Red umbrella – slow reads

Bright spot of shade
sanguine against the blue –
What does it hide?

My mother licks her dripping cone
blissfully oblivious.
Soon she’ll be whisked
from her beloved shores
carried away
as under a red balloon
kicking wildly, angry as Mars.

Meanwhile I veil myself
in vacant smiles
hold my breath, submersed
in blue, cold as Sedna
beneath an upended
red canoe.

Categories

Passages

On Recomposition

23 July 2021 - Luisa A. Igloria

"You shall leave everything you love most dearly: this is the arrow that the bow of exile shoots first. You are to know the bitter taste of others’ bread, how salt it is, and know how hard a path it is for one who goes descending and ascending others’ stairs." ~ Dante, Paradiso 17, 55-60 Yes it's true: already we are those who will call this time ancient that fills with the noise of lamentations and our daily count of the dead. We are those who come to know acutely the cost of exile and how we call this either fear of return or indefinite quarantine. And yet I've asked you to keep back a handful of my body's ashes from the rest I'd promised would go with you into that final resting place— I'd like that small part to find its way back to some mountainside with a stand of pine, with a milky cover of fog: whatever might survive our time into another beyond debt or hatred, pity or remorse. By then, perhaps… [Read more...]

Second sight

23 July 2021 - Dave Bonta

Called up by my Lady Peterborough’s servant about some business of hers, and so to the office. Thence by and by with Sir J. Minnes toward St. James’s, and I stop at Dr. Turberville’s, and there did receive a direction for some physic, and also a glass of something to drop into my eyes: who gives me hopes that I may do well. Thence to St. James’s, and thence to White Hall, where I find the Duke of York in the Council-chamber; where the Officers of the Navy were called in about Navy business, about calling in of more ships; the King of France having, as the Duke of York says, ordered his fleete to come in, notwithstanding what he had lately ordered for their staying abroad. Thence to the Chapel, it being St. Peter’s day, and did hear an anthem of Silas Taylor’s making; a dull, old-fashioned thing, of six and seven parts, that nobody could understand: and the Duke of York, when he come out, told me that he was a better store-keeper… [Read more...]

ENOUGH MOON

23 July 2021 - Tom

Enough moonthe pines will be speaking.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Portrait, with Rising Sea Levels

23 July 2021 - Luisa A. Igloria

"Take note; and even as I speak these words, do you transmit them in your turn to those who live the life that is a race to death." ~ Beatrice to Dante, Purgatorio 33, 52-54 Beloved, each day the waters of the earth rise a little more. At the polar ends, they're flushed with heat pushing up from ocean currents that shear away sheets of ice. We still take what we can. In the midst of such rapid dwindling, each heated afternoon we uncoil the garden hose and train its mouth upon the small, parched planets we've created in pots. Every mouth could gladden for what passes into it and greens it with breath. On the coast, the dense berm of mangrove forests thins; their breathing roots drown in too much water. Yesterday, I too felt like I was drowning. The years were rushing too far ahead of me, and I could barely remember how to hold them, how once they held me as if all the light in the world was new. Stars burn.… [Read more...]

A Small Price to Pay

23 July 2021 - Loren

Leslie and I got back from our first vacation in nearly two years not too long ago. Dawn rented a house near Newport, Oregon, for a week and an invitation was our Christmas present. We also got to see Sydney, our Colorado granddaughter, for the first time since we saw her two summers ago, which, coincidentally, was just a few miles down the beach. Perhaps it’s not entirely coincidental since it was the same area Paula and I used to take the kids on vacation there for many years in a row. It’s definitely one of my favorite places. The timing was perfect; we had seven rainless days. We had a couple of days of complete sunshine and a few more foggy days, and we were spared the 90+ days that they were having in Tacoma while we were gone. I’ve been to the beach often enough that I expected the fog, but was pleasantly surprised by the sunshine. We didn’t walk every day, but we did get in some serious walks. Four miles… [Read more...]

The captain’s verse

22 July 2021 - Dave Bonta

(Lord’s day). Up, and to church, and then home to dinner, where Betty Turner, Mercer, and Captain Deane, and after dinner to sing, Mr. Pelling coming. Then, they gone, Deane and I all the afternoon till night to talk of navy matters and ships with great pleasure, and so at night, he gone, I to supper, Pelling coming again and singing a while, then to bed. Much talk of the French setting out their fleete afresh; but I hear nothing that our King is alarmed at it, at all, but rather making his fleete less. I turn captain of a ship at night gone again to bed setting out afresh in our armed fleet Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Sunday 28 June 1668 [Read more...]

