7-Imp’s 7 Kicks #109: Featuring a Small Crowd to Help Us Welcome National Poetry Month
April 5th, 2009 by Eisha and Jules
Jules: Today is full of specialness.
Know how on the first Sunday of each month, 7-Imp usually features a student illustrator or an illustrator otherwise new to the field? Well, not today. We’re gonna shake things up this morning and celebrate National Poetry Month with a handful of visiting poets, as well as a bit of art. (OF COURSE. Gotta have art.) In fact, featured here is Julie Paschkis’ poetry-month poster, which you may have also seen at Jama’s wonderful blog this week. (And that’s because Jama and I are sometimes psychic brain twins.) Many thanks to Julie for sharing. If you missed her interview, posted about this time last year, by all means, go have a look. Her art makes me very happy.
And who are our visiting poets today, who are going to share some never-seen-before poetry here to help us celebrate a month of poems, poems, and more poems? Well, they are Douglas Florian (who will be stopping by this week for a breakfast interview), Sara Lewis Holmes, Julie Larios (whose new poem is featured above), Kelly Fineman, Elaine Magliaro, and Adam Rex. Let’s get right to it, and I thank them for celebrating with us this week, especially since several of these poems were written specifically for today’s celebration.
And here, from Adam Rex, we have a (love) poem, rendered in paints: Pictures of Adam’s wife as the dawn and as the North Star:
Big thanks again to all the participating poets and artists!
As a reminder, our 7-kicks are our weekly meeting ground for taking some time to reflect on Seven(ish) Exceptionally Fabulous, Beautiful, Interesting, Hilarious, or Otherwise Positive Noteworthy Things from the past week, whether book-related or not, that happened to you. So, let’s kick it up. Absolutely anyone is welcome to list kicks — even if, or especially if, you’ve never done so before.
1* Well, all that lovely poetry, and Adam’s art. What a nice Poetry Month kick-off.
2* Our Strunk & White The Elements of Style exhibit is due to go up Monday. This should be cause for concern, but I think we’re actually almost ready.
3* Part of the reason for our readiness is that I’ve finally gotten over my fear of the paper cutter in the exhibit prep room. You may scoff, but you haven’t seen this thing. It’s incredibly old, like, it should be IN an exhibit instead of something we use every day. And it’s huge, and all heavy wood-and-wrought-iron, and has this huge guillotine-like blade, and it has workman’s comp written all over it. I tried to find a picture of something like it, and this is the closest I could find. Anyway, I’m a total ninja with that thing now.
4* I went to the Teen Book Festival in Rochester this Saturday.
5* Know who was there? Robin Brande. That was the highlight – getting to see her again. But there were tons of great authors there, too many to name.
6* And I got to hang out with Adrienne ALL DAY!
7* And now (Sat. night) I’m at her house watching the original Escape to Witch Mountain. It’s like a sleepover! In fact, I’m pretty sure I already went to this sleepover 25 years ago. Ya’ll – I’d totally forgotten about the scene with those creepy marionettes. Yiggedy!
1). First and foremost: Tornadoes ripped through middle Tennessee this week and one of those bastards touched down very near my husband’s place of employment and in fact a meteorologist reported one touch-down in such a way that made it seem as if his building had been hit and I nearly had a heart attack but he’s okay and so is everyone else and now this one-breath cyclone of a run-on sentence is over.
2). Remember my kick from last week about how said husband had purchased me an early birthday gift that he said would make me squeal and he was so excited about me seeing it, as we waited for it to arrive in the mail, that he was walking around doing the gloat-y “I know something you don’t know” song, complete with a dance routine? He even showed up later in the week last week and added his own kicks: “1). I 2). Know 3). Something 4). You 5). Do 6). Not 7). Know…”
Well, the gift arrived and I opened it, and it’s a really nice CAMERA, because I’ve been saying lately that I really want to get a kick-ass camera one day and learn more about photography. Is that a kick or WHAT?
Here I am with the new camera. (It’s a Nikon D40 6.1MP digital SLR camera.) Yes, this is how you’ll see me from now on, with camera in hand and looking through a lens. For serious, I’ve been taking pictures of EVERYTHING and really FAST, just ’cause I CAN. I’m just a wee bit excited about this. I’m totally aware of how much I have to learn—about both the camera itself and photography—but for now I’m still simply giddy.
