the new year, waxing poetic + (a few) fragments

Babes and bots, 

Happy New Year! We are well into January and things are starting to ice over. When was the last time one of you took a big bite out of a sandwich? I'll be honest, it's been a while and I LOVE sandwiches. Anyone got a New Year's resolution? I resolved not to buy any new books (unless for class) this year and run 10 miles. Things have been going swimmingly so well, without mentioning the lack of running. 

So far this year, I've...

been to my first drag show! 
had sex in the snow! 
hiked in Rocky Mountain National Park! 
had two panic attacks! 
finished two books! 
scoured over internet investment advice (I still have no money)! 
made vegan chocolate chip sprinkle sugar cookies! 
eaten sooooo much Trader Joe's popcorn! 
watched two episodes of Station Eleven! 
had a lot of thoughts about the new Elvis movie! 
read Daily Mail almost every day and am now convinced I know more about Prince Harry's memoir, Spare, than the rest of the world does! 
made vegan biscuits and sausage gravy for lunch before watching 5 episodes of Ginny & Georgia (followed by two panic attacks)! 
made $9.20 selling clothes! 

thoughts, fragments, and abstractions

This discussion thread on the emotive capacity of pigeons


brought me to Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams:

“Rock-bottom is the bottom of the rocks, the underbelly that rarely gets turned over; but when it does, I am the spider that scurries from daylight to find another lace to hide” (136). 


“I laid my head on her lap and closed my eyes. I could not tell if it was my mother’s fingers combing through my hair or the wind” (156). 


“A person with cancer dies in increments, and a part of you slowly dies with them” (173).

This essay by Ananda Devi (trans. Kazim Ali) in AGNI called "Poetics of Islands"

"The kid fled. He didn’t want anything to do with me. I had to let him leave. He will rejoin his militia, the seduction of a flag. In his country, they take the words of poetry and turn them into butchery. Such is the fate of chimeras. Each of our gods whispers its own incantatory lines into our ears. If we are told to kill, should we listen? How long do we continue this obedience?"

brought me to chimeras (Greek), manticores (Persian), and sphinxes (Egyptian), which are mythical creatures that combine the parts of different animals. For instance: 


and 


and 


then I thought about the way some travelers participate in the mythologies around these creatures, sometimes in difficult, uncomfortable ways. To be "passive bystanders" is no longer an accepted norm.  


And while I'm at it, let me put myself on blast for a second. 


So maybe 2023 is the year to be a more passive presence where appropriate...like pigeons waiting by the bodies of their dead. Let me wax poetic (be unnecessary): What is the dead I am waiting for? 

Thanks for taking a bite out of the sandwich with me... 

xoxo
BLT

Comments

  1. riverJanuary 15, 2023 at 4:22 PM

    BLT thank you for this essay journey 😍😍

    ReplyDelete
  2. SophiaJanuary 17, 2023 at 8:53 AM

    I love this ramble of connections and pathways, leading back to an investigation of your own, mermaid nipple loving, self!

    ReplyDelete

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