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NauenThen

I love science

June 23, 2017
I try not to have regrets: what's the point? If I mess up, I try to make amends then leave it alone.

But I do regret my inexplicable & silly distaste for science when I was young.

I'm enthralled these days by what scientists & researchers know & come up with. MRIs in infants that can predict  Read More 
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Laughing all the way to Oslo

June 22, 2017
Johnny & some of the grandkids + elder son
Last week was so hectic that I never wrote about half the stuff I did:
* Saw Kevin Kline in Present Laughter, a Noel Coward play. He plays a ham without being a ham, utterly funny & wonderfully graceful.
* Saw Tony-winner Oslo at Lincoln Center. Unfortunately, we were in the very last row & it was both cramped & at times hard to hear, so the play felt a little too long. The best part was when people burst out with their most deeply held beliefs & you felt like this (Israeli-Palestinian conflict) never could be resolved. But the hope (no matter how things turned out later) was wonderful & seeing negotiation in action illuminating.
* Father's Day with Sean & his 3 wonderful kids.
* Lots of classes & work & reading & my sister's visit.  Read More 
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Appreciated

June 21, 2017
Tags: Poetry Project
Look what got delivered! It's a thank-you from the Poetry Project's staff & board for my 22 years on the board, which concluded last week. That's almost half of the Project's 50-year existence, & now that there's term limits, I may well be the longest-serving board member ever.

I helped choose two directors & raised a lot of money this our 50th year. I signed checks, entirely because I live the closest to the Project office. I was Treasurer & not only avoided ever once making a (required annual) report, was so nervous that I mostly didn't open the statements from the financial people. I was the bad cop when we negotiated a contentious lease. I was the first person in years to vote against a motion, which impressed Steve Hamilton no end.

I'm sad/glad glad/sad to be finished.  Read More 
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Where we read now

June 20, 2017
Meltzer Park.
From the street, Meltzer Park isn't that appealing. It's mostly paved & the benches are fixed in blocks. But inside, it's cool, breezy, shaded, & empty. Also, it's a block away. This is where we'll spend the summer reading poetry.

We started with Inger Christensen's wonderful Alphabet, but I'd lost our place and left it at work, so we decided to spend time with A.E. Housman's A Shropshire Lad. I'd thought he was pretty but he's sophisticated in his rhymes & deep (in a youthful but hard-charging way) in his philosophy. He is considered to be one of the greatest scholars in history (true?) & he was in love with a schoolmate, who was heterosexual but they remained lifelong friends, which seems to be rather mellow for the Victorian era. But what do I know.  Read More 
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The road to Wigan Pier

June 19, 2017
Half a description of working-class life in northern England in the 1930s, & very grim it was; half an explanation of & plea for socialism. Orwell's prose is serviceable, his ideas sometimes wrong & often prescient, as in:
To a political climber it is sometimes an advantage not to be taken too seriously at the beginning of his career.

Is this wrong, prescient, both or neither:
The machine has got to be accepted but it is probably better to accept it rather as one accepts a drug—that is, grudgingly and suspiciously. Like a drug, the machine is useful, dangerous and habit-forming.

Other quotes from the book:
The less money you have, the less inclined you feel to spend it on wholesome food. A millionaire may enjoy breakfasting off orange juice and Ryvita biscuits; an unemployed man doesn't.  Read More 
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Gallery 440

June 18, 2017
Tags: Shanee Epstein
I love Shanee's work. Always recognizable, there's a complexity of color & form that is utterly appealing. We bought a collage at her last show that's on our kitchen wall. I still look at it often (you know how you get used to your surroundings & rarely see things after a while—sadly, that includes messes as well as art). This show was more colorful & less abstract. We went for the gallery talk: 4 artists discussing methods, inspiration, intention.  Read More 
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"One (1) rider per bug"

June 16, 2017
Tags: Bronx Zoo
Insect love.
There weren't a lot of adults on the Bug Carousel. We were reminded of going on a carousel in D.C. a few years ago, all us siblings, a carousel that took off at such a high rate of speed that it scared/nauseated all of us. This one was way more sedate. You can't see it but I'm on a grasshopper & Vee on a, well, some other bug.  Read More 
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Bronx Zoo

June 15, 2017
Tags: Bronx Zoo
I'd never been to the Bronx Zoo. Wasn't so sure I wanted to, but my visiting sister did, so up we went. Wow, the best park in New York City. Gorgeous grounds, buildings, exhibits. (Signage, maps, & food choices, not so much.) Definitely going back.
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Whew

June 15, 2017
I will catch up but this week was crazy. A couple of really hot days, then tickets to two shows, a visit from my sister, & my office only this minute (noon on Thursday) done with all the work that has kept me from working here undisturbed for 3 weeks, & at all for 3 days.
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Good wife

June 11, 2017
Organic eggs with smoked cheddar made by the Amish. From the greenmarket.

Whole grain health toast from Bread Alone.

Asparagus & tomatoes, artfully arranged.

My biennial cooking venture.
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Goodbye to all that

June 9, 2017
The lobby of 157.
Saying farewell to Johnny's job involved a party on the roof of the building where he'd been handyman, porter, doorman, fill-in super for almost 20 years. (None of those pictures came out because my 15-year-old grandson swiped his hand in front of the lens till I gave up.)

I was gratified how many tenants sought me out to tell me how much they liked, admired, loved Johnny.

Johnny's one & only plan for the future: a cruise, which to me seems like the worst possible thing in the world, unless it's the Circle Line around Manhattan. Anyway, he doesn't have a passport so I don't think it can even happen.  Read More 
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Challah-lujah!

June 8, 2017
Tags: B&H Kosher Dairy Restaurant
Here we are in our Challah Por Favor shirts from B&H.
Johnny & I were thrilled to be at the New School the other evening to see B&H Dairy get a Village Award from the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.

Owners Ola & Fawzy, and the whole crew, have been part of our extended family for many years now. Among the first people to visit Johnny in the hospital after his terrible Hummer rundown 5 years ago were Leo & his wife, and Mike and his wife & baby.

That they could reopen after being shut down for 5 months after the 2nd Avenue explosion & fire is a testament to the reciprocated love from many, many people, who donated money, time, expertise, & other support to keep this nearly 80-year-old diner in business.  Read More 
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Wild things

June 7, 2017
iForest is an "immersive sound experience." But not exactly a visual one.
I felt as though I had never been in the woods till I heard the counterpoint between British composer Pete Wyer's orchestral & choral music (sung in Cherokee) and the birds.

The Wild Center also had a prehistoric living sturgeon, that is, a fish as old as the dinosaurs & kind of similar, with those triangles down its spine like a stegosaurus (which is probably not called that anymore, is it).  Read More 
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Writer at work

June 6, 2017
I got to stay in my favorite room at Blue Mountain Center.
I'm back a week already but still catching up on what I missed, still getting back in the groove. I mostly worked on a long poem about snow (now called Snowbound. I thought it was going to be a book, but by the time I cut out the section of facts, the section of quotes, & all the fluff, it ended up being only 12 pages long. And more might go.

Part of the fun was cutting it up & rearranging it until you suddenly see what you're doing—a wonderful aha moment.  Read More 
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Woody!

June 5, 2017
These squares were accomplished by a pilated woodpecker.

Ben says trees nourish each other underground. Even dead trees are part of a communal system.

The evocative scent of a fresh-mown lawn