California Fever

Thirsty Ear

One last poem for August here.  Missed a couple of days, but made them up by posting two the next day.  So, all in all, 31 poems for August.  I really enjoyed the discipline of writing a daily morning poem.  Maybe I'll keep it up...maybe not.  ;)  I loved most the freedom of it.  Of not writing to prompts or preconceived ideas--just sitting down and letting myself be surprised about where the words went.

Poetry Thursday is ending, but you can still share one last poem there today and through the weekend.  Details are here. 

We've got a crazy 24 hours ahead of us...  J went to work today (his alarm goes off at 3:30!)...when he gets home this afternoon, he'll be loading his drums into the car and packing a suitcase...picking me up at 3:30 from work...we'll be heading straight into S.F. to get to his rehearsal by 6:00 (and before they close the Bay Bridge for the Labor Day weekend!)...he's playing a jazz gig at Biscuits and Blues with Sweet Baby J'ai (jazz singer from L.A.) tonight...we'll have to drive home via the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin County...catch (hopefully) a few hours of sleep...head to the Sacramento airport by 8:00 tomorrow morning so he can fly to Albuquerque with Joe Louis Walker's band to play the Thirsty Ear Festival at Eaves Movie Ranch in Santa Fe (anyone like The Be Good Tanyas?...they play the set before them)...spend the night...and then he flies out early Sunday morning and lands back in Sacramento 24 hours after he took off.

But the highlight for me?  I get to meet Linda tonight!  (She and her hubby are coming to the early show.)

Agenda for Sunday and Monday?  NOTHING!  :)

August was CRAZY busy for me at work.  Yesterday (the second day of classes) was the first day I could work at a 'normal' pace.  I am SO ready for this 3-day weekend!  Have a good one!

Goodbye to Poetry Thursday

It's the last Thursday at Poetry Thursday.  My last PT post is here.

Max Roach

The music world has lost a giant.  Jazz drummer Max Roach passed away yesterday at the age of 83.  Mr. Roach wasn't just a pioneer and innovator of modern jazz, he was a man who spent his life expanding his artistic horizons.  This is a man who could have easily rested on his laurels, but instead chose to explore new avenues of creativity.  If you're not familiar with Max Roach, I encourage you to read his NYTimes obit here.  Here's a clip of Max doing a drum solo...

August poem #17 is here.

the end

POETRY THURSDAY will be coming to a close at the end of August.  I know there are many who, like me, will read the announcement and feel tears springing to their eyes.  If Liz hadn't started Poetry Thursday 18 months ago...if I hadn't met her in Portland about a month later (and witnessed for myself what a beautiful spirit she has)...I'm not sure I'd have ever been able to muster the courage to take the leap myself.  She made poetry seem not so scary.  (I used to almost be afraid to even READ it--fearing I wouldn't 'get' it.)  I'm enormously grateful to her for having the courage to take her newfound interest in poetry, to listen to her heart and intuition, and to take that love of poetry to another level by sharing it with the blogosphere.  She's a Poetry Angel in my book.  Kudos to her and Dana for all that they did with that fabulous site...nd for all that they gave to so very many.

My daily August poem #16 is here.  Sending love to those in Lima, Peru.

love and happiness

My ALL-TIME FAVORITE SONG covered really well here.  I'm not sure I've ever heard this song played live (and I've heard it many times) when I didn't find myself on the dance floor...caring not one whit whether or not anyone else was dancing with me.  J plays the hell outta this song...laying down a funky, greasy, soulful groove.

August poem #9 is here.

yes, you

Anyone wanna join me in an August poem-a-day fest?  I'm writing these in the spirit of what Natalie Goldberg describes in Writing Down the Bones when she talks about spontaneous writing booths.  These are quick-hit, first draft poems.  And in the spirit of a spontaneous writing booth, if anyone wants to leave a one-word prompt they'd like to have a poem for, leave it in the comments.

My August poem #2 is here. 

Learning to Love Ourselves More

Wrote a short poem for Poetry Thursday.  It's over at Moojo Cafe.

Friends in Portland turned me on to Kathy Mattea's music 15 years ago.  She has a wonderful new acoustic music project, COAL, highlighting the history of coal mining and the plight of coal miners in West Virginia.  She was touched and inspired to start this project after hearing Al Gore give his PowerPoint presentation on global warming and giving thought to the role that coal mining plays in it.  You can read more about it here.  That link features an interview with Kathy on PRI where she plays a few of the tunes from COAL.  Her tour dates are here.

I'm a big Miranda July fan.  And how cool is this?!  A family in Seattle, the Olivers, has decided to do all 63 assignments at Miranda's Learning to Love Your More site.  You can follow along via their blog.  The results will be on display at Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival September 1-3 and at Miranda's site here for those who won't be able to attend Bumbershoot.

making time

I've had a busy few days.  At work I'm trying to get a jump start on organizing stuff for when I return to work in August while simultaneously wrapping up year-end stuff for the school year that just ended.  On Tuesday I attended a luncheon with all of my counterparts from across the school district.  Today I'm having lunch with my pal Christina who's leaving us for a job at a school in Sacramento.  She's been our activities director and I've greatly enjoyed working with her on various projects.  I'll miss her terribly.  After work today I'm getting together with Cara who I haven't seen in what seems like ages.  We're going to go for a walk in the Arboretum--looking forward to that.  We got official word yesterday that the office only has to stay open to the public through June 28th, so I'll be using a vacation day to take off Friday, the 29th.  That means I'll be off work from June 29th through July 31st--a 33-day break.  YAY. Other than a day here or there, J and I haven't had anything that remotely resembles a vacation in two years.  We're hoping to maybe get away a bit in mid-July. I'm taking a vacation day tomorrow so I can accompany him to the Monterey Peninsula.  He's playing the Monterey Bay Blues Festival tomorrow night.  We're going to spend the night and dink around on Saturday before making our way to San Francisco for his gig at Biscuits and Blues on Saturday night.  We'll drive home after that so we can wake up Sunday morning in our own bed and have a leisurely Sunday.

Work is busy, busy, busy even though classes are over.  I've been biking a lot and trying to read a little bit.  Outside of all of that, I've just been spending time with J.  His month away was good for our relationship--it's made us much more attentive towards each other.  Like any couple that's been together for a long time, we can fall into a rut.  We're making time for each other these days. 

Poetry Thursday is taking a (well-deserved!) summer break.  But just because it had been three weeks since I'd even thought about writing a poem, I grabbed a prompt from their random generator this morning and wrote this. 

rivers

The prompt at Poetry Thursday today is "rivers."  As I wrote in my comment there this morning, there are few things I love in this life more than rivers.  My poem is here.

single

Today's Poetry Thursday poem is over here.  This week's prompt was to use PT's new random prompt generator to create a poem.  It gave me "single" this morning, so that's what I went with.