I even made some art after taking a photo of my oldest. This is my contribution to National Poetry Month. This line of poetry comes from a Rainer Maria Rilke poem. It’s a love poem (as in, romantic), but I wanted to use the line anyway, as I played around like a big geek with my photo.
3). My husband planted bunches of flowers for all of us, but particularly for the oldest, pictured above, who saw one of those Scholastic video adaptations of this book and has been walking around singing about flowers for weeks. Hey, here’s a picture of some of the flowers that I took WITH MY NEW CAMERA! I’m way past getting on your nerves already, right?
4). and 5). Good music this week: Sam Phillips released a brand-new song for free at her site, and it’s crazy-good. Also: When I interviewed D.B. Johnson last week, I think I squealed when I initially read his interview responses and saw that he is a fan of The Innocence Mission, a band whose music I ADORE beyond all adoring. As I linked to their site in his interview, I saw that there’s an EP for sale which I had not known about (how I missed this is a mystery to me, as I’m a rabid fan) and which won’t be available much longer, so I ordered it immediately and it came this week. It is very good. “We Wake Up in the Earliest Blue of All” is sublime, and I could listen to Karen Peris play piano all. day. long.
6). Funniest April Fools Day Joke Ever.
7). Last but far from least: Today’s poetry and art.
What are YOUR kicks this week?
Oh, YAY for the ninja paper cutter, Strunk & White, and Adrienne and Robin!!! Color ME jealous!!!
Blaine rocks the house! What a NICE camera, Jules! D. has a Canon but says your Nikon is excellent (is this like a Ford/Chevy thing that I don’t understand?), too.
Wow, Adam Rex!
His style is so recognizable, but sans aliens/neck bolts, his art is unexpected. Lovely. Also, Julie L’s piece is all gorgeousness. I feel like I’m missing so much poetry and art this week, but the boxes MUST be packed…! It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that all of the poets are wonderful, especially the photo-poetry excerpt. Jules: frame that. Seriously.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I’m going to post a single kick, and then get back to work, as this has been forty-five minutes of following links and ooh-ing and ahh-ing when I meant to check in here for five minutes! — My kick is that I’m moving next week… except, I’m moving into an apartment only D. has ever seen. He grows increasingly worried. I grow increasingly amused… Frankly, one place is pretty much like another when you’re talking student digs and old Georgian mansions, but I look forward to seeing those fourteen foot ceilings on Tuesday… when we’re moving in. Viva la surprise!
Tanita you are so entertaining when you are moving! It comes from experience I guess. All my best wishes to you and D in your new place – may it be full of unexpected magical wardrobes.
eisha – we have such a paper cutter in my library. I am terrified that one of the children will chop off a finger or two – their own or another’s I don’t know which would be worse.
Jules that camera rocks!! I am so excited for you!! I absolutely love your poetry photo. You are inspiring!! Your daughter is just gorgeous and perfectly fits the poem selected. Definitely frame that baby!
My kicks:
1. Nat. Po. Mo. opening with a bang! This is going to be the best month eva! i am so jazzed about all the bloggy poetry goodness all around.
2. I put on a birthday party for my youngest son (turned 4) at the Y yesterday. Gymnastics and Micky Mouse. All potential disasters averted. My oldest son said, “That was the best birthday party I’ve ever been to!” Oh Yeah.
3. Reading Lori Tharp’s KKinky Gazpacho and Beth Kephart’s Still Love in Strange Places this week and loving them both. They compliment each other nicely, which I didn’t realize till I started. Kephart is writing about visiting El Salvador, her husband’s home country, and Tharp is writing about going to Spain where she met her husband. Both women are fantastic writers.
4. – 7. Cherry Blossoms.
Hug your husband for me, Jules ’cause that one photo right there–of your beautiful daughter’s fragrant poetry hands—is going to make me happy for weeks. (You wouldn’t know this, but I’ve been writing about hands. Total serendipity.) And Eisha! The ninja librarian with the wrought-iron paper cutter? That has Tim Burton movie written all over it. Eisha-Ninja-Hands.
Kicks include: my poem nestled here amidst all this beauty (thank you for asking me) and book club today (Hattie Big Sky, which I adore.) Also: everyone’s burst of poetry energy this month. Isn’t it electric? (And I love the art here today so much that I’m unable to quit staring at its glory.)
