July 24, 2008 Newsletter
(additional newsletters below)
Good morning! I can't resist continuing with last week's book, Good Poems, selected by Garrison Keillor. There were several poems that I wanted to type for all of you, but one has stayed in my head this week. I was rereading his forward this week and got more out just his introduction to poetry than I have any book lately. Garrison Keillor is funny, able to get us to laugh about our realities. But he has a serious side that also penetrates a core in me...listen to this sentence: How often in the past week did anyone offer you something from the heart? It's there in poetry. Forget everything you ever read about poetry, it doesn't matter - poetry is the last preserve of honest speech and the outspoken heart...what matters about poetry to me now is directness and clarity and truthfulness...Poetry is made of the grandeur that is available to a man with no fortune but with somewhere to walk to and ears to hear and a mind to transport him. He may be defeated in love and finance and yet the night belongs to him, he feels entrusted with the stunning sky, the guardian of the houses on the street and all the people in them So are poets, the angels and shepherds of the sleeping world.
the lesson of the moth
by Don Marquis
i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires
why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense
plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment
and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for
it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves
and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity
but at the same time wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself
Hmmmmmmmmm! I don't know why therapists would think about me since I enjoyed that poem! I saw the movie The Bucket List right before that poem. On living fully while we're living...what dreams did we have before routine and responsibilities set in? Is it possible to list those on paper and try to go for some of the dreams we have had? Where we say, "I'd love to do that someday." I do know that I've read we must put these little and big desires on paper. For in seeing them in print we validate the desire and then can set specific goals to accomplish the dreams. Travel? Write? Sing? Take music lessons? Learn to swim as an adult? Begin a garden. Visit the northernmost town in Alaska? Visit every major league baseball field? Sit on the white sands of Crete with the blue Mediterranean waters below. See those soldiers that were uncovered by a farmer in China. Simple. Difficult. All should be listed. For then when we do die we will see check marks, and what we were not able to check...who knows? Still write your list, even what you know you'll never be able to do because of your circumstances. Maybe our children or someone that loves us can finish our list for us, as they glance up into the stars and smile at us.
I am almost ready to link you to a new site where you will be able to look at all of the inventory that we like to rotate in and out of our store. You will be able to see all of the covers, write your reviews, read reviews, seeing the books by author or category. I already have 2200 books in, just figuring out how to link the information to you. This week we're also updating our website http://www.susansbooksandgifts.com/index.html. Click on the site every once in awhile and you'll see the categories fill up as I have time to fill them in. I want you to have a place to look to see what we try to keep in stock, and also to have your family look if you want to give them ideas for what your children or yourself would like. I am also adding sites that are interesting for those of you that love books, or that love to learn (or have that on your bucket list).
If you think I read books over your head, think again. I am as novice as any of you. I just try. That is what is on my Bucket List. To try to read a little bit of something that I know nothing of instead of using the phone or turning on the computer. What would my little moth do? Just sit safely, or get up and take a risk? Make your list. Write the list in the back of one of your favorite books on your shelf, so when you think of anything new you just grab the book off of your shelf. Also, when you see the book on your shelf during the day you'll know that list is in the back and you will find that you aren't living a dull, routine life...you are also pursuing your dreams. Just by writing them down you begin the pursuit. Thanks for letting me be in your Thursday! Wherever you are in your personal song - don't let any minor section get you to quit. Look up to the hills in your prayers, get on your knees. God is there. Your minor key will eventually change into a beautiful part of your song. Have a great weekend - it's fair time!!! I can't believe that Camden's first words this morning were, "It's fair day!" - he is living. Determined to make his day count. It's now up to me as his mom to keep his spirit singing (at least I can have that as a goal on my list!). Susan
Latin for this week: Age quod agis - Do what you do well.
July 17, 2008 Newsletter
Good morning! I hope some of you had the same moon as we did last night. The colors of a "harvest moon" - full and deep auburn - in July. A quiet, thinking moon. I wonder what he was thinking peering down on us all sleeping...one of those scenes that is hard to not have a tinge of regret as you see the beauty, for you know the beauty is momentary. Have you ever handled a book initially because of the beautiful cover? I brought home two books this week because they were absolutely beautiful. Two books of poetry compiled by Garrison Keillor from poems that he's read on NPR's The Writer's Almanac. If you haven't had a chance to hear his poems read daily (as I don't usually get a chance) you can get them downloaded free onto your MP3 player, or you can create a shortcut on your computer to go to his poetry of the day and read the script. The site is http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ and I have this as one of my shortcuts when I first turn on the computer. A quick way to read something short and usually thought-provoking, almost always enjoyable. Garrison writes in the introduction of his poetry that when he picks a poem for his radio program he must pick a poem that will capture someone's attention when they have the radio only in the background. What will they be able to listen to as they're gathering children, as they're driving, as they're talking, as they're thinking at work? A poem that is short enough for them to then think about that day.
Here is a poem that was a fun one. I'll bet you can immediately think of different brothers, dads, sons, friends that would love this one!
Analysis of Baseball
It's about
the ball,
the bat,
and the mitt.
Ball hits
bat, or it
hits mitt.
Bat doesn't
hit ball, bat
meets it.
Ball bounces
off bat, flies
air, or thuds
ground (dud)
or it
fits mitt.
Bat waits
for ball
to mate.
Ball hates to take bat's
bait. Ball
flirts, bat's
late, don't
keep the date.
Ball goes in (thwack) to mitt,
and goes out (thwack) back
to mitt.
Ball fits
mitt, but
not all
the time.
Sometimes
ball gets hit
(pow) when bat
meets it,
and sails
to a place
where mitt
has to quit
in disgrace.
That's about
the bases
loaded,
about 40,000
fans exploded.
It's about
the ball,
the bat,
the mitt,
the bases,
and the fans.
It's done
on a diamond,
and for fun.
It's about
home, and it's
about run.
Don't you love that? I did. The last three lines - I wonder if he was thinking about our homes - picturing us discussing and watching baseball. Do you think he was playing with the words even there? At the age of seven it amazes me that Camden has fallen in love with a baseball team...the Cubs. And the love is only out of his own idea. Just amazing that under no brainwashing, coercion, clothing purchased, magnets on refrigerators, caps on him and his father - amazing that he just happens to have picked the same team as his daddy. When he did mention Yankees once...um...wisdoms tells me I should think twice before stating the repercussions in print...Home. Baseball. Two words that intermingle. Loved the poem! There were so many poems in these books you'd love. I'll order them right away. I hated bringing them home - the space on the table they had been at the store looked so bare without their bright, beautiful blue & yellow covers still laying there. Have I ever told you how annoying it is when you buy what looks good in the store!??!?! (grin!) Have a great day - and if it's a hard day, know that there are many around (if not in your personal world of people, then from authors of our books) that have been where you are and can give you their words of comfort. Thanks so much for coming into our little store for what you need. We love being here and are so glad you're in our story. Go take on your day. Make yourself proud with decisions you make and thoughts you have. Susan
Latin for this week:
VENI VIDI VICI", I came, I saw, I conquered. (Cesar's message back to the Senate in Rome after a great defeat in May 47 B.C.)
Veni, Vidi, Fiji - I Came, I Saw, I ran away as far as possible!
Works Cited:
Keillor, Garrison. Good Poems: Selected & Introduced by Garrison Keillor. Penguin Putnam. 2002.
Keillor, Garrison. Good Poems for Hard Times: Selected & Introduced by Garrison Keillor. Penguin Putnam. 2005.
