - If you want a good poem about war, you never have to look further than the Polish poets, who were invaded by someone every century. The End and the Beginning After every war someone has to clean up. Things won’t straighten themselves up, after all. Someone has to push the rubble to the side of
- [Seamus Heaney](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/seamus-heaney) - I've been receiving poems from so many sources lately. Even my local art gallery is sending daily inspiration. It's amazing how many poems I don't like! But then comes one I do, and it's all worth it. I try only to post the ones that move me here: Postscript And some time make the time
- [So many husbands on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/so-many-husbands-on-monday) - It's always a delight to discover a new poet. Here is a poem by Aimee Nezhukumatathil. I love the whole neighborhood of past loves. Don't we all have that, even if they are long past? And that last line is killer: Are All the Break-Ups in Your Poems Real? If by real you mean
- [A little perspective](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/a-little-perspective-2) - I have been feeling sad about my new book of poems coming out not, watching planned events cancelled one by one, but this passage by Joseph Brodsky really helped put things in perspective for me--my book may be exiled for the moment, but there are much worse fates:
- [Polenta Lasagna](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/polenta-lasagna) - This is a wonderful comfort dish for a gray day. I first had something similar at the Jazz School Café in Berkeley, and later went home and experimented. If you make this when golden-red heirloom tomatoes are available, they make a lovely contrast with the polenta. If you use vegetable stock for the polenta, it’s
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday) - The prose poem is a medium difficult to describe--a paragraph? a story? a reflection? It's shorter than a story, but not in short lines. It should make you catch your breath the way a poem does, I think. This one, by Robert Hass, does everything it should: A Story About the Body The young composer,
- [South Indian Vegetable Curry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/south-indian-vegetable-curry) - When my friend Tung came back from a wedding in India, she was raving so much about the perfectly delicious vegetarian food, that I began looking for recipes. This simple curry is a winner. And if you can't find curry leaves, it's still delicious: Ingredients 4-5cups mixed vegetables, cut into chunky slivers about 1 1/2 inches
- [A poem by Jane Hirshfield](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poem-by-jane-hirshfield) - This poem, which I found on the site Women's Voices for Change, seems to perfectly encapsulate this moment. Jane's new book, Ledger, from Knopf, just came out. It's worth buying a copy from your local book store. You won't regret it. Today, When I Could Do Nothing Today, when I could do nothing, I saved
- [Potato Casserole](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/potato-casserole) - This is a dish that I have made hundreds of times. The whole family loves it. Part of its charm is that you essentially make it in the food processor really quickly. It ages well, heats up to have with eggs at breakfast of by itself for lunch. The onions in this dish caramelize and
- [Potstickers (or Gyoza)](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/potstickers-or-gyoza) - I'm sure there's a difference between the two, but I'm not sure what it is. Whichever you want to call them, here's a recipe. It takes some time, but they are delicious. INGREDIENTS (You can find these at an Asian market) For the Dumplings: 6 oz finely minced Napa cabbage (about 1/2 a medium head) 4
- [Aimee's Coffee Cake](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/aimees-coffee-cake) - This coffee cake is so easy to make and pretty foolproof. It was made on many Sundays in my house growing up, and meant that one of my mother’s sisters was probably coming over. You can whip it up and be eating it in an hour. It looks sort of like this picture, except we
- [A kale salad I actually like](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/a-kale-salad-i-actually-like) - I reverse-engineered this delicious salad after Larry began bringing it home from Poulet, in Berkeley. It changed how I feel about kale. It takes a bit of prep, but what else is there to do? Kale Salad 1 bunch flat (Lacinanto) kale a wedge of red cabbage (about 1/4 as much as you have kale)
- [The simplest dinner](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/the-simplest-dinner) - About the simplest comfort food I know is pasta. For a quick, delicious dinner, you can make a sauce of melted butter, garlic, salt and herbs, and simply toss cooked spaghetti with it. For a pound of spaghetti, about 1 stick butter, five or six medium cloves of garlic, and salt and herbs to taste.
- [Monday vitamin](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/3971) - This poem came to me from one of the many poem of the day services, and I really like it, so thought you might, also. It grabs me with its elbows and angles and I know that process of rubbing against the rough edges when you live with someone. I think this is a beautiful
- [Monday Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-20) - Ross Gay is a sincerely upbeat poet, optimistic but never smarmy. Here is his poem from Bringing the Shovel Down (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011). Sorrow Is Not My Name —after Gwendolyn Brooks No matter the pull toward brink. No matter the florid, deep sleep awaits. There is a time for everything. Look, just this
- [A little more levity](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/a-little-more-levity) - Someone passed along this link to innovative billboards. I enjoyed it. Click on the image below to see more.
- [Not a poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/not-a-poem) - I know everyone is posting moving, relevant poems right now. But I thought a little levity would be more useful. Here are some favorites from a list of "Rules of the Blues:" The Blues is not about choice. You stuck in a ditch, you stuck in a ditch--ain't no way out. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords,
- [](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/3952) - This one seemed perfect for my good friend Laurie, a natural perfumer. You can see her products at https://purrfumery.com/collections. But I don't think you'll find this one there. When You Can Get It A woman went to the perfume counter and asked, What scent says, I think it rained last night? The clerk turned to
- [Henri Cole](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/henri-cole) - Henri Cole has written many powerful poems, but "Radiant Ivory" is one of my favorites, starting with the title, which seems so vibrant just on its own. I think it is the specificity of the language that makes the poem come to life for me. Phrases like "perforated silver box," and snow as "white, insane,
- [A poem from Split This Rock](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poem-from-split-this-rock) - This poem was featured on their site last week. It caught my attention, and hope it catches yours: Prayer for those who run I wish you swift wind. I wish you a changed phone number that stays changed. I wish you throwing away the cell the parents bought to track you with. I wish you
- [Sorrows](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/sorrows) - It's hard to remember it's Monday when it's a holiday, especially a vague one like President's Day. But it is, and here is your Monday vitamin Lately when sorrows come —fast, without warning— whipping their wings down the sky, I know to let them. Not inviting them, but allowing each with a deep breath as
- [Tomaž Šalamun](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/tomaz-salamun) - A February Poem, translated from the Slovenian. Of course, here in Northern California, February is a month of emerald green and blossoms. But for the rest of you, a more apt description. There is a time when There is a time when pure emotions invade us like bags from the black pressed leather of a
- [Mark Strand on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/mark-strand-on-monday-2) - Mark Strand has written many poems I like, but this one seems particularly relevant as the year turns and the light begins to return. The Coming of Light Even this late it happens: the coming of love, the coming of light. You wake and the candles are lit as if by themselves, stars gather, dreams
- [A raucous poetry reading](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/a-raucous-poetry-reading) - Last night I went to the San Francisco JCC to hear Danez Smith, a powerful youngish black poet, read from his new book, "Homie." Sam Sax and Safia Elhillo read with him. The crowd was mostly young and very enthusiastic. Danez is a poet who comes from the loud and proud tradition, often found at
- [A prose poem for Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-prose-poem-for-monday) - It seems to me that Mary Ruefle, one of my very favorite poets, has perfectly captured something in this poem, though it would be hard for me to articulate exactly what. Perhaps you will experience that, too (photo of Mary by Hannah Ensor): The Bench My husband and I were arguing about a bench we
- [New Year's poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/new-years-poem) - As a sure sign of January, I saw an exercise bike by the side of the road with a "Free" sign on it. New year, new exercise resolutions, which segues nicely to Lucille Clifton's poem: i am running into a new year i am running into a new year and the old years blow back
- [A poem from Paris Review](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poem-from-paris-review) - I get lots of poems from various sources in my in box every day. This one I really like, problaby from his new book, Felon Poems: Blood History The things that abandon you get remembered different. As precise as the English language can be, with words like penultimate and perseverate, there is not a combination of sounds that
- [Larry at the breakfast table](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/larry-at-the-breakfast-table) - As background to this anecdote, yesterday both Larry and I read Mark Jarman's excellent essay on Gilgamesh from his forthcoming book, Dailiness, which I will be reviewing. If you don't know the Sumerian epic, Gilgamesh, it's the oldest written story we have, in which a king and his friend kill the monster Humbaba. This morning
- [Something brutal but beautiful](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/something-brutal-but-beautiful) - I have just finished reading Natalie Diaz' first book, My Brother Was an Aztec. The poems are powerful, the imagery lush and unusual, but the subject matter--addiction, pain, the struggle with family and poverty--is told in unsparing detail. So I thought I'd start of 2020, a year that itself promises to be harsh, with one
- [Psychics](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/psychics) - There was a time in my life when I wanted very much to know the future. I went to many psychic readers of various kinds, from carnival tents, to very "serious" future tellers. As it is now, one day at a time is enough! Still, I really loved this prose poem, and wish you all
- [No snow here, but](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/no-snow-here-but) - this poem still resonates. I love that it is a sonnet, and how that definition can stretch and morph. Orr's bio is worth reading, too: Aftermath Sonnet Letting my tongue sleep, And my heart go numb. Sensing that speech Too soon, After such a wound, Would only be A different bleeding. Even needing to leave
- [Post Holiday Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/post-holiday-poem) - I thought we needed something light, today, so here's a Haiku from Issa, via Robert Hass along with a photo of me and a Louise Bourgeois Spider: Don't worry spiders I keep house casually. Kobayashi Issa translated by Robert Hass
- [Gratitude](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/gratitude) - Something about the way this word is often used sets my teeth on edge--a whiff of self-satisfaction? Of hypocrisy? In any case, that made me doubly pleased to find a poem by Jon Davis with this title that I like without those reservations. It seems appropriate for today, especially as he is the director of
- [A few words from Brenda Hillman](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-few-words-from-brenda-hillman) - This excerpt is from Brenda Hillman's most recent book, Extra Hidden Life Among the Days. I had a hard time with it at first, but took a workshop that helped me understand the poems are about struggling to come to terms with the ecological disasters of the current moment, trying to find a way to
- [Punctuation](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/punctuation) - Last Thursday, Maurya Simon read some of her poems about punctuation at Marin Poetry Center. They were delightful. The next morning, I found this darker one from a poet I don't know: Comma The comma is a heart murmur, tremor in hamstring. He is an almost; someone calling in time about the man staggering out of
- [Monday Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-19) - Another gem from Poetry Daily: God Is Not Right, He Is Big The news isn't all bad. July and August were the hottest months in human history, but a family found the pet tortoise that went missing in 1982. The low cloud above me passes under the high clouds like a souped-up Civic passing on
- [A bonus from file cleanup](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/a-bonus-from-file-cleanup) - I found this wonderful little snippet I photographed from a menu in Chile two years ago: I love the imagination of the person who wrote this description. I think Whims of the Sea would be a great poem title. Any takers?
- [A Haibun](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-haibun) - This form, from the Japanese, was originally mostly used for travel journals--prose, then a haiku. But in English-language hands, it has become slipped into a looser form, a new way to write about whatever. Here's one I particularly like: On Teaching Poetry In A Men's High Security Prison I was searched at every edge. I
- [Reading Saturday in Oakland](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/reading-saturday-in-oakland) - I'm excited to be reading with the amazing Amanda Moore tomorrow at 2 pm at Gearbox Gallery on West Grand. We've woven together a reading about birth, childhood, adolescence, marriage and death, based on a reading I heard at the Community of Writers. I think it's really going to be fun. Here's a sample poem.
- [Adrienne Rich](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/adrienne-rich) - I am amazed that in all the years of posting poems, I've neglected Adrienne Rich. She was a big influence back in the 70's: I actually heard her read at Stanford maybe 10 or 15 years ago. She was very brusque and cranky and I think she said she wouldn't be able to sign books.
- [Artist talks](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/artist-talks) - Tuesday night I heard a terrific artist talk at Arion Press. Ashwini Bhatt's ceramic sculpture is compelling, but even more so when she relates it to her history in dance, to the body, and to Indian temple art. Here are a few photos from her talk: I
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-18) - I like the specificity of this poem, and how it moves from the specific into the metaphoric and back. Nice work! One-Way Gate I was moving the herd from the lower pasture to the loading pen up by the road. It was cold and their mouths steamed like torn bread. The gate swung on its
- [The sin buffet, 2019](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/the-sin-buffet-2019) - At the end of services last week, Rabbi Margaret Holub put out the sin buffet, which I have written about before. This is a ritual I love, taking breadcrumbs from the cup by the "sins" that seem relevant and then walking out to the ocean and casting them into the surf. The idea is to
- [Jericho Brown](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/jericho-brown) - Jericho Brown came to town to read on Thursday, and synchronistically, this poem appeared in the Sunday NY Times Magazine. Crossing The water is one thing, and one thing for miles. The water is one thing, making this bridge Built over the water another. Walk it Early, walk it back when the day grows dim,
- [L'Shana Tova](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lshana-tova) - This year I was lucky to return to the Mendocino coast for Rosh Hashana services at the wonderful Mendocino Coast Jewish Community, led by the always inspiring Rabbi Margaret Holub. She invited me to do a teaching this year, and I responded with a poem I wrote on the coast about twenty years ago: The
- [Tuesday and Monday's poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/tuesday-and-mondays-poem) - I'm in NY and days have been packed, but here's another poem from Poetry Daily, originally published in Carolina Quarterly. I especially like the way the poem uncurls, half-hidden, like memory itself. Allegory My mother strokes the sand toward her with her palm, drawing the story out, then levels it back with the edge of
- [Yeats on Politics](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/yeats-on-politics) - It's so hard not to be consumed by politics, to feel I have to "DO SOMETHING." And sometimes I do. But I love this poem by Yeats on the subject, almost 100 years ago when the war against fascism in Spain was raging: Politics How can I, that girl standing there, My attention fix On Roman
- [Irish poet to read on Thursday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/irish-poet-to-read-on-thursday) - You may remember a couple of pasts posts of poems by Pádraig Ó Tuama. If you are local to the Bay Area, you have an opportunity to hear him live this Thursday evening at 7 at Mill Valley Library. Details below. I think it's going to be an excellent reading. It's free, but click here
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-17) - Another poem from Poetry Daily: Southern Cone I wept with my grandmother when Reagan was shot because that's what she wanted. At night, she'd tell me about a city built by Evita for children in Buenos Aires, the city of her first exile. Children went about municipal duties in the small post office and mini
- [Two days in Berkeley, mixed emotions](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/two-days-in-berkeley-mixed-emotions) - Yesterday at the Berkeley post office I was waiting in line for stamps. A long line, moving slowly, two working clerks. A clerk was free, and the man in front of me didn't move up, so I tapped him lightly on the shoulder--something that seemed a perfectly normal thing to do at the time--to alert
- [It's not about the nail](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/its-not-about-the-nail) - Once in awhile something really perfect appears on youtube. It's not about the nail, created by Jason Headley is funny and so smart. Take a look.
- [Preparing my ms.](https://www.merylnatchez.com/meryls-work/preparing-my-ms) - Reddick, my cat named after the former A's baseball player with red hair, has decided to help me with the order of my poems.
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-16) - I heard Jane Hirshfield read this poem at a benefit for the beautiful Columbia Gorge. I kept thinking of it every time I cooked something with carrots or onions, which is pretty often. So I asked and she graciously sent me a copy As If Hearing Heavy Furniture Moved on the Floor Above Us As
- [A poem by Jericho Brown](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poem-by-jericho-brown) - This poem won the Lyric Poetry award from the Poetry Society of America two years ago. Hope you like it: As a Human Being There is the happiness you have And the happiness you deserve. They sit apart from one another The way you and your mother Sat on opposite ends of the sofa After
- [Your Monday vitamin](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/your-monday-vitamin) - It's been awhile since I posted a prose poem. This one, from Poetry Daily, caught my eye although we are still in the the long light days as summer wends to a close. In the Winter in Fairbanks, Even the Light Comes Late to Class On Monday in December the sun rises at 10:40. Red
- [Darwin Comes to Town](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/darwin-comes-to-town) - I just finished this book, Darwin Comes to Town by Menno Shilthuizen, about adaptation and evolution in urban environments, which seemed somewhat hopeful. It's a discussion about how quickly certain species change to thrive in cities. Stories include the hawksbeard dandelion, which evolved to produce heavier seeds so their little parachutes would keep them in
- [A short rant against poetry contests](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/a-short-rant-against-poetry-contests) - Almost every day, a new solicitation for a poetry contest pops into my inbox. I have read articles and heard rumors about their transparency or lack of transparency. But even if all entries are read blind, and the awards are based solely on what the appointed judges fell is the best work (or the best
- [Monday Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-15) - I went to an event to support poetry in the jails of Santa Cruz County on Saturday. Ellen Bass read this poem, which knocked me out, Her new book, for which this is the title poem, will be coming out this spring: Indigo As I’m walking on West Cliff Drive, a man runs toward me
- [Hungary, World War II, the genius of Julie Orringer](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/hungary-world-war-ii-the-genius-of-julie-orringer) - Last night we went down to Stanford to hear Julie Orringer read from her novel The Invisible Bridge. http://julieorringer.com/ is her website. I loved her book of stories, how to breathe underwater, when it appeared several years ago, and bought The Invisible Bridge as soon as it came out. It’s a marvelous novel, rich, compelling, painful.
- [Contest Winner](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/contest-winner) - I subscribe to and occasionally submit poems to Split This Rock. This one received an honorable mention in their annual contest: Márai Sándor in Exile Deprived of your native language, of pörkölt cooked in cramped kitchens, of the scent of elder flowers in early June, you don’t meet people you know on the street, or
- [Eyesight](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/eyesight) - Driving up I-5 from LA yesterday, spring had come to California. The hills are briefly green and gold, and the orchards all in bloom. I thought of this poem by A. R. Ammons, and was surprised to find I haven't posted any of his work. Here's a poem to remedy that: Eyesight It was May
- [Poets in translation](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poets-in-translation) - The other day at lunch a friend and I were talking about the wealth of wonderful poems in translation. Here is one, for which we are indebted to Robert Bly: I have a feeling that my boat has struck, down there in the depths, against a great thing. And nothing happens! Nothing….Silence….Waves…. —Nothing happens? Or
- [Larry and  the P40](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/larry-and-the-p40) - When he was a boy, Larry lived near a vacant lot with an the chassis of an old P40 airplane that he and the other boys played on, pretending to be pilots, fighting enemies. He grew up near Camp Pendleton in southern California, and war myths were part of his boyhood. So when he discovered
- [The other wedding poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-other-wedding-poem) - I was at a wedding this weekend, and had to choose a poem to read. I chose Cantatrice, by Berryman, but this was in the running till the last day: For What Binds Us There are names for what binds us: strong forces, weak forces. Look around, you can see them: the skin that forms
- [Election Day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/election-day) - I don't write many overtly political poems, but this one seems to sum up my hopes and fears for today. Equivocal Activist It’s Friday. We pull out of the Paris climate accord and I get my hair cut as Aretha bridges troubled water. I could lay me down, but I doubt that would accomplish anything.
- [What we think we know](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/what-we-think-we-know) - I have read this poem by Heather McHugh several times in several places, but most recently as part of an essay in Sewanee Review. She says this about it: "I've read this poem now a hundred times to audiences...but I revisit it to relive it, to remind my own tenacious habits how a nourishment abides
- [Mother's day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/mothers-day) - Rebecca Foust host a column on poetry every Sunday on Women's Voices for Change, and this week, my poem about parenting is featured. A group of poems I'm happy to be a part of.
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-18) - I've been reading The Shadow Lines, by Amitav Ghosh, and have come across so many well-written passages. Here's one about watching beggars scavenge a mound of waste and sludge for usable debris: "It was true of course that I could not see that landscape or anything like it from my own window, but its
- [Memorial](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/memorial) - The Marin Poetry Center held a memorial for Linda Gregg last week that was very moving. Forrest Gander spoke of visiting her in New York in her small, very spare apartment near St. Marks Place. She had just gotten home after a chemo treatment, and had no one, as he said, to make her
- [Monday Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-14) - On Monday! Here you go, a poem I found on Split This Rock: The Day I Learned to Speak My Grandmother's Tongue The day I learned to speak my grandmother's tongueAn Eastern wind shifted the earthWhile the western walls were whisked away...And the mountains of Laos rose on the horizon,Roaring with the sound
- [The Watergate](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-watergate) - If you lived through the Nixon administration, this poem has a deep resonance. It might even work if you didn't: The Watergate For most in the United States the word brings a phase when mortars in Vietnam still whistled around them and the scandal of Nixon and his Machiavellian buds poured from the news into
- [Back in commission](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/back-in-commission) - It's funny that we say "out of commission," but rarely the opposite. In my case, I just had hip replacement surgery, and had a lot of worrying to do beforehand. I mean a LOT. But it turned out to be so much less invasive than I imagined. I was up and walking within hours, and
- [The Exemplary Sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-17) - There is a new book of Bette Howland's stories out, Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage, and I immediately purchased a copy. Since posting about her last year, I have come to know her son, Jake, and was so pleased to see a review of this book last weekend, and see him quoted about her. The
- [Frogs on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/frogs-on-monday) - I attended a poetry workshop on Saturday, and my favorite poem of the day was by Terry Lucas, the new Marin County poet laureate. I said in the workshop that I had recently read that by writing about a bad experience one was able to shift one's relationship to it to that of witness. I
- [Sunday breakfast](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/sunday-breakfast) - I cut out a recipe from the Wall Street Journal on Saturday and modified it for breakfast this morning. Essentially, you soft boil eggs and cool some eggs, fry sourdough bread lightly in olive oil, sear some asparagus in the oil and lay it on the toast. Cover with burrata or ricotta mixed with herbs,
- [Correction!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/correction) - Here is last week's poem as it's supposed to be: Trespassing Teens, the street, night nothing to do so they split off in two’s, find an ark like Noah’s, unfinished. A wooden-frame, all two-by-fours and exposed pipe dreams, she won’t go in but he takes her hand. They wander, imagine walls, windows, become temporary residents
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-13) - I was led to this poem by through essay. I love the ending especially. Trespassing Teens, the street, night nothing to do so they split off in two’s, find an ark like Noah’s, unfinished. A wooden-frame, all two-by-fours and exposed pipe dreams, she won’t go in but he takes her hand. They wander, imagine walls,
- [A terrific essay](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/a-terrific-essay) - Last weekend, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with Ted Gioia, an essayist who is right up there with my favorites. In "Bach at the Burger King," he writes about the "weaponization of classical music" as well as the damage caused by its use as advertising enhancement. Worth a read! Ted is the
- [No poem today](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/no-poem-today) - But the story of Annie Edson Taylor, who had her 15 minutes of fame in 1901, when she was 62, going over Niagara's 160 foot Falls in a barrel of her own design, pumped full of oxygen and stuffed with pillows, and lived to tell the tale. This is the woman, who when her stagecoach
- [From the NY Times Sunday Magazine last year](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-the-ny-times-sunday-magazine-last-year) - A friend sent me a copy of this poem by Nathan McClain, and I am just now getting around to posting it. He has some other interesting love elegies on his publications page, cited above. Love Elegy with Busboy The whole mess —pair of chopsticks pulled apart,tarnished pot of tea,even my fortune(which was no good)
- [New, not necessarily better](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/new-not-necessarily-better) - I read the Wednesday food section of the NY Times and occasionally try one of the recipes. This week, I tried a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi for moussaka. I've been making moussaka for years based on a recipe by Craig Clairborn from the old NY Times Cookbook. That recipe calls for slicing and salting the
- [Elegies](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/elegies) - I have been working on arranging a memorial at Marin Poetry Center for Linda Gregg, and also received word that my old friend died this week. So elegies are on my mind. Here is a beauty by Rachel Eliza Griffiths. Elegy, Surrounded by Seven Trees for Michele Antoinette
- [A brilliant use of rhyme](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/a-brilliant-use-of-rhyme)
- [Back on track](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/back-on-track) - It was a crazy week, including travel to the writers conference in Portland, so I missed the Monday vitamin for all of you. But here you go with a lovely poem by Julie Bruck. Blue Heron Walking Not one of Mr. Balanchine’s soloists had feet this articulate,the long bones explicitly spread, then retracted, even morefinely
- [Two deaths](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/two-deaths) - Two amazing poets died this week, W. S. Merwin and Linda Gregg. I have posted several of Merwin's poems before. Somehow though, I never have posted a poem by Linda Gregg. Here's a sample: Death Looks Down Death looks down on the salmonA male and female in two poolsone above the otherThe female turns back
- [Lynn Emanuel](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/lynn-emanuel) - This wonderful poet is coming to read here next week. I have posted one of her poems before, but thought I'd post another, from her book "The Dig." This poem, as many in the book describe a childhood at the edge, with unreliable caretakers. The description of "wringing of every cent from every dollar," resonated
- [Vija Celmins and spiders](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/vija-celmins-and-spiders) - I have been wanting to see Louise Bourgeois' massive bronze spiders at the remodeled San Francisco Modern Museum of Art, and finally got there this week. They were as wonderful as I expected, muscular, dynamic, fun. The bonus was the Vija Celmins retrospective. Her work starts as representations of single objects (very moving, somehow, painted
- [A new poet](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-new-poet) - MakebelieveAnd on the first day god made something up. Then everything came along: seconds, sex and beasts and breaths and rabies; hunger, healing, lust and lust’s rejections; swarming things that swarm inside the dirt; girth and grind and grit and shit and all shit’s functions; rings inside the treetrunk and branches broken by the snow;
- [A reading I'm proud to invite you to](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/a-reading-im-proud-to-invite-you-to) - I'm excited about this upcoming reading because I'm reading with two terrific poets in a very congenial setting, Britt Marie's Wine Bar on Solano. Here are the details.
- [A series of poetry videos](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-series-of-poetry-videos) - Barbara Reynolds runs a reading series the second Sunday of the month at Britt Marie's, a wine bar on Solano. I am reading there March 10th at 3:30. But here is Barb herself, speaking one of her poems. This is the first in a series of three.
- [A perk](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/a-perk) - If you are living with Larry, he might say to you from time to time, "I have something funny to show you." And it will be very funny. Here was today's offering, which you get to share just by reading this blog.
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/monday-poem-12) - Ted Kooser was US Poet Laureate in 2004. His poems often deal with the farming communities of the midwest, like this one, which does a great job of capturing a moment and a perspective. Flying at Night Above us, stars. Beneath us, constellations.Five billion miles away, a galaxy dies like a snowflake falling on water.
- [Fast Gas](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/fast-gas) - Dorianne Laux just came out with a new book that I'm reading. Here's a poem I really enjoyed Fast GasX for Richard Before the days of self service,when you never had to pump your own gas,I was the one who did it for you, the girlwho stepped out at the sound of a bellwith
- [Preparing for planting](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/preparing-for-planting) - I haven't been able to do much in the garden since my encounter with the Land Rover, but this week I hired some help and we dug potatoes, weeded, spread compost and mulch. We left the parseley and a few onions. Here is the first bed, ready for planting. Then the rains came and settled
- [Willa Cather: The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/willa-cather-the-exemplary-sentence) - I reread A Lost Lady this week. Inhaled it really. The characters are so vivid, as is the portrait of the farm towns of the prairies at the turn of the century. The great rail roads were built, and the settlers had come, but soon the chiselers and cheapskates would take the place of the
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-11) - This is from an anthology I received as a Christmas gift, American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time. This is my favorite so far from it: Mercy Like two wrestlers etched around some ancient urn we’d lace our hands, then wrench each other’s wrists back until the muscles ached and the tendons burned, and one
- [Diversity or Meritocracy?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/diversity-or-meritocracy) - Hard to believe that this ad is from 1965, but of course, the assumptions it makes are part of what the rebellion of the 1960's was about. The world I grew up in, the world of the 50s and 60s, was a white man's world. Every position of power, doctor, lawyer, judge, politician, was held
- [Mary Oliver 1935-2019](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/mary-oliver-1935-2019) - Thanks to Gina for sending me this: Marengo Out of the sump rise the marigolds. From the rim of the marsh, muslin with mosquitoes, rises the egret, in his cloud-cloth. Through the soft rain, like mist, and mica, the withered acres of moss begin again. When I have to die, I would like to die
- [Rainy Day Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/rainy-day-poem) - Rain in Northern California, where we always seem to be needing it, can be as delicious as this poem, which sounds contemporary though written a century ago. Summer Rain All night our room was outer-walled with rain. Drops fell and flattened on the tin roof, And rang like little disks of metal. Ping!—Ping!—and there was
- [Winter Break](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/winter-break) - I took some time off over the holidays, but here I am, back with your Monday vitamin. I read a poem I liked in the NY Times Sunday Magazine, and found another by this poet: A Childhood The horse had been beaten and flies crawled excited on the beat marks. He held still in the sunblazed
- [Feeling a bit Grinchy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/feeling-a-bit-grinchy) - But here is a holiday poem--may it bring you a glee too fine to hear. Holly The hollybush flowers small whites (become of course berries) four tiny petals turned back and four anthers stuck out: the pistil low & honey-high: wasp-bees (those small wasps or bees) come around with a glee too fine to hear:
- [Brief history lesson](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/brief-history-lesson) - I remember Frost's fumbling at Kennedy's inauguration--an old man then, and the first poet to be asked to read at such an event--such a different time. When asked to recite a poem, this was Frost's response: "If you can bear at your age the honor of being made president of the United States, I ought to
- [Something about writing](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/something-about-writing) - I have been reading Randall Jarrell's "Fifty Years of American Poetry," an impressive essay, but it made me somehow wonder if all the books--those hours and years of work--won't someday be winnowed down to a few kept in the basement of the cybrary, with its lightspeed wifi. A few first editions the way we now
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-16) - One of the few fears that can really grab hold of me, especially before a long plane ride or (as was currently the case) a time of enforced inactivity, is that I've read all the really good books. A book that is well-written, thought provoking, and can immerse you in its reality is so rare.
- [Thanksgiving misgivings?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/thanksgiving) - Talking around the table about the mixed message of Thanksgiving--my discomfort with the often phony-feeling professions of gratitude, and of course, what we did and do to native populations. A friend suggested that there should be a Jewish holiday-- if there isn't one already--called "Misgiving." But someone asked me what sincere gratitude would sound like.
- [A comic instead of a poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/a-comic-instead-of-a-poem) - Yesterday I posted Jordan Peterson's rant on how he doesn't believe the threat of climate change will bring us together to act for the good of the planet. In response, my son sent this comic, which I also believe: But to be fair, I don't think Peterson was really saying, "do nothing," I think he
- [Stuff Larry Sends](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/stuff-larry-sends) - If you've never heard or seen Jordan Peterson, this is a reasonable intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBbvehbomrY
- [Words don’t come quickly to me](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/words-dont-come-quickly-to-me) - Yesterday I listened as my favorite spiritual leader, Margaret Holub, struggled for words of consolation after the Pittsburg shooting. She said that words didn’t come quickly to her, and I reflected that anyone to whom words came in facile way after a such a rift in the social fabric would be a charlatan. That online
- [A unique voice now quiet](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-unique-voice-now-quiet) - I got the news that Tony Hoagland, a poet often featured here, lost his battle with pancreatic cancer yesterday. His partner sent out this message: Tony Hoagland November 19, 1953 - October 23, 2018 You’ll never be complete, and that’s as it should be. Inside you one vault after another opens endlessly.