I loved the energy in all these poems… makes me want to leap upstairs to write one, as Douglas Florian says. And I love poetry on little hands and, of course, photo geeks.
My kick yesterday was getting to hear Marilyn Nelson read Emily Dickinson at Amherst College. She has the most wonderful reading voice. And she had her falling apart marked up copy of the collected works in hand.
Kicks today include all this poetry here and so far this month. Yes, Sara, positively electric!
Thanks, Jules and Eisha. And the picture of those adorable poem-festooned hands? Oh, my heart.
OMG! There is such huge, wonderful kickiness here today, I’m just going to bask in it all day long.
Jules! Fragrant poetry hands. Did you hear me scream when I saw that photo? Hands! I love hands! Your new camera rocks hard (yay, Blaine)! I’ve always wanted to learn more about photography, too.
All the poems and art here today make me so happy. And I am in awe of Eisha’s Ninja-Hands (do I detect a theme here).
Good luck with your moving, Tanita. I would be SO stressed, but you seem to be so cool about everything.
Jeannine, the Dickinson reading sounds divine. What a perfect way to celebrate Poetry Month!
My kicks are really centered around all the poetry deliciousness on the web this week. And to think, there’s so much more to come!
I’m also looking forward to Book Club meeting this afternoon. There will be much Hattie love going on.
Trees are flowering! Azaleas in bloom! Weather is warm and sunny!
And, the other day I discovered what could very well be my all-time favorite picture book: Melissa Sweet’s Carmine: A Little More Red. I know, I know. It’s been out for years, but I missed it before. Why has no one told me about it before?! It’s alphabetica at its finest, with a recipe for alphabet soup on the endpapers. I was on the floor screaming.
And with that, I’ll bid you a fond farewell for now. Happy Easter week!
PLEASE tell me where I can get a copy of Julie Paschkis’ poetry-month poster? mary
I’m gonna go backwards.
Mary, go here. Also at her site is contact info, including an email address. You can ask her about the posters. Good luck!
Jama, well now, I must see this book by Melissa Sweet. I thought of you, by the way, when I saw that line of poetry about hands. I almost went with e.e. cummings’ “nobody not even the rain has such small hands,” but that’s way definitely more romantic love-y — that entire poem, that is.
Sara and Jama, have fun at that book club meeting, and someone take pics again.
Thanks, Kristy! I like your original poetry at your blog, too. Thanks for visiting.
Jeannine, Marilyn Nelson reading Emily? That’s great. Wish I could have heard and seen that.
Andi, congrats on what sounds like a successful and stress-free party. That’s how they should be: laid-back and fun. With good cake.
Tanita, good luck on Tuesday. That is too, too exciting. Are you gonna take pics of your mansion floor?
Here’s my kicks!
1. Remember how a few weeks ago one of my kicks was that I had good news but I couldn’t share it yet? Well now I can (and have already on my blog)… I got into library school at UNC-Chapel Hill, which is tied for #1 in the nation… and is just a jaunt down the highway from my house… and where my fiance has also enrolled! So we will be in library school together – him for law librarianship, and me for school media coordinator certification. Yay! We’re going to be a library family!
2. When I told people at work about it, they were so supportive. (I had to keep it a secret because I didn’t want them to accidentally find out via the internet. Which I wouldn’t expect, but I was being safe.)
3. By leaving work to go to library school, I maybe saved a colleague his or her job! Our department was going to lose two positions, but now we’re only losing one. Sad for the one loss, and sad for the Latin program if they don’t replace me, but I kind of feel like I’m doing somebody a favor by moving on in my career.
4. On Wednesday I had an interview for an assistantship at Learn NC (http://www.learnnc.org) and I feel very good about it. And if I get it, I get my own health insurance and tuition remission. (Which I’m not sure applies to me as I’m in-state, but still.)
5. Yesterday, we visited a prospective wedding location and we liked it so much that we’ve decided to go ahead and have the wedding there. It is a beautiful hotel right on the beach. (http://www.islanderinn.com) They’ll set up an arbor and the 10 chairs we need, and give us a package that includes 2 nights in the hotel and a $100 gift certificate towards lunch or dinner at the restaurant they also own, which is just as beautiful as the beach and the hotel.