NEBRASKA SANDHILLS (46)

22 July 2021 - Tom

The Sandhills --where even the silencegoes silent.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

MARY MAGDALENE, “APOSTLE TO THE APOSTLES,” JULY 22 We don’t know a great deal about the first generation of Christians, especially the women. But in the case of Mary Magdalene, we seem to “know” too much. Her name is mentioned only thirteen times in the New Testament, but for centuries, Christians have “known” she was a prostitute. In more recent years, others have claimed she was Jesus’ wife, who bore his child, and whose descendants later founded the Merovingian dynasty of France. Her identification as a prostitute was cemented in 590 by Pope Gregory I, who, in a sermon on Luke 7:36-50, said: “The one that Luke calls a sinner, and that John names Mary [of Bethany, John 11: 2], we believe that she is that Mary of whom, according to Mark, the Lord has cast out seven demons [Mk 16: 9]. And what are these seven demons, if not the universality of all vices? Since seven days suffice to embrace the whole of time, the number seven rightly represents universality. Mary had seven demons in her, for she was full of all vices. But now, having seen the stains that dishonored her, she ran to wash herself at the source of mercy, without blushing in the presence of the guests. So great was her shame inside that she could not see anything outside to blush.” Gregory uses the example of the penitent woman to criticize bishops “who look down upon their flock with contempt, to disdain all the sinners who meet in the people, to refuse to sympathize with those who confess their faults to them, and finally, like the Pharisee, not to be touched by the sinful woman.” It’s a fine sermon, but its conflation of the penitent woman with Mary Magdalene, as well as with Mary of Bethany, distorted the image of the first witness to the Resurrection. However, it did provide a role model for “fallen” women—that Christ himself would hold up this penitent woman as an exemplar of faith. It was not until 1969 that the Roman Catholic Church declared she was not the “woman in the city” of Luke 7. In more recent years, Mary Magdalene has been named Jesus’ wife. Dan Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code” (2003) popularized the theory, but he took most of his information from “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” (1982), by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. The book’s authors claim that the Holy Grail (Sangraal or Sangreal in Old French), was really Royal Blood (Sang Raal or Sang Real), and that Mary Magdalene fled to Gaul after the Crucifixion, where she bore Jesus’ child, whose descendants founded the Merovingian Dynasty of France. She, of royal blood from the House of Benjamin, and not any chalice, was the Holy Grail. The book’s theories have largely been discredited by Biblical scholars, but the Da Vinci Code, along with the 2006 movie based on the book has a lot of staying power. The noncanonical Gnostic Gospel of Philip, probably written in the third century, says “The companion of the [savior] is Mary of Magdala. The [savior loved] her more than [all] the disciples, [and he] kissed her often on her [mouth].” (Marvin Mayer translation from the Coptic—anything in brackets is guesswork.) But none of the Gnostic texts which mention her claim she was Jesus’ wife, or that she bore his child. So what do we know about Mary Magdalene from Scripture? All four canonical Gospels were written in the late first century—much closer to the time of Christ. From Luke 8: 1-3: “After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.” (NRSV) Mary was most likely wealthy and had been cured of serious afflictions. And, of course, in all four Gospels, she was the first witness, or one of the first witnesses to the Resurrection. As such, St. Thomas Aquinas called her “The Apostle to the Apostles.” There is one curious matter about her name. For centuries, it was assumed that she was from the village of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. But it appears that the village was called Magadan, and was misnamed by a cartographer. In Luke, she’s “Mary (called Magdalene.)” And Magdalene, or Migdal, in Aramaic, means “tower.” Some historians have speculated that just as Jesus gave his disciple Simon bar Jonah the nickname “Rock” (Cephas or Peter), renamed Mary the “Tower.” July 22 is the day we remember Mary Magdalene, “The Apostle to the Apostles,” and perhaps “The Tower.”Image: Appearance of Jesus Christ to Maria Magdalena (1835) by Alexander Andreyevich Ivanov.

22 July 2021 - steve on the slow train

Seaside Mah Tovu

22 July 2021 - rbarenblat@gmail.com (Velveteen Rabbi)

How good are your beach blankets, O Yaakov -- your shaded pavilions, Yisrael! And I, in Your great kindness stand on packed sands at the edge of Your sea. Wholly One, I love Your house: this place so drenched in Your presence even overworked people feel it! I bow into endless waves (Your face, Your embrace)and You wash over me. And I -- I am my prayer. In the rush of Your waters reshape me like tumbled glass. This poem riffs off of Mah Tovu, which you can find on the right-hand side of this two-page spread. For some wisdom about the prayer, here's a piece at ReformJudaism.org. (And no, I didn't find all that seaglass -- or any seaglass! I found the photo on the internet. I've found a few shells and some smooth pebbles, though... and the seaglass felt like the right metaphor for the moment.) [Read more...]