- [Poems with rhyme and meter](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poems-with-rhyme-and-meter) - In case you think that formal poetry is over, A. E. Stallings is able to write poems on contemporary themes using form and rhyme. To wit, a sonnet about bedbugs. Or is it? Bedbugs in Marriage Bed Maybe it’s best to burn the whole thing down, The framework with its secret joineries. Every morning, check
- [Three weeks](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/three-weeks) - Today it's been three weeks since my close encounter with a Jeep. You would think it gives me a lot of time for poetry, but I'm finding it hard to concentrate on anything serious. I did come across this poem, though, which I am passing along: The Blessed Angels How much like angels are these
- [Instead of daffodils](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/instead-of-daffodils) - One of my poet friends who doesn't live nearby, sent me this this morning. It did cheer me up after a very dispiriting week. French Chocolates If you have your health, you have everything is something that’s said to cheer you up when you come home early and find your lover arched over a stranger
- [Walking wounded](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/walking-wounded) - Since my last post, I had an encounter with a Jeep while riding my bike. It didn't go too well for me, and I've been rendered pretty immobile with injuries to my right foot. Luckily, that's all, and according to the amazing physicians at Highland Hospital, there will be "full functional recovery." But the process
- [Poetry in Motion](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/poetry-in-motion) - One of the projects sponsored by Poetry Society of America is short poems posted in panels on NY subways. Larry caught a glimpse of this one, exiting the train: Dew Like peas in their green canoe, like beads strung in a row, sit drops of dew along a blade of grass. But unattached and subject
- [Riding the rails](https://www.merylnatchez.com/meryls-work/creative-nonfiction/riding-the-rails) - As promised, this is the story of how Larry and I rode the rails on a yacht strapped to a freight car. It starts with our trying to hitchhike west from Montreal. We got a few hundred miles, but then no one was picking us up and it was starting to get late. We saw a
- [Egon Schiele](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/egon-schiele) - In New York I went to see an exhibit of drawings by Picasso, Klimt, and Schiele. Schiele, who died at 28, saw Klimt as a mentor, but took his erotic drawing further, I think. These certainly seemed like the best of the show to me. I wonder what it is that makes a line on
- [Oklahoma Center for the Humanities](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/oklahoma-center-for-the-humanities) - I have been traveling, which is why no poem this Monday. The highlight of my trip has been two days at the University of Tulsa, meeting with students and faculty, and participating in a presentation called Poetry, Tyranny and Memory with Jacob Howland for the Oklahoma Center for the Humanities. It focuses on the poetry of
- [A prose poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-prose-poem) - Here is one by Joseph Stroud--one long exhalation of description that opens at the end. To me, the title adds a little twist to the poem--life itself is so strange and gorgeous, we don't need to look further than the road we are on for poetry. Though I have no way of knowing whether that's
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-10) - A bit late, a bit short, but... Bread and Stars Bread is in my lap, Stars are far, far away. I am eating bread looking at the stars. I am so engrossed, don’t even ask— Sometimes I get mixed up and instead of bread I eat stars. Oktay Rifat translated from the Turkish by Sidney
- [The poor hummingbird](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-poor-hummingbird) - I unintentionally lured a hummingbird into the jaws of my cat a few days ago, trying to get it down from the skylight. I have now thought of several ways I could easily have avoided this savage death. Not that it does the poor, tiny bird any good. That kind of regret is expressed for
- [The Mondays come faster and faster](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-mondays-come-faster-and-faster) - And so it's time again for a Monday poem, when I just posted last Monday's! Today, a poem on Arthritis, which I never thought about when young. But well described by Carol Moldaw, along with other strands of thought. Carol will be reading in October for Marin Poetry Center. Arthritis “Save your hands,” my mother
- [Before moving on...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/before-moving-on) - One last comment on my summer reading, A friend, knowing how much I liked Primo Levi's book, The Periodic Table, gave me a gorgeous edition of his complete works. It is so good, I feel compelled to quote from it at length, and I've only finished the first book, If This is Man. In the
- [Faults](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/faults) - Everyone has them of course, even saints might be faulted for their saintliness--surely that would be hard to live with. But this week, after I set my hearing aids for safety in my hat while I swam and then lost them who knows where when I casually put on my hat--I have been berating myself
- [Short poem by Larry Levis](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/short-poem-by-larry-levis) - I saw a documentary on Larry Levis, A Late Style of Fire, two years ago that made me like him less. Nonetheless, this is a pretty killer little poem. Wound I've loved you like a man loves an old wound picked up in a razor fight on a street nobody remembers. Look at him: even
- [Summer reading](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/summer-reading-2) - I know that you're supposed to take up some frivolous books for the summer, but perhaps influenced by the morning and evening fog that characterizes coastal California, my reading has been more dour. I mentioned these books in an earlier post: A Century of Horrors, by Alain Besançon, Hope Against Hope, by Osip Mandelstam's wife, Nadezhda, and
- [Charles Wright](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/charles-wright) - Larry has been doing a series of poetry broadsides--letterpress copies of poems, suitable for framing. He has selected poets of roughly his age group, and this one is on his upcoming list. The Silent Generation Afternoons in the backyard, our lives like photographs Yellowing elsewhere, xxxxxxxxxxxxx In somebody else’s album, In secret, January south winds
- [Why I include the simple things](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/why-i-include-the-simple-things) - This is mostly a literary blog, poetry, selections from novels and non-fiction. I have been reading a lot of literature about Nazism and Totalitarianism lately, including A Century of Horrors, Secondhand Time, and rereading Hope Abandoned. This was a very illuminating process. The stultifying political correctness of today, the offhand denigration of the capitalist democracy that supports us all,
- [Reading through old work](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/reading-through-old-work) - It's a chore to try to decide what's worth keeping, but once in awhile I go through my old work and throw a bunch away, put a smaller number of poems and notes in a folder called, Worth Another Look, which means I'm not ready to say keep, but not ready to discard. I'll have
- [Easiest dinner](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/easiest-dinner) - I saw this recipe From Alison Roman in Wednesday's NY Times, and tried it. Fast, easy and delicious. I baked a sweet potato with it, which turned out to be a perfect accompaniment. I realize I hadn't posted any recipes in a while, not that I've stopped cooking...just need to post a few.
- [The Garden Master](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-garden-master) - I want to post some photos of my garden, and thought about what poem to go with it. Theodore Roethke was the great poet of gardens, his father ran a nursery. This one came to mind, earthy, slightly menacing. Florist's Root Cellar Nothing would sleep in that cellar, dank as a ditch, Bulbs broke out
- [The garden at its best](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-garden-at-its-best) - The Epiphyllum, an air plant, blooms once a year. The rest of the year it's dull, flat brownish green. When it blooms, the whole garden glows. One year, while auditing a class on prosody, I wrote a cinquain about it: Bee in the Epiphyllun From squat slabs of cactus they flame up, these giant scentless
- [From the wine-red selvage of the west...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-the-wine-red-selvage-of-the-west) - This poem by William Carlos Williams is new to me, arriving in my email from the American Academy of Poets. I like it especially because of the last lines, which I might be in myself. And I like this very dorky picture of him, too. A Love Song I lie here thinking of you:— the
- [Those Polish Poets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/those-polish-poets) - World War II and Poland seemed to create a unique environment for poetry. That unfortunate Catholic country, smack between Russia and Germany, produced dozens of wise, chastened, articulate writers, many of whose poems I've posted in the past. One I hadn't read before is Ryszard Krynicki. He mostly writes short, bitter, ironic poems, like salt
- [Children's Poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/childrens-poetry) - I've been thinking a lot about rhyme lately, how it's almost impossible to write a contemporary poem with conventional rhyme, but songs and nursery rhymes still rely on rhyme. Children especially love rhyme, and some of my favorite children's poetry is by A.A. Milne, who in addition to Winnie the Pooh, has two books of
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/an-exemplary-sentence-6) - Although I primarily know him as a poet, I love Adam Zagewski's prose. Here is a snippet from his memoir of his student days in Krakow, Another Beauty, beautifully translated by Clare Cavanagh. It's about the cleaning lady for his student apartment: She was a magpie, a snoop. I suspected her of regularly rummaging though our things and
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-9) - This was one of the poetry selections by the American Academy of Poets for Mother's Day--it seems to me a sort of love poem from a mother to a teenage child. I like its strange title. Hours Days Years Unmoor Their Orbits tonight I’m cleaning baby portobellos for you, my young activist wiping the dirty
- [Spring](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/spring) - The last group of baby chicks is now starting to lay the lovely pullet eggs, small and beautiful. We cracked one yesterday, and the small egg had two small yolks. I've had big eggs with two yolks before, but never a small one. And the garden!
- [Essy Stone](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/essy-stone) - Thanks to a workshop with David St. John, I heard about a poet who is currently his student at USC. Essy Stone's book, What It Done to Us, is a group of gripping, tough poems that seem to be written by someone who came up hard and made something of it. Here's a sample. Reading
- [Poem in your pocket](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poem-in-your-pocket) - 3Poetry month just ended, and the Berkeley Library printed some wonderful poems by local poets. When soliciting work, they sent out a sample of last year's choices and I liked this one by Ed Hirsch: Cotton Candy We walked on the bridge over the Chicago River for what turned out to be the last time,
- [Alicia Ostriker](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/alicia-ostriker) - Though I haven't read much of her, what I've seen, I like. This from Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day series: Thirsting It’s not that the old are wise But that we thirst for the wisdom we had at twenty when we understood everything when our brains bubbled with tingling insights percolating up from our brilliant
- [Another bullet poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-bullet-poem) - They are legion now, as are the bullets. This one from a moving anthology called Bullets into Bells (thoughtfully edited by Brian Clements, Alexandra Teague and Dean Rader), which combines poems with reactions from survivors of gun violence: The Bullet, in Its Hunger The bullet, in its hunger, craves the womb of the body. The warm
- [Desultory Saturday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/desultory-saturday) - A friend asked that I post more recipes, and this morning I made one of my basic breakfast variations--so delicious. You may not be able to go out and pick greens from your garden, but any greens will do. In my case I picked baby broccolini and my only two asparagus stalks, sautéed onions and
- [Another Monday poem on Tuesday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-monday-poem-on-tuesday) - At a workshop this weekend someone brought this poem, by Lynn Emanuel, and I remembered how much I like her work. Why it took me so long to get the poem up here, I don't know. The days seem to melt away. Perhaps I should take up drinking: Frying Trout While Drunk Mother is drinking
- [Monday Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-8) - I'm still reading Bullets into Bells, the anthology about gun violence. It's a remarkable collection. On Saturday we had a local town hall to follow up on the students' march against gun violence. I realized we think about it almost entirely in terms of the mass events--but every gun death creates a circle of trauma,
- [Side of fries, $100](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/side-of-fries-100) - This morning I made fried potatoes for breakfast. The potatoes had been in the ground the day before, and I used hand- rendered beef tallow mixed with a little bacon grease for the cooking fat. I cooked the onions and garlic separately. I rendered the fat from the last couple of times I made brisket,
- [New chicks](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/new-chicks) - It's like Christmas morning when new chicks arrive. I ordered a new breed, called Cukoo Bluebars, in February, and Tuesday morning, five baby chicks arrived, shipped USPS overnight from Ohio. I had a brooder all ready for them, and they'll spend the first two weeks inside before moving to the outdoor brooder. It's hard to
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-10) - This poem is from Poetry Sunday, in Women's Voices for Change, a great resource. Usually hosted by Rebecca Foust, the Marin County Poet Laureate, this week's selection is from another local poet, Susan Cohen. There are three other poems by Agi Mishol, an Israeli poet, on the site, and a brief biography of the author. For
- [Postwar Polish Poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/postwar-polish-poetry) - Some of the most moving poetry seemed to come out of Poland after World War II. Polish history reads like a particularly bloody video game of conquest and reconquest of those fertile fields smack in the center of Europe. Everybody wanted them. But the Holocaust and the Nazi/Russian battles seemed to sear something in the
- [The Exemplary Sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-14) - I read about Bette Howland and her memoir/novel Blue in Chicago in the NY Times obituaries last month. According to the obituary she was a a protege (and perhaps lover) of Saul Bellow and had a troubled life. I got her book out of the library, and Blue in Chicago
- [Phillip K. Dick](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/phillip-k-dick) - I think two of his books, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Man in the High Castle, are classics, as is this quote that Larry gave me yesterday: Reality is that which, when you stop believing it, doesn't go away. I've often thought (especially when trudging uphill) that if god were as powerful as
- [A poem from last Sunday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poem-from-last-sunday) - Amanda Moore was one of the readers at Britt Marie's last Sunday. This was my favorite of the poems she read: The Broken Leg Eventually it comes between us: not the plaster barricade between every tender moment we might have, but the dependence. After the flurry of surgeons and worry of permanent damage there is
- [A perfect pie](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/a-perfect-pie) - In LA, cooking for my daughter who is recovering from minor surgery. Today, chicken pot pie. Very satisfying.
- [The other poem...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-other-poem) - Yesterday's event at Britt Marie's was just what a poetry event should be, short, varied, lively, moving and fun. The small wine bar was full to overflowing and the audience seemed to enjoy the poems. I know I enjoyed the other two poets' work (Amanda Moore and Barbara Reynolds). I hope to post a sample
- [Foolish Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/foolish-monday) - I had a memorable workshop with Cornelis Eady at Squaw Valley one summer, and thought I'd share one of his poems this morning. I'm a Fool to Love You Some folks will tell you the blues is a woman, Some type of supernatural creature. My mother would tell you, if she could, About her life
- [Changing direction](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/changing-direction) - It's been another heavy week, but amazingly, our little Kensington Indivisible group had a bake sale that raised $1,016 forPlanned Parenthood this weekend. In other news, I'll be reading a week from Sunday (Mar 11) at Britt Marie's on Solano Ave in Berkeley. I won't be reading this poem, though I had planned to. It
- [Your Monday vitamin comes from Split this Rock](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/your-monday-vitamin-comes-from-split-this-rock) - Split this Rock is an organization that posts a poem every week--they advertise as "poems of provocation and witness." This one really caught my attention: Still Life with Bullets Orlando Jones, a black actor, douses himself in a bucket of bullets. I flinch. Bullet against brown skin even without the bruised and busted aftermath is
- [An essay or a prose poem?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/an-essay-or-a-prose-poem) - This was listed as an essay in Five Points journal, but I think of it as a prose poem: What I Think About When Someone Uses "Pussy" as a Synonym for "Weak" At the deepest part of the deepest part, I rocked shut like a stone. I'd climbed as far inside me as I could.
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/the-exemplary-sentence-15) - I've been reading a slim novel by Forrest Gander called A Friend. It's a novel in three parts that closely parallels a real life event. The part told by the lover, Sarah, is made up of mostly one-line statements about her lover and her grief at his death. Here are a few samples: "The first
- [Heat by Hirshfield](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/heat-by-hirshfield) - Your Monday poem on Wednesday, by Jane Hirshfield, Worth the wait, I hope. Heat My mare, when she was in heat, would travel the fenceline for hours, wearing the impatience in her feet into the ground. Not a stallion for miles, I’d assure her, give it up. She’d widen her nostrils, sieve the wind for
- [After the Women's March](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/after-the-womens-march) - This poem, by Dunya Mikhail seems appropriate. The War Works Hard How magnificent the war is! How eager and efficient! Early in the morning it wakes up the sirens and dispatches ambulances to various places swings corpses through the air rolls stretchers to the wounded summons rain from the eyes of mothers digs into the earth
- [From Tony Hoagland's new book](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-tony-hoaglands-new-book) - There is nothing to say about this poem--just buy the book. The Age of Iron When I see an ironing board folded in the closet of a motel room, and the iron resting like a sledgehammer on the shelf above, I think of the Age of Iron and my mother standing in the kitchen, folding
- [A little perspective](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-little-perspective) - It's hard not to feel that things are worse now than they've ever been. But looking back at the fifties, I remember feeling they were pretty terrible then. This poem, from that period by Robert Lowell, gives a good description of that feeling: Skunk Hour (for Elizabeth Bishop) Nautilus Island's hermit heiress still lives through
- [Of resolutions and poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/of-resolutions-and-poetry) - I have a system for New Year's resolutions that works well for me: Aim small and succeed. I've discussed this before. But to update the list, I've since added: drive courteously (three years ago), no movie theater popcorn (two years ago), and better socks (last year). I'm still working on last year's resolution, slowly replacing
- [New Year's Day Poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/new-years-day-poems) - As an act of self-promotion, suicide is hard to beat. Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, most recently Amy Winehouse—their overdose deaths are part of their legend. And would we read Sylvia Plath or Ann Sexton with the same attention without their famous deaths? Of course, suicide is the ultimate desperate act--not a marketing gimmick. The survivors
- [About angels](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/about-angels) - It's that season--all the old cliches brought out with music and glitter. On that note, there are very few poems that contain angels that are not overwrought, too fanciful or just plain schmaltz. But this, by B. H. Fairchild, avoids all that: Angels Elliot Ray Neiderland, home from college one winter, hauling a load of
- [Larry's amendment to the tax post](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/larrys-amendment-to-the-tax-post) - "The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets." Will Rogers
- [The new tax plan](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/the-new-tax-plan) - Of course, it's a nightmare. No need to go into that--but here's a refreshing take on it from our wonderful accountant, Glen Thomas, a fine man and an excellent accountant: "This is absolutely the best time for CPAs in my 35 year working career. I was in my 4th year when the 1986 tax act was
- [From Berkeley's Lunch Poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-berkeleys-lunch-poems) - I went to hear Rita Dove, a former US Poet Laureate, read at the UC Berkeley Lunch poems series this week. Here is one of her poems: Exit Just when hope withers, the visa is granted. The door opens to a street like in the movies, clean of people, of cats; except it is your street you
- [Two quotes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/two-quotes) - In case you didn't happen to use Google today, they are honoring Gertrude Jekyll, famous British gardener of the late 19th, early 20th century. She is very quotable; here's an example: 'There is a lovable quality about the actual tools. One feels so kindly to the thing that enables the hand to obey the brain.
- [Rainy Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/rainy-monday) - Rain seems so appropriate at the end of a holiday weekend, but this Monday poem is not about rain, but a selection from a new anthology I just finished reviewing for ZYZZYVA, In the Shape of a Human Body I Am Visiting the Earth: Poems Far and Wide, published jointly by McSweeney's and Poetry International.
- [Your morning economics lesson](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/your-morning-economics-lesson) - This morning, Larry was reading Greg Mankiw's NY Times editorial on 45's tax plan. Mankiw is an economics professor at Harvard. To familiarize me with Mankiw, Larry played a country western economics song, Dual Mandate for me. I guess he was directed to this from reading Mankiw, and I incorrectly reported it as Greg. An alert
- [Of Jazz and Poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/of-jazz-and-poetry) - We are back home, and happy to find that David Juda has completed a wonderful project of posting poems and music from For Jazz on his website, Voetica. Just click on an artist to see and listen. This area of the site features woodcuts by Nina Mera, poetry by Peter McSloy, and accompanying music by
- [Santiago and a few miscellaneous photos](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/santiago-and-a-few-miscellaneous-photos) - We've enjoyed Santiago a great deal, especially the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombiano where we went twice. The bottom floor is called "Chile before Chile" and as you walk in, you are greeted by these grand wooden grave markers at the end of a long hallway, some lit, some in shadow: They are supposed to
- [More street stuff](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/more-street-stuff) - One of the features of Valparaiso is the Funiculars, called simply elevators. Apparently there used to be 15 of them, but only 5 still work. One, Ascensor El Peral, was right by our apartment. It's motorized, of course, but the two cars are also counterweights to each other, with a cable that rolls over a
- [Artists at work](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/artists-at-work) - One evening in Valparaiso, we saw one of the street artists at work. I imagine his work was unauthorized, as he was doing it at night. He had a big power spray paint gun, and wore a mask. We got to see the finished image the next day. Not one of my favorites, but interesting
- [The hills of Valparaiso](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/the-hills-of-valparaiso) - We mostly went to the seaside town of Valparaiso because Neruda had lived there and his house is a museum we wanted to visit. But what captivated us more than the house was the incredible street art. Art on walls, on doorways, on steps on lampposts, just about anything that can be painted or collaged.
- [The stars of the southern sky](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/the-stars-of-the-southern-sky) - We took a trip to Northern Chile especially for a visit to Alpha Aldea Amateur Observatory site to see these stars. A completely different sky than the one I've seen all my life. It was thrilling to see the mysterious constellations of the southern hemisphere, Scorpion with bright Antares at the head, Aquarius, the Magellanic Clouds, and
- [Strawberry juice for breakfast](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/strawberry-juice-for-breakfast) - As we wandered through the Santiago airport, I was stuck by subtle differences. Of course, the lines, the security, the crowds were familiar, but I loved the box of confiscated objects by the security line—what do they do with them, I wonder? They already have filled one box and are working on the second. I
- [Glaciers, dogs, and birds](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/glaciers-dogs-and-birds) - El Calafate, a town in Argentine Patagonia, has the look of a frontier town, with buildings thrown up slapdash out of whatever scraps were at hand. The landscape itself is sere and twisted. The gorse-like bush at the edge of the photo with the yellow flowers is called el calafate, and despite its thorns, its
- [Bumpy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/bumpy) - One of the pleasures and also the problems of travel to another country is that each simple transaction is slightly mystifying: the language, the currency, the customs. Your habits are left at home with the clothes in your closet, and everything is fresh and surprising. As one small, graphic example, the electrical apparatus of Buenos
- [Borges and Buenos Aires](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/borges-and-buenos-aires) - I once heard Jorge Luis Borges lecture. In 1967 or 8 he came to Harvard, and though I only dimly knew who he was, he impressed me with his uncanny presence, unlike anyone I had encountered. But I tried reading his most well-know work, Labyrinths, I never made much progress. Now I think perhaps it
- [The many too many](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/the-many-too-many) - Years ago, reading Ortega y Gasset's The Revolt of the Masses, I first thought about the age of "mass man." Yesterday was a holiday here in Argentina, Dia de San Martin, and along with the masses from Buenos Aires, we took an hour train ride out of the city to the delta, to a town
- [Buenos Aires](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/buenos-aires) - Because we'd never been to the southern hemisphere we decided to travel to Argentina and Chile. We've been in Buenos Aires since Thursday, long enough to have a sense of where we are in the city, to travel the buses and subways, make dumb mistakes, and receive lots of friendly assistance. The streets here throng
- [A sonnet?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-sonnet) - Troy Jollimore used this poem by A. E. Stallings to illustrate what the modern sonnet can do. Even though the lines are short, and the "turn" comes at line three, it does seem like a sonnet: Fire Safety Drill It ought to be easy to learn: Freeze, drop where you stand, And roll yourself
- [Curinary miscellany](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/curinary-miscellany) - After watching baristas make beautiful designs on my cappuccino, I decided to try it myself. Larry said it looked like kindergarten cappuccino. With this particular cappuccino, I made Kenji Alt-Lopez' BLT, which includes bread sautéed in bacon fat, and thick, salted slices of tomato. Yum! Finally, I've been culling my flock and am now down
- [Making an enemy?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/making-an-enemy) - I hope not, but I am going to repost a poem here from the poem-a-day feature of the Academy of American poets. Reading it, I had an idea about what I would suggest were I an editor and this poem came to me. But poets are rarely open to suggestions as radical as mine. Editing
- [Raw](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/raw) - In a workshop once, Marie Howe suggested: write a poem from the point of view of someone who throws trash out the car window. Nobody could. But here Frank Bidart manages a harder task--write a poem in the voice of a pedophile. Herbert White "When I hit her on the head, it was good, and
- [Hats](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/hats) - We made it over to the exhibit of impressionist paintings of all thing millinery today. It was billed as an exhibit of Degas' paintings about that include hats, but had many impressionists and also glass cases with sample hats from the late 1800's and early 1900's. You can read about it and see paintings here.
- [A poem not just for tax season](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/a-poem-not-just-for-tax-season) - Lat time I was at Squaw Valley Community of Writers I discovered that there was another poet not just from my very small town, but who lives on my short block, seven or eight houses down from me. How lucky! Here is one of her poems: Discussing Useful Life at the Tax Depreciation Seminar While
- [On the wall this month](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/on-the-wall-this-month) - We are rich in broadsides, those page-size, elegant, usually letterpress versions of a single poem designed to be framed on the wall. We keep one up in the guest bathroom and change it out regularly. This one by Charles Simic, so simple, is unusual in that it is a copy of a hand-written poem. I
- [Linguistics](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/linguistics) - Larry quoted this to me today: "In the word 'scene,' is it the c or the s that's silent?"
- [Ilya Kaminsky](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ilya-kaminsky) - A fellow poet recommended his work to me, and I have been reading his book, Dancing in Odessa. Here's a poem from that book that I really like: Envoi xxxxxxxxxxxxxxYou will die on a boat from Yalta to Odessa. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx--a fortune teller, 1992 What ties me to this earth? In Massachusetts, the birds force themselves
- [Exemplary sentences](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/exemplary-sentences) - I am reading Adam Zagajewsky's new book of essays--more really diary entries--called Slight Exaggeration. I'm a fan of both his prose and his poetry. His standard of literacy and breadth of knowledge is so high. I came across this passage, which he wrote about the generation that came of age on the cusp of the
- [Waking to fog](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/waking-to-fog) - After two summery days in a row the fog is back. It made me think of this by Marvin Bell: People Walking in Fog They try to watch themselves, drifting in a white sigh, the boats and trees, themselves, too, when they think of it, spun from sheets of gauzy droplets with which to tar
- [The eclipse](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/the-eclipse) - Watching the sun disappear in gradual increments today, what amazed me most was how little you would notice if you weren't looking at it with glasses. The light did change towards the end, but not so much. Of course, we didn't go to total eclipeseville to see it, just to east county where the sun
- [New work and old](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/new-work-and-old) - I'm going to be reading at the Tiburon-Belvedere Library this Thursday, the 17th, at 7 pm. Mostly, I'm going to read new work. I've been writing some prose poems inspired by Carlo Rovelli's wonderful books on physics. I'm including one here. But you can also see some of my older work (and some interesting work
- [Those long summer evenings](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/those-long-summer-evenings) - They are already growing shorter now, but this passage from Adam Zagajewski's new book of essays, Slight Exaggeration, perfectly captures the experience of the long evenings--even longer in northern Europe: "And once again it was June--mild, long, slowly fading evenings, evenings promising so much that no matter what you do with them, you always receive the
- [Back from camping](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/back-from-camping-2) - I forgot to hang out my "Gone Camping" sign this year but now I'm back with a poem today from a book my granddaughter is reading, Milk and Honey, by Rupi Kuar. She cautioned me that some of the poems are "pretty rough." Here is the poem she selected: you tell me to quiet down cause
- [Cherries](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/cherries) - While there are many wonderful blackberry poems, I know only three poems about cherries, all from previous centuries--one by Thomas Campion, one by Robert Herrick, and this one, by D. H. Lawrence, that Larry mentioned as we were eating the exceptionally sweet cherries of this summer: The Cherry Robbers Under the long, dark boughs, like
- [Maggie Smith on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/maggie-smith-on-monday) - I happened on this poem last week, and here it is for you: Good Bones Life is short, though I keep this from my children. Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways, a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least fifty percent
- [The Exemplary Sentence: Primo Levi](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-primo-levi) - At a friend's suggestion, I have been reading Primo Levi's The Periodic Table. I rather skimmed through the early chapters about his relatives, but once I got to the chapter on Hydrogen, I was hooked. This is not a book about his time in Auschwitz, but about his early years and the years after the
- [Monday on Tuesday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-on-tuesday) - Once again, Monday slipped by me before I could post a poem, here are two worth waiting for. Everyone thinks of Philip Levine as the poetic champion of the blue-collar worker, but I vote for Dorianne Laux. The Shipfitter's Wife I loved him most when he came home from work, his fingers still curled from
- [After the Solstice](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/after-the-solstice) - I always feel the turn of the year after the summer solstice. Even though it is still bright summer, each day is a little shorter now, the early spring crops are over, and I get an acute sense of the brevity of summer, the impending autumn. I think this delicate poem by Jane Kenyon captures
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-13) - I'm thinking I should call this "the exemplary paragraph" as it's usually more than one sentence that catches my eye... but of course the paragraph is made up of sentences. In this case from three books I read recently. But the first is just a sentence, from Trajectory by Richard Russo, a recent book of his
- [Will you still need me...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/will-you-still-need-me) - I was with my 5-year old grandson this weekend, and my daughter (probably for my sake) put on a Beatles playlist. I remarked to her that that song, "Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm 64..." was really a joke to us at the time. Who was ever going to
- [Fred Marchant](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/fred-marchant) - My mind works this way, too. Here is What the Mind Does when my laptop opens to a small red car a tight street in Jenin gray-yellow dust an electric window half-open and five lean-to cards where on each a number denotes a round spent or the place where it began to travel at the
- [A poem online](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poem-online) - One of my poems appears here today: https://writinginawomansvoice.blogspot.com/ If you don't see it, search for "Conservation of Matter." A spot worth checking out from time to time. I like Beate's taste in poetry, and not just because she likes my work!
- [The newest addition to my cooking](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/the-newest-addition-to-my-cooking) - We have been following the advice of Dr. Cowan for almost 10 years now, ever since Larry came down with several mysterious and serious health issues in 2009. Dr. Cowan was the only one who came up with a coherent narrative as to the underlying cause and his prescription, which was diet change and supplements,
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-7) - Last week I opened The Dead and the Living, an older book of poems by Sharon Olds, to find this gem: Six-Year Old Boy We get to the country late at night in late May, the darkness is warm and smells of half-opened lilac. Gabe is asleep oh the back seat, his wiry limbs limp
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-12) - I just finished Clever Girl, by Tessa Hadley. I enjoyed this story of a woman in England, growing from child to teenager to mother to older woman largely because of the writing. Here are a couple of examples. First a description of Manchester that could be any 20th Century first world city: “…a broad vista
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-6) - I rarely do two poems by the same poet in a row, but I came across this poem from James Galvin's latest book and really like it. Wildlife Management I All the trees kept their own counsel without any wind to speak of, until one lone limber pine began gesticulating wildly, as if it suffered from
- [Americanathon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/americanathon) - I thought this poem by James Galvin would be appropriate for today. Americanathon WAITING FOR THE NEW ice age to come along Like a dawdling child from a previous eon, Waiting for the homeless man to go on home With his tired cardboard sign that says “anything helps,” Waiting for a cure, waiting for the
- [More Baldwin: Whoever debases others is debasing himself](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/more-baldwin) - I was so impressed by The Fire Next Time, which I finished today, that I have to quote a few more passages. This after Baldwin's meeting with Elijah Muhammad, talking in the car to a young follower about the idea of black nation separating from the United States: "On what, then, will the economy of this separate nation
- [Still relevant](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/still-relevant) - I was inspired by the movie "I Am Not Your Negro" to reread a bit of James Baldwin. I find his essays every bit as lucid and apposite as I did in the late 60's. Here's a sample, in which he is talking about his adolescence: "I certainly could not discover any principled reason for
- [Anyone who writes can appreciate this](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/anyone-who-writes-can-appreciate-this) - from an interview with Troy Jollimore, poet and philosopher: What lessons were most important to you as a student of writing? I think what I most needed to learn was that the fact that I sometimes, indeed often, wrote things that weren’t very good and that did not mean that I wasn’t a good writer.