6. I’m about to go for a walk in beautiful weather.
7. I’m completely obsessed with couponmom.com, which is both fun and should help me save money.
1. The poems.
2. The paintings.
3. The camera.
4. The fragrant hands.
5. The Sam Phillips song.
6. The sea child: http://spinneret.shutterfly.com/77
7. The girl: http://saintsandspinners.blogspot.com/2009/04/our-in-house-soprano-magic-flute.html
EISHA: Ninja with a paper cutter – I don’t know whether to laugh or be afraid!
JULES: Thank heavens the twisters missed your mister. Nice camera work!
Kimberly, YOU GO ON WITH YOUR BAD-ASS KICKS! How exciting. Big ol’ congrats to you and seven loud cheers, too. Library school at UNC-Chapel Hill AND a prospective and beautiful wedding location! Everything’s comin’ up Kimberly.
Farida, oh. my. gracious. That doll. She is very, very beautiful. I believe I oohed and aahed out loud. And your soprano is also very, very beautiful. AND a good singer.
Also, Farida, I think Sam might be singing “we’re not alone under the night / When we strike book to light.” Think that can be 7-Imp’s motto? Also, I thought of you when she sings “Let’s make the world by hand and give it away.”
Kelly, thank you for that little poem about the twister.
First off, Jules, let me say that as soon as you mentioned the other day (here? on Facebook?) that your package had arrived but you couldn’t open it right away, I knew you’d stop talking about it until Kicks Day. And it was driving me crazy. So now that I know what it is — and only a week after the Great Guinness Chocolate Cake thing — I have to say I think I must have been married to your husband in a former life… or need to be in the next one. 🙂 Seriously stupendous camera!
Eisha: As everyone else has already commented, the paper-cutter-ninja image is just too good. I even have this little scene constructed in which you track down evil-doers, trundling it about the streets of Ithaca at night while dressed in Ninja PJs. You come upon a miscreant and out of the darkness YELL at him in a piercing, affronted(-and-stabby)-librarian voice, “Young MAN! Come over here this instant!” Of course he obeys. He even stands compliantly while you hunt around for a level surface to set up your Paper-and-Evil-Doer Cutter.
Much, much art and poetry and kicks today to swoon over. (Sara Lewis Holmes’s “Untitled” is a little jewel, isn’t it?)
A few kicks of mine:
* Doing something to help my brother. Details unimportant, except to him and me, but it was driving me crazy to be so far away and doing NOTHING.
* John Travolta
* Ibuprofen, ibuprofen, ibuprofen…
* The way, after 3 days’ torrential downpour, the sky is scrubbed free of everything and looks to be a shade of blue so deep — especially when set against new-green tree leaves — that you’ve never seen it before.
* That whole stinking “duck or rabbit?” debate, which had me seeing BOTH creatures everywhere for days. Which, on balance, wasn’t a bad thing to be seeing everywhere.
* Pleasant WIP surprises (especially one of those moments where the work itself assumes control, because it knows better).
* These e-cards with attitude. (Yes, I know e-cards can be a nuisance on many levels. Still…)
Jules, you know how I love to geek out on new camera gear…stoked for you and that sweet new Nikon. Oh, and thanks for the introduction to The Innocence Mission.
cloudscome, we’re weeks away from cherry blossoms here, so I’m jealous of your kicks 4-7.
Eisha, please be careful with that death trap. I remember way back when in my elementary school library we had something similar and it was terrifying (to me, anyway, but I don’t even like knives).
Kickage this week:
1) Mountain biking season! Three rides since last week’s kicks, and although they nearly killed me (lungs, where art thou?), it was bliss to be spinning pedals after a long winter.
2) Days off work — Tuesday and Friday afternoon, which made for a great, great week.
3) I found out this week that I have five weeks of vacation time to “spend” in the last 3/4 of this year. Hmm….let the dreaming begin.
4) A morning at the symphony with my daughters. The local orchestra puts on an excellent student session every year, to introduce kids to all the different instruments and different styles of music. They keep the songs very short and lively and my girls were jazzed.
5) Tickets to see U2 in Vancouver this fall — I saw them in 2005 and it was great enough to want to go again for this tour.
6) Now that the ice is gone, I’ve been finding other photographic subjects and playing around with abstracts.