Waiting is the space where every love transforms into longing into love

22 July 2021 - Luisa A. Igloria

"Love that converses with me in my mind, he then began, so sweetly that the sweetness sounds within me still." ~ Dante asks Casella to sing; Purgatorio, Canto II, Lines 112-114 [3] Sunrise, airy on ivory sheepskin— Botticelli has sketched the scene of a hundred souls arriving on a boat ferried by an angel who tips them out as the vessel runs aground. What's hell, or even this purgatory, if it isn't brushed with fire or tinted with the darkest hues of suffering? And these beings, stripped of their usual garments for swifter conveyance from our more familiar world of trappings, supposedly are singing. A kind of choir, stumbling into the pale light, asking for directions; unsure of what they've been told—that waiting is already a kind of salvation— for it's hard to imagine a sweetness withheld or yet to come. And so, when the shade of Cato shouts in rebuke What is this negligence, what lingering is this? still, it's such agony to peel away from the warm nest of arms that so freshly… [Read more...]

Billionaires in space

21 July 2021 - Dave Bonta

At the office all the morning, at noon dined at home, and then my wife, and Deb., and I to the King’s playhouse, and saw “The Indian Queene,” but do not doat upon Nan Marshall’s acting therein, as the world talks of her excellence therein. Thence with my wife to buy some linnen, 13l. worth, for sheets, &c., at the new shop over against the New Exchange; come out of London since the fire, says his and other tradesmen’s retail trade is so great here, and better than it was in London, that they believe they shall not return, nor the city be ever so great for retail as heretofore. So home and to my business, and to bed. if kings play Indian on Mars as the world on fire says trade is great better that they believe they shall not return Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Saturday 27 June 1668 [Read more...]

NEBRASKA SANDHILLS (45)

21 July 2021 - Tom

What you wantis silence,what you've gotis wind inthe Sandhills.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Ingrained

21 July 2021 - Dave Bonta

All the morning doing business at the office. At noon, with my Fellow-Officers, to the Dolphin, at Sir G. Carteret’s charge, to dinner, he having some accounts examined this morning. All the afternoon we all at Sir W. Pen’s with him about the Victuallers’ accounts, and then in the evening to Charing Cross, and there took up my wife at her tailor’s, and so home and to walk in the garden, and then to sup and to bed. morning sex afternoon accounts evening cross too at home to walk Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Friday 26 June 1668 [Read more...]

At night when I can’t sleep

21 July 2021 - Luisa A. Igloria

sometimes I worry that I haven't written down a single recipe for my daughters to remember me by. Maybe I'm partially to blame, because I'm the type who likes to cook from memory or from the moment's necessity—tweaking the measure of vinegar to soy, garlic and bay leaf to peppercorn, fish sauce to coconut milk. In his youth, during the war, my father said they'd walk the paddies after dark, looking for snails and frogs; for what called or moved or startled against their feet in shallow water. One body for another, to boil for sustenance and pick clean until the smallest bone, until the shells are nothing but dark coils of moonlight. Echo of what once was saved, currencies no one would even think to steal. [Read more...]

NEBRASKA SANDHILLS (44)

20 July 2021 - Tom

Double or nothingthe wind saysto the old housein the Sandhillsand tries againto take it down.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Ocean

20 July 2021 - rbarenblat@gmail.com (Velveteen Rabbi)

It really is in perpetual motion like my heart singing and sighing reflecting the sky face to face meeting in joy at the horizon. [Read more...]

One-eyed rat

20 July 2021 - Dave Bonta

Up, and to the office all the morning, and after dinner at home to the office again, and there all the afternoon very busy till night, and then home to supper and to bed. morning-after rat to the office again real till night and the upper bed Erasure poem derived from The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Thursday 25 June 1668 [Read more...]

Good, Better, Best

19 July 2021 - Luisa A. Igloria

There were times you made it hard to come close, Mother: when a butter knife hissed across the table and you threatened to return me to where you really came from. Then there were those times you pronounced your eldest granddaughter unworthy, because you couldn't understand how anxiety could keep someone who really wanted to from getting a degree. There was the time you made me walk behind instead of beside you because I forgot the lines of music that would have made performance flawless. Perfection is a cruel mistress, Mother: when even a single hair fell into the stew or ragu, you'd throw out the entire dinner. In your kitchen only one could be queen, fit to salt or sweeten, make bitter or make rise; pronounce a mouthful good enough. To get there, I learned to hide my tears, dice onions into count- less piles; sizzle them with aplomb in my own pan, the heat all my own. [Read more...]

NEBRASKA SANDHILLS (43)

19 July 2021 - Tom

God saidI'll give youeverythingfor nothingand madethe Sandhills.The Middlewesterner [Read more...]

Thunderstorm Evenings

19 July 2021 - Luisa A. Igloria

Distant crackle on the rim of a basin. Somewhere near the bottom, we lie watching insomniac sheep trying to scale the walls. [Read more...]

By Leslee