- [When Larry notices the garden](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/when-larry-notices-the-garden) - you know it has to be spectacular. Mostly, he doesn't pay any attention to it except to ask for a handful of herbs or spinach. Right now, though, after the rainy winter and a few weeks of sun, it is so dazzling that it can't be ignored. The camera on the
- [Poems at Mill Valley Library](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poems-at-mill-valley-library) - Last week the Marin Poetry Center cosponsored an event called "Stump the Laureate," at which volunteers from the audience recited poems, and Dana Gioia, the California poet laureate, alternated with the audience, poem for poem. The idea was to keep going until we or he ran out of poems. But I don't think he would
- [One from Szymborska](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/one-from-szymborska) - When we were in Krakow two years ago, we went to an exhibit at the National Museum called "Szymborska's Drawer." It was a recreation of the home office of the Polish poet, Wislawa Szymborska. It had her desk, her yellow typewriter, her bookcase, her postcard collection, many strange and delightful artifacts. You can see some photos here.
- [Shade](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/shade) - It's been a really long time since I had an invention to post, but this week, with the return of the sun came the return of my shade problem. We have a deck with a great view. Lovely to sit out on a sunny day. But it's hard to get shade that moves with the
- [Monday Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-5) - I've mentioned the Poem-a-Day from the Academy of American Poets before. Last week, I saw one by Mark Wunderlich that I liked. I didn't know his work, so read further and found this one, my favorite of the ones on the site, which he graciously allowed me to reprint here: The Son I’ll Never Have The
- [Beauty](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/beauty-2) - April is the cruelest month, but also, ironically?, poetry month. In any case every night this week has a poetry event I'm attending. So far the highlight has been a spectacular reading at the North Berkeley Library by B.H. Fairchild. Fairchild has crafted narrative poems from his childhood in Texas and Kansas. He is the son of a
- [Baby chicks](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/baby-chicks) - I really can't resist them, so when my Silkie hen began sitting on eggs, I isolated her and let her think she was hatching them. Three weeks later I went to the feed store and bought six baby chicks. That night I slipped out the eggs and slipped in the chicks. I brushed a little butter
- [About the hats, and more than the hats](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/about-the-hats-and-more-than-the-hats) - If you don't get enough poetry here, you can sign up with the Academy ofAmerican Poets (www.poets.org) and get a poem every day in your email. This is one that arrived a couple of weeks ago, for all those who knit and wear the pink pussy hats, for all of us, really. As to Why We
- [It's not all politics and poetry...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/its-not-all-politics-and-poetry) - I have been working in the garden. The labyrinth is gone, replaced by a fountain and lots of herbs and flowers. It should all grow in and be easy to keep free of weeds--at least so I hope. In back, we've been eating lettuce, fennel, green onions, chard and spinach
- [Blossom foam](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/blossom-foam) - I've been traveling and seen fields of daffodils to the horizon, horses munching the greenest grass, trees in all phases of blossom. Spring everywhere. It made me think of this poem by James Wright: A Blessing Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota, Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass. And the eyes of those
- [Lawrence Ferlinghetti is 98 today](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lawrence-ferlinghetti-is-98-today) - Here's to him! A huge force, if only for City Lights Books. Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15) Constantly risking absurdity and death whenever he performs above the heads of his audience the poet like an acrobat climbs on rime to a high wire of his own making and balancing on eyebeams above a sea
- [A rainy Monday and a little Stafford](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-rainy-monday-and-a-little-stafford) - This weekend, all the seedlings went into the ground and today it rained. More rain tomorrow. Occasionally things work out. I felt like a Stafford poem today, and here is one, about practical necessity and what it costs us. Traveling through the Dark Traveling through the dark I found a deer dead on the edge
- [Beauty](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/beauty) - B. H. Fairchild, a wonderful poet, will be reading at the North Berkeley Library on April 18th at 6 pm. Here is a long poem of his that I love. The image of Donatello's David is mentioned in the poem, so you might as well look at it first.: Beauty xxxxxxTherefore, xxxxxxTheir sons grow suicidally
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/an-exemplary-sentence-9) - I just finished The Story of a Brief Marriage, by Anuk Arudpragasam. I can't say I read the whole book--a painful though extraordinary tour de force that covers one day through the eyes and voice of a young man in a refugee camp in an unnamed country. I had to skim certain parts, despite the
- [After all this rain...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/after-all-this-rain) - the green of the hills reminds me of Ireland, except they are so smooth here in Northern California. They make me think of this poem by Kay Ryan. Green Hills Their green flanks and swells are not flesh in any sense matching ours, we tell ourselves. Nor their green breast nor their green shoulder nor
- [A Sonnet for Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/a-sonnet-for-monday) - Countee Culeen was born in 1909 and won acclaim in academia, yet strongly felt his roots in the world of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920's. Here is a delicate sonnet of his, and if you want to hear a truly moving reading of it, click here. Yet Do I Marvel I doubt not God is good,
- [Planting by the moon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/planting-by-the-moon) - I have read that planting leafy vegetables at the new moon increases their productivity, but I never tried it until Monday, which was the new moon this month. I prepared about 100 little peat pots and planted lettuce, bok choi, tatsoi, cucumbers, cauliflower, broccoli, marigolds... By Thursday, I had the first baby seedlings. And today they're looking
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/the-exemplary-sentence-11) - I've been reading Tim Gautreaux's work for years now, and recently finished his latest book, Signals: New and Selected Stories. His books deal with the everyday travails of the lower or middle class. This excerpt is from a story about a junk yard operator whose life if altered by finding a stunning, jeweled demonstration sewing machine with
- [Valentine's Day poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/valentines-day-poem) - I know I've posted several poems by Marie Howe before, but this seemed perfect for today. And if you can, there's an event at Senator Feinstein's San Francisco office today at noon--a rally of constituents requesting a town meeting. Another good way to observe Valentine's Day. The Kiss When he finally put his mouth on me—on
- [LA poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/la-poem) - I spent the weekend in LA, drinking expensive cappuccino and eating elegant treats with potato starch utensils. LA can be so over the top, it makes Berkeley look sort of down-at-the heels provincial. In any case, I came across this in an anthology of LA poetry: OK, L.A., You Win I give, No need to ratchet
- [Bounty](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/bounty) - Between poetry and politics, I haven't updated my garden posts in a long time. But the garden has ignored everything but its delight in rain, and has been yielding potatoes, fennel, spinach, collards, garlic, peppers, onions and the delicious Yacon. All this wonderful produce, plus the hens laying again makes for the best breakfasts. And
- [Poem for My Daughter](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poem-for-my-daughter) - A friend mentioned that she loved Charles Bukowski's poetry. I've never been that fond of him myself, but this is one poem of his I liked and saved: Poem for My Daughter My girl is 8 and that is old enough to know better or worse or anything. so I relax around her and hear
- [Are you a centrist?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/are-you-a-centrist) - Not everyone who is protesting is a leftist. Many are simply appalled at the first acts of an out-of-control ego maniac. I think if my mother-law were alive she'd say, "That man swats house flys with a sledge hammer." If you are a centrist, I urge you to let your voice be heard, to balance the
- [Activism and perspective](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/activism-and-perspective) - It was great to participate in the Women's March this past weekend, and I am planning to follow through with Indivisible, going to my senators' local district offices on Resist Trump Tuesday. If you want to know more about this, check out www.moveon.org/indivisible. Here are my grandson and daughter-in-law who also marched in Oakland. But
- [James Richardson](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/james-richardson) - From a new book, a gift from a friend: Little Answer Light swaying and straightening, like reeds. It has been everywhere. The waves sidling up the shore are strung with it. If I bend I will spill a great blaze. Gulls, the cry of nights hung out to whiten. Sand, what of the sun has
- [Answer to mystery poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/anser-to-mystery-poem) - Randall Jarrell
- [Poem mystery](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poem-mystery) - I came across this poem in a book of essays on poetry and read it first, without knowing who wrote it. I was very surprised by the author. Can any of you poets out there guess? Next Day Moving from Cheer to Joy, from Joy to All I take a box And add it to
- [from The Pigeon Tunnel](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/from-the-pigeon-tunnel) - Larry is reading The Pigeon Tunnel, a collection of memories by John le Carre. Over breakfast yesterday he read this excerpt to me about the transition from the Soviet Union to Russia, which made me laugh out loud: ...in 1993, criminalized capitalism had seized hold of the failed state like a frenzy and turned it into
- [Does anyone say it better?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/does-anyone-say-it-better) - After the Gentle Poet Kobayashi Issa New Year's morning-- everything is in blossom! xxxI feel about average. Robert Hass
- [Happy Holidaze](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/happy-holidaze)
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-4) - I don't know why I haven't posted anything by Stephen Dunn before. He's a wonderful poet. You might think of this if you happen to be at a tedious holiday party: Don't Do That It was bring-your-own if you wanted anything hard, so I brought Johnnie Walker Red along with some resentment I'd held in
- [More art, more women](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/more-art-more-women) - Monday in NY, a little rainy but not terribly cold. I am going to see the Agnes Martin exhibit today at the Guggenheim, a museum I have enjoyed since I was a teenager first coming to the city on my own. I am thinking about all the foremothers, today, the poets, authors, artists who blazed
- [After the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/after-the-revolution-whos-going-to-pick-up-the-garbage-on-monday-morning) - This is a line from Mirele Laderman Ukeles' Manifesto, written in 1969. Part of the avant-guard art scene in New York in the sixties, after having her first child she noticed there was no time for art--only maintenance: diapers, cooking, cleaning, dressing, undressing. The basic idea of the manifesto is that maintenance is art. You can
- [Resuming...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/resuming) - I have been too dispirited for my normal blog posts, but life goes on, inexorably. Here is a poem about this particular time: Mediation in an Election Year, 2016 When the house she and her husband built by hand went up in flames just after they finished the intricate panes of the central rose window,
- [Post election](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/post-election) - We've been in Baja all week; it was supposed to be a rest and celebration. Of course, it hasn't been that. While it's been weird to be in a tropical non-USA paradise, the indifferent, perfect ocean has been some consolation. And Larry, ever that man for black humor in a bleak hour, this morning came
- [Dismantling the labyrinth](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/dismantling-the-labyrinth) - No, it's not because of political chaos, it's just that the labyrinth has become too labor intensive. I decided to have a little pond and rock garden instead. The first step is digging up plants I want to save--easy to do after the rain--and pot them for the short term, to replant after the stonework
- [Pinsky](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/pinsky) - I took Robert Pinsky's new book of poems with me on a trip this weekend, but when I came back, I opened his Selected Poems to this, which has the flavor of the cantor in the Jewish service, the singing, incantatory lines that I love: Biography Stone wheel that sharpens the blade that mows the grain.
- [First rain](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/first-rain) - In Japan, they have festivals for the cherry blossoms each spring. Here in California, it doesn't rain for months and then, suddenly, does. So I think we need a First Rain Festival. We could have hot food and umbrella dances, boot splash puddles, green drinks, sing rain songs and recite poems about rain. And even
- [Clive James, master of the exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/clive-james-master-of-the-exemplary-sentence) - It's always a thrill when someone I've just discovered, and therefore think must be obscure, turns out to be well known. This happened recently with Clive James, a poet, critic, and essayist whose latest book on DVD collections was recently reviewed in the NY Times. I've been enjoying his Poetry Notebook 2006-2014. It's full of
- [Wendell Berry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/wendell-berry) - Given the incessant clamor of news, this poem seems appropriate. The Peace Of Wild Things When despair grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty
- [The Yacon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/the-yacon) - My neighbor gave me a few Yacon rhizomes a couple of years ago, and now I have a Yacon forest. This Peruvian vegetable looks a lot like a sunflower, with long stalks and heavy green leaves, but the flowers are smaller. Underground, it grows huge tubers. I harvested one plant yesterday and got almost 10 pounds of tubers.
- [Hiding the brush strokes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/hiding-the-brush-strokes) - A friend forwarded an article from Matthew Weiner (the creator of the TV series Mad Men) on writing. He makes the point that writers often pretend there's little work involved in creating their final piece, but that the process is slow, full of visions and revisions, false starts, painful changes. Anyone who has ever sat
- [My one day as a poetry teacher](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/my-one-day-as-a-poetry-teacher) - In tenth grade, I convinced my teacher to let me do a unit on poetry. I started with this poem by e. e. cummings, which is labeled simply "20" in his 100 selected poems, which I still have. It is battered and dogeared. I was very fond of it for many years, although it has now been
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/an-exemplary-sentence-8) - How have I missed Dennis Lehane until now? I just read (according to the book jacket) his 12th book, The Drop. It's a stunner. It's hard to know which sentences to quote. Here are a few. Chovka is a Chechen mob Boss. Bob is a quiet man, an underling: "Chovka nodded. He was concentrating on his
- [Danusha Laméris](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/danusha-lameris) - I was so lucky to read with Danusha Laméris at the Poetry World Series last May. This is from her book, The Moons of August. If you don't know who Temple Grandin is, her book is worth reading, too. Interview for Temple Grandin She said it was because she could think like a cow. That
- [Busy, busy, busy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/busy-busy-busy) - Did you ever read Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle? It's one I read in my early twenties, and certain phrases and coinages have entered my personal lexicon: your karass is basically your tribe--the people that you are destined to meet. A duprass is a karass of two very tightly bound people, and a granfalloon is a false karass,
- [Chana Bloch](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/chana-bloch) - Yesterday I heard Chana read recent poems, most about her diagnosis of terminal cancer. She was incandescent and spoke of how a fatal disease can also be a gift, focusing the mind, the spirit, on what's important. She mentioned that her first book started with a group of poems about her father's death, and the irony
- [A book from Larry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-book-from-larry) - I received a mysterious email from Larry (who is in New York), telling me he had bought and sent me a book from the Strand . It arrived today--a lovely copy of poems by Marina Tsvetaeva, a Russian poet from the early 20th century. Like her compatriots, her life was tragic--you can look it up if
- [The Blue Buick](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-blue-buick) - I've just renewed The Blue Buick from U C Library for the third time, which means I've had it almost three months now. Guess I need to buy a copy. These mostly long poems of a man who grew up in Kansas, son of a machine shop owner, are unique. They have a specificity and a
- [A late summer recipe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/a-late-summer-recipe) - Looking at a row of jars of freshly made jam is a summer pleasure. Especially when the jam is such a lovely golden color. Each year, with pears from my friend's tree, I make this simple and delicious recipe. The whole thing can be made in a food processor. The citrus cuts the sugar, and the
- [What you can do with a poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/what-you-can-do-with-a-poem) - I somehow encountered a time warp this week, and Monday is long past. Even Tuesday, and here it is Wednesday, and despite being fully "retired" I have not had the moment to sit down and put up a poem for Monday. Time simply telescoped and disappeared. But I have been reading a rather wonderful recreation
- [Rivalry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/rivalry) - I read Larry a line from this review of The Art of Rivalry, a study of influences a group of modernist painters had on each other: "Lucien Freud declining a wedding invitation because he found himself 'in the unusual position of having been involved sexually not only with the bride but also the groom and
- [George Oppen](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/george-oppen) - George Oppen is a poet who seems to have faded from view. But his sensibility is intriguing. His focus was on simplicity--using language to point to the experience as opposed to itself. Here's a snippet: Pedestrian What generations could have dreamed This grandchild of shopping streets, her eyes In the buyer's light, the store lights Brighter
- [Discoveries](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/discoveries) - The other day I made fig jam--one of my all time favorites. But in trying to speed up the process, I scorched the bottom of my enamel pot. I scrubbed and scrubbed, but couldn't get the fine layer of burnt jam off the bottom. I gave up and set the pot out in the sun to
- [Molly Peacock](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/molly-peacock) - I had a chance to look at a book of poems by Molly Peacock in a friend's library. This one reminded me of a moment when i saw my parents sharing an apricot, by far my tenderest and most intimate memory of them: Couple Sharing a Peach It’s not the first time we’ve bitten into a
- [The art of the short poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-art-of-the-short-poem) - Does anyone do it better than this? Married I came back from the funeral and crawled around the apartment, crying hard, searching for my wife's hair. For two months got them from the drain, from the vacuum cleaner, under the refrigerator, and off the clothes in the closet. But after other Japanese women came, there
- [Olds' Odes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/olds-odes) - If you've never heard Sharon Olds read, this is a good example: or this, a poem I woke up thinking about this morning: The Missing Boy (for Etan Patz) Every time we take the bus my son sees the picture of the missing boy. He looks at it like a mirror--the dark blond hair, the
- [C. D. Wright](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/c-d-wright) - Last month, C. D. Wright died suddenly in her sleep. There have been many good articles about her life and work since then. This poem, from her book String Light, reads to me as a self-written obituary. Oh, the Novaculite Uplift--a chert and flint formation in the mountains of Arkansas (where Carolyn was born), Oklahoma and Texas.
- [](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/2899) - Yesterday a friend was talking about gimmicks in poetry--and here is an example she gave. The gimmick is or world seen through the eyes of a Martian. Gimmick itself is a pretty good word... A Martian Sends a Postcard Home Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings and some are treasured for their markings –
- [Summer recipe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/summer-recipe) - This recipe makes a soup that is like a bowlful of summer. I adapted it from one of my favorite cookbooks, Annie Somerville's Field of Greens. She has you make a vegetarian stock with the corn cobs (adding a potato, some celery, garlic, salt and parsley), which I do if I'm having vegetarians for dinner. But
- [Summer food](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/summer-food-2) - Ripe tomatoes, sweet corn, peaches. They are all here, and we are eating them all. This morning, delicate white Mexican onions crisped with corn kernels, spinach and basil from the garden, and a fried egg in the middle. Is there anything better? So here's a tomato poem, also a love poem, also short--three excellent attributes for
- [Who are these Trump supporters?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/who-are-these-trump-supporters) - I've really been wondering, and this article in the New Yorker provides at least a partial answer: "The Trump supporters I spoke with were friendly, generous with their time, flattered to be asked their opinion, willing to give it, even when they knew I was a liberal writer likely to throw them under the bus.
- [Another Neruda translation?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-neruda-translation) - "It's true, I've been caught in print several times saying, 'The last thing we need is another Neruda translation.'" This sentence opens Forrest Gander's introduction to Then Come Back: The Lost Neruda Poems, from Copper Canyon Press. He then goes onto explain how these late poems were discovered, and their quality convinced him to undertake
- [You can take the girl out of New York...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/you-can-take-the-girl-out-of-new-york) - but even though I've now lived about two-thirds of my life in California, I still relate to the world through a New Yorker's lens, always searching for the fastest route, the shortest line, the way to keep moving, even when I'm not in a rush and have plenty of time. I also love malicious commentary
- [Translation](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/translation) - The NY Times Book review this Sunday quoted from "Pebble," a poem by the Polish poet, Zbigniew Herbert. Here is the poem in full: Pebble The pebble is a perfect creature equal to itself mindful of its limits filled exactly with a pebbly meaning with a scent that does not remind one of anything does not frighten
- [Gone Camping...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/gone-camping) - Back next week
- [Ignoring the news](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ignoring-the-news) - I was wondering this morning whether if each insane massacre was basically ignored by the media, if it received the most minimal coverage possible on page 18 of the paper, would that remove a big incentive? Isn't the publicity a huge part of it? In any case, this poem has nothing to do with anything except
- [Batter up](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/batter-up) - You may remember I mentioned the Poetry World Series, an annual event at the Mill Valley Library. This event, organized by Becky Foust and Melissa Stein (below), combines poetry with the structure of a baseball game. There are two teams of three poets each, an emcee, and judges. This is inning eight, the gracious and funny Matthew
- [Innocents and Others](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/innocents-and-others) - The other day at the library, the librarian came up to me and said, "I notice you're a voracious reader, and I want to tell you about a new feature here at the library, called Your Lucky Day." This is a set of contemporary best sellers, set on a special shelf. Each patron is allowed
- [Yeats](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/yeats) - Having just filled out my absentee ballot for the California Primary, I can't stop thinking about this poem, especially the first stanza. This was written during the first world war, but seems so relevant today. Certainly the worst are full of passionate intensity. And the feeling of things falling apart is very present.
- [Heartless?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/heartless) - Wallace Stevens is hard to miss in the landscape of contemporary American poets. He's famous for his intricate, fanciful poems, as well as for the fact that he worked throughout his career as an insurance executive. He can seem dry and intellectual--difficult--but worth the trouble to unravel. Two things about Stevens--apparently the other execs at Hartford Accident
- [The power of the limerick](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/the-power-of-the-limerick) - According to Larry, reading from the paper this morning, Jan Böhmerman, a German comedian, is being prosecuted for reciting a lewd poem on late night TV lampooning Tayyip Erdogan, the president of Turkey. Why? You can read about it. The event inspired British free-speech advocate Douglas Murray to host a contest with a Ł1,000 prize: "The President Erdogan Offensive
- [A miscellany](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/a-miscellany-2) - I realized that this is close to the five year anniversary of this blog. Despite typos, sloth, and various technical difficulties, I've managed to publish something at least once a week for this period. These last two weeks have been particularly busy, so I thought I'd include a few things from various categories, starting with a
- [The hornworm's summer](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-hornworms-summer) - If you've ever raised tomatoes, you're likely to have seen these guys. Usually, you first see a bunch of black detritus under your ravaged plants. They merge so perfectly into the tomato leaves, that it takes awhile to find them. Stanley Kunitz was a renowned gardener as well as a poet, and wrote a Hornworm poem
- [Favas!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/favas) - Fava beans are one of the most rewarding crops--giant beans, like the one's from Jack and the Beanstalk--go into the ground in the fall or spring. Soon they pop up tall and full of flowers. Then the many branched stems have many big seed pods. You have to pick them fast before they get too fat. Then comes
- [Spring is sprung](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/spring-is-sprung) - I was in high school when I first discovered e.e. cummings. I thought he was terrific. He is terrific, even though though his methods are no longer novel, and his work can seem a little too precious...still, it comes from a time when queer had nothing to do with sexuality, smoking was cool, and verbal playfulness was new.
- [Lavish](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/lavish) - is the only word I can think to describe this spring. Even before today's rain, the hills were Ireland green, and the flowers, spinach, and herbs have overwhelmed the Labyrinth. They look so good in their profusion, I'm just giving up on the labyrinth idea for the moment. In back, the small flower area of the
- [Managing grief](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/managing-grief) - I've been reading Paradise Drive, a book of sonnets by Becky Foust. I heard her read this one the other day--she said she had taken the words from the elegy of a woman she knew who committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. She rearranged and fractured them. The disjointed result gives a sense of
- [Mark Strand on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/mark-strand-on-monday) - Here's a poem by Mark Strand that deals with that old question of does the tree falling in the forest make a sound if no one is there to hear it--or more specifically the relation of the listener to the event itself. Man and Camel On the eve of my fortieth birthday I sat on the porch
- [Another Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-monday) - Somehow, I never posted this...so here it is, another Monday, and time for a poem. I lost Monday this week, traveling. It's odd the way you step into a sealed tube, pass hours suspended above the continent, then emerge on the other side. In the bookstore in the new SF airport terminal, they had (surprisingly) the
- [How does your garden grow?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/how-does-your-garden-grow) - With the recent rains, I've been working a bit most days in the garden, weeding, mulching pruning, planting. The chickens love the weeds, and the garden loves the attention. Favas, blueberries, lots of green: Remember those paper bags of asparagus I planted in the wet dirt? Here are a few little tips poking up:
- [For an election year](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/for-an-election-year) - Just got back from a week in Hawaii--a vacation spot that's NOT overrated--that luscious warm ocean. It was a week without news for me, such a luxury. Now the papers blare again each morning. Here's a poem from another vacation, another election year. I love the turn it takes at the end. Poem for Adlai Stevenson and
- [A very small vitamin](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-very-small-vitamin) - I have been reading Italo Calvino on "lightness" in writing. How about this for an example? Ars Poetica the way a fox steps into one side of your headlights and carrying his tail (like a pen running out of ink) slips out the other-- James Baker Hall
- [A garden solution](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/a-garden-solution) - Because of the beautiful, day-after-day, much needed rain, I had a gardening problem. My bare root asparagus arrived in the mail, and it was too wet to plant. I came up with the idea of planting the 10 roots in individual brown paper bags. I set up a doubled lunch bag, filled it with dirt, and gave
- [Cavafy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/cavafy) - Poetry has the ability to transcend time, as this short lyric by Constantine Cavafy, a Greek poet who died in 1938. Walls Without consideration,without pity, without shame, they have built big and high walls around me. And now I sit here despairing. I think of nothing else: this fate gnaws at my mind; for I
- [Combo](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/combo) - I want to post a few photos from my New York trip. The first two are from the Fischli and Weiss exhibit at the Guggenheim I posted about last week. A photo of their credo, "How to Work Better," and a clay sculpture of a pig and a book entitled, "The Reader" from their Inventory of
- [A very different grandmother from me](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-very-different-grandmother-from-me) - In this loving, quirky tribute, my favorite line is "she believed in heaven / as I beleive in wing nuts." An incidental report on my grandmother’s divinity My grandmother had fourteen children, 56 grandchildren, 57 great and one great-great and a packet of coffee in her coffin and a love for the church that anyway had
- [Fischli and Weiss](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/fischli-and-weiss) - The Guggenheim Museum is showing the work of two collaborators, Peter Fischli and David Weiss. The highlight of the show for me is a 30-minute video, The Way Things Go, of a series of objects interacting in an extended chain reaction, one object moving in a way that propels the next. But unlike most assemblages
- [Another Insane Devotion](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-insane-devotion) - At the beginning of a book by the same name that I haven't read, I found this poem by Gerald Stern, now in his nineties. He came and read to a full house last year in the Bay Area: Another Insane Devotion This was gruesome—fighting over a ham sandwich with one of the tiny cats
- [Two points of view](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/two-points-of-view) - This week, I have read two passages with very opposing points of view. The first from a book by Claudia Rankine, called Citizen. Here's a fairly typical excerpt: "You are in the dark, in the car, watching the black-tarred street being swallowed by speed; he tells you his dean is making him hire a person of
- [Who?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/who) - At a craft talk at Squaw Valley one year, Bob Hass said something like this: No one can say whose work will last. Alfred Lord Tennyson was the most famous poet of his day. But who reads him now? The important thing is to wrestle with our own demons, to get that struggle into our
- [Apolitical](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/apolitical) - I've never been very engaged in the political process--probably because my introduction was going with my mother to rallies for Adlai Stevenson. But I've never been quite as depressed by the process as this year. Really? This is who people are voting for? Larry summed it up perfectly, "The biggest problem the next president will
- [Ada Limón](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ada-limon) - I first heard Ada Limón read at San Francisco Litquake's World Series of Poetry. I found her work alive and intriguing. Here's sample from her latest book: The Last Move It was only months when I felt like I had been washing the dishes forever. Hardwood planks under the feet, a cord to the sky. What is
- [Morning reading](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/morning-reading) - I set aside David Lipsky's review of Nabokov's Letters to Vera in Harper's to read this morning, and was rewarded by a truly elegant piece of work. Lipsky doesn't just review the letters, he provides a succinct and literate overview of Nabokov's life, his work, his long marriage. "No marriage of a major twentieth-century writer lasted longer," he
- [Bob and Ray](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/bob-and-ray) - Back in the days of radio, the comedy team of Bob and Ray provided hours of low-key comedy. Ray Goulding has been gone for some time, but Bob Elliott's obituary just appeared in the NY Times this morning. It noted that the team was famous for: debunking gasbags, political airheads, no-talent entrepreneurs and Madison Avenue
- [Two poems about birdsong](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/two-poems-about-birdsong) - The first, in sonnet form, by Robert Frost, published in 1942. The second a more contemporary song by Troy Jollimore. Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same He would declare and could himself believe That the birds there in all the garden round From having heard the daylong voice of Eve Had added to their
- [The British first](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/the-british-first) - Looking at my post yesterday about Robert Lowell's book, Imitations, I commented that the first edition of that book was for sale for $35. Larry looked at the picture and said, "That must be the British first edition." I checked the source, and it was. "How did you know that?" I wanted to know. Larry
- [Books that change your life](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/books-that-change-your-life) - I've been reading some essays by C.K. Williams (who wrote last week's poem). In one essay he talks about reading a book by Robert Lowell, Imitations, which broke open a new way of thinking about poetry. Imitations was influential and controversial. Lowell took poems in other languages and rather than translate them, he created his
- [C. K. Williams](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/c-k-williams) - C. K. Williams died last year. I hadn't read much of his work, but liked what I saw in a review of his Selected Later Poems. His lines are often long, and his poems, too. This is my favorite so far. It totally grabs me in its "syrupy upsoaring netting." At What Time on the Sabbath
- [Two quick chicken recipes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/two-quick-chicken-recipes) - Once in awhile, it seems like I take whatever is in the fridge and create something tasty. The other night it was leftover rice, a few chicken thighs, some butternut squash, mushrooms, onions, fennel, and green beans. I sautéed the onions and fennel with a little garlic and some spices, added the mushrooms and then
- [Poetry readings](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-readings) - I go to a fair number of these. Some are transcendent--moving, dynamic, inspiring. That's why I go, and go again. But all often, they go more like this: I Attend a Poetry Reading The fellow reading poetry at us wouldn’t stop. Nothing would dissuade him: not the stifling heat; the smoky walls with their illuminated
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-10) - Here are a few excerpts from the best book I read this month, The Sympathizer, by Viet Thanh Nguyen. "Massacre is obscene. Torture is obscene. Three million dead is obscene. Masturbation, even with an admittedly nonconsensual squid? Not so much. I for one, am a person who believes that the world would be a better place
- [Best poetry book from 2015](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/best-poetry-book-from-2015) - Troy Jollimore's book, Syllabus of Errors, is my favorite new book of poems from last year. He's a serious poet, and I find his work brave and lyrical. He's also not afraid to poke fun at himself. Here's a sample: Lament No more swamp existence for you, with all its pleasures, all that rooting around in
- [Bad science and xenophobia](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/bad-science-and-xenophobia) - This morning over breakfast Larry told me he had been reading Five Thirty Eight, Nate Silver's blog, and that the whole "MSG is bad for you" story is a myth, based on flawed science. Apparently, the negative effects only occurred when subjects were told they were eating MSG, and weren't reproducible in blind tests. Meanwhile, I was reading
- [Larry Levis](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/larry-levis) - I'd forgotten how much I like this poet of California's Central Valley. He often writes of farming and of his father, a farmer of small means. I think he'd be better known, but he died at 49. Winter Stars My father once broke a man’s hand Over the exhaust pipe of a John Deere tractor.