7) Earthworms…I spent a happy hour in the sunshine with my kids yesterday transplanting them from our big compost bins to our garden plots. No idea why that made me so happy.
Hola, Poets and Imps!
Thanks to Julie, Kelly, Sara, Elaine, and Adam for sharing their works and making the celebration all the more special.
eisha: Best of luck with the exhibit. Congrats on becoming a ninja and confronting your fear of the paper cutter. Yay for meeting and hanging out with cool folks. 🙂
Jules: I am glad that your husband is safe. Phew. Hello to your pretty camera! Have you named it yet? Very cool photo-poem with your munchkin in the Rilke spring.
Tanita: Good luck with the move. 🙂
cloudscome: Someone needs to have a spoken word event called NatPoMo. It must be done. Happy birthday to your son!
Sara and Jama: I love Hattie Big Sky. LOVE.
Jeannine: Go Emily and well-loved poetry and well-loved books!
Jama: Cracking up at the mental picture of you screaming in happiness, swimming on an alphabet-print carpet.
Kiba: It feels weird to call you Kimberly, and it always will. Speaking of which – Hi Will! I’m so glad that you are moving forward on your librarian path. The inn looks lovely. Sanddollar logo = good times! Rock on with the coupons. Keep me posted on the Mik./P-S.
SaintS and Spinners: GO LUCIA! Is she into singing? If so (though I know you do already!), nurture that songbird! Arias are so much fun if you love them and find those best suited to your voice. (Again, I know I’m preaching to the choir here!) Also, awesome costume – great find, sounds like a steal!
Jes: WIP it good!
Jeremy: Ooh to that vacation time and yay to the music and time with your family.
My kicks for the week:
1) Feeding the squirrels (including an adorable half-blind squirrel) three days in a row
2) Frozen veggies on sale
3) Rehearsals 7 days a week (see below for more details)
4) Some good new reads, like IF I STAY and BECAUSE I AM FURNITURE (see my blog for my Best Books of March post, and the readergirlz blog for my weekly book bag posts!)
5) Puzzling it out – two friends and I worked on a 1000-piece Breakfast at Tiffany’s puzzle yesterday and completed the bulk of it before I had to leave
6) Ballet slippers – which are getting a little beaten up since I’ve been wearing them every single day, so I really out to get another pair or two
7) Walking 2-3 miles every single day for the past week
The musical opens in five days. FIVE DAYS! I am so excited.
Yesterday, I had my second rehearsal for the other in which I’ve been cast. Today, I have rehearsal for that show again, followed almost immediately by a run-through of the musical, which means I’ll be dashing from one theatre to another mid-day.
WOW! Today’s art and poetry are definitely in tune with the energy at my house – we are on our second day of SUNSHINE here in Portland, and spring is now here. Lovely art, love the poster and Adam Rex’s work is simply glorious – as is Jules’ Poetry Hands!
Congrats on the camera Jules! That looks like it was worth Blaine’s gloating and teasing (and how fun to be teased over getting a wonderful gift!)
Eisha – master ninja librarian paper-cutter gives whole new meaning to a stamp that says “I feel stabby.”
My kicks, quickly, so I can get back out into the happy sunshine:
1. SUNSHINE after months of cold, rainy, gloom. Can’t stop smiling this weekend.
2. Read Coraline, Christine Falls, and 13 Reasons Why this week, and liked all three for completely different reasons.
3. Read It Sucked and Then I Cried, by Heather Armstrong, which was laugh-out-loud funny in parts. She was doing a reading at Powell’s on Monday, so a friend from work and I were going to get cocktails and then go listen – but when we walked across the street 15-20 minutes before start time, Powell’s said the room was full and we couldn’t get in! Still a kick because Happy Hour with my co-worker was very fun!
4. A Girl Named Zippy has now been added to the stack of books by my bed – its up 3rd on the to be read next list.
5. Planted 4 Bald Cypress trees yesterday.
6. Played frisbee in the backyard with the BF after all the yard was done.
7. Our first BBQ of the season last night. It was a little chilly,but very nice to be out on the deck smelling the cooking steaks and salmon and enjoying the feeling of spring.
Happy Spring! Have a great week!
PS – I forgot to include this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2FX9rviEhw&feature=player_embedded
I don’t know why sheep as a lite brite say spring to me, but they just do!