- [Migratory](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/migratory) - Next week I'm heading to New York for the William Dickey Memorial Broadside Contest reading. Mark Doty will be the featured reader. He's a marvelous poet. Here's one of my favorites of his poems. Migratory Near evening, in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, seventeen wild geese arrowed the ashen blue over the Wal-Mart and the Blockbuster Video, and I
- [Holiday Break](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/holiday-break-2) - This will be my last post until the New Year. It's amazing to me how well the sonnet has held up as a form. An example appropriate to the darkness of the season: Noch Einmal, an Orpheus When the Queen of Darkness heard his voice, That mortal stranger, saw him lift the lyre And watched
- [Underepresented](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/underepresented) - I see I've only posted one poem by Robert Frost in the history of this blog. Today's post makes this two. He's such a master of rhyme--could anyone else rhyme honeysuckle and knuckle without it seeming contrived? He lived so long, it's surprising to remember he was born in 1874. We always see the white-haired Frost--the one
- [Cream Legbars](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/cream-legbars) - This year I got my first Cream Legbar chickens. I have four. They are curious, friendly, and lay turquoise eggs. On top of that, they have adorable little feathery topknots. Definitely my favorite chickens of the moment.
- [Airport poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/airport-poems) - As many of us will be on planes during this season, I thought I'd include two poems about airports, each named for the gate where it was inspired. Next time your flight is delayed, you can bring this up and pass a little time. Gate C22 At gate C22 in the Portland airport a man
- [Best Beans](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/best-beans) - Instead of a vision of sugarplums, how about a simple, inexpensive and wonderful meal that lasts for days. I set myself the challenge of making a pot of vegetarian beans that taste as good as ones cooked with a ham hock. First I made a rich vegetable stock: two whole ears of corn (chopped), turnip, rutabaga, golden
- [Larry likes this better](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/larry-likes-this-better) - Apparently, Larry hated yesterday's poem. So I thought I'd post this little anecdote he told me to balance the scales. It's about Steve Wynn, a big investor in casinos in the US, Macao and Hong Kong--a casino magnate in fact. He was asked in an interview how he got into the casino business. His answer
- [Sweetcakes, you are my kind of god](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/sweetcakes-you-are-my-kind-of-god) - God Says Yes to Me I asked God if it was okay to be xxxmelodramatic and she said yes I asked her if it was okay to be short and she said it sure is I asked her if I could wear nail polish or not wear nail polish and she said honey she calls
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/an-exemplary-sentence-7) - I've been reading The Blazing World, by Siri Hustvedt. I knew nothing about her, it was just a book that appeared on my list somehow. The novel is an intricate construction--written as if a study by a PhD researching Harriet (Harry) Burden, a fictional artist who has not been successful. The overlooked wife of an art dealer, she is passionate
- [Some thoughts on racism](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/some-thoughts-on-racism) - I came up against my unacknowledged biases twice in the last month, first in the audience at an LGBT event. Seeing how everyone else was dressed--a kind of kinky extreme fashion--and how I was dressed--skirt, sweater, sandals--I felt slightly out of place. It made me realize how awkward it must feel to be differently attired in a
- [An occasional poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/an-occasional-poem) - I wasn't looking specifically for a Thanksgiving poem, and this one might not be to everyone's taste, but I like its realism--the confusion of emotions amid the celebration: The Feast The lovers loitered on the deck talking, the men who were with men and the men who were with new women, a little shrill and
- [A short poem about loss](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-short-poem-about-loss) - Your Clothes Of course they are empty shells, without hope of animation. Of course they are artifacts. Even if my sister and I should wear some, or if we give others away, they will always be your clothes without you, as we will always be your daughters without you. Judith Kroll
- [One antidote to terrorism: humor](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/one-antidote-to-terrorism-humor) - My friend Tung and I ofter call ourselves "colander heads," as in "my brain is a sieve." Here's a woman who has taken colander headism one step further. You can read the article here (of course Larry found it), or in case it's gone, see below: "Massachusetts woman wins fight to wear colander in drivers license by citing
- [A little more on Creeley](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/a-little-more-on-creeley) - Last night Larry said he had forgotten Creeley's rain poem, and how much he loved it. I was surprised, because Larry has often said he thought Creeley was mostly a faker. "Well," he explained, "The early work was great. But then he just kept writing. And the cult of Creeley was obnoxious. One of his
- [Rain](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/rain) - This is our first real rainy day this year.How delicious to be inside, watching the earth soak up, at last, some moisture. In its honor, two rain poems. And also the rain room at LACMA. Rain Effect A bride and a groom sitting in an open buggy in the rain, holding hands but not looking at each other,
- [Merwin on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/merwin-on-monday) - The NY Times Magazine has started printing a poem each week. In case you missed this one, it's the best of the series so far: After the Voices Youth is gone from the place where I was young even the language that I heard here once its cadences that went on echoing a youth forgotten
- [Haiku by whom?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/haiku-by-whom) - Recently, there was a literary scandal when a poem by Yi Fen Chu, chosen for inclusion in Best American Poetry 2015, turned out to be written by Michael Hudson, who said the poem had been rejected 40 times when submitted under his own name; he then got the idea of the Yi Fen Chu alias. Under that name, Prairie Schooner
- [Reading to each other](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/reading-to-each-other) - Since we were first together, Larry and I have read to each other--over breakfast, while making dinner, or just when something good struck the eye. This morning, we were both reading different articles by Peggy Noonan. I read him this, from her article about learning her craft in the Wall Street Journal: "In 1980, the
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/then-exemplary-sentence) - Georges Simenon is known better for his Inspector Maigret novels than his darker, more literary "romans durs." The latter present a bleak, existential universe without much pleasure. But the short who-done-its are restful to read. The world is orderly, and Maigret is in charge. The best thing about them, aside from the brooding, intuitive Maigret,
- [Not exactly a poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/not-exactly-a-poem) - But when I was thinking about what poem to post today, I remembered this as a poem and went searching for it: Mine is a most peaceable disposition. My wishes are: a humble cottage with a thatched roof, but a good bed, good food, the freshest milk and butter, flowers before my window, and a
- [Dorothy Parker](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/dorothy-parker) - She was famous for her wit, and her boss at the New Yorker, Harold Ross, was famous for his penury. Larry read me a quip Parker made when Ross was berating her because one of her assignments was late: "I'm sorry," Parker said, "But someone else was using the pencil."
- [Fall garden](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/fall-garden) - Because of the drought, I didn't plant a summer garden, but everyone's predicting massive rains this winter, so I turned on the irrigation and started seeds in flats. I use old plant holders or egg cartons, or anything that holds dirt. I set them in something that retains the water and keep them wet. I started
- [Verde que te quiero verde](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/verde-que-te-quiero-verde) - The first poet I read in translation who captured my imagination was Federico García Lorca (his full name is Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca, or Federico Sacred Heart of Jesus García Lorca!). I knew nothing about Franco, the Falangists, the Guardia Civil, or the Spanish Civil War, and less about surrealism in poetry. Perhaps I knew
- [Phil Woods](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/phil-woods) - It seems to me I first heard of Phil Woods while in college. Now he's gone, and Larry read me portions of his obituary over breakfast yesterday. According to Larry, who has seen him in person, he was a great story teller. A story Larry told me was that Phil was playing his first paid gig
- [Tomatoes, tomatoes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/tomatoes-tomatoes) - Romas, Early Girls, Heirlooms, they're all at their peak. When I see them glistening in their red and orange and gold skins, I can't resist them! I spent a whole day elbow deep in roasting, saucing, canning about 40 pounds of tomatoes, a lug of Romas, and about 8 pounds each of Early Girls and Heirlooms. I
- [From the past](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-the-past) - Reading through old letters I found that in 1968 I went to a reading and was impressed by the poems of Sidney Goldfarb, who was also at Harvard then and probably looked like this. I requested a book of his from storage at UC Berkeley to see what I thought was a good poem when I
- [A bushel of blackberry poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-bushel-of-blackberry-poems) - Even though I have been unsuccessful in my efforts to find and pick enough blackberries for jam, or even a pie, I have gathered five of my favorite blackberry poems, each somewhat characteristic of its author. First is Sylvia Plath, whose vision of blackberries is personal--a blood sisterhood, dark, menacing full of hooks: Blackberrying Nobody
- [Who designed that sign?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/who-designed-that-sign) - While I was gone, Larry saved a couple of obituaries for me. My favorite was for a man I'd never heard of, Adrian Frutiger. If you've ever followed an airport sign at JFK or Charles deGaulle Airports, used the Paris Metro or the London Underground, you've seen his exceptionally readable Univers or Frutiger fonts. Born in Switzerland,
- [Making apple cider](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/making-apple-cider) - This weekend I picked apples and made cider with my granddaughter, and then found this poem, a little darker than our thoughts, which were full of the fun of the process and the delicious sweetness of the fresh cider.
- [From the 16th century](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/from-the-16th-century) - In these late summer, early fall days when it hasn't rained for months, this old verse often sings in my mind: O western wind when wilt thou blow That the small rain down can rain? Christ that my love were in my arms And I in my bed again. Yesterday, we had a few tantalizing drops,
- [Out in the world](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/out-in-the-world) - Today I decided to try a new Vietnamese restaurant for lunch. It just happened to be on my route. I had one of the wonderful Vietnamese egg pancakes full of shrimp and bean sprouts on which you pile lettuce and basil and other wonderful things. My Thai Ice Tea came with a little umbrella and
- [In for a Pound](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/in-for-a-pound) - I have never posted a poem by Ezra Pound here, though he is an important figure in American poetry with a life and an impact too complex to report here. You can look him up. Here's a little taste: And the days are not full enough And the days are not full enough And the
- [Net zero](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/net-zero) - A friend told me that she has a net zero policy when it comes to clothing purchases--for every new thing she buys, something must go: net zero. In my case, this has turned out to be pretty easy to follow. I buy most of my clothes at thrift stores because I hate spending money on clothes
- [All Star Larry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/all-star-larry) - Last week was a big week for Larry in his softball career in the Creaker league. He was inducted into the Creaker Hall of Fame (based on his contributions to the organization), and he was named to the 2015 All Star Team (based on ability). In his acceptance speech for the former, he noted that he'd
- [At Squaw Valley](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/at-squaw-valley) - It's the end of June, and I'm at the poetry workshop in Squaw Valley. While I hardly ever publish long poems here, I heard one tonight that just blew me away. Evie Shockley talked about how poets use time, especially the way they use it to address race and history, and her first example was
- [Rilke for Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/rilke-for-monday) - I only know Rilke's work in translation, mostly by Stephen Mitchell. Here's a sample from Sonnets to Orpheus, about the myth of Orpheus trying to rescue his lover, Eurydice from the underworld. If you don't know the story, here's a summary, and below is a snippet from the much longer poem: Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes She was no
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-9) - I don't read much non-fiction, but somehow the biography of Eduard Limonov made it onto my reading list. Limonov is a Russian celebrity full of contradictions, poet, political antihero, bum, author--an interesting guy. The book is written by a French author, Emmanuel Carrère, and translated by John Lambert. Limonov grew up lower-middle class at the end of the Stalin era,
- [Thinking about poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/thinking-about-poetry) - Sometimes I just get tired of poetry altogether and need a break. I had a period like that this month--no writiing, reading nothing that seemed worth the trouble. Then I went to see the wonderful claymation film: Shaun the Sheep Movie. It made me laugh out loud, restored my good spirits and opened me to whatever poem
- [Monday again](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-again-2) - An industrious week--pear jam, gazpacho, chicken stock, yard cleanup... the delicious tasks of summer. Though it doesn't say so, this seems like a summer poem to me. A Boat In the Forest Sixty miles from a lake, no river or pond within forty-eight, no ocean near, and this rowboat, crisply painted, oarlocks oiled, oars set
- [Thinking about stock](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/thinking-about-stock) - Yesterday, as I made stock out of my two newly butchered hens, I decided to read about stock in Serious Eats. My stock method is mostly just throw whatever scraps I have into the pot and simmer for hours. But these were special chickens--gorgeous, rich meat and fat--and I wanted to do right by them. I'd
- [The Halal butcher](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/the-halal-butcher) - As my chickens get beyond laying age, I've been giving them to my Ethiopian friend who is willing to slaughter them for fresh meat. But today I decided to try something different. I took my two oldest hens deep into industrial Oakland to the live poultry Halal butcher shop, where for $5 each, they quickly
- [Gone to seed](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/gone-to-seed) - Because of the drought, I did no planting this spring, and instead let existing things go to seed. As I result, I have my own fennel and coriander seeds from the garden, as well as lots of chicken food! But here it is, poetry Monday, and despite working all day in the garden, I need to
- [Elizabeth Bishop](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/elizabeth-bishop) - This narrative poem by Elizabeth Bishop seems so plainly written, yet I think it's pretty extraordinary. In the Waiting Room In Worcester, Massachusetts, I went with Aunt Consuelo to keep her dentist's appointment and sat and waited for her in the dentist's waiting room. It was winter. It got dark early. The waiting room was
- [Blog will return next week](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/blog-will-return-next-week)
- [Dual Mandate](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/dual-mandate) - As a graduate of the Father Guido Sarducci's 5-minute University, I was really happy that Larry introduced me to the issue of the Fed's dual mandate in a way I could understand. Greg Mankiw, a Harvard Professor of Economics, has created a video to explain the thorny problem for our Federal Reserve, initially created to
- [Monday Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-2) - Thanks to Simone who showed me this poem: Not Waving but Drowning Nobody heard him, the dead man, But still he lay moaning: I was much further out than you thought And not waving but drowning. Poor chap, he always loved larking And now he’s dead It must have been too cold for him his heart
- [Chickenomics](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/chickenomics) - Larry forwarded an article about the cost of backyard chickens today. Here's the graphic overview. The graph on top is the price of a dozen commercial eggs (not organic BTW, you'd have to at least double, and in some cases triple that number for pasture-raised organic eggs). The lower figures are pretty accurate for startup costs, though they
- [Summer food](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/summer-food) - Tomatoes and corn, sweet onions, greens, soft cheeses. That's what I'm eating these days. Here's a typical menu: Polenta with fresh corn kernels Tomato sauce Grilled fish or pulled pork Greek salad I make the tomato sauce and polenta, then serve them like this with, some protein in the middle (or not). See below for
- [The Angelina Jolie of Chickens](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/the-angelina-jolie-of-chickens) - For years my flock has consisted largely of Americana chickens, docile birds who are good layers of green or olive eggs. But this year, diversity has been the theme. I just can't seem to resist new breeds. In addition to the original Americanas, of which two remain, I have a Black Australorp and Rhode Island Red (brown
- [Another by Tony Hoagland](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-by-tony-hoagland) - Reading though poems this morning, trying to find one to post, I couldn't resist this one. He's got the jargon so perfectly. I especially like his description of "holding the fear inside/like a tipsy glass of water": And The Men want back in: all the Dougs and the Michaels, the Darnells, the Erics and Josés, they're
- [Tuvia Ruebner](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/tuvia-ruebner) - When I heard Rachel Tzvia Back speak at the Stronach lecture in May, she mentioned the poems of Tuvia Ruebner, a Slovenian born in 1924, who emigrated to Israel in 1941, escaping the holocaust in which most of his family perished. He writes in Hebrew, and Back has translated much of his work. Here are a
- [King Larry of Raffertitti](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/larry-in-the-news) - Larry's over-60 softball league, the Creakers, posts write-ups for some of the games. Here is Larry's from last week, with his well-deserved sobriquet: "The Creaker Gold erupted in the top of six ….marching players to the mat and scoring runs with nearly every hit, including a second monstrous three-run homer by King Larry of Raffertitti
- [Some sadness](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/some-sadness) - At Squaw Valley, there was a lot of remembering of Galway Kinnell, who was the director and guiding spirit of the poetry workshop for almost three decades. His kindness, encouragement, and his own work were an inspiration. Bob Hass said that he "cracked the bones of life to suck the marrow into his poetry." Here is a
- [Garden without water](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/garden-without-water) - Although I have turned off the irrigation because of the drought, I have been watering the garden with dishwater from the sink--several gallons a day. In response, things are still looking good: In the backyard, I'm using water from the shower...not as much growing, but still enough! Of course it's early in the season, but
- [Besmirl Brigham](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/besmirl-brigham) - This is to me a difficult pseudonym for Bess Miller (Moore) Brigham, a poet who opted to spell her name phonetically. instead of Bess Miller Brigham, she used the more colloquial “Besmilr” because it was closer to the way people spoke in Arkansas, where she mostly lived. I found this poem, describing what happened to a poisonous
- [Voetica](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/voetica) - Thanks to David Juda, who has added me to his roster of online poets. In addition spoken versions of the works of great poets of the past, David is assembling a library of spoken poetry by living poets, curated by the poets themselves. Here is my page. This is a labor of love by David, and
- [Dingbats and torsos](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/dingbats-and-torsos) - Perhaps you've never heard of Hermann Zapf, but you've probably seen the odd font called Zapf Dingbats. That's Hermann's name in his eponymous font. In addition to that zany computer font, Mr. Zapf designed Palatino and Optima, two of my favorite typefaces, as well as fonts in Latin, Cyrillic, Arabic and Cherokee. His design spanned the
- [A hard rain](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-hard-rain) - A friend asked me to show her a poem by Tony Hoagland that "hit it out of the park." I hope this qualifies: Hard Rain After I heard It's a Hard Rain's Gonna Fall played softly by an accordion quartet through the ceiling speakers at the Springdale Shopping Mall, then I understood: there's nothin we
- [Two great phrases](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/two-great-phrases) - Once in awhile, someone comes up with a phrase that really nails an experience with vivid exactness. This weekend, talking with a new friend about our mutual disgust with the tedious prose of Karl Ove Knausgård (the author of the biographical novels collectively titled My Struggle), she came up thigh this descriptor: Frat boy Proust, which
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-8) - I picked up a novel by John D. MacDonald, and while I don't think he's in the same class as Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammet, he wrote a lovely description of the start of a hurricane: "It began earlier, and in a timeless way. Flat sea baking under a tropic sun. Water temperature raised by the
- [Roethke for Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/roethke-for-monday) - If you've never read Theodore Roethke, you have a treat in store. He has written some of the lushest poems about gardens, dirt, and decay that you'd ever want to read, a lovely villanelle and many profound, longer poems. Today I'm posting the last two sections from "Mediations of an Old Woman," one of the long poems.
- [The Judith Lee Stronach Memorial Lecture](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-judith-lee-stronach-memorial-lecture) - Last night I attended a marvelous talk by Rachel Tzvia Back, called "'This Bequest of Wings' on Teaching Poetry in a Region of Conflict." It was one of a series of lectures sponsored by Ray Lifchez in memory of his wife Judith (more about her later). Ms. Bach ia a vivid, insightful presenter with a beautiful
- [Memorial Day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/memorial-day) - An editorial in the paper reminded me that on Memorial Day we remember those who died in the war; on Veterans Day we remember the ones who returned. In either case, not just a day added to the weekend, but a day to reflect. Here is Yeats, reflecting on the death of Lady Gregory's son, who died
- [Culling the flock](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/culling-the-flock) - As a farmer, I have to treat my hens without sentiment; when they pass their peak laying year, they have to go. This week I took the oldest hens, the beautiful Black Australorps, and gave them to my Ethiopian friend, who eats them. I've made one exception so far, the Hamburg hen we call Houdini for her ability
- [Dull subjects](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/dull-subjects) - In a humorous essay about poetry, William Matthews suggested there are only four subjects for poems: 1. I went out into the woods today, and it made me feel, you know, sort of religious. 2. We’re not getting any younger. 3. It sure is cold and lonely (a) without you, honey, or (b) with you, honey.
- [Randy Neuman](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/randy-neuman) - A few years ago, we heard Randy Neuman live at the San Francisco Opera House. Although his voice isn't what it once was, his showmanship is brilliant. When the children were small we taught them "Political Science," and it would be fun to hear their angelic voices chirping "Drop the big one now..." One story he
- [An  Elegy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/an-elegy) - A friend leant me Inventions of Farewell, A Book of Elegies, by Sandra Gilbert. This is a wonderful collection and in the introduction she references a passage on “elephant grief” from Fragments on the Deathwatch, by Louise Harmon, which in turn cites a National Geographic article about the mourning behavior of a herd of elephants after the death of an old
- [A slight departure](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-slight-departure) - I realized today that I have avoided putting older poems here--Marvell, Shakespeare, Wordsworth, for example. I've selected contemporary poems not only to avoid poems that everyone probably read in high school, but also because they seem more accessible, more alive. But today I felt like reading Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," written in the 1650s.
- [Deep Litter](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/deep-litter) - I have been raising my chickens in a large run covered in layers of various hay, straw, grass, etc. This is called the "deep litter" method, that I read about in Juliette de Baïracli Levi's Herbal Handbook for Farm & Stable, a book I referred to often when we had a real farm. Levi was one of
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-7) - I've been reading George Eliot's Daniel Deronda, or rather skimming much of it. It's long and rather overwritten, though Eliot can write! It seems to me a book that would make a wonderful period movie. The plot involves many twists, including a lenghty and interesting perspective on how Jews were seen in 1800s. One focal
- [Lobster on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lobster-on-monday) - Howard Nemerov seems almost forgotten as a poet--he died almost 25 years ago. He was not only US Poet Laureate twice, but was also the brother of Diane Arbus. This poem is fairly representative of his style. The Lobster Here at the Super Duper, in a glass tank Supplied by a rill of cold fresh water
- [Drought Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/drought-poem) - This is one of the poems I'll be reading this Saturday for the event at the North Berkeley Library, Poems of Berkeley. Details here. Gabriel and the Water Shortage When the water shortage comes along he's been waiting all his life for it, all nine years for something to need him as the water needs him
- [New kids on the block](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/new-kids-on-the-block-2) - Once you have chickens (or at least once I do), it becomes tempting to want more exotic varieties. Four years ago I started out with six Ameraucanas, the friendly, puffy cheeked hens that lay pale green or olive eggs. Now I have a wide variety, and often know which hen laid which egg by its
- [Poems of Berkeley](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poems-of-berkeley) - As part of poetry month, Susan Cohen (a fellow poet) and I are orchestrating a reading of poems about Berkeley at the North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library on the afternoon of Saturday, April 25. Gathering poems for the event, I wanted to include something by Robert Duncan, who was a romantic and powerful
- [Theft and recovery](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/theft-and-recovery) - On Tuesday, Larry went to his softball game where his team discovered that someone had used a bolt cutter to break open the equipment shed and stolen the defibrillator and first aid kit. An odd theft. The Creaker League has a defibrillator at each field, and will now have to store them in one spot, and gather them
- [The perfect poached egg](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/the-perfect-poached-egg) - I've tried many methods to poach eggs, but this one seems foolproof, from Julia Child via the NY Times: Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Have a bowl of ice water at hand. Punch a tiny hole in the end of the egg(s). Gently place the egg(s) into fully boiling water for
- [Tulips](https://www.merylnatchez.com/uncategorized/tulips) - They are filling the Sunday market here, confirming spring. I decided to look for a poem about tulips for today, and came up with this. I especially like the tulip verse: The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog To be blessed said the old woman is to live and work so
- [Irish poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/irish-poems) - The Irish Times has been running a contest to select the 100 best loved Irish poems (chosen by whomever responds, I guess). You can read the results here. Not surprisingly, Yeats, Heaney, and Kavanagh populate the top ten. But here's a poem from a poet who wasn't included, Eamon Grennan, perhaps because he's lived most of his adult life in
- [Babies](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/babies) - Do you remember the seven eggs that the silkie hen hatched? Five of those chicks turned out to be roosters! Beautiful as they were, they had to go. In their place, I got three 3-week old hens from Craigs' list. Their breed is Cuckoo Maran, a medium size chicken that lays deep brown eggs. They are in
- [A delightful reading](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-delightful-reading) - Last week I drove down to Stanford to hear Ellen Bryant Voigt read. I had heard of her, but not read much of her work. It was worth the long drive through the increasingly dense traffic of the Bay Area. The words that come to mind are vibrant authentic. Here is a poem from her new book. Unlike
- [Spring training](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/spring-training) - Larry has been waiting longingly for the baseball season to start, and today when I went in to his office to discuss breakfast, he was staring mournfully at his computer. "I can't figure out what A's games are going to be on the radio," he complained. As there was a twitter site listed for FM
- [Befriending Frankenstein](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/befriending-frankenstein) - I have been reading Tony Hoagland's newest book of essays, Twenty Poems that Could Save America (published by Graywolf Press, a wonderful imprint). In his first essay, "Je Suis ein Americano: the Genius of American Diction," he talks about the current direction of American poetry, the experimentation, the fractured language and syntax, the shifts and ruptures of
- [Ukiyo-e at the Asian Art Museum](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/ukiyo-e-at-the-asian-art-museum) - Last week, a new show of wood block prints, scrolls and artifacts from Japan's "floating world" opened at the Asian Art Museum. The wood block prints are from a collection donated to the museum by the widow of Robert Grabhorn, who first with his brother Edwin and later with Andrew Hoyem, ran Grabhorn Press, the
- [Straight to the quarter](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/straight-to-the-quarter) - Why are we bothering with pennies, nickels and dimes? For everyday use, the quarter is the only meaningful coin. And both pennies and nickels cost more to produce than they're worth! Insanity. We could keep odd amounts for electronic transactions but just STOP making any other coins and round up or down. I know all
- [Bragging](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/bragging) - Larry had a great softball game yesterday. He hit for the cycle, that means a single, double, triple and home run in one game. He caught everything playable, and had five hits and seven RBI's. This was his writeup on the Creakers' web page: "For the hard fought victory, the major domo big banger award
- [If you want to mark up a book, buy it](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/if-you-want-to-mark-up-a-book-buy-it) - As longtime readers know, I love libraries. Just now I have about six books from the UC Library, three from Berkeley and another four or five from Contra Costa. But when I opened The End of Beauty, by Jorie Graham from the UC Library, I found that a previous reader had heavily underlined, parenthesized, exclamation
- [Knucklebones](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/knucklebones) - Here's an odd little poem I came across: Astragaloi We know there must be consciousness in things, In bits of gravel pecked up by a hen To grind inside her crop, and spider silk Just as it hardens stickily in air, And even those things paralyzed in place, The wall brick, the hat peg, the
- [Sharon Olds on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/sharon-olds-on-monday) - I had forgotten this wonderful poem by Sharon Olds. Then I saw, after the rain last week, one of these big banana slugs in the garden and went to look for it. It didn't disappoint me: The Connoisseuse of Slugs When I was a connoisseuse of slugs I would part the ivy leaves, and look for
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-6) - I picked up a book of essays by Adam Zagajewski, called In Defense of Ardor, an elegant title. The title essay discusses the role of irony in modern writing, and makes a case for less of it, more engagement. It's worth reading in it's entirety if that subject interests you. But the quote today is
- [Contemporary poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/contemporary-poetry) - I went to a poetry reading at the incomparable University Press Books bookstore (support it!) this weekend, and the subject of accessibility came up. One reader, Rebecca Foust, mentioned that her mother, who never went further than high school, memorized and loved Robert Frost's poems. Though his poems, to a poet, are layered and complex, Rebecca said
- [Labyrinthine](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/labyrinths/labyrinthine-2) - Just before the rainy days, I managed to finish weeding and replanting the labyrinth for spring. Lots of spinach, sorrel, herbs, and mustard greens remain and self seed each year. And this year some blue honey wart, too. Not to mention my friend's statue. And meanwhile, this by Robert Shiller from today's paper, read to me
- [Here's that rainy day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/heres-that-rainy-day) - Finally! This song has been happily playing in my head, sung by my favorite jazz singer, Molly Holm. You can't hear a recording of her doing it, but you can hear Rosemary Clooney sing it. Meanwhile, we're in Calistoga, where we spent the night, about to take a mud bath. Ever done it? It's a
- [A morning in the room of available time](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/a-morning-in-the-room-of-available-time) - This morning, I open one of the four books on my desk, Mothers, by Rachel Zucker. I have to read it right away even though I only took it out on Wednesday, because someone at UC requested it and now it's due Friday. I drink my organic High Mountain Red Tea and read "I am
- [A Monday gift](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-monday-gift) - Gift A day so happy. Fog lifted early, I worked in the garden. Hummingbirds were stooping over honeysuckle flowers. There was no thing on earth I wanted to possess. I knew no one worth my envying him. Whatever evil I had suffered, I forgot. To think that once I was the same man did not
- [Encore](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/encore) - This morning Larry was reading about the bribery indictment of New York State Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver--the front page headline in the Times. The lead editorial was "Silver Should Step Down." Larry's comment, "He will, for a fee."
- [Lots of them out there...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/lots-of-them-out-there) - This morning at breakfast I was telling Larry about a terrific new book I just finished (more on that later). I mentioned that I had to look up five words when reading it. My favorite was: tertulia, an informal meeting of people to talk about current affairs, arts, etc. "I have a good vocabulary. It's unusual for
- [Poet, too](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poet-too) - I think of Bertolt Brecht as a playwright, mostly his collaboration with Kurt Weill and the often performed Threepenny Opera. But he was also a poet, and this poem of his made me laugh as well as think: The Buddha’s Parable of the Burning House Gautama the Buddha taught The doctrine of greed's wheel to which we are
- [Poetry, repression and fame](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/poetry-repression-and-fame) - I stumbled across a small set of chapbooks called Bloodaxe Poetry Introductions edited by Neil Astley in the UC stacks the other morning. The first one I opened had several interesting poets new to me, including a German, a Czech, and a Romanian poet. Thinking about the poetry of Eastern Europe, one has to take into
- [Update to the Great Turkey Test](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/update-to-the-great-turkey-test) - Before the New Year, I posted the results of my turkey experiments based on J. Kenji López-Alt's ideas for spatchcocking and baking stone approaches. But for my last experiment, I combined the baking stone with a method I learned from the late Marshall Harrison, owner and chef of a famed Connecticut steak house (and my cousin by marriage).
- [A short poem for Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-short-poem-for-monday) - I think of Raymond Carver almost exclusively for his short stories, but he wrote poems, too. If you haven't read his work, it's spare--I think the term minimalist was first applied to his work. "Cathedral," "What We Talk About When We Talk About Love," are two very famous ones. "One Good Thing" is one of my
- [Je ne suis pas...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/je-ne-suis-pas) - Around the world but especially in France, people have been holding up signs, Je suis Charlie Hedbo (I am Charlie Hedbo), in a show of solidarity with the cartoonists who were assassinated. Of course, this costs nothing. No one is likely to assassinate them for holding the signs. So here's my own little anti-terrorist rant... At
- [Update](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/update) - We were gone for part of the holidays, and were lucky to have an expert photographer, Evan Harrar, as a house sitter. He took some photos of the yard and chickens (as well as some stunning bridge and city photos which he will offer for sale). The garden is full of greens, potatoes, garlic, and fennel,
- [Jim Chapson](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/jim-chapson) - I have been going through files, discarding bales of no longer relevant paper, but came across this wonderful short poem by Jim Chapson that seems a good antidote to the fervor of New Year's resolutions: What Are You Doing? Tomorrow you will fall into a pit. What are you doing today To prevent this from
- [Holiday Break](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/holiday-break) - I'm going to be busy with family events through New Year's, so will be taking a break. Update on chickens, garden, poems, on my return. Here is my holiday card, beautifully designed and printed by Lis Rappoport of Littoral Press in Richmond:
- [Geodes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/geodes) - I know nothing at all about Jared Carter, except that I like this poem a friend sent me: Geodes They are useless, there is nothing To be done with them, no reason, only The finding, letting myself down holding To ironwood and the dry bristle of roots Into the creekbed, into clear water shelved Below
- [Storm hysteria](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/storm-hysteria) - It's been awhile since I posted a rant so here's a short one, just before we get to the season of good will. I can't understand why the media and the ordinary folk around are so excited about what seems to me a perfectly normal and much needed rainstorm. We used to have these all
- [How a poem can happen](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/how-a-poem-can-happen) - Here's your Monday poetry vitamin (and isn't this how you imagine an Irish poet should look!): Detail I was watching a robin fly after a finch – the smaller bird chirping with excitement, the bigger, its breast blazing, silent in light-winged earnest chase – when, out of nowhere over the chimneys and the shivering front gardens, flashes
- [In the supermarket](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/in-the-supermarket) - Even a poem for Black Friday… or part of a poem, by Agi Mishol, a Hungarian-born poet who lives in Israel and writes in Hebrew. This is the first (and I think best) part of three part poem from the Ecco Anthology of International Poetry: In the Supermarket Through the supermarket aisles I push a
- [The great turkey test](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/the-great-turkey-test) - I've been using J. Kenji-Lopez-Alt's recipes for some time now, since my son told me about the Food Lab and Serious Eats. This year, we had our holiday dinner on Saturday, but some family arrived on Wednesday. It didn't seem fair that they'd miss all the leftovers, so I decided to make a small turkey
- [Something not too soppy...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/something-not-too-soppy) - I was looking for a poem that was appropriate for thanksgiving, but not too sentimental. This one seemed to fit the bill. Te Deum Not because of victories I sing, having none, but for the common sunshine, the breeze, the largess of spring. Not for victory but for the day's work done as well as I
- [Don't worry, be happy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/dont-worry-be-happy) - When we were in St. Petersburg, we noticed that the people in the street seemed generally depressed. When we talked about this, Larry commented that there was not a lot of opportunity in Russia, "You don't see people lining up at the borders trying to get in," was how he put it. Today, Larry read an article
- [Keats](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/keats) - I rarely post poems by 19th century poets, preferring to stay with the contemporary. But in this poem by John Keats, if you simply substitute modern pronouns for "thy" and "thine" and "thou," seems to me it could have been written tomorrow. And Keats, 1795 - 1821, is just barely a 19th century poet. This poem
- [Meanwhile, back on the farm](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/meanwhile-back-on-the-farm) - Many modern hens are too refined to set on a nest of eggs and hatch chicks. The instinct to get "broody" is bred out of them, because they stop laying. Commercial farmers would rather mange egg production and incubation. But silkies are notoriously wonderful mothers. My silkie hen got broody almost a month ago, and
- [Gerald Stern](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/gerald-stern) - Gerald Stern, born in 1925, will be here reading in Albany on this Friday evening at St. Albans' Church. I've always wanted to meet him, as my family name is Stern, and he looks very much like a relative. Here's one of his poems that I particularly like: The Dancing In all these rotten shops, in all
- [The immigrant writer](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-immigrant-writer) - So many writers and artists have had to leave their country for political reasons. In his wonderful, strange novel, Love and Garbage, the Czech writer, Ivan Klima (translated by Ewald Osers) articulates the problems of exile succinctly. He is at a party at a university in the United States: "…they all turned out to be pleasant to me
- [Bad travel day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/bad-travel-day) - We had a glitch in our day getting to Prague. When we got to the airport, our scheduled flight on Czech Airlines was not on the board, and there was no representative at the Czech Airlines office. Apparently, the flight no longer existed. Fortunately, our travel agent was able to rebook us through Moscow, but
- [Galway Kinnell](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/galway-kinnell) - If you are lucky in your life, you have a chance to meet a larger-than-life spirit, one whose presence becomes an ongoing inspiration. Galway Kinnell was that for me. I met him at a time in my life when I was consumed by work and family and hadn't written a poem in years. It was
- [Snail, snail glister me forward](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/snail-snail-glister-me-forward) - Does this line from Roethke's "Lost Son" make you want to spend some time with his work? Here’s your chance. As a teenager I was thoroughly seduced by Theodore Roethke’s work, and still love it. As Galway Kinnell put it: “I suppose what I like most in Roethke is particularly that interest he had in
- [Cornelius Eady](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/cornelius-eady) - I took a workshop one day from Cornelius Eady at Squaw Valley. It was my favorite session of the week, almost at the end, everyone exhausted, hardly a poem to be found in any of us. Cornelius, upbeat, made it all work. Here's a poem of his from his book of the same name: Hardheaded Weather
- [Secular Love](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/secular-love) - If you've heard of Michael Ondaatje, it's probably as the author of The English Patient, which was made into the movie (lampooned by Elaine on Seinfeld). But Ondaatje is that rare author who writes equally well in multiple formats. His memoir, Running in the Family, is a terrific book about growing up in Sri Lanka (the
- [A taste of freedom](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/a-taste-of-freedom) - When I saw signs for Burger King, Subway, KFC, McDonald's in Russia I thought about how we export the worst of our culture--it contaminates everything. But when I was in St. Petersburg, I read an article by Mitya Kushelevich in the St. Petersburg Times, reprinted from The Calvert Journal. It gave me a different perspective. He was writing about
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem-3) - I've been thinking about this little syllabic by Sylvia Plath, a riddle of nine lines, each with nine syllables: Metaphors I'm a riddle in nine syllables, An elephant, a ponderous house, A melon strolling on two tendrils. O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers! This loaf's big with its yeasty rising. Money's new-minted in this fat
- [Final trip post](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/final-trip-post) - We are actually safely home, but I do have a few last thoughts on our trip, in no particular order I loved the big car-free squares and pedestrian walkways of Prague and Krakow. I wish we did something similar here--it makes the city so much more inviting. Combined with excellent public transit, it goes a long
- [A grim visit](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/a-grim-visit) - Over 500,000 people a year visit Auschwitz-Birkenau, really one big camp separated by two miles of road. It's hard to say anything about this experience--it seems like science fiction, even though you are walking through it. The question that occurs over and over is "How could it happen?" and "Could it happen again?" You think, inhuman,
- [A miscellany](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/a-miscellany) - Today is our last morning in Eastern Europe, but I have several days worth of posts to continue. This one, our day in Kazimierz, the old Jewish section of Krakow. This area seems very lively and energized, with youth hostels competing with museums and ancient synagogues, There is a square with dozens of restaurants stretching
- [Polish poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/polish-poetry) - I've been reading through the luminous translations Mira Rosenthal has done of the work of Tomasz Różycki, a contemporary Polish poet. It's a delight to read them here in Krakow, where they take on an additional resonance, although Różycki is from Opole, northeast of Krakow. This poem, dedicated to one of the most famous Polish poets, Czesław Miłosz,
- [Not typical tourism](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/not-typical-tourism) - A hazy morning. We walked along the Vistula--aren't all great cities by water?--past the old Jewish section of town, Kazimerz, to the museum that's been created in the former location of the Schindler factory. The river was lovely, the walk pleasant. On the way, we saw a mural on an abandoned building. The museum has
- [Sights](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/sights) - The first thing we do in each new city is get a little tourist map from the hotel that gives a basic outline of the city and lists the main sights. I thought about this wandering around Krakow yesterday, so many of us with our little maps, exploring. It made me think about what would be
- [and a little of the unusual](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/and-a-little-of-the-unusual) - Of course, one of the real pleasures of travel is seeing the strange and unusual--in Prague, the Dancing House by Frank Ghery, and the views inside and out is a prime example: Inside is an exhibit of glass sculpture, the Fred and Ginger restaurant with its titling chandelier, and great views. Across the river, some
- [Master of the ordinary](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/master-of-the-ordinary) - We met up with friends here for a few days, and have been wandering a bit together. One of them at lunch said that he was the "master of the ordinary," because of his appreciation of street life. I know what he means--a certain delight in the everyday just because it's a little different than
- [A cage went in search of a bird](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/a-cage-went-in-search-of-a-bird) - Because he is the most internationally famous Czech writer (although he wrote in German), Prague has made the most of Kafka. There's a (very bad) cafe on the ground floor of the house where he was born, a Kafka map of Prague, and a fairly large exhibit of photos and manuscripts at the Kafka Museum. The
- [Richard Fremund](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/richard-fremund) - At the Kampa Museum there was a retrospective of the Czech artist, Richard Fremund. You've never heard of him? Either had we. He was born in 1928, and died in a car wreck in 1969. We liked what we saw. Here's a sample, in roughly chronological order. This one is called "Return of the Foreign
- [Street scenes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/street-scenes) - As always, it's interesting to see street life in a new city. This sign for example, from the door of the post office--better leave that gun at home, along with your dog. And if you feel like roast pork, how about a whole piglet on a spit? Maybe you'd prefer to listen to a one-man band
- [Czeck poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/czeck-poetry) - I picked up a little bilingual anthology here, and so far like Pavel Kolmačka best. He writes short, imagistic poems. Here are a couple: To forget nothing, miss nothing of this day drawing to an end. Motionless, solemn, unaware of time watching at the window falling snow. ******************************** We gazed at the city from above. The brickworks,
- [Connoisseur of Torture Museums](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/connoisseur-of-torture-museums) - Larry and I went to the Peter Paul Fortress, a former military bastion just over the Neva river from the Hermitage. Like every multi-part attraction we visited here, it wasn't possible to buy one ticket for everything. You pay to get in, and then each little area has its own ticket booth with someone in it
- [Learning and leaving](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/learning-and-leaving) - When you travel, it always seems you're just getting familiar with how things work when you're off somewhere else, to start the learning curve all over. By now we're comfortable with St. Petersburg, know how to get places, how to convert rubles to dollars. We have mastered the amazingly deep (86 meters at its deepest station) and
- [Russian poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/russian-poem) - Anna Akhmatova never left Russia, although she had a difficult life here--persecuted, unpublished, her family and friends always at risk. Here's an Akhmatova poem that seems to me to speak to her choice to stay. We saw this painting of her today, by Isaac Levitan, at the Russian Museum. Lot's Wife And God’s luminous messenger, larger
- [Akhmatova museum](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/akhmatova-museum) - One of the most moving visits for me in St. Petersburg was the trip to the Akhmatova Museum. For many years Akhmatova lived in rooms assigned to her in the former Sheremetev Palace, which was collectivized after the revolution and made into apartments. During this time, her son and second husband both endured varying prison sentences
- [Literary St. Petersburg](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/literary-st-petersburg) - St. Petersburg is very conscious of the great writers who lived here. Whether or not they were persecuted, exiled, died (and mostly lived) in the most abject poverty, once their reputation is established and a few decades have past, they do their best to show them off. Nabokov had a most bourgeois childhood, growing up in
- [Bourgeois Individuality](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/bourgeois-individuality) - It's impossible here in Russia not to acknowledge my bourgeois background. This morning, a rainy one, I lingered happily over my luxurious breakfast in a lovely room. The rain splattered outside, inside white table cloths, linen napkins, friendly waitresses willing to let me practice my few remaining Russian phrases, happy to fetch me a a poached
- [Caviar for breakfast](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/caviar-for-breakfast) - At the hotel breakfast buffet, there is the standard fruit, bread, muffins, croissants, cereal that you would get in the US. But along with these are various types of smoked fish, and an iced pyramid with a bowl of caviar nestled at the top. Of course I had some, no need to ask. Our hotel
- [Thoughts on travel](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/travel/thoughts-on-travel) - We got on BART on a perfect sunny Wednesday afternoon in Berkeley, heading for the San Francisco airport and about 17 hours of flight + layover to get to St. Petersburg. I wondered just why we do this, leave one of the most beautiful, temperate, pleasant spots on earth to spend thousands of dollars to go
- [Why I don't write political poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/why-i-dont-write-political-poems) - We're heading to Russia and Eastern Europe in a few days, so I've been rereading the wonderful Polish poet, Wisława Szymborska. Here's a poem of hers that expresses an idea I've had about political poetry perfectly. I believe the conference table she's referring to is the one from the Paris Peace Talks, which were designed to
- [The Wellbeing Project](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/the-wellbeing-project) - If you live in Santa Monica, the city cares whether you are thriving. So they formed the Wellbeing project, and sent out surveys to see how you're doing. They are compiling a Wellbeing index. Their website can explain it to you: www.smgov.net/Wellbeing. Is it charming or scary?
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-11) - Here's a lovely little Billy Collins poem--no smart-ass irony, not much self in it at all, just a lovely image, well rendered: Elk River Falls is where the Elk River falls from a rocky and considerable height, turning pale with trepidation at the lip (it seemed from where I stood below) before it is unbuckled
- [Degrees of green](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/degrees-of-green) - I was feeling pretty ecologically minded the other day--big garden, compost, chickens, solar panels on the house, and a new-to-me pre-owned (there's an adjective for you!) electric Nissan Leaf, just purchased. You plug it in. No gas. Zero emissions--a new way to think about driving. I had to get educated. But then I went to
- [Late, but still Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/late-but-still-monday) - Louise Glück is a poet whose works seems to evolve with each new book. This poem is one of my favorites: Cottonmouth Country Fish bones walked the waves off Hatteras. And there were other signs That Death wooed us, by water, wooed us By land: among the pines An uncurled cottonmouth that rolled on moss Reared in
- [A day late again](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-day-late-2) - Sorry to be late with your Monday poetry vitamin! I was trying yesterday to find a poem by Larry Levis to publish here, but most of his poems are very long and I couldn't find one I really loved. So here is an old favorite by Naomi Shihab Nye that you may know. You can
- [A bad farmer](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/a-bad-farmer) - This week, I decided that the two young Polish roosters had to go. I really can't have three roosters. Cloud, my Americana rooster is a gentleman and protects his hens. I didn't feel good about sending him to the stewpot, so the young ones had to go. I waited till evening, then boxed them up
- [Levertov on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/levertov-again) - Denise Levertov's son went to my high school--he was a year younger than I, and I remember Denise Levertov coming to speak at some event--a graduation? a festival? and being impressed by her air of brooding inaccessibility. This seems to me how she looked then. That's when I first read O Taste and See, still one of
- [The mysterious Yacón, footsteps on the roof](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/the-mysterious-yacon-footsteps-on-the-roof) - My neighbor and I have gotten to be friends, bonding over our love of chickens. George is an avid gardener and I have been trading him eggs for various plants. The most recent is this Peruvian tuber, called a Yacón (or Yacun). As you can see (using the spoon for scale), the tubers grow very
- [In search of an almond croissant](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/in-search-of-an-almond-croissant) - We've been in Paris for almost a week seeing extended family, drinking cafés crèmes and looking at the amazing art. I mentioned to my cousin yesterday that the last time I was in Paris, almond croissants were everywhere, but this time I'd yet to find one. That evening I finally came across some at the
- [Family photos](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/family-photos) - Sometimes I think that garden photos are about as boring as photos of someone else's unknown family members on vacation, but this month, I can't resist. Everything is just so lush: [slideshow_deploy id='1532'] And I made my first dinner completely from the garden last night: Fava, parsnip, onion, garlic and tatsoi stir fry. Yum!
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-5) - Tony Hoagland wrote an article about teaching poetry in school, or rather about the need to change how we teach poetry in school, called Twenty Little Poems That Could Save America. His idea is that poetry as a living part of the curriculum could become part of the daily fabric of thinking and decision making. Here's
- [Off for the holiday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/off-for-the-holiday) - Happy Holidaze...
- [More about poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/more-about-poetry) - Having lunch with my daughter yesterday, we were talking about a poetry workshop at the 92nd St. Y. "It's weird," my daughter said, "Nobody seems to want to read poetry, but everyone seems to want to write it." This is an odd fact, and certainly rang true. The workshop last night with Mark Ford, was
- [Interrobang & octothorpe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/interrobang-octothorpe) - Perhaps typography doesn't interest you, but my associations with letter press printers, those odd creatures who print by taking the individual letters and putting them together into rows of type, running ink over them and creating art, has led me to enjoy and respect typographic oddities. Which brings me to the interrobang. You can find
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-5) - I am lucky to have read three excellent books in a row, Monsieur Monde Vanishes, by Georges Simenon in a new translation by Jean Stewart, My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (translated by Ann Goldstein), and The Other Language, a book of stories by Francesca Marciano. The stories in the The Other Language are sharply observed vignettes
- [Still here](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/still-here) - I know I've been neglecting posts about the urban farm. This time of year is really demanding--I've been spending a good part of each day with the garden and chickens. The silkies have grown into puffballs, the Polish hens have both turned out to be roosters, the plants are yielding lots of produce and everything
- [For my acupuncturist friend](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/for-my-acupuncturist-friend) - Chinese Foot Chart Every part of us alerts another part. Press a spot in the tender arch and feel the scalp twitch. We are no match for ourselves but our own release. Each touch uncatches some remote lock. Look, boats of mercy embark from our heart at the oddest knock. Kay Ryan
- [Back from camping](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/back-from-camping) - Making the coffee this morning, Larry picked up my new Dean Young book and said, "You know, reading a poem takes just about the right amount of time to brew a cup of coffee." I responded that our daughter recently told me that People Magazine is designed so that the articles are can be read "in the
- [A Brief History of Happiness](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-brief-history-of-happiness) - Today, we're leaving for camping, so I'm posting Monday's poem early. This is from a book called The Mansion of Happiness, by Robin Ekiss. There are many intriguing poems in the book, but here's one I particularly like: A Brief History of Happiness In the beginning, there was nothing-- xxxx or rather, nowhere else to start.
- [For my brilliant friend](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/for-my-brilliant-friend) - This weekend I was lucky to work with two brilliant poets, and in our conversation I referred to this poem by Marie Howe. I couldn't remember the title, and I had just lent my copy of What the Living Do to another poet friend (I've posted the title poem before). But today I was visiting
- [That man can write!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/that-man-can-write) - Larry read me an article by John le Carré in the NY Times Suday about Philip Semour Hoffman in the film "A Most Wanted Man," a remembrance more than an obituary. It was beautifully written. Here are a few excerpts: "Philip took vivid stock of everything, all the time. It was painful and exhausting work, and probably
- [Houdini](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/houdini) - My Hamburg hen, Houdini, gets out daily to lay her egg in the garden. I've checked all the places I think she could get out, and blocked them, yet she still manages to get out. This morning, watching her stroll around the garden, Larry said, "Harry Houdini said he could get
- [From another time](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/from-another-time) - I've been taking an free online poetry course from the Iowa Writer's workshop. I like parts of it, and because it's at my own discretion I can ignore the the parts I don't like. One of the speakers was talking about images. Poets hardly ever use bare similes anymore (my love is like a red, red rose), more
- [Zombie spacecraft and geeks](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/2016) - Larry read me a full article yesterday from the NY Times about a bunch of space enthusiasts who are attempting to contact and reawaken a spacecraft abandoned by NASA 17 years ago. The International Sun-Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3) was launched in 1978 and used to measure solar wind. NASA "retired" this ship in 1997, and just left it
- [Jamaal May](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/jamaal-may) - I have been reading, Hum, Jamaal May's intriguing book of poems, and finding what he does with language very inspiring. He's a great performer, too, you can hear him recite on Youtube. I think this poem works best if you don't try to make too much sense of it as it goes along; just take
- [To order or not to order... ](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/to-order-or-not-to-order) - What is seductive about Amazon, is that they have made it so very easy to order from them. From the beginning, they took the lead in smart, user friendly customer interface design. Free shipping? No problem, you and your whole family can have that for less than $100 a year. Arcane products? They carry almost everything. No
- [Monday again](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-again) - This past week was the week of the poetry workshop at Squaw Valley, and here at my house, a poetry weekend following that format. It was a wonderful weekend. I'm sure I'll be posting something from the weekend soon--the work was exhilarating. Meanwhile, here's a poem from a poet who has been part of the staff
- [And in keeping with "New Music"...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/and-in-keeping-with-new-music) - Today's poem is by John Cage, who certainly would have appreciated the Solstice event at Chapel of the Chimes, and who has captured the essence of the creative process in this little poem: When you start working Everybody is in your studio The Past, Your friends, Enemies, The Art World, And above all, your own ideas—
- [Solstice again](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/solstice-again) - Two years ago, I wrote about the annual Solstice celebration at Julia Morgan's Chapel of the Chimes (aka Garden of Memory), a columbarium in Oakland. I went again this year, to hear the many permutations of New Music. From Steve Kent's didgerridoo to a little pingpong ball on an antenna connected
- [Are all professions deceptive?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/are-all-professions-deceptive) - This morning Larry read me exerts form the obituary of Julian Koenig, who had a stellar career in advertising. You may have heard his daughter interview him on This American Life. Mr. Koenig came up with the famous "Think Small" campaign that introduced the VW bug and was key to changing the way Americans think
- [Callista, Zeeko, and Burma Shave](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/callista-zeeko-and-burma-shave) - I keep politics off these pages, but this morning over the Sunday Times, Larry said: "I don't usually read the Style section, but I have to find out what Callista's hair style means." Apparently, it means that she is more interested in control than beauty. I was intrigued, because I can't remember Larry's ever opening
- [Lagniappe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lagniappe) - And here, in answer to Simone's request, and as a bonus for poetry Monday, a video of my reading as part of the Marin County Poetry Center's Traveling Show (don't worry, camera work improves as it goes along).
- [Monday poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-poem) - Gail Entrekin edits an online poetry journal called Canary that focuses on poets' "engagement with the natural world." If you like the poems I post, I'm sure you'll enjoy reading her excellent selection of work. Here is a poem of Gail's. I like its fearless exploration of aging, its unapologetic ambivalence, and especially the ending: Before Making Love
- [Gadgets, writing, and domestic tranquility](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/gadgets-writing-and-domestic-tranquility) - I am a sucker for kitchen gadgets--for me the Williams Sonoma or Chef's Catalog is a kind of kitchen porn. Many of them aren't worth the trouble, but I have two onion gadgets that really work: the onion keeper and the onion dicer. The onion keeper I picked up one day in the supermarket. It's
- [Brenda Hillman on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/brenda-hillman-on-monday) - Brenda Hillman, who so generously allowed me to audit her class last fall, has just won the Griffin Poetry Prize, a very big deal in the poetry world, for her most recent book, Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire. (Her photo here was taken by Brett Hall Jones, who manages the Squaw Valley Community of
- [Spring cleaning](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/spring-cleaning) - Going through old files on my computer, trying to organize--organization, or the Platonic ideal of it, always just outside my grasp. The process is extraordinarily time consuming, good work for foggy mornings. In the process, I found this poem of Jack Gilbert's I copied two years ago. It beautifully articulates a world view I share, except for the "what
- [Taking a break](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/taking-a-break) - As I do every summer, I'm going camping. Here's one more poem by Jack Gilbert for the poetry crowd. I Imagine the Gods I imagine the gods saying, We will make it up to you. We will give you three wishes, they say. Let me see the squirrels again, I tell them. Let me eat
- [Our guvmint](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/our-guvmint) - Some of you may remember that my New Year's resolution was to read the Constitution. It's surprisingly short and powerful. Thinking about a handful of men sitting down and conceiving a government it is awe-inspiring. What's surprising is how few powers it gave to the newly envisioned federal government, basically the power to coin and regulate money, provide
- [The power behind the Stones](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/the-power-behind-the-stones) - An influential guy you probably never heard of, Prince Rupert zu Lowenstein, had an obituary in the Times on Friday. He was born a Bavarian aristocrat (where is Bavaria anyway? does it still exist?) and left Paris on the last plane to London before the Nazis invaded, studied history at Oxford, became a financier and later the
- [Tung-Hui Hu](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/tung-hui-hu) - I was reading through the Copper Canyon Reader to try to find a poem for today. This was the one I liked best, an odd, off-beat love poem: Empire of the Senses Love, the back of your mouth is delicate as mushrooms, caves, or even moths that come out at night after painting sugar on
- [Różewicz](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/rosewicz) - We used to have a slim Penguin paperback, Five Polish Poets, in which I first read Tadeusz Różewicz. He was 18 at the start of World War II, and with his older brother, joined the Polish resistance. His brother was captured, tortured and killed by the Gestapo, but Tadeusz survived. After the war, he published his
- [The odd job](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/the-odd-job) - When my youngest child started kindergarten, I began looking for a part-time job and soon started working in Oakland as a secretary for a retired businessman. Mr. Henry Bigge (prounounced Biggie) had started a hauling business with his father and built it into a large crane and heavy equipment company. You can still see Bigge cranes around
- [The Creative Process Blog Tour](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/the-creative-process-blog-tour) - Thanks to Carole Craig, who passed me the torch on this interesting string of posts by writers who write blogs. I've been reading her blog and was inspired by her post. I also took a look at Darran Anderson's post (an Irish writer) and Susan Lanigan's post, all part of this intriguing meme--very different writers answering the same four questions
- [For my Mom...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/for-my-mom) - Talking Writing has published the story of my mother's death. As she always liked to "write up" here experiences, I wrote this one up for her. Here is my last photo of her, two days before she died. Gladys Natchez November 13 1915 - May 29, 1994
- [Korean Mums](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/korean-mums) - Because of Mark Ford's workshop, I have been reading his anthology The New York Poets, which includes Ashbery, O'Hara, Koch and Schuyler. This is an excellent selection of poems, with short, cogent introductions. Mark suggested I pay particular attention to James Schuyler, whom I hadn't read at all before. I find him accessible, many short poems
- [What a country!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/what-a-country) - One of Yakov Smirnoff's signature jokes is about getting off the plane in the United States and seeing on a billboard "America Loves Smirnoff," which he follows with the line, "What a country!" But here are two excerpts from one morning's NY Times, which Larry read to me while I made breakfast. The combination made
- [Fat Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/fat-monday) - In Saturday's WSJ, there was an article debunking the assumption that fat is implicated in heart disease: " 'Saturated fat does not cause heart disease'—or so concluded a big study published in March in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine... "The fact is, there has never been solid evidence for the idea that these fats
- [Long overdue](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/long-overdue) - It's not that I haven't been spending time in the garden, it's that I've been spending so much time with gardening and chickens that I haven't had time to write about it. The labyrinth is once again completely overgrown. Everything is burgeoning and needs tending. I cleared about three feet of it in as many
- [Feral Meryl at the Poetry Slam](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/feral-meryl-at-the-poetry-slam) - Last night my stalwart friend and I went to the Starry Plow to see if I could get on the list of performers. I squeaked on, using the moniker "Feral Meryl," supplied by my friend. I recited a poem, made it to the second round, and recited another. The first poem is x-rated, and I
- [One more prose poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/one-more-prose-poem) - This one is from Mark Ford's Selected Poems​ published by Coffee House Press (2014). Mark said this is the only prose poem he's ever written. If, like me, you're a fan of Hart Crane, it's especially delicious. It's in the form of a letter to a fictitious literary magazine. If you know nothing about Hart Crane, here
- [Transformation Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/transformation-monday) - I went to a poetry reading at the lovely Falkirk House, sponsored by the Marin Poetry Center. It was a reading entitled Poetry and Spirituality, featuring my friend and fellow Squaw attendee, Christina Hutchins, and a woman I hadn't known before, Kim Rosen. Kim recited an Easter Poem that caught my imagination. Here it is: In
- [What is the sound of no rooster crowing?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/what-is-the-sound-of-no-rooster-crowing) - All week my neighbors have been asking what happened to the rooster. They all liked hearing his crow and notice its absence. The silence has been very loud. I found this wonderful poem by the Brazilian, João Cabral de Melo Neto, a poet I don't know, translated by Galway Kinnell, a poet I admire greatly.