I’m pressed for time at the moment–so I’ll be back later to post about my kicks. I just wanted to let everyone know that I’ve announced this week’s winners of poetry books at Wild Rose Reader and Political Verses.
http://wildrosereader.blogspot/2009/04/and-winner-is.html
http://politicalverses.blogspot.com/2009/04/and-winners-are.html
Congratulations to the three winners!!!
OOOPPPSSS!
Here’s the correct to my post at Wild Rose Reader announcing the winner of FALLING DOWN THE PAGE.
http://wildrosereader.blogspot.com/2009/04/and-winner-is.html
John, sorry you had to wait, but I gotta have something to report on Sundays, right? And how’d you find those ecards? Funny stuff. I mean, really, this one’s my favorite.
Glad you got to help your brother. Oh, and I’ll be sure to ask Blaine if you all dated in a past life.
Jeremy, I was secretly wanting your expert opinion on the camera. I’m glad you approve. And those abstracts! I can only hope to be as good as you one day. As cheesy as it sounds, you were an inspiration for me wanting a camera. How do you do it? Those photos are endlessly fascinating. As the ice ones were.
And five weeks vacation? Rock that. That’s excellent. And, though I’ve already said this: U2. Yay!
Little Willow, nope, haven’t named the camera yet. Any suggestions? How about Posy?
Also, have fun at rehearsals and break a leg, as always, with the new musical.
RM, happy Spring to you, too, and glad you have warm weather finally. A Girl Named Zippy is one of my favorite books.
I love those Baaa-studs.
Congrats to Elaine’s winners. Woot.
Aren’t those cards great? The Missus has sent me a couple, most recently this one.
I love the poems and art! And all of the spring sunshine and flowers and bbqs in people’s lists.
Eisha, you should get some sort of medal for using that paper cutter without cutting your hands off! And your slumber party sounds like great fun. It’s so nice to hear about internet friends catching up with other internet friends.
Jules, YAY for the camera! We just got a DSLR as a very generous present (after deliberating about getting one for ages) so I share your excitement! But I never would have thought of making a poetry photo – that’s fantastic!
Jeremy your abstract photos are beautiful.
I am having some colleagues over to my house for a meeting tomorrow morning (the perils of living close to work) so have just been scurrying around cleaning rather than preparing my list! I’ve had a mad week at work but a lovely kick was going to Fishbourne roman ruins down south today – it is weirdly quiet compared to other UK historical sites but was fantastic! Well worth a visit as the mosaics and the size of the site was mindboggling.
Wow, wow, wow.
First, the poetry! Second, the art! Third, THE CAMERA! I love that pic of Miss P you doctored up, Jules.
Jama, I LOVE CARMINE! (And, Jules, how could you not have seen this book? I think you and the girls will get a kick out of it.)
Tanita, You are responding to moving in such a sane way. I usually respond by crying into a cardboard box, even when I’ve seen the place and know I like it.
Kimberly, LIBRARIANS UNITE! Congratulations!
Little Willow, Oh, that puzzle sounds fun.
Kicks:
1. I got to spend a day with Eisha!
2. As if that weren’t enough, I got to go to the Teen Book Festival AND see Robin AND see a bunch of other authors. It was very exciting. (Basically, I’m going to steal all of Eisha’s kicks here, except for that one about the paper cutter, which she described to me in person, and which sounds really quite scary. She *is* a ninja.)
3. On Friday night, I went to the opening reception for an exhibit of this artist’s work: http://eportfolio.cfa.arizona.edu/gallery.php?portid=151. It was cool.
4. On Friday during the day, I went to a youth library services conference in Canandaigua, which was also cool.
5. We did three Martha Speaks! programs at the library this week, which were very well-attended and well-received.
6. We also finished our summer program calendar, which is always a relief.
7. Oh, and today! My friend’s daughter who is in college was in a play this weekend, and I got out to see it this afternoon. My friend’s family has had one thing after another the last couple years, and it was good to get together, watch a great show, and then go out and celebrate.
Oh, mercy.