- [The Prose Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-prose-poem) - It's hard to define exactly how a prose poem differs from prose. But for me, a short piece that has an edge, that stays with you, that feels more powerful than the usual snippet of prose, is a prose poem. Here are two of my favorites (I've already posted "A Story About the Body," another
- [Pieces for the left hand](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/pieces-for-the-left-hand) - This title, pieces for the left hand, is usually about piano pieces. But on one blog or another, I read about J. Robert Lennon's book with that title, and it sounded interesting enough to check out. These little vignettes are mostly ironic, short pieces that make you smile or grimace. Here's a typical sample: Brevity
- [Envy of Other People's Poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/envy-of-other-peoples-poems) - Talking with another poet about the discouraging series of rejections, the endless worry that one's work is really good--how can one know? I remembered this wonderful little poem by Robert Hass, from Time and Materials. Envy of Other People's Poems In one version of the legend the sirens couldn't sing. It was only a sailor's
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/an-exemplary-sentence-5) - Lately I have been enjoying the Saturday "Review" section of the Wall Street Journal a lot more than the NY Times "Book Review." This is an excerpt of a Polish author, Marek Hlasko, from a review by Nathaniel Popkin. It's from Beautiful Twentysomethings, Hlasko's autobiography. I'm going to have to read the book: "There are few
- [Best Photo from rural CA](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/best-photo-from-rural-ca) - On my way home from Chico, I saw this: Also saw lots of ducks! I suppose the plucking goes with the guided hunt. And of course, such a great phrase can't go without its tongue twister: I'm not the duck plucker or the duck plucker's son but I pluck the ducks till the duck plucker
- [Poets on Poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poets-on-poetry) - Of course, it's Tuesday. Monday slipped by again, busy with spring planting, new baby chicks, and miscellaneous garden chores--they are endless. But for today I thought I'd share two famous poets words on poetry. Philip Levine and Marianne Moore: A Theory of Prosody When Nellie, my old pussy cat, was still in her prime, she
- [The failed hatch](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/the-failed-hatch) - For those of you who follow the chicken saga, I wrote about my attempts to incubate or have my broody hen hatch some chicks. I have to report failure on both counts. Nothing in my homemade incubator hatched. I wasn't so surprised at this, as I had some initial problems regulating the temperature. But for
- [Too much I...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/too-much-i) - Sometimes it seems to me that poets, especially American poets, got derailed by the confessional poems of Lowell and Plath, and there is just too much self-absorption. Of course, everything experienced is filtered through the lense of self, but a little perspective is the mark of a fine mind. Galway Kinnell gave a craft talk
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/an-exemplary-sentence-4) - Once in awhile a sentence in a newspaper article startles me with its inventiveness, like this one by Natalie Angier from an article on Trilobites in the Tuesday Science Times. The scientist points to "a flawless specimen of Walliserops, a five-inch trilobite that swam the Devonian seas around what is now Morocco some 150 million
- [More on Shirley Temple](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/more-on-shirley-temple) - In my post on Graham Greene's analysis of Shirley Temple's charms, I mentioned how Greene had to flee to Mexico to avoid libel charges. The other day, Girl Scouts were selling cookies by the Farmers' Market. "With an epidemic of childhood obesity," I remarked to Larry, "you'd think the Girl Scouts could find something else
- [Living with Larry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/living-with-larry-2) - I'm making scones. Larry is reading me snatches from the NY Times, including this from the Book Review: "When Shirley Temple Black died at 85 on Feb. 10, The Times’s obituary made brief note of her connection to Graham Greene. In a review of the 1937 film 'Wee Willie Winkie,' Greene wrote that Temple’s 'infancy is
- [In Memoriam](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/in-memoriam) - Maxine Kumin died last month. Right until a month before her death, we carried on a sporadic correspondence. She was extremely gracious and generous to me, and I think somewhat under- recognized as a poet. Here's one of my favorites of hers: After Love Afterward, the compromise. Bodies resume their boundaries. These legs, for instance,
- [My chickens fly first class](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/my-chickens-fly-first-class) - The NY Times this morning had an article about chickens on the front page, "Wishing They All Could Be California Hens." The article discussed a California law that requires cages for chickens "roomy enough to stand up, lie down — even extend their wings fully without touching another bird." This law requires importers of eggs
- [Coral Bracho](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/coral-bracho) - It's not quite Monday, but I've been reading Forrest Gander's splendid translations of Coral Bracho, a Mexican poet. The book is worth reading just for the introduction, but the poems are, well, rapturous might be the adjective I'm looking for. Here's a short sample, in Spanish and English: En la entraña del tiempo El tiempo
- [Broody](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/broody) - One of the young hens has begun to sit on eggs, or get "broody," as chicken folk say. (Yet another metaphor from the world of chickens.) With a great deal of perseverance (though not much discrimination), she was sitting on one wooden egg in the hen house until I moved her to a separate box
- [The energy of the slam](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/the-energy-of-the-slam) - Come Come where the booze is cheaper, Come Come where the pots hold more, Come Come where the boss is a bit of a sport, Come Come to the pub next door! George Orwell, that master of the essay, has a lovely piece on writing called "Good
- [Poetry Monday--from the files](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-from-the-files) - I found this poem, cut out from the New Yorker, no idea when... HARM First, you took the parakeet out of its cage, Its body warm and folded, a blue-green kite With a surprised heart. Then you scoured the metal, The door a loose pocket of bars on two wire hinges, The clawed perches, the
- [In praise of TV](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/in-praise-of-tv) - If you’re a New Yorker subscriber, you know how relentlessly the weekly magazine arrives. Unread copies piling up around the house could replace the movie image of pages of the calendar flipping by to show elapsed time. But then comes a long plane ride and six or eight unread copies go into my carry on
- [More on Diana Moon Glampers, a short rant](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/more-on-diana-moon-glampers-a-short-rant) - I've written before about Kurt Vonnegut's satirical short story, "Harrison Bergeron," and its Handicapper General, Diana Moon Glampers. She's the one who makes sure no one stands out as better than anyone else by assigning the appropriate handicap. This doesn't seem so much like satire in the current environment of political correctness. I just came
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-9) - Even though it's a holiday, it's still Monday. Larry doesn't like holidays now that he's retired. There's no mail. Things are closed. Too many people everywhere. They should be at work, he thinks. Another very plain speaking person is James Galvin. This is one of my favorite poems of his: Against the Rest of the
- [Spring chickens](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/spring-chickens) - The hens have definitely decided it's time to start laying eggs. Along with the magnolia, the cherry, the apple, all blossoming, the change in the light has convinced them that spring is here--rainy or not. Today I got my first, tiny Americana pullet egg, a green jewel among the brown. And the hens themselves are
- [The problem of publication](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/the-problem-of-publication) - In the introduction to The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, le Carré writes about how the publication of this book changed his life: "I had written literally in secret…and free of serious critical attention. Once this book hit the stands, my time of quiet and gradual development was over for good, however much
- [Rainy Sunday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/rainy-sunday) - Here in rainless Northern California, I woke gratefully to the sound of rain. The chickens may not be happy about it, but it is such a relief to be having a normal winter day. Luckily, in yesterday's brilliant sun I did a bunch of yard work including cleaning the chicken coop, so at least they
- [Luckily for me](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/luckily-for-me) - and my resolution to be more timely with Poetry Monday, a wonderful chapbook, "Little Oceans" by Tony Hoagland, arrived in the mail today. I've posted his poems before, and some of these I'd read before, but I was so glad to spend a little time with his work, and his particular view of America that
- [Sorting through the boxes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/sorting-through-the-boxes) - Have you saved every letter you ever got and every photo you ever took? It seems we have, boxes and boxes of them, moved from house to house, stored in attics, garages, rented storage spaces. We moved 21 times in the last 40 years, although we did spend 23 years in one house. We've discarded
- [Revising the blogroll](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/revising-the-blogroll) - I realized that the list of blogs I read is out of date, so am updating. While I occasionally look at A Way to Garden, I'd rather find a more nuts and bolts gardening site. I've kept Gina Gotsill's blog about preserving, but she needs to post more often. It's language like this that made
- [Monday miscellany](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-miscellany) - Thanks to MLK, who has given the working world a much-needed day of respite after everyone goes back to work after the holidays. I hope, like me, you are taking the day slowly, in robe and slippers. Of course, as Larry says about retirement, "It's great not to be able to tell the difference between
- [Mueller on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/mueller-on-monday) - My New Year's resolution this year is to read the Constitution. Both lawyers I know who have taken Constitutional Law in law school, confess to not having read it all. They've focused on the case law around the document, and read parts of it. I mention this because I'd also like to be a little
- [Emu egg and kitchen gadgets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/emu-egg-and-kitchen-gadgets) - I'm having a slow recovery from the holidays, though I can hardly blame the California weather. One of the highlights of our holiday breakfasts was an Emu egg I got at the farmers' market. It was about 7" long, and I calculated it was about 6 eggs worth of egg. We drilled holes in either
- [A brief survey](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/a-brief-survey) - This lazy Sunday morning the phone rang. It was an airline from which Larry had recently purchased a ticket. Thinking there might be a problem, he answered. It turned out to be yet another request for a moment of his time for a brief survey about his experience. Larry hung up. "The experience was just
- [Starting the new year with a poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/starting-the-new-year-with-a-poem) - This one is by Octavio Paz, a Mexican poet: January First The year's doors open like those of language, toward the unknown. Last night you told me: tomorrow we shall have to think up signs, sketch a landscape, fabricate a plan on the double page of day and paper. Tomorrow, we shall have to invent,
- [Everybody wants the chickens](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/everybody-wants-the-chickens) - I spent the weekend putting extra fine mesh over the two-inch mesh that lines the bottom of my chicken coop. Rats had been tunneling under and squeezing in to eat the grain. It was a long and tedious job on hands and knees, but hopefully will deter the marauders. Then yesterday, I was outside just
- [The magic of stock](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/the-magic-of-stock) - I've written a lot about making stock and even included a basic recipe, but as many of you are wondering what to do with that turkey carcass taking up a good chunk of a shelf in your refrigerator, it seemed like a good time to recap some tips for turning it into cook's gold. This
- [Oulipo](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/oulipo) - I had never heard of it either, but it's a French acronym, short for Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: "workshop of potential literature"). You can read up on it here. We studied it recently in a class I'm taking on the structure of poetry. Founded in 1960, by Georges Perec, Oulipo's members used mathematics to place constraints on
- [A snail for Larry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-snail-for-larry) - No adult gifts is the holiday rule in our house, but there is a little child waiting for presents in each of us, so I can't resist at least one small thing for everyone--and I mean REALLY small. For example, this poem by Thom Gunn is my gift to Larry, who uses the snail as
- [The Exemplary Sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-4) - I have been reading a book by an anonymous woman, called A Woman in Berlin. It's a diary of the period between late April and mid-June 1945. It describes the fall of Berlin and its takeover by the Red Army. Society is in collapse, and the book is amazingly frank, thoughtful, and unsentimental. Much of
- [Poetry Monday--two from Lucille](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-two-from-lucille) - I know it's Tuesday again, but I was in an anti-poetry mood yesterday, wandering through my friends' extensive library and not liking anything I read. We poets are a pretentious bunch! Then I thought about Lucille Clifton. I was lucky to have worked with her two different years at Squaw Valley. Although I knew her
- [Anders Zorn](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/anders-zorn) - Last Sunday was a perfect, mild winter day, sun and mist. We took a walk at Land's End and then went to see an exhibit of the Swedish painter, Anders Zorn (1860-1920), at the Palace of the Legion of Honor. I'd never heard of him, and while I didn't think much of his later work, I
- [After seeing the movie Gravity...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/after-seeing-the-movie-gravity) - Larry's comment: "If I were George Clooney’s agent I’d tell him Clark Gable would never make a movie in which he spent the whole time with his head in a space helmet."
- [The fall garden](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/the-fall-garden) - After my trip to New England last month, where gardens are pretty much over for the year, I doubly appreciate being able to start a garden for fall and winter. I took all the dead tomato stalks, pea vines, and other debris, and turned them into mulch with the Eco-shredder, then planted seedlings and nestled
- [Sharon Old's Birthday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/sharon-olds-birthday) - My calendar tells me it's today. Sharon has written so many wonderful poems it's hard to choose one--poems about sex, about children, about her awful childhood, odes. But today I chose I joke poem, or maybe a poem that is a joke and more than a joke: The Pope's Penis It hangs deep in his
- [Words about death](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/words-about-death) - We have a broadside by Phillip Whalen up in our bathroom of a poem called "The Elizabethan Phrase." It's dated 1982, and signed in 1985. I asked Larry, who knows the dates of most poets, when Phillip Whalen died. "He's not dead that I know of," he said, and went to look him up. "I
- [More Fennelly](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/more-fennelly) - A few weeks ago I posted a poem by Beth Ann Fennelly, I'd found in anthology of erotica. I have been looking at a couple of her books, and thought I'd post another today, a different kind of erotic. Once I Did Kiss Her Wetly on the Mouth Once I did kiss her wetly on
- [Welcome to the Monkey House](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/welcome-to-the-monkey-house) - I've been listening to these Kurt Vonnegut stories on DVD after reading them many years ago. Some are cranky and clunky, but many hold up pretty well. The one I remembered was "Harrison Bergeron," a story set in the future, where everyone is fully equal--the more extraordinary your talents, the greater the handicap you are
- [All the news...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/all-the-news) - In my world, if it bleeds, it's skipped. Here are a few excerpts from the morning paper: "Lorenzo Robinson, the longtime and loquacious men's room sentry at the lofty 21 Club died. Now..the restaurant's general manager said he expected to put a small plaque honoring him in the men's room 'and call it a day,'
- [Wyrebek on Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/wyrebek-on-monday) - Thanks to a friend, I just watched an amazing video about animal communication. Then I remembered this poem: Night Owl You are nearing the land that is life. You will recognize it by its seriousness. --Rilke Driving my bad news the back way home I know I’m in the land that is
- [This post is for Lila](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/this-post-is-for-lila) - My granddaughter wrote a comment to an earlier post about airport art, and coming home from the East Coast, I saw a team installing the new show, Japanese Toys. Pretty cool show, I think. I had to stop and take some pictures. Half of the exhibit was set up, half in progress. Hope you like
- [Another Ghazal](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-ghazal) - Monday, and here's another poem I found in the book of Ghazals: Ravishing Disunities Summer Whites I want old-fashioned metaphor; I dress in black. My son was murdered. I bear witness in black. The graveyard shocks with rampant green. In a rusted chair sits grief, enormous in black. Died July 16, 1983. Navy’s white headstone,
- [Ghazal for Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ghazal-for-monday) - I have been reading about and playing with the poetic form called a Ghazal. The rules of the Ghazal are that it is an unspecified number of couplets. The first couplet sets out a repeating word or phrase in first line, and repeats that word or phrase at the end of every couplet. The word before
- [Poetry Monday: Erotica](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-erotica) - Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile know about my passion for libraries, how I like to have a card for any library I pass so I can go in and get a book. The only card I pay for is my UC Berkeley library card, and going there is a
- [No there there, a short rant](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/no-there-there-a-short-rant) - I am taking a class on prosody, and yesterday, Gertrude Stein and her work came up in conjunction with form. It led me to reflect on her and my reaction against words separated from meaning. From 1940-1944, while other Jews in France were being systematically ferreted out and deported to camps, Gertrude Stein lived in
- [Another breakfast from the garden](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/another-breakfast-from-the-garden) - Right now the garden is giving up its end-of-summer bounty. This breakfast was potato, onion, garlic, and spinach from the garden, with eggs from the chickens. Only the mushrooms and baby fennel were from the farmers' market: The plate below is Larry's plate. For some reason, his food always looks better than mine!
- [Rain and libraries](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/rain-and-libraries) - Okay, the weather is decidedly odd. But I refuse to jump to apocalyptic conclusions. Instead, I’ve been noodling around the web. I discovered several wonderful British blogs about books, including Harriet Devine’s blog. This led me to discover an online article about Patrick Hamilton, a previously-unknown-to-me British author. I’ve reserved two of his books. I
- [Living with Larry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/living-with-larry) - One of the things I really like about living with Larry is that he often reads to me. When we were first together he did this a lot. I must have heard a good third of Ellman's biography of Joyce the first summer we were together, Larry reading while I cooked. Yesterday, over a breakfast
- [Poetry Monday--Joe Lamb](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-joe-lamb) - A week or so ago I received a poem by Joe Lamb, tree wizard, poet, and friend, in my inbox. I thought I'd share it here: Star Thistle Go into the intimacy of your little eternity with the wild patience of a Star Thistle reaching out from a crack in the overpass to release her
- [Poetry Monday--From the Frontier of Writing](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-from-the-frontier-of-writing) - Somehow, it always seems to be Tuesday these days when I set out to post a Monday poem. Two weeks ago, Seamus Heaney died, and there were many of his poems posted here and there. This is one of my favorites, the way it compares moving through the armed surveillance of Northern Ireland to the
- [Monday already](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-already) - It feels like someone is removing days from the week! But here it is again, my turn to send a poem out. I am choosing this one by Seamus Heaney: A Kite for Aibhín, after 'L'Aquilone' by Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912) Air from another life and time and place, Pale blue heavenly air is supporting
- [The tortures of the damned](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-tortures-of-the-damned) - The New Yorker arrives with relentless regularity even though our subscription expired in July. This week, there are excerpts from a diary Flannery O'Connor kept in when she was in her twenties, recently accepted to the Iowa Workshop. My first reaction was indignation. Clearly these were the private struggles of a young, truly spiritual woman
- [PhD in Cuteness](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/phd-in-cuteness) - The kittens are adolescents now, but they are still a team that roams around getting into trouble pretty much all day long. I couldn't resist making a video of them yesterday. I love how they seem to forget about the bag for a minute, and then jump right back in. Ok, I know there are
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-8) - This poem, untitled when written, has since been labeled "Stalin Epigram." Osip Mandelstam wrote it at the height of the Stalin purges, in 1933, and recited it to a literary gathering at Pasternak's house. Someone at that gathering reported him, and he was exiled to a remote village and later arrested. He died on the
- [Fall at the farm](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/fall-at-the-farm) - I have been doing the hard work of promoting my little book of translations (more about that another day). In between doing this work of pure attachment to the world, of assiduously courting its recognition for this project that means so much to me, I've been mulling the idea of faith. Margaret Holub, the inspiring
- [Formatting error](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/formatting-error) - The weekly publication jWeekly published my poem, "The Afternoon Before the Day of Atonement," which is great. Really, it's a pleasure to be published there. But there was a formatting mistake and the poem came out like prose. I don't think it works very well as prose. Here is the poem as I wrote it.
- [On the radio](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/on-the-radio) - Here is a podcast from J.P. Dancing Bear's radio show, FM91.5 KKUP's "Out of Our Minds." Bear does a one-hour poetry radio show every Wednesday night at 8 pm. I was lucky to be his guest. http://jp-dancingbear.squarespace.com/outofourminds/2013/9/4/out-of-our-minds-wguest-meryl-natchez He's a pro, and makes it flow so easily. He also has a great-looking cat.
- [Internet magic](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/internet-magic) - Almost two years ago, I posted about Roberto Chavez' show at the Autry Museum in LA. As part of the post I mentioned that over 30 years ago, a gallery owner had sold a wonderful self-portrait of Roberto with a lime-green background that we had loaned to the gallery for the show. Even though it
- [Tips for the accident prone](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/tips-for-the-accident-prone) - It's been a long time since I posted anything wholly practical here, so here are two first aid tips I learned this summer that have miraculous properties. Egg whites for burned skin: After you cool your burn under cold water, cover the skin with slightly beaten egg white. The egg white forms a healing protective
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-7) - Yes, I know, it's Tuesday again. What can I say? As always, life before poetry. But today I have a poem by Troy Jollimore, a recent Squaw connection, whose book Tom Thomson in Purgatory, won the National Book Critics Circle Award. One section of the book has poems that give a nod to Berryman's Dream
- [Snails to escargots](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/snails-to-escargots) - One morning, my granddaughter gathered 21 good size snails from the garden. When I commented that these are the same snails they broil for escargots in France, she was adamant that we try this. So we fed them on cornmeal and lettuce for two days. Then we washed them. Then
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-6) - I get a lot of poems online, various sources. Once in awhile, I like one. This one is by Gretchen Primack. You can read more by selecting the link below: Avenue I'm tired. Men can Hey baby all they want. A station wagon shudders into reverse, a plum wrinkles its skin; three nurses walk their smoke
- [Cliff DeYoung and Beckett](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/cliff-deyoung-and-beckett) - An intriguing poem about stones at the recent Squaw Valley Poetry Workshop reminded me of this wonderful monologue from Molly. Cliff DeYoung performed this monologue at Cal State LA as part of a tribute to Beckett on his 100th's birthday. I don't think it could be done better! If Cliff looks familiar to you (even
- [Translation and a poetry reading](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/translation-and-a-poetry-reading) - Forty-five years ago, I began translating Russian poetry. Okay, I was a strange young adult. But this year, a book of my poetry translations was finally published, Poems from the Stray Dog Cafe: Akhmatova, Mandelstam, and Gumilev. Here's one of the poems: Но я предупреждаю вас, Что я живу в последний раз. Ни ласточкой, ни
- [Jweekly](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/jweekly) - Jweekly is the newspaper of the Bay Area Jewish Community. I get their weekly email version, and will have a poem in it for the High Holy Days this year. This week, they had an article about a project to animate Psalms. My favorite was by RachelLopez Rosenberg, an interpretation of Psalm 90. Worth a
- [Recology](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/recology) - I know it's poetry Monday, but as I've been camping all week, no poem today. Instead, a little preview of the current exhibit at Terminal 3 at SFO. What a great idea to have art in the long corridor that leads from airport security to the gates. As we all have time to spare at
- [More next week...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/more-next-week)
- [The garden as jungle](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/the-garden-as-jungle) - It's the time of year when everything is overgrown and it's very hard to harvest without treading on something. Next year, more order in the garden! But for now we have loads of produce, the kittens are having a lot of fun exploring, and they have discovered the tree. They've even learned how to climb down.
- [Neglected poets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/neglected-poets) - There are so many good poets who don't get much attention. Henri Coulette was a teacher at LA State, and influenced many lives. Here is one of his lighter, tender poems: Petition Lord of the Tenth Life, Welcome my Jerome, A fierce, gold tabby. Make him feel at home. He loves bird and mouse. He
- [Poetry from Wall St.](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/poetry-from-wall-st) - You might or might not know that there was a big stock market rally yesterday. It came after the Fed announced (not quite this way) that they're going to go on printing money to keep things all fluffed up. This made people optimistic about the future, and they wanted to buy stock. It also caught
- [Bony Moronie](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/bony-moronie) - Larry has been selling his vast collection of blues and jazz autographs, mostly on eBay, but also from his website. This morning at breakfast, he was commenting on the sale of a Larry Williams autograph. In case (as for me) the name Larry Williams doesn't signify, he was a one-hit wonder, hitting #14 on the
- [Foggy day with kittens](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/foggy-day-with-kittens) - Yesterday was cold, windy and foggy. It might as well have been January. The kittens and I spent most of it on the couch with a good book, another Georgette Heyer novel. A perfect lazy day.
- [New poets, new poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/new-poets-new-poems) - One of the benefits of my week at the Squaw Valley Poetry Workshop was coming home with several books of poems by poets I hadn't read much (or any) of before. Today I'm printing a poem by a Berkeley poet, Christina Hutchins. Not only did I have a great time with her, I'm happy to
- [Back at Squaw Valley](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/back-at-squaw-valley) - I've posted about this intense week of poetry before, so I won't explain it here. Each time I've come, it's been a giant booster shot for my writing. Yesterday, I listened to an amazing craft talk by Forrest Gander. It was about translation, the origin of words, the decisions we make in translating poetry. For
- [World's smallest batch of jam](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/worlds-smallest-batch-of-jam) - Usually making jam or jelly is a big production, bags or flats of fruit, a morning or an afternoon set aside. But one of the joys of a garden is grazing, and yesterday I picked a couple of handfuls of blackberries and a couple of raspberries, a little too much to eat for breakfast. In
- [Poetry Wednesday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-wednesday) - Alright, I know it's supposed to be Poetry Monday, but I was busy babysitting. Here is a poem by Fleur Adcock: Things There are worse things than having behaved foolishly in public. There are worse things than these miniature betrayals, committed or endured or suspected; there are worse things than not being able to sleep
- [More on the Epiphyllum](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/more-on-the-epiphyllum) - I posted this photo the other day, when the first of the Epiphyllum flowers bloomed. Yesterday, I watched a bee drench herself in pollen till she could hardly fly... That little gold lump is the
- [New kids on the block](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/new-kids-on-the-block) - Two new male kittens have converted even Larry... When I asked Larry, "How come he chose your lap when I feed and care for them?" He answered "Don't you know the more aloof you are, the more desirable?"
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-4) - I checked, and it's been over a year since I posted a Berryman poem. Time for another--sadly prophetic--Dreamsong. The poem mentions Richard & Helen Blackmur. You can read the details of the visit here. Henry's Understanding He was reading late, at Richard's, down in Maine, aged 32? Richard & Helen long in bed, my
- [Summer reading](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/summer-reading) - This category seems to include both worthy projects--that is demanding books one ought to read but never has--and utterly undemanding books one can take the beach and laze away with on a summer's day. Of course, summer on the coast of Northern California is a typically cold and foggy affair, but the premise still holds,
- [I've been waiting for this...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ive-been-waiting-for-this) - I've had this Epiphyllum for a long time, but it's been languishing in the wrong corner of the garden--too much sun or not the right sun. A few months ago I moved it towards the street where it gets filtered late afternoon sun, and I've been watching it revive and bud... This morning, the first bloom.
- [What about the chickens?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/what-about-the-chickens) - A reader asked, "Why haven't I seen anything about them lately?" There are currently 11 hens and a rooster, the soft-voiced, gentlemanly Cloud, a Lavender Americana. The flock consists of three of my original six Americanas, four young Americanas, a Black Sex-linked hen, a Silver Wyandotte hen, and two banty hens. It's almost impossible to get
- [In praise of bad poems](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/in-praise-of-bad-poems) - After finding my childhood diary, I've been thinking about the huge numbers of bad poems one must be willing to write to arrive at a few good ones. Even the best poets seem to have to publish a lot of mediocre work and, I'm sure, throw away a lot more to achieve a few dozen
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/an-exemplary-sentence-3) - I keep a long list of books to read, and occasionally update it with what I have read. The list mostly comes from book reviews, and once in awhile the review itself has a really great sentence, like this one today from Marilyn Stasio, from her review of Richard Lange’s ANGEL BABY in the NY Times Book Review:
- [Travels with Larry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/travels-with-larry) - After years when one of us had to be managing things at home--kids, work, whatever, Larry and I got used to separate vacations. But recently we traveled together to Sedona for a few days. I remembered how much fun it is to travel with Larry. Here are a few remarks. When I was wondering what
- [Short Talks](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/short-talks) - I went to hear Anne Carson read. She is a classical scholar, poet, and essayist. I'm sure there's a label for what she does--odd syntax, sometimes odd formats, a bit of scholarly snarkiness, and sometimes very beautiful language--you can read a review of her work here. Here's a sample from a book titled Short Talks:
- [Dreams of Kay Ryan](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/dreams-of-kay-ryan) - From time to time, poets make cameo appearances in my dreams. Last night it was Kay Ryan. We were at a party together, and I was trying to show her how to undress and change your outfit in the middle of a public space without anyone noticing. The trick is to move very naturally, at
- [Juvenilia](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/juvenilia) - Going through boxes again, I came on my first diary. It dates from when I was six, and I can still remember being inspired to start writing when my mother gave me a metal box of index cards. Here are a few entries (text on the right in case you can't read it): Introducshin This is
- [May garden](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/may-garden) - Everything here is blooming, spouting, burgeoning. The hens are laying, the bees are busy, and I watch the vegetables grow as much as an inch a day: [slideshow_deploy id='1511'] It's hard to be indoors at all...
- [An exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/an-exemplary-sentence-2) - I've been enjoying a book of essays on poetry, Madness, Rack, and Honey, an excellent read for literary-minded. I've mentioned the author, Mary Ruefle, before. There are many thought-provoking ideas interlaced in her very conversational, deceptively rambling style. Here's one I like, from "Someone Reading a Book is a Sign of Order in the World":
- [Calamondins, epigraphs, and Destiny](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/calamondins-epigraphs-and-destiny) - My neighbor has a tree of tiny, seedless, tangerine-like fruit, called Calamondins. Another neighbor had a grandmother who supported their family through the Great Depression by selling Calamondin Marmalade, so that's what I've been making today--a wonderful fall treat. You could probably use the same recipe for kumquats or key limes. Let me know if
- [Two parties for Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/two-parties-for-poetry-monday) - Lisa Alvarez, whose blog The Mark on the Wall often features interesting poems as well as literary events in Orange County, mentioned on Facebook that it was her son's 11th birthday. Thinking about children's parties reminded me of two poems by Sharon Olds, who recently won the Pulitzer Prize. These two are from her second book,
- [Can't get your kids to eat vegetables?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/cant-get-your-kids-to-eat-vegetables) - Try using cookie cutters. This plate of cucumber and papaya disappeared instantly.
- [A Narrative Poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-narrative-poem) - In the past, poems often told a story. There are great narrative poems like the Odyssey or Beowulf, and many shorter examples up through the 1900s. But in the world of contemporary poetry, narrative is rare. Philip Levine's work sometimes tells a story, I can think of a few poems of Ed Hirsch, and the
- [Techie or Fuzzy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/techie-or-fuzzy) - I was one of those insufferable children who adore school. As the youngest in my family by five years, in school I competed only with my peers. I have always been a quick study, and the rewards at school were easy and plentiful. By 9th grade, I was taking honors classes, Geometry, Biology, honors English.
- [Finding a good book](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/finding-a-good-book) - Last week in DC, I sat down in Kramerbooks and read a short story by Carol Anshaw in the the Best American Short Stories 2012. I liked it so much, I immediately bought her novel Carry the One. I wasn't disappointed. This writing is rich with imagery, the characters are complex, contemporary, and believable, and the
- [Museums In DC](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/museums-in-dc) - I had a spare day in Washington, and went a few museums. I had read about the beeswax room, an installation by in the Phillips Collection by Wolfgang Laib and wanted to see what it would feel like to be in a small closet coated with beeswax. It was interesting, but not transformative. I thought
- [Poetry Monday on Tuesday ](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-on-tuesday) - I recently came across this poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, a poet who was once all the rage--perhaps as much for her outrageously bohemian life as for her work--and is now thoroughly out of fashion. In my view she is neither as great as she was once thought to be or as overly romantic
- [Walk as One at 1](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/walk-as-one-at-1) - Having been part of One Billion Rising, I'm up for global demonstrations that tap into positive energy. Here's the next one I'm planning to participate in, on Saturday, May 4. World Labyrinth Day, an initiative of The Labyrinth Society, is a day designated to bring people from all over the world together to walk labyrinths for
- [Following the thread](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/following-the-thread) - My discovery of Vasko Popa led me to a slim book called The Golden Apple, a compilation of Serbo-Croation stories, spells, proverbs curses and riddles. According to the editors Popa was instrumental in popularizing a plain-spoken Serbo-Croatian language that unified the various dialects, and found "great joy in bringing the little-known and under-valued beauties...into the
- [The chickens lend a helping foot](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/the-chickens-lend-a-helping-foot) - Yesterday was the last Saturday of the month, which is the day of the great Berkeley compost giveaway. From 7:30 in the morning till it runs out, energetic Berkeley gardeners can shovel as much compost as we want into whatever vehicle or containers we bring. This was the scene about 10 minutes before the official
- [Catalogs](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/catalogs) - Larry was telling me how North Korea says its rockets are poised to attack Washington DC, Los Angeles and Austin, Texas. "How did Austin get in there?" Larry asked. "Why not Washington, Chicago and Peoria?" Earlier, I had been commenting on my new rooster, Cloud, who has proven to be very timid. I hadn't seen him
- [The Exemplary Sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-3) - Forty years ago or so, I saw the Japanese film, Woman in the Dunes. It made a vivid impression on me, and the other day, I happened on the novel it was made from, by Kobo Abe. Here is a section from the opening chapters of the novel, translated by E. Dale Saunders. The man
- [Realism in poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/realism-in-poetry) - Sometimes you come across a poem that simply seems like a statement, as if there were no poetics involved; the poet is simply stating a series of facts in a way that happens to be particularly moving. I think that these are often the most highly crafted works. Here is one by the Serbian poet,
- [Pizza--delicious and gluten-free](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/pizza-delicious-and-gluten-free) - My friend Tung handed me a little baggie of garbanzo bean flour the other day, and told me it made a delicious pizza crust. Just mix it with an equal part of water, and let it sit a few hours; it should be the consistency of thin pancake batter. I used about 2/3 of a
- [Seed time](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/seed-time) - I have a weakness for seed catalogs but have discovered that most seed packages contain a nearly life-time supply of seeds--except the super-specialized ones. So I have quite a trove of seeds, all ready to plant. I look through the catalogs anyway of course, and I recently found an add for a tool that makes
- [Poetry Monday--the problem with poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-the-problem-with-poetry) - I had two books of poetry from the library this week, The Collected Poems of Amy Clampitt, and Continuum, a selection of poems by Nina Cassian. Clampitt's collected poems was 471 dense pages, and even though I have read a number of poems of hers I like, the sheer weight of it all was overwhelming.
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/the-exemplary-sentence-2) - Regular readers know I stole this category from Mark Doty's blog. And now I've stolen an image of a diagrammed sentence from another blog I like, Jottings, by Jim to be its icon. Does anyone under 50 even know what diagramming a sentence means? In any case, I keep my eye out for intriguing sentences, and I've
- [You know you're in Venice...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/you-know-youre-in-venice) - when you step off the Big Blue Bus and meet Jane, the hat designer, who has a live dove in her hat. The #3 bus runs along Lincoln from LAX (or perhaps further south) to Santa Monica. It's the best deal in town: $1.50 (or 50 cents if you're 62 or older), and takes only
- [My community](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/my-community) - I am lucky to live on a street where my neighbors love my rooster, in a town with good local businesses and a great Sunday Farmers' Market, and a Fix-it Clinic, where you can bring your broken items and get help repairing them. The first Fix-it Clinic was Sunday at the Albany Community Center. Without
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-3) - I realized in all the time I've been writing this blog, I've neglected to include a poem by Elizabeth Bishop. She taught at Harvard just after I left, alas, my tenure there was deadly dull as far as poets went. Probably her most well known poem is a villanelle, called One Art. She and Lowell
- [Poetry Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-monday-2) - How quickly the weeks roll by! I can remember lying on my great-aunt's chaise lounge while visiting with my mother. Maybe I was 10. I watched dust motes sift slowly down in a shaft of sun and thought life would never happen--time was standing still. But now it goes so fast it's like the old
- [Salad for supper](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/salad-for-supper) - We had a party last night, and as we were finishing up the salad, two blog followers urged me to put the recipe on the blog. I had to hurry up and take a picture before we ate the last bit. Sorry there wasn't much left! Asian Salad with Rice Noodles Greens (lettuce, field greens,
- [Trends and jokes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/trends-and-jokes) - Larry's been making dozens of funny comments lately, and I keep thinking I'll remember them and post them later. You know how that goes. But yesterday, he related a joke about a dead donkey (that pairing of words itself is pretty funny): Two men pay $100 for a donkey, but when they go to get
- [Museums: small, large, and outdoors](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/museums-small-large-and-outdoors) - One of the pleasures of a small museum, like the Rubin Museum in New York, is that you can wander through the entire museum in an hour or so and spend time on everything. It's contained and focused. It doesn't overwhelm. You can settle into the art without wondering where you need to go next. Last
- [R. D. Laing, Philip Larkin, and exploring the psyche](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/r-d-laing-philip-larkin-and-exploring-the-psyche) - When I was reading psychology in college, I remember being impressed with R. D Laing. Forty years later I vaguely remember that he believed that the person labeled as mentally ill was simply the one acting out the illness of the family. Finding The Politics of the Family on my daughter's bookshelf made me curious to
- [Those Winter Sundays](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/those-winter-sundays) - After more than 40 years in California, I'd forgotten what cold was really like. Waking with the heat low and the cold seeping in, going out into wind that feels like icy knives. So I chose a poem by Robert Hayden, one that I plan to memorize soon. It seems relevant to any adult who
- [One Billion Rising, NY](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/one-billion-rising-ny) - Yesterday I danced with my granddaughter in the "Break the Chain" flash mob in Washington Park as part of the One Billion Rising event that I mentioned before. If you look at the New York video, you can see Lila dancing on the left. She also held a sign at the beginning of the dance. It
- [Two events and a footnote](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/two-events-and-a-footnote) - Until February 3, you have a chance to see the Jay DeFeo retrospective at SF MOMA. She is best know for her gargantuan work, The Rose, a composition layered together over years. This image shows her working on it. But the last paintings, very small and heartbreakingly beautiful were my favorite. She was a painter
- [Another exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/another-exemplary-sentence) - Regular readers will remember this feature, (with a nod to Mark Doty's blog). The sentence that caught my attention today is from a book I'm wasn't too crazy about, called Seating Arrangements, by Maggie Shipstead. I didn't finish the book, but for some reason I loved this little sequence. "You ought to go to law
- [A pleasant surprise](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-pleasant-surprise) - I logged onto Facebook in an idle moment yesterday, and discovered that I was a finalist in a poetry contest I'd entered months before, for Split This Rock. Ok, there were nine other finalists, and three winners, nonetheless... The contest was judged by Mark Doty, a poet I've mentioned here several times. I love the
- [Of stockmen and stock markets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/of-stockmen-and-stock-markets) - In an email exchange, a friend who is attending the Cowboy Poetry Festival in Elko Nevada, mentioned that she is staying at the Stockman's Hotel. "I'm assuming that's not a name that was decided on by a marketing agency, so I'm bracing myself for lots of weak coffee, overfluffed potatoes, and modern day stockmen," she
- [More gadgets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/more-gadgets) - I probably could do four or five posts on kitchen gadgets. I have several on eggs alone. For example, here's Henrietta hen, who makes perfect softboiled eggs: A little slicer that snips off the top of said egg: An egg separator (great for baking with children who want
- [Sorting through boxes](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/sorting-through-boxes) - Does everyone have boxes of children's art, old letters, and other paper memorabilia they've saved over the years? I have at least half a dozen of them that I haven't looked at in decades, and this week I tackled the first one, labeled "Calendars." From 1976 through 1980 friends and I put together and sold
- [Talking to the dead](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/talking-to-the-dead) - We have a small alter in the living room with photos of the closest group of our beloved dead, parents, my older brother. I put flowers there daily, and think of them, sometimes talk to them. But this is different than what goes on in the movie, The Sixth Sense, in which a young boy
- [Renaissance Man](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/renaissance-man) - Aside from baseball, bridge, collecting blues and jazz autographs, and having taught me to cook many years ago, before he tiptoed out of the kitchen for several decades, Larry is also the publisher of hit & run press, and has an extensive collection of broadsides--poems printed on oversize sheets of paper for display, often with
- [No liability](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/no-liability) - Although the pros wait until the end of February to start spring training, Larry's Senior League, the Creakers, has it's first pickup game today. Larry's off to test his new bat. With the warning label in mind, I told him to be careful not to kill anyone. "Okay," he replied, "But we have them all
- [Larry's bat, plus kitchen gadgets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/larrys-bat-plus-kitchen-gadgets) - Larry's birthday is coming up and luckily he has bought himself a present, a new Miken Ultra II bat, made of the same composite as the stealth bomber. He doesn't usually bat left-handed but needed to here, because of the light. This bat is so powerful that it comes with a warning label that says
- [More transcendence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/more-transcendence) - After the last post, Simone sent me a report on a heron rookery, and it mentioned damsel bugs and dragon flies. I wasn't going to post two poems in a row, but the coincidence with this poem and its damselflies was too strong to resist. I'm not crazy about the beginning, the old "poet looking
- [The transcendental poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-transcendental-poem) - There is a great tradition of poetry that elevates the experience of the natural world to provide a feeling of deep connection to the cycle of life and death. I can think of no better example of this type of poetry than can be found in the early work of Mary Oliver. Here's one. (This
- [Resolution vs. intent](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/resolution-vs-intent) - It's a strange custom we have, resolutions at the New Year. About 10 years ago, I took a tip from my daughter: "Aim small and succeed." Since then, several excellent small resolutions have become part of my life: Only eat good chocolate No biopics Keep a bottle of water in the car Always pee before
- [No words needed](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/no-words-needed) - It's not baseball season yet, not even time for spring training, but on TV the other day they were interviewing a new Oakland A's player, Hiroyuki Nakajima. He's Japanese, and was speaking through an interpreter. "How can he play in the majors and not speak English?" I asked Larry. "Baseball is a game of signs,
- [Holiday card](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/holiday-card) - In past years, I've sent holiday cards with a short letterpress poem. But this year, thinking about all those trees and not finding a poem I felt could justify that, I decided to create an online version here. I was nudged further in this decision by finding this short video, Landfill Harmonic (thanks to Lynn Kiesewetter), about
- [Bad books](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/bad-books) - Last week I read through the "notable books of 2012" section of the NY Times Book Review and put in reserves at the library for a bunch of them. So far, I've started and given up on five of them in short order: Shout Her Lovely Name, by Natalie Serber. The stories in this collection
- [Alchemy and hot fat](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/alchemy-and-hot-fat) - It's easy to make jam--just fruit, sugar and cook until thick. You don't have to worry much about it--it can be a little dense or a little runny, but it still spreads. Jelly is a different thing entirely; you have to get the timing just right or you have syrup or cement. With jelly, an
- [Smart men](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/smart-men) - Larry was reading David Brooks' column on Social Science this morning. It contained an observation that men are dumber around women. Researchers "gave men cognitive tests after they had interacted with a woman via computer. In the study... the male cognitive performance declined after the interaction, or even after the men merely anticipated an interaction with
- [Meanwhile, back at the farm...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/meanwhile-back-at-the-farm) - I know it's weird that my fantasy life focuses on farm improvements. But this weekend, I executed three of them. The hen house was seeming a bit cramped, especially with four pullets soon to be added. Also, the hens seemed to avoid the three small nesting boxes inside, preferring a larger box. So I added
- [Cheese ball](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/cheese-ball) - This morning in my email I received a poem about cheese from E-Verse radio, a blog a enjoy. I realized I had my own cheese poem. So here we go for Poetry Monday: Cheese Ball Whole factories are dedicated to this, pillars of cheddar large enough to bear a second story, and wire that cuts
- [Rainy day projects](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/rainy-day-projects) - When I was in college, I briefly got a free room in a wonderful old farm house outside Cambridge in exchange for being a housekeeper for a bunch of Harvard business school grad students. (One of them was Wally Haas--the Levi's scion.) I can't imagine they were very happy with the arrangement because I knew
- [Not an ordinary day](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/not-an-ordinary-day) - My son, an excellent bridge player, convinced me to compete with him in the Nationals bridge tournament, being held in San Francisco this week. We spent Sunday playing 48 hands of competitive bridge (at the lowest level), and for the last half, we competed as a team with a father and son we met and
- [Another by Marie Howe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/another-by-marie-howe) - At my piano lesson early this week, my teacher's dog saw her dog friend and the dog's owner pass by the window. She often walks with them, but not that day. It was hard for her to understand why they were going without her, and she pranced around unhappily, left behind. It made me think
- [Cheese straws](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/cheese-straws) - Twice now I've made these for friends' open houses. They take a few minutes to make and are a big hit. The recipe is from Kevin Lee Jacobs--he has wonderful photos, too. I use Dufour frozen pastry dough. I don't know why Kevin calls these paillettes, but how can a French name be bad? Paille
- [Forget Paris!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/forget-paris) - Once in awhile you see an art exhibit that changes the way the world looks to you afterwards. This has happened to me twice before: after a show at the ukiyo-e (woodblock print) museum in Tokyo and an Edward Hopper show in San Francisco. It happened again last night after seeing the show of Roberto
- [Withering toward winter](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/withering-toward-winter) - I love how poetry can enhance a moment. This weekend, winding through the vineyards on the way to the coast, this poem of Robert Mezey's came to mind: Touch It Out on the bare grey roads, I pass by vineyards withering toward winter, cold magenta shapes and green fingers and the leaves rippling in the
- [Election reflection](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/election-reflection) - I'm not a politically engaged person as a rule, but once in awhile something grabs my attention and moves me to action. Two years ago, right around this time, it was the management of our local famers' market. The terrific market manager was suddenly and inexplicably fired, and I worked with a few other local
- [Another poem at least partially about poetry...ekphrastic?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/labyrinths/another-poem-at-least-partially-about-poetry-ekphrastic) - I know it's been almost a week, but here's another poem as part of the ekphrastic series, assuming a poem about a poem can be in that category. This one is by Jack Spicer, one of the poets Larry first introduced me to when I came to the West Coast decades ago. Like Lew Welch,
- [A murder of crows](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/a-murder-of-crows) - This morning, Larry noticed a group of crows on top of the oak behind our house. They were grabbing acorns, holding them on the branch between their feet, and stabbing at them with their beaks to get to the acorn meat inside. Larry wondered if you can't consider that using a tool. I wondered about
- [Dressed for fall](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/labyrinths/dressed-for-fall) - Just before the rain, I finished weeding, chopping and slashing, and used straw to outline the labyrinth paths. It looks a little swallowed by straw at the moment, but it will all calm down with a little rain and time. As I was doing this, I was thinking about Rumpelstiltskin, and his spinning straw into
- [Ekphrastics, take two](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ekphrastics-take-two) - In the comments to yesterday's post on ekphrastic poetry, a reader asked if I'd ever written a poem about a poem. Self-referential creatures that we are, poets often write about poems, and I'm no exception. So here in order, are the poem and the poem referencing the poem: Nope. Now that I reread this poem,
- [Ekphrastics ](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ekphrastics) - No, they're not acrostics--ekphrastics (sometimes spelled ecphrastics--but doesn't it seem more Greek with the k?) are written descriptions of a graphic work of art. Perhaps the most famous ekphrastic poem is Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts," about Breughel's painting, The Fall of Icarus, in which you can just see his leg to the right of
- [Some photos](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/some-photos) - One of the pleasures of social media is seeing some a variety of photos--I thought I'd include a few of my favorites here, with thanks to Simone Treacy-croft, Lynn Kiesewetter, Lisa Alvarez, Tess Kincade, Molly Fisk, and others. [slideshow_deploy id=1170]
- [What was she thinking?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/what-was-she-thinking) - is the title of a novel by Zoë Heller that I just finished. The fictionalized story of a 40-year old female teacher at a London high school who has a sexual relationship with a 15-year old boy, it's told from the point of view of an acerbic, older woman teacher, in the school. Barbara's observations
- [We're back](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/were-back) - After a long plane ride (this one was 11+ hours!), it often feels to me like I am still trailing molecules of myself along the flight path, and it takes awhile to feel reassembled in one place. Today, three days at home, I finally feel here. I celebrated by working on a poem and making a
- [Camus in Provence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/camus-in-provence) - I've been reading a copy of Camus' Notebooks, 1935-1942, while we tootle around Provence.He was in his early 20's when he wrote these. I came across this passage on travel: "What gives value to travel is fear. It is the fact that, at a certain moment, when we are so far from our own country...we
- [Choir of angels](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/choir-of-angels) - The little hill towns of Provence, with their tile roves and stone streets and buildings can't help but seem picturesque. The plumbing and electricity may have been frightfully hard to install, and they may be damp and cold in winter, but as you drive through the hills, their charm is irresistible. Yesterday we visited several.
- [Huichol VW](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/huichol-vw) - It was raining hard our last day in Paris, so instead of wandering around Montmartre, we decided on Musée Quai Brainly. This museum houses primitive art from all over the world. Its design was very controversial--there is a long ramp up with nothing to see, and then you are in dimly lit halls with many
- [A sign and a statue](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/a-sign-and-a-statue) - Walking around the streets of New York City is such a pleasure. Here is my favorite sign, from in front of Whole Foods in Union Square: I told him I'd post this. Be sure to text if you're interested. And here's a photo from our one ticketed event. We walked up the scaffold built around
- [My grand transformational process](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/my-grand-transformational-process) - This morning, Larry read part of David Brooks' column on the driving economic force of grandiose entrepreneurs. Of course, Steve Jobs would be a prime example, but Brooks focused on Elon Musk, whose serial entrepreneurship has made him a billionaire. While still in college (or maybe graduate school) he identified three areas that he felt
- [International Book Week](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/international-book-week) - To celebrate International Book Week, open to the book closest to you right now. Turn to page 52. Copy the fifth sentence in the comments section below. Don't mention the title. Thanks to Bill Noble for this idea! "Voice: Croaking and growling sounds, mainly at nest site."
- [Luminous vegetables](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/luminous-vegetables) - In past gardens, I've planted rows of things--many of each plant. In this year's garden, I limited myself: one zucchini, two eggplant, three cucumbers, five tomatoes. I didn't want to get overwhelmed at harvest. As it is, the productivity of these few plants is astounding. And an unexpected benefit, when you only have a few
- [Sliver of moon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/sliver-of-moon) - I've been thinking about this poem by Martha Ronk. It seems to me to be about a full moon. The Moon over L.A. The moon moreover spills onto the paving stone once under foot. Plants it there one in front. She is no more than any other except her shoulders forever. Keep riding she says
- [Where metaphors come from](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/where-metaphors-come-from) - The young chickens--all four of them--have successfully integrated with the existing flock. Despite the dire predictions of my local chicken expert, the older hens did not kill or try to kill the young birds. I followed the advice of the "Chicken Whisperer," who appeared last year at the Albany library. I bought her book City
- [The fascination of translation](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-fascination-of-translation) - I don't know exactly why translating poetry is so fascinating. For me, it's a way to work on a poem when I have no ideas of my own. The demands of translation--the fact that a literal translation just won't do, and that you have to try to somehow capture the spirit of the poem without
- [Some thoughts on the common toad](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/some-thoughts-on-the-common-toad) - Most of us read 1984 or Animal Farm in high school. But I think it's in his essays that Orwell is without peer. They've just published his diaries, seventy-odd years after his death. Based on the reviews they seem mostly to track his domestic, gardening and husbandry concerns. I was excited to read that he
- [Houston, we have liftoff](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/houston-we-have-liftoff) - After weeks of brush clearing, part ordering, putting up insulators, and stringing wire, we have a functioning electric fence surrounding the chicken run. Since Tuesday, when we went live, I heard the foxes the first morning--that is I heard the chickens sounding their raucous alarm--but have not seen any foxes and they have not been
- [Tournament ball](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/tournament-balli) - Yesterday I went to watch Larry's team (the Blue) play in the championship game for his over-65 league, the Creakers. They pulled it off in the bottom of the 9th, winning by one run. Because women were doing the photography, I got this shot of Larry making a key play at first base. Women tend
- [A day late](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-day-late) - Once in awhile a strong aversion to poetry comes over me, a sort of distaste for its pretentiousness. Like Marianne Moore, I, too, don't like it. Yesterday was one of those days, and despite reading through a number of things, I couldn't select one to send out, although it was Poetry Monday. But this morning
- [Corny](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/corny) - Corn is one of the few vegetables left with a true season--basically August. You might find a sweet ear or two earlier or later, but with corn, fresh-picked ripe ears are the real treat, and they're available for about one month each year. I tried to grow corn last year, but learned that you need
- [Quelle surprise!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/quelle-surprise) - In my desultory explorations for new poetry, I opened an anthology over breakfast and found this: I Pick Up a Hitchhiker After a few miles he tells me that my car has no engine. I pull over, and we both get out and look under the hood. He's right. We don't say anything more about
- [The Sunday paper](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/the-sunday-paper) - Larry has been playing in an over-70 softball tournament in Manteca (think 100 degrees in the sun). His team beat all but one rogue over-65 team. And even though he's tired after 6 games in the heat, he's been reading me excerpts from Jim Murray's autobiography. Larry grew up reading Jim Murray's sports columns in
- [Voodoo fox](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/more-on-the-foxes) - One of the good things to come from the fox depredation is that my neighbors have been stopping by and asking "What happened to the rooster?" They greet his loss with genuine sorrow. How many people live in a community that enjoys a noisy rooster? Last night, one of my talented neighbors gave me a
- [Simplicity](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/simplicity) - There are few poets who can write something as apparently simple as this and make it work, but Bill Merwin is one. As Larry said, when I read it to him--a poem like this really depends on the ending. This one carries the weight effortlessly. I've posted a poem of Merwin's before, and just found
- [Starting with a recipe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/starting-with-a-recipe) - One of the blogs I read, Garden for the House by Kevin Lee Jacobs, often has recipes I try. This one, for zucchini fritters, is timely. Anyone who plants even one squash plant in their garden soon has more squash than they can use. In my case, I have several volunteer plants that aren't exactly
- [Four Poets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/four-poets) - "Luxury is who you're with," my friend Maureen said years ago, and one of the true luxuries in my life is to be part of a group of poets I respect who meet regularly to discuss our work. Two of the poets I met at the Squaw Valley Poetry Workshop in 2001, and we have
- [Class](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/class) - Driving around yesterday, Larry was moved to comment by a vanity license plate on the car in front of us (which happened to be a Cadillac). "A vanity plate is the ultimate low-class affectation. I'm sure there are no brown, four-year old Plymouths driving around with vanity plates." I pointed out that there are no
- [Outfoxed](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/outfoxed) - Metaphors aren't usually driven home with the force that I experienced on Friday. I had brought the hen and chicks to a new cage in the garden next to the house, and (I thought) secured the area with bird net. I left for an hour at about 9:30, and when I came home, all that
- [Morning cup of joe...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/morning-cup-of-joe) - This morning, Larry read me a terrific column by David Brooks, The Credit Illusion, about who gets credit for personal achievements. Really, it was more of a philosophical essay on the stages of maturity--I don't think Nietzsche could have done it any better. Larry prefaced the reading by saying, "Those of us who read the
- [While I was gone...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/while-i-was-gone) - Camping was only one of several recent adventures--about two weeks worth. In my absence, the garden has been burgeoning. The labyrinth is hardly labyrinthine anymore, it's so overgrown, and a sweet potato flower has curled into the driveway. The back is full of vegetables. We're eating the tomatoes
- [More on Jack Gilbert](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/more-on-jack-gilbert) - Littoral Press is printing a new book of poems by Steven Rood, I Say Their Names. Among the poems is this one referencing Jack Gilbert, which he kindly allowed me to post here: Last Things The old man still wants to write poems. But can’t see or make a pen work. He also repeats things. He
- [An Exemplary Sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/an-exemplary-sentence) - It’s been awhile since I came across a sentence or paragraph that made me really stop and consider. This one did: Most people assume that meaning is embedded in the words they speak. But , according to forensic linguists, meaning is far more vaporous, teased into existence though vocalized puffs of air, hand gestures, body
- [Newly hatched](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/newly-hatched) - We're back, and on the day we returned, the eggs the broody hen had been setting on hatched. We have six new baby chicks, all offspring of Malawi and his hens. Surely at least one will be a rooster. Really, hopefully only one, with the rest hens! WE have many garden and chick chores to
- [We're #9](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/were-9) - Although I don't go so far as to attend Larry's softball games, I'm very happy to cheer from afar. So let me announce that of all the over-70 softball tournament teams in Northern California, from Fresno to the Oregon border, Larry's team, Direct Floors, is #9. There are many teams, but only the top 15 are
- [Out and back before 9:30 am, no ticket needed](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/out-and-back-before-930-am-no-ticket-needed) - This morning I was reading the selection of Jack Gilbert's poems from the second of the small Bloodaxe anthologies I stumbled on at UCB. I liked a number of poems--a pleasant surprise. I think I've mentioned before that my first reaction to a new poem/poet is a kind of wariness. For me the sensibility of
- [Lowbrow?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/lowbrow) - Years ago Larry and his friends conceived of a mythical motorcycle club called the Lowbrows. Their motto was "I'm a lowbrow. You figure it out." (I never saw their motto written out, but I imagine lowbrows don't use semicolons.) I don't think the club had any purpose, it was more of a riff. But it
- [Malawi's memorial](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/malawis-memorial) - After letting the rooster rest in the refrigerator for a couple of days, I turned him into stock and used the stock and some of the breast meat to make a memorial dinner. I was going to use just his meat, but most of it was too tough, so I added some commercial chicken breasts. I
- [Death in the morning, an elegy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/death-in-the-morning-an-elegy) - This morning I woke to squawking from the chickens. I didn't think much of it; they're often noisy in the morning. But it went on, and I went out in time to see a large grey fox with feathers in his mouth standing in the corner of the run. He stared as I approached, and
- [Robinson Jeffers](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/robinson-jeffers) - At one time, Jeffers was quite the rage, but by the time he died in 1962 he fallen almost completely out of fashion. Today he is mostly known as an early environmentalist. Nonetheless, his best work is still fresh, and as today is Monday, here's a sample. The only thing out-of-date in this poem is 'milch
- [Mandelstam, Olympic trials, memories of Oregon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/mandelstam-olympic-trials-memories-of-oregon) - The other day I mentioned the poem about Stalin that led to Mandelstam's exile and eventual death. Mandelstam recited it to a gathering of intellectuals at Boris Pasternak's home one evening. Someone at that gathering informed on him. (Someone will always inform, and have their reasons. We each think it would not be us.) In any
- [Monday, Monday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/monday-monday-2) - Does anyone remember the Mamas and the Papas? Of course, but only with nostalgia. Back in the 70s Larry commented that their music was dated. It startled me at the time, but of course, he was right. They are their period. This morning, talking about the implications of the election in Egypt, Larry said, "I
- [Newbies](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/newbies) - Actually , new bees! Those of you who have been following this blog may remember the great adventure of the Haengekorb, in which my friend Laurie and I went to Sebastapol and bought a unique hanging basket hive, because I wanted bees and she had a swarm. we set up the hive, Laurie donned her
- [What's in a metaphor?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/whats-in-a-metaphor) - I have been rereading Tony Hoagland's essays on poetry, called real sofistikashun. I've quoted from his poetry before. It's a wonderfully readable book: lucid, insightful, and packed with analysis that actually illuminates what it discusses. I read it a few years ago, but it was during a bad time for me, and I didn't absorb
- [The one...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-one) - I thought I should revisit my "Blogs I read" listing, and discovered in the process that C. Dale is no longer adding to his blog, Avoiding the Muse. But I found an interesting question there: which poem first captured your imagination? Or as he put it: many poets can trace back and name the poem that first
- [Musing on Hopkins, Beckett and Louis C. K.](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/musing-on-hopkins-beckett-and-louis-c-k) - Larry was getting ready last night to get up at 5:30 am and head out for his weekend softball tournament. Now that he's turned 70, he's moved up from the over-65 to the over-70 tournament team, and as one of the youngest players, he's in demand. He mentioned that he had to lay out all
- [What's news?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/whats-news) - The air you breathe may be killing you. More at 11. Okay, this isn't a real leader for the news, but it represents the whole take on news these days--the scarier the better. I remember Emily Littella's protest against "violins on television," and the Kingston Trio's Merry Minuet. There is always so much to worry about!
- [Sunday breakfast from the backyard](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/sunday-breakfast-from-the-backyard) - Today is a perfect Bay Area gem: warm, no fog looming, and the garden flourishing. I wandered out to feed the chickens and was seduced by the first English peas fat enough to pick. I pulled up a few scallions, cut some spinach, and added a few springs of basil and tarragon from the labyrinth.
- [This tent...](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/this-tent) - I've been up on the McCloud River for a few days, camping and learning how to fly fish--or at least how to cast. While there, I was reminded (by sleeping in one) how much I dislike tents--though maybe I'd like a bedouin tent better than zippered nylon from REI. I came home to an email
- [A poem by Bei Dao](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-poem-by-bei-dao) - I thought I'd include a slightly more "difficult" poem in my radically accessible series. It's a poem in translation, so it's one step removed from the original, which may account for some of its obliqueness. It's difficult only in that the images don't connect in a completely linear fashion. Still, the sense comes through clearly,
- [Eating locally?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/eating-locally) - Today I made a frittata that came 100% from my back yard (if you include the shiitake mushrooms that came from my next door neighbor's back yard). It had favas, kale, potatoes, mushrooms, scallions, green garlic, tarragon and garlic chives. I was thinking about the amount of time it took to produce this simple meal,
- [Wilbur could not rescue Plath](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/wilbur-could-not-rescue-plath) - Thanks to my daughter, who forwarded on this poem, about a meeting in which Richard Wilbur was recruited to encourage Sylvia Plath after a suicide attempt: Cottage Street, 1953 Framed in her phoenix fire-screen, Edna Ward Bends to the tray of Canton, pouring tea For frightened Mrs. Plath; then, turning toward The pale, slumped daughter,
- [Favas and Fussell](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/favas-and-fussell) - In the garden, the favas are burgeoning. They're a pleasure to pick, shell, peel, and eat, though a bit of work. They have a wonderful nutty texture and a lovely green taste. They are great sautéed with a little garlic, or added to a salad or stir fry. While I was peeling them I was
- [A Sunday walk](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/a-sunday-walk) - We decided to head to Inspiration Point for a late afternoon walk yesterday. As we were leaving our street, we saw two tiny fauns and a doe in our neighbor's yard, right by the car. The fauns were nursing. Though I'm not a huge fan of deer--those ravenous despoilers of gardens!--it was an amazing sight.
- [Raising the bar](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/raising-the-bar) - This morning Larry pointed out an article in the paper about a robotic arm. The woman in the picture was able to get the arm to raise a sippy cup to her lips through thought. She thought the command and the arm raised the cup. "How can it do that?" I wondered. "I don't know,"
- [Radically Accessible Poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/radicallyaccessiblepoetry) - I've been thinking about an online journal, maybe called Radically Accessible Poetry. The poems in the journal would be anything I wanted to publish. The only criterion for publication is that they have an immediate impact. Of course, I would be the judge of that. It's a tempting idea because so much poetry seems unavailable--that
- [Mrs. Darbyshire](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/mrs-darbyshire) - Forty-two years ago, we spent the summer in a little town outside Dublin with our then four-month old daughter. Larry would mostly take off during the day, which left me lots of time to become friendly with the curious neighbors. Mrs. Daryshire had the baby and me over for tea one day, and I loved
- [Larry makes his wishes known](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/larry-makes-his-wishes-known) - We finally got a small freezer and put it in the laundry room right across from the washer/dryer. Of course, it immediately also became a repository of clothing. This is problematic, as the lid opens. When I came home from LA, I went in to do my laundry and noticed a sign: It made its
- [The traveling show](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/the-traveling-show) - Last year I read at the Falkirk Center in San Rafael with four other poets as part of the Marin Poetry Center's Summer Traveling Show. I was very pleasantly surprised at how good the event was, and was glad to be part of it. So this year, I'm doing it again: Thursday May 17, 2012 7:00
- [Growth spurt](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/labyrinths/growth-spurt) - In March, the labyrinth was looking great. We were eating greens and herbs from it daily, and spring flowers were beginning to bloom. Two weeks of rainy weather, then sun, then travel, produced a dramatic burgeoning! By the time I got home from New York, the paths were overgrown, and all the greens had gone
- [Story and poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/story-and-poem) - From that same issue of Poetry East I mentioned earlier, I came across a poem by Thomas Lynch, another poet new to me. His day job is listed variously as funeral director or undertaker, a thought-provoking trade for a poet. I imagine it keeps him grounded. In this issue of the magazine, each poet writes a
- [More art, inside and out](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/more-art-inside-and-out) - At the Met, the permanent collections, the paintings that you just pass by on the way to the "exhibits," are so compelling. It's strange to think of people simply strolling by something like Henri Regnault's giant image of Salome (1870) with eyes too full to notice it, but I'm sure it happens all the time.