1. That poster!!!!
2. All these brand new lush and gushy poems!!!
3. Jules — your daughter’s fragrant hands!!!
4. National Poetry Month fabulousness!!!
5. My birthday!!!
6. The Weepies on my ipod while I cleaned the house.
7. My afternoon nap!!!
Happy week to you all…
Tanita, like adrienne, I’m in awe of your blase calm in the face of moving, much less to a place you’ve never seen. I would be a quivering fetal mess next to the flattened cardboard box, because even assembling them is too much for me sometimes.
cloudscome, ya’ll have cherry blossoms already? JEALOUS. we had snow yesterday. I’m so glad your little ‘un had such a good birthday.
Sara, I just Love. Your. Poem. And I’m also jealous that you, Jama, and Susan are all in the same book club. That must be a hoot-and-a-half. Also, you must have the best book-club-snacks in the history of the world ever.
Jeannine, I bet that was pretty wonderful indeed. Did Marilyn read any of her own stuff too? A Wreath for Emmett Till blew me away.
Kristy, I KNOW. Don’t you just want to look at that picture every day? I do.
jama, I remember getting that book for my library back in Cambridge – it IS pretty cool. Sorry I forgot to tell you, though. My bad.
Kimberly, CONGRATS! I’ve heard great things about the Chapel Hill program, and I’m always happy to see another future cool librarian. Your wedding sounds like it’ll be dreamy, too.
Alkelda, your lil’ aria singer slays me. The dress, her delivery, and the song all combined to send me right over the moon. Thank you for that bit of loveliness.
Kelly, I only use my paper cutter skills for good. Never for evil. With great power comes great responsibility.
JES, pardon me while I wipe the remains of my spit-take off my screen… Ah, that’s better. Anyway, I know the feeling of wanting to help out a loved one but feeling helpless to do so. Glad you figured out a way to be a force for good. And OH MY GOODNESS those e-cards are so funny I did a whole second spit-take.
Jeremy, let me reiterate what everyone else is saying about your abstract photos – GORGEOUS! I love the underwater stumps. Also – five weeks of vacay?!? Dude!!! Also-also, the earthworms thing grossed me right out. One thing I really hate about the spring is when it rains and all the worms come squirming out of their holes and wriggle up onto the sidewalk to get smushed. They twitch and ooze and smell all wormy. Blech.
Little Willow, BREAK A LEG of course. And I may need to get some ballet and tap shoes (long story), but I don’t buy leather any more. Any advice?
rm preston, you’re having some very good book kicks. AGNZ is one of my favorite books too. And OMG those Baaa-studs. How did they do that? Or a better question, WHY did they do that?
Elaine, no one knows how to throw down for National Poetry Month like you do. Yay for your winners!
emmaco, it always throws a kink in my brain when I hear about Roman ruins in England. I know, I know, it was part of the empire and all, but it just sounds wrong.
adrienne, you can steal my kicks anytime, especially since you more than make it up to me in homemade apple walnut bread. YUM. Glad the play was good, and that you got in without buying tix ahead of time.
Liz, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!
rm, that video was HILARIOUS — I’m so happy you remembered it!
been a while since i dropped any kicks. basically my critical thesis semester has been kicking ME. in the ass.
eisha, love the shot of your eldest. i’m always happy to hear when people get new cameras because it’s always filled with so much potential. i never understood how people could get excited by a new pair of shoes the same way – what’s the potential there? – and photography has that potential for art, which there isn’t enough of.
that said, this week’s kicks…
1. best april fool’s day in our house. helped the girls conspire against each other — eldest took every one of her younger sister’s right shoes and hid them in a bag. this only works because the youngest is a slob and can never find anything among the piles in her room to begin with.
youngest daughter and i put a vaccum cleaner deep under her sister’s bed with the power cord running out the room into the hall the night before. then we turned off her alarm clock, got up early, and plugged it in to wake her up. the brilliance here is the eldest daughter sleeps through her alarm clock most mornings and we’re all tired of listening to it. not being able to quickly reach under the bed to turn off the vacuum (or his “snooze” a dozen times) she was forced out of bed to find the plug to yank it.
best of all, we got youngest an early birthday present of a cell phone and hid it in her room to wake her up with it by calling her. a happier girl i have not seen, mostly because she didn’t expect us to even come through on her birthday, much less early.
that ought to count for a bunch of kicks right there.
2. visited the barely-week-old niece. she isn’t even as big as out cat! what a cutie!
3. twitter. everything i wanted from facebook, without quizzes.
4. twitku. on a whim, as a way to test drive twitter, i decided on the 1st to tweet an original haiku daily. well, i’ve been doing three a day, actually. i usually do them on the spot and with mixed degrees of success and quality. but they make for great study breaks, and response has been encouraging.
i’m delzey on twitter, if anyone wants to throw tomatoes at me. sorry for the shameless plug.
5. bbq. got a grill from the in-laws back in december and finally had nice enough weather to bust it out. (that and a new propane tank). funny thing is, it rained on grill day, but that didn’t stop me! so many grilled things i wish to try. looking forward to summer nights like i haven’t since i was boy!
6. a week without one of the heavy winter coats. not that we probably won’t get at least one more cold new england jolt before summer, but the first full week without the bulky coat makes spring real.
7. new (old) camera! it’s a brownie starflex, the kind of camera my parents had in 1961, as part of a future project to do some TtV photography (check out the TtV flcickr group to see what i mean). not that i don’t love my digital camera, but i seriously want to do some art photography again and build a darkroom so i can teach the girls film processing and developing.
whew! i can’t believe that was all last week, in addition to revising my thesis, going to the dentist (a filling is not a kick), editing a couple short stories, and generally goofing off on the internet when i should have been working.
When you do it up here, you really really really do it up. Great post.
John, I love that card your wife sent. Where have these ecards been all my life? It’s hard to find good ones.
Emmaco, fun! Did you take lots of pics of the ruins?
Adrienne, what a good week it sounds like you had, not to mention spending the day with Eisha. How cool that it’s relatively easy for you all to get together. Of course, when I start our blogger commune, one day a BUNCH of us will all be neighbors.
Liz, happy birthday again, and I must explore The Weepies.
David, I’m so happy you stopped by, the pranks on April Fool’s Day are classic (as well as the cell phone bit), and your kicks are all-around fabulous. Continued good luck with that thesis. Oh, and I hope you stay on FB, too.
Beth, THANKS!
Thanks for kind words on the photos! And Eisha, a note on earthworms — the dumb ones waiting to die on wet sidewalks *are* dumb and gross. The ones that can somehow survive in our compost bins through a very cold winter and then happily move into our garden to enrich the soil are upper-class worms — smart and resourceful and never grodie to the max.
[…] tip to rm preston. In a comment at the Seven Impossible Things… blog’s weekly “7-Kicks” extravaganza […]
Eisha, I know the kind of paper cutter you wrote about. We had one at the elementary school where I taught. I cut more than one silk scarf in that sucker.
Jules, that was a great gift–and I love the picture of your daughter and her poetry fingers.
I guess my kick is that it’s April and soooooo many folks are really getting into the mood and celebrating poetry in the kidlitosphere. Add to that: One of my poem is included here along with those of some mighty fine poets at 7-Imp’s Sunday post welcoming National Poetry Month.
I guess I should also mention that three of my poems were published in the April 2009 issue (6th issue) of Yareah Magazine and were posted online last week.
http://www.yareah.com/magazine
That was a real kick for me!
Elaine, congrats on the published poems!
rm preston: Enjoy the sunshine! Nice mix of books. I really like Coraline and 13RY. Thank you for planting trees and helping the Earth and its inhabitants! It sounds goofy when you read it like this, but I mean it, truly.
Jules: I think the name Posy is quite good for the camera! I love the play on words (strike a pose for the camera) and I tend to like names which are literally flowery (Daisy, Poppy, etc.) Thanks for the good wishes. We open in TWO DAYS!
emmaco: Hope the meeting went well, and that you have some down time to yourself soon.
Adrienne: ‘Twas. I am a fan of puzzles. Glad that you got to hang out with eisha, and that the Teen Book Festival was all that and then some. Have fun with all of those cool programs and events! Best wishes to your friend’s daughter.
Liz in Ink: Rock the exclamation points! Happy belated birthday!
eisha: You need ballet shoes and tap shoes?! OOH! Rejoice! Are you taking classes? Tell me! Tell me now! 🙂 I don’t have any always-get-’em brands – I just look for items with man-made materials whenever possible.
delzey: Have fun with the kids, the camera, and the twitku.
Elaine: Congratulations!!! 🙂
Well, LW, I was also inspired by this, which we have out from the library now. Love the art.
I don’t normally name objects and am likely to forget, but hey, with a name like Posy, maybe it’ll stick.
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