- [Hype and some heart](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/hype-and-some-heart) - At the Met in NY this week there is a small exhibit of pen and ink drawings by Dürer and others. The exhibit is just three rooms. I liked many by German artists I'd never heard of, like this one from 1549, Behan's aptly titled Head of a Man Wearing a Hat, Sticking Out His
- [Last in this series](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/last-in-this-series) - To finish this three-part series, a few months ago I heard a poem by L. A. Jones, a fellow attendee of the Squaw Valley Poetry Workshop, and recognized snippets from NPR--snippets that related to information that I'd heard and pondered and half-forgotten. I liked what she did with these and Lisa graciously allowed me to publish:
- [Oops, one more](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/oops-one-more) - Just when I thought I was finished with this topic for the moment, I came across this poem in an old copy of Poetry East. How Western Underwear Came to Japan When Tokyo's Shirokiya Drygoods caught fire in the thirties, shopgirls tore the shelves' kimonos and knotted them in ropes. Older women used both hands,
- [Preparing for Passover](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/preparing-for-passover) - As the chickens begin to lay eggs in earnest, the spring festivals approach. It's no accident that these events require a lot of eggs--in my house, we need them for Passover. My pale green Americana eggs go perfectly with the holiday, and I'm supplementing with quail eggs, as these should please the children especially and
- [More awakenings](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/more-awakenings) - Following yesterday's post about poems that try to make sense of the constant data we swim in, here's one by Dean Young, from his booking, Fall Higher. The Tony in this poem is the Tony Hoagland from yesterday. Some Recent and New Errors My books are full of mistakes but not the ones Tony’s always
- [Awake in America](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/awake-in-america) - How can we process the barrage of data in which we live? It's hard to make sense of the huge events that shape current history, and yet here they are, paraded in front of us replayed at 6, 9, 10, 11 and in-between, mingled with small horrors, trivia, obligation, inspiration--an overwhelming soup, seasoned with complicity
- [Rained out again](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/rained-out-again) - This is the third Tuesday (out of four) that Larry's softball team, the Blues, has been unable to play due to rain. Larry's comment on their website: "I never thought the Blues would remain undefeated this late in the season." And for the poetically inclined, a short poem from two years ago, that this year
- [California's got four](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/californias-got-four) - San Francisco's fine, You sure get lots of sun, But I'm used to four seasons, California's got but one. cc California, Bob Dylan When I first came here, I thought Dylan was right about the seasons, though not so much
- [Virginia Woolf's exemplary sentences](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/virginia-woolfs-exemplary-sentences) - Yesterday I got tired of driving around to PBS, SIrius/XM, KCSM, and got several books on CD from the library. (I miss Henderson!) I started with The Voyage Out. I probably read this decades ago, but have no memory of it. That's the good thing about memory loss, Larry might say, you can hide your
- [A new poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-new-poem) - For my morning reading, last time I was at the Albany Library I gathered up a handful of poetry anthologies. I thought I should just look at some new poems, even braced as I am against new poets. I was pleasantly surprised by the first poem in the book, by Meg Kearney, someone I'd never read. Nature Poetry
- [Bagels and donuts](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/bagels-and-donuts) - It's another monsoon-like early morning here in Berkeley and Larry and I went to our favorite local breakfast spot, Sunnyside Cafe (they're an unpretentious place and don't accent the "e"). Larry had the smoked salmon scramble. For toast, he asked if they had bagels. "No," answered the waitress, "but we have English muffins. Same shape
- [Long marriage](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/long-marriage) - "What one wants in the person one lives with is that they should keep one at one's best," says Clarissa Dalloway in The Voyage Out (see yesterday's post--I really am having trouble getting places as I listen!). As Shakespeare does with Polonius, Virginia gives us a foolish character who occasionally says something intriguing. Clarissa's is a very mixed portrait in this book,
- [The morning after](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/the-morning-after) - Yesterday I posted David Tanis' recipe for a gluten-free soufflé using mashed potatoes. We had a lot of leftover soufflé, and remembering what Chef Mahar did with the leftover risotto, I thought leftover soufflé was similar. So I put a little butter and some almond oil (I could have used olive oil, or canola, or
- [Rising without flour](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/rising-without-flour) - Once in awhile I see a recipe in the paper that I actually make. This one, one, a soufflé made with mashed potatoes instead of flour, is from David Tanis, a Chez Panisse chef. I happened to have the ingredients on hand, so it became last night's dinner. I made a few substitutions: about 1/3 of a cup of
- [The exemplary sentence and the elusive world](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/the-exemplary-sentence-and-the-elusive-world) - I realize I have collected a number of sentences about imagination vs. reality. “What a gulf between the self which experiences and the self which describes experience.” Edmund Wilson, I Thought of Daisy from the last one of these posts “Life is not what we live; it is what we imagine we are living.” Pascal Mercier,
- [Mad as a wet hen](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/mad-as-a-wet-hen) - Actually, the hens don't seem so much mad as unhappy. They huddle under their roof and don't want to go out and scratch around. But the rain was a gift for Larry this morning, as he belongs to an over-60 softball league, the Creakers. You may remember them from an earlier post. And the photo
- [Bouquets to Art](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/bouquets-to-art) - For one week in the spring, the De Young Museum is transformed into a unique floral event, one in which florists from the greater Bay Area are invited to represent a piece of art with a floral creation. Florists select their first, second and third choices, but may get a piece they didn't bargain on--and then
- [You are what you read](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/you-are-what-you-read) - Having a cup of tea early Saturday morning at a bakery in Venice (CA), a couple with a young son were sitting at the table next to me. The parents were reading, the boy--maybe 5 or 7 years old--was playing a math game on a PDA. I looked up when the boy was asking for
- [Seedlings and a recipe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/seedlings-and-a-recipe) - It's full spring here in Northern California, with seedlings popping up on their own, seedlings planted for the garden, and a general rush of growth. I went though the labyrinth and potted up a tray of small geraniums like this one that had self-seeded all over the paths, and took them along with some marigold
- [The exemplary sentence, take 3](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/the-exemplary-sentence-take-3) - Here are some notes from the little pad I keep inside my purse to capture the stray sentence or idea, or in Brenda Hillman's words, to be a rancher of phrases. These are all the more pleasing to me because they are surrounded by directions, movie and book titles, stray phone numbers. We got ready
- [Snippets](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/snippets) - Over breakfast we have have some pretty far ranging conversations. I am usually reading some poems (lately a selection Larry put together of his Berryman favorites), Larry is reading the Wall St. Journal or the NY Times. I read parts of these, too, the "soft" parts. I try to avoid the news, letting Larry be
- [In praise of Berryman](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/in-praise-of-berryman) - I perfect my metres until no mosquito can get through… Beryman, Dreamsong 297 In the vagaries of poets' reputations, Berryman is now up, while Lowell is down. This is a reversal of thirty years ago. Who can say why? I fell in love with Berryman's Dreamsongs in my early twenties. They have two ongoing personae:
- [Automation in the chicken coop](https://www.merylnatchez.com/practical/inventions-and-tools/automation-in-the-chicken-coop) - I love my chickens, but I also love to travel. I have already set up automated feed and watering systems and thanks to a friend who came to visit, I now have an automated chicken door that opens at dawn and closes at dusk. This amazing invention is from Wells Poultry in the UK, and
- [The problem with Lowell](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-problem-with-lowell) - I woke from dreams of not getting where I needed to be in a foreign country of endless lines and confusing roads. Somewhere there was a cafe, somewhere a bay. But I couldn't find them. And for some reason, I took out the brick of Robert Lowell's collected poems for my morning reading. Why has
- [Cluck and Glück](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/cluck-and-gluck) - I didn't know that Louise Gluck pronounced her name to rhyme with "click," but that's how it is. She read on Thursday night at Moe's (yes, we still have a few bookstores in Berkeley!). It was a pleasure to listen to her read though she announced at the start that she doesn't like to read. I had
- [The exemplary sentence](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence) - I saw this idea on Mark Doty's blog and immediately adopted it. I've been saving sentences for decades, and just now am rereading Saul Bellow's Henderson the Rain King. This is the only one of Bellow's books I've ever liked, but I really love it and it holds up wonderfully since I first read it
- [The exemplary sentence, take 2](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/prose/the-exemplary-sentence-take-2) - I recently finished Night Train to Lisbon, by the Swiss author, Pascal Mercier, translated by Barbara Harshav. This is another book about a quest. In most ways, Henderson and Gregorius could not be more opposite: Henderson a flamboyant, wandering millionaire seeking the meaning of life, and Gregorius a scholar of Greek and Latin, nicknamed Papyrus
- [The paw of time](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-paw-of-time) - My friend Simone sent me a link to an unusual online art exhibit. There is a certain charm to these simple watercolors, "made anonymously in India (especially in Rajasthan) by practitioners of Tantrism." After looking through them, I was moved especially by The Paw of Time. It seemed so intuitively accurate to me. I wrote
- [Slug fest](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/slug-fest) - It was a misty, moisty morning, a perfect day for slugs (if not for banana fish). I walked the labyrinth several times, to pick them off the greens. Each time I gathered a handful, which the chickens got to enjoy right away: I like
- [Appropos of nothing](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/appropos-of-nothing) - I received this poem in my email this morning, and think it's worth reprinting here. I love how the poet starts off in a folksy way, as if Galileo were a friend, and the poet was simply remembering a conversation. Then the images of blowing paper and terrified squirrel leap and flutter on the page,
- [Sad, jailed piano](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/sad-jailed-piano) - From my morning walk in Venice--a photo: And in sympathy, all the normally white parts of my computer screen, like this page, have turned florescent pink. Blog posting will be suspended while I seek expert help.
- [Poets and their mothers](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poets-and-their-mothers) - I’ve been reading Adam Zagajewski’s recent book of poetry, Unseen Hand, translated by Clare Cavanagh. Zagajewski writes in Polish, and I’ve long admired his work. I encountered this poem of his just after I had reread a poem of Larry’s about envisioning his mother’s funeral. Yes, Larry, too is a poet. His poem is from
- [Rain rain beautiful rain](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/rain-rain-beautiful-rain) - Do you know that song by Ladysmith Black Mambazo? It's been in my mind these last rainy days after such a long stretch of winter sun. I love looking out and watching storms move over the bay. Of course, the chickens don't share my enthusiasm, and huddle in the roofed area around their house. I
- [Wild and Weegee](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/wild-and-weegee) - Waiting for the late baby, I had time to notice the streets of Venice. It isn't really surprising that a city that was originally a pleasure park, with canals crafted after the developer had been to Venice, has it's wacky aspects. The slideshow provides a few: %%wppa%% %%album=6%% I also had time to head over to
- [The peculiar behavior of chickens](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/the-peculiar-behavior-of-chickens) - I've been letting the chickens out into the winter garden to weed and fertilize. I cover or fence off the few crops I don't want them to eat. But the chickens are curious and persistent. Yesterday, they managed to peel back the ground cover over the last cauliflower and strip it: This seemed odd to
- [The Late Baby](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/the-late-baby) - I spent the last few weeks in LA, mostly waiting for a grandson, who was born just a week ago. More about some LA sights later this week. Suffice it to say that there is plenty of weirdness in the sun-drenched streets of Venice. In the meantime, Larry reminded me of this wonderful poem by
- [Olive: the movie](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/olive-the-movie) - You may remember that for a week or so last summer, our house was host to a movie crew, and I got to meet one of my favorite actresses. Now the movie, which I wasn't allowed to talk about then, is out. Gena Rowlands, John Scurti (who you may know from the TV Show "Rescue Me"),
- [Low key](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/low-key) - The blog will be taking a short break here, with two winter haiku (or really just very short poems). Winter Haiku morning hidden in fog: a gift wrapped in cool white tissue torn wrapping paper piled by the fireplace the holiday’s over
- [Inside or Out?](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/recipes/inside-or-out) - No, not Santa's whiskers and the covers, but stuffing and the turkey. I've been making big holiday dinners for decades. Until I found and tested this recipe from the NY Times, I've always thought that stuffing had to be in the bird. It just didn't have that special stuffing wonderfulness any other way. But since
- [Fashion in Poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/fashion-in-poetry) - Poets, like hemlines, go in and out of fashion. Poetic styles, too, have their day and then seem shopworn, archaic. For a long time, rhyme was out of style. Poets who rhymed with regularity, the whole cannon of them, were dismissed as too restricted. Free verse, experimental verse, anything but rhyme was in. But rhyme
- [Blake Garden](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/blake-garden) - In North Berkeley, tucked off Arlington Avenue across from the library, is a street called Rincon Road. If you turn onto it, after a few hundred yards you come upon an imposing gate, behind which is the Blake Garden created in the twenties by the wife of then UC President Anson Blake and Mabel Symmes,
- [Beethoven's birthday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/beethovens-birthday) - Yes it's today. Or actually, December 17 is the date of his baptism. In homage to this famously cranky individual, I thought I'd print a little rant on Cafe Gratitude, a Northern California restaurant chain. Cafe Gratitude's statement about itself says it's "a collection of 100% organic vegan restaurants specializing in gourmet raw and cooked
- [Marvelous Merwin](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/marvelous-merwin) - I recently gave what may be my last business presentation at a conference in Austin. It was about finding a sustainable career path, and I ended it with this poem by W. S. Merwin (last year's US Poet Laureate). To me it exemplifies what is wonderful about his work--the thought provoking concept, the spareness of
- [Winter garden](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/winter-garden) - The weather here in Northern California has been wonderfully sunny and warm for the last week or so, giving me time to get the labyrinth ready for winter, take down old tomato vines, and get the beds ready for planting. For the labyrinth, I trimmed and added garlic and greens, along with new pebbles for
- [A new look, a new poem](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/a-new-look-a-new-poem) - I was getting tired of the heading for the blog, and also have enough posts that some might want to browse by categories. Melissa Donovan whose skill, patience, and advice were so helpful in setting up the blog in the beginning, did the update last night. Hope you like it. To inaugurate the new look, I
- [Bob Hass and Jim (Royal Dick) Rathmann](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/bob-hass-and-jim-royal-dick-rathmann) - These two people have nothing in common, one a famous poet and teacher the other a renowned race car driver, except that I was reading first the obituary of Jim Rathmann in the NY Times this morning, and then Bob's poem "Shame: an Aria." Larry was reading to me Jim Rathmann's obituary over breakfast (vegetable
- [Art and the pursuit thereof](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/art-and-the-pursuit-thereof) - Looking this morning at Bob Ross's website made me reflect again on the difference between creating art and the effort of getting one's art known. I know so many truly talented people in whose work outshines most of what is generally known and praised. For me, these two areas, the work and the promotion of the
- [Dia de los Muertos](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/dia-de-los-muertos) - We have been celebrating Dia de los Muertos every year since at least 1979. Neither Larry nor I can remember exactly how the tradition started, except that we read about the celebrations in Mexico and liked the idea of integrating death into a celebration--a positively unamerican approach. In Mexico, Dia de los Muertos is a
- [Ann Patchett](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/ann-patchett) - I came to Bel Canto late because I don't usually like best sellers. But Ann Patchett is a terrific writer. She really knows how to spin a plot, and creates wonderful images. I read her new book, State of Wonder on my trip back east. Is there anything more reassuring when one travels than to
- [Room with a view](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/room-with-a-view) - Goldfinches by day, sun set in the middle of the Golden Gate, and a poem that expresses the delight of a favorable day: On Being Asked to Define Bourgeois Individuality This poem is about being middle class. It is about having time left over. Kings have no time left over, they have to kill
- [Bernini in San Francisco](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/bernini-in-san-francisco) - The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we went over to the Palace of the Legion of Honor to see the Bernini Medusa. There is something extraordinarily moving about Bernini's work, dating from the 1600's. This head of Medusa shows her as she was changing from a beautiful woman to a snake-headed monster. (It doesn't pay to make
- [Thankful](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/thankful) - Amidst all the mawkish display of phony thankfulness one is subjected to this time of year, I want to give a small cheer for the articulate, opinionated work of Christopher Hitchens. On Larry's suggestion, I've been reading some of the essays in that doorstop of a collection, Arguably. This morning, I happened on the little
- [Poetry and Pastry, Thursday, June 16 at 7 pm  ](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/poetry-and-pastry-thursday-june-16-at-7-pm) - I will be reading with several others at the historic Falkirk Cultural Center, 1408 Mission Street San Rafael. As I have some poems about food, I’m bringing some home baked treats to go along with them. The reading is part of the Marin Poetry Center’s summer reading series. Hope to see you there. Host: Laurel
- [Miscellany](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/miscellany) - William Burroughs, a guy with a weird imagination if there ever was one (Dr. Benway, I presume?), wore plain gray suits to preserve a certain public anonymity. I feel the same way about bumper stickers. I want my gray car to blend into the flow of traffic, unnoticed by all. Not to mention that if
- [Break in the action](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/break-in-the-action)
- [Back from the woods](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/back-from-the-woods) - The bear did not care for Gruyere:
- [Unplanned outing](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/unplanned-outing) - I had an unexpected chance to go on a walk on Mt. Tamalpais today, guided by David Lukas, who describes himself as a "freelance naturalist." His guide, Sierra Nevada Birds is worth owning. I know of him from the walks he leads at the Squaw Valley Poetry Workshop. On those walks, it seems to me
- [Sin Buffet](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/sin-buffet) - The services at Mendocino Coast Jewish Community Center are uniquely meaningful, thanks largely to Rabbi Margaret Holub. Margaret brings a transcendent spirituality to the services and innovation to the rituals. The singing, the harmonies, the relevance of the sermon, are all a contrast to what I grew up with. This year, I was lucky to attend
- [A few New England snaps](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/a-few-new-england-snaps) - As a complement to the cactus and succulents on Abbot Kinney, I found their New England equivalent on Huntington Avenue in Boston: Here's my favorite sign from Western Massachusetts--a little free publicity for Tony, in case any of you have some fresh deer to slaughter. Along with a taste of that great fall color--I love
- [Collective kvetching](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/collective-kvetching) - From the NY Subway: Working together turns individual kvetching into collective problem solving I enjoyed both the expression of the idea (only in NY!) and the contrast between the idea and the crew sitting in front of it.
- [Extreme Money](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/extreme-money) - Larry is reading Extreme Money, by Satyjit Das. Although it's dense, it has some great quotes, that he occasionally reads to me. In this one, Warren Buffet foresaw the end of the financial bubble, before the most recent market crash: "Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money ... normally sensible people drift into
- [Poetry reading](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/poetry-reading) - A few weeks ago I was wondering if there was anything worse than a bad poetry reading--sitting captive in a low-ceilinged room in an uncomfortable chair listening to words that don't seem to relate any meaning. The person I was complaining to asked why I go. I go for the kind of experience I had
- [Lit crit](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lit-crit) - I've been slowly reading through a 1992 issue of a British literary magazine called "Verse," which Larry found amid his books. It features Donald Justice, a poet I really like. I memorized this sonnet of his, which he wrote to get into John Berryman's seminar at Iowa. According to Larry, who told me this story,
- [In the toilet](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/in-the-toilet) - I have forgotten to include in this blog my most prestigious credential to date. I was selected as Poet Laureate of the World Toilet Organization. This seems like an honor appropriate to my station. It came about in this way. Friends in rural California had been living a trailer while they built a new house—a project
- [Trombone tales](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/trombone-tales) - Larry went to a San Francisco Jazz event last night, Robin Eubanks talking and playing about the history of the jazz trombone. Robin told a story about Sun Ra, the jazz composer and "Arkestra" leader. Sun Ra was on the phone one day trying to make arrangements to take the band to Canada, and Robin overheard his part
- [Another day, another breakfast](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/another-day-another-breakfast) - We had our annual Dia de los Muertos party on Sunday, and I plan to post some photos and info from that, but that's more than I have time for today. Over fried zucchini, onions, and garlic from the garden and fresh eggs from the chickens, Larry pointed out an appreciative article on Guy Clark from
- [Submitting my work](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/submitting-my-work) - I've had a very ambivalent relationship to submitting poetry to magazines for publication. I don't read small literary magazines, so why submit to them? And if you pay the reading fee to enter a contest, they just pile up unread on the shelf, an unpleasant reminder of the problems of publication. On the other hand,
- [Chris Maher Marathon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/chris-maher-marathon) - Remember the chef who came to dinner? Chris Maher, the chef, was teaching some cooking classes in LA, and arranged to teach a Thai cooking class on Sunday at my house. There were eight of us, learning everything from how to hold a knife and chop an onion, to tricks for making Thai green chile
- [Movie, garden, poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/movie-garden-poetry) - This clematis lived in a pot for five years and is finally in the ground, thriving. It almost died several times, and I wasn't sure it would make it after the final transplant--it was just a bundle of brown sticks. My landscaper friend said it had no chance. Now it looks better than it ever
- [Larry on flat tax](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/larry-on-flat-tax) - A lot of people have been sending around an email about a 28th ammendment--along with Warren Buffet's great quote about the budget deficit: "I could end the deficit in 5 minutes," he told CNBC. "You just pass a law that says that anytime there is a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting
- [Roberto Chavez at the Autry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/roberto-chavez-at-the-autry) - For those of you au courant with the art world, there's a dramatic set of exhibitions of Los Angeles artists happening in Southern California. Sponsored by the Getty, and called "Pacific Standard Time: Arti n L.A. 1945-1980." I went to the opening of one show at the Autry called Art Along the Hyphen: The Mexican-American
- [Rainy day in New England](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/rainy-day-in-new-england) - It's cold and rainy today with a definite feel of the coming of winter. It reminded me of this poem by Robert Mezey (one of that amazing group of students of John Berryman's at Iowa). His is a California fall poem, and it always gives me a shiver when I come to the last lines.
- [Sunny Southern California](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events/art/sunny-southern-california) - I’m on a 10-day jaunt—first LA, then Boston, New England, NY. (And just when the pullets have really started to lay!) More about the terrific art show we went to at the Autry Museum when I’m home and can post the photos. Meanwhile, here are a few shots from my cell phone while wandering along
- [Dr. Seuss plant](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/garden/dr-seuss-plant) - Every gardener has favorite plants. Mine is a little vine called Ceropegia Distincta. It looks like nothing but a lot of green sticks a lot of the time, and then suddenly sprouts tendrils and leaves. Little flower buds form that turn into white and purple polka dotted upside down umbrellas that look like an illustration
- [Bleh!](https://www.merylnatchez.com/philosophical/bleh) - Okay, time for a short rant about motivational pablum. Like Chicken Soup for the Soul (I'm NOT going to link to that), or the slightly more sophisticated message from Thich Nhat-Hanh which I saw on a blog I occasionally enjoy, An Improvised Life: “We often ask, “What’s wrong?” Doing so, we invite painful seeds of
- [From the 60s or maybe the 70s](https://www.merylnatchez.com/stuff-larry-sez/from-the-60s-or-maybe-the-70s) - Larry has been going though boxes, and found this note that I'd copied from a personal ad: Dear Johnny, Please come home. Your father promises he won't argue so much and he will call you by that bird-name. I can't quite imagine the personal ad my parents would have printed, but like this one, I
- [Lucky in lunch](https://www.merylnatchez.com/literature-2/poetry/lucky-lunch) - How lucky to live in the Bay Area, with its surfeit of poetry events. Today, I heard Bob Hass talk about and read from the work of Tomas Tranströmer and Czesław Miłosz. The one-hour event is from a series at UC called "Lunch Poems," and was billed as Hass reading from the work of Miłosz. News
- [Jamboree](https://www.merylnatchez.com/food/jamboree) - After the Kensington Farmer's Market on Sunday, I wound up with six flats of strawberries and two of peaches. So it's been jam, jelly, and fruit butter city here. And I'm not done! Because you need to cook the fruit in small batches to get it to gel, I've been adding various spices: ginger, cardamom,
- [First egg](https://www.merylnatchez.com/urban-farm/chickens/first-egg) - At last, when I looked in the nest box yesterday, I found a small, green egg: Americana chickens lay eggs that range in color from pale blue to olive green. I carried it up triumphantly and Larry dubbed it "the $500 egg." I will enjoy it with that in mind. As we are loading all

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.merylnatchez.com/) - Meryl Natchez’ latest book of poetry, Catwalk, blurbed by Jericho Brown, Lynn Emanuel, and David St. John, is available now from Longship Press and Amazon. Natchez’ previous books include a bilingual volume of translations from the Russian: Poems From the Stray Dog Café: Akhmatova, Mandelstam and Gumilev, and Tadeusz Borowski: Selected Poems. Her book of poems, Jade
- [Video & Audio](https://www.merylnatchez.com/videos) - Poets for Science reading with Forrest Gander, Kimiko Hahn, Jane Hirshfield & Meryl Natchez (there are about 12 minutes of introduction) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8cMlj1ScdI Poetry Flash reading with Dean Rader at Art house. Reading starts at about minute 7:30. An online Salon, hosted by Marin Poetry Center & Mill Valley Library:
- [Events](https://www.merylnatchez.com/events) - Significant Past Events Poets for Science (video here) Jane Hirshfield & Meryl Natchez Reading, Thursday November 19 @7pm PST Osher Marin JCC & Marin Poetry Center present two poets to read their work. They will talk about their experiences as writers during a time of crisis, the importance of community, and their shared sense of
- [Publications](https://www.merylnatchez.com/publications) - BOOKS Click here to order Catwalk, my new book of poems, released on June 23. Beautifully produced by Longship Press, and selected as a BEST INDIE BOOK 2020 by Kirkus Review. Here are the blurbs from the back cover: In Catwalk, Meryl Natchez casts the kind of spells that amount to a more precise definition for the
- [Broadsides](https://www.merylnatchez.com/broadsides) - Click to enlarge, or use forward/back arrows to click through all. Broadsides are $25 + postage & handling or free to subscribers of Merylnatchez.substack To order, contact: meryl.natchez@gmail.com
- [Prompts](https://www.merylnatchez.com/prompts) - Day 28 April 12 Nonce Form Today is the final day of my series. It's been great fun creating these pages, and the series will continue on the Marin Poetry Center Website, initially hosted by Rebecca Foust. This week includes Passover and Easter in this strange world of social distance. It's no longer a novelty,
- [Contact](https://www.merylnatchez.com/contact) - Please contact me using the form below...

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- [Serbo-Croatian proverbs](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/serbo-croatian-proverbs)
- [The Golden Apple](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/the-golden-apple)
- [Wolfgang Laib](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/wolfgang-laib)
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- [Natonal Museum of Women in the Arts](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/natonal-museum-of-women-in-the-arts)
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- [science fair](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/science-fair)
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- [women in science](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/women-in-science)
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- [Carol Anshaw](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/carol-anshaw)
- [Carry the One](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/carry-the-one)
- [Brigit Pegeen Kelley](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/brigit-pegeen-kelley)
- [The Dragon](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/the-dragon)
- [narrative poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/narrative-poetry)
- [Rite of Passage](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/rite-of-passage)
- [The One Girl at the Boys' Party](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/the-one-girl-at-the-boys-party)
- [children's birthday](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/childrens-birthday)
- [Mark on the Wall](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/mark-on-the-wall)
- [Madness Rack and Honey](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/madness-rack-and-honey)
- [Someone reading a book is a sign of order in the world](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/someone-reading-a-book-is-a-sign-of-order-in-the-world)
- [Nobokov](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/nobokov)
- [quiddity](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/quiddity)
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- [Anne Carson](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/anne-carson)
- [Short Talks](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/short-talks)
- [NOX](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/nox)
- [Red Doc](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/red-doc)
- [2190101672508121901016725081](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/2190101672508121901016725081)
- [Sedona](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/sedona)
- [Marilyn Stasio](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/marilyn-stasio)
- [Angel Baby](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/angel-baby)
- [Richard Lange](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/richard-lange)
- [Evan Connell](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/evan-connell)
- [Diary of a Rapist](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/diary-of-a-rapist)
- [Mingus at the Showplace](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/mingus-at-the-showplace)
- [bad poetry](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/bad-poetry)
- [Americanas](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/americanas)
- [Silver Wyandotte](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/silver-wyandotte)
- [Black Sex-linked](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/black-sex-linked)
- [Banty](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/banty)
- [Epiphyllum](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/epiphyllum)
- [Purple Bathing Suit](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/purple-bathing-suit)
- [Horatia Winwood](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/horatia-winwood)
- [Lord Rule](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/lord-rule)
- [A Convenient Marriage](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/a-convenient-marriage)
- [Georgette Heyer](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/georgette-heyer)
- [Henry's Understanding](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/henrys-understanding)
- [kittens](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/kittens)
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- [blackberry jam](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/blackberry-jam)
- [Christina Hutchins](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/christina-hutchins)
- [Washing My Father's Hands](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/washing-my-fathers-hands)
- [The Stranger Dissolves](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/the-stranger-dissolves)
- [An Unfinished Clue](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/an-unfinished-clue)
- [Bony Moronie](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/bony-moronie)
- [Skinny Minny](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/skinny-minny)
- [Short Fat Fannie](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/short-fat-fannie)
- [Larry WIlliams](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/larry-williams)
- [Bill Haley](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/bill-haley)
- [Art Cashin](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/art-cashin)
- [NYSE](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/nyse)
- [stan rice](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/stan-rice)
- [henri coulette](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/henri-coulette)
- [petition](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/petition)
- [the thing in the dirt](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/the-thing-in-the-dirt)
- [Icarus](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/icarus)
- [Waiting for Icarus](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/waiting-for-icarus)
- [Muriel Rukeyser](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/muriel-rukeyser)
- [Twenty Little Poems That Could Save America](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/twenty-little-poems-that-could-save-america)
- [Recology](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/recology)
- [artist in residence san francisco](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/artist-in-residence-san-francisco)
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- [Psalm 90](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/psalm-90)
- [Rachel Rosenberg](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/rachel-rosenberg)
- [jweekly](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/jweekly)
- [Poems from the Stray Dog Cafe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/poems-from-the-stray-dog-cafe)
- [Akhmatova](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/akhmatova)
- [Ah but I am warning you](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/ah-but-i-am-warning-you)
- [Gumilev](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/gumilev)
- [San Francisco Center for the Book](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/san-francisco-center-for-the-book)
- [Но я предупреждаю вас](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/но-я-предупреждаю-вас)
- [Cliff DeYoung; Beckett](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/cliff-deyoung-beckett)
- [Samuel Beckett](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/samuel-beckett)
- [Stones](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/stones)
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- [Primack](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/primack)
- [Gretchen Primack](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/gretchen-primack)
- [escargots](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/escargots)
- [mushrooms](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/mushrooms)
- [snails](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/snails)
- [Tom Thomson in Purgatory](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/tom-thomson-in-purgatory)
- [Jollimore](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/jollimore)
- [Troy Jollimore](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/troy-jollimore)
- [Tom Thomson in Retrospect](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/tom-thomson-in-retrospect)
- [Dream Songs](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/dream-songs)
- [egg whites for burns](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/egg-whites-for-burns)
- [burn remedy](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/burn-remedy)
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- [Mandelshtam](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/mandelshtam)
- [Out of Our Minds](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/out-of-our-minds)
- [KKUP](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/kkup)
- [Day of Atonement](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/day-of-atonement)
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- [weekly](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/weekly)
- [Stray Dog Cafe](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/stray-dog-cafe)
- [Stalin Epigram](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/stalin-epigram)
- [paper bag](https://www.merylnatchez.com/tag/paper-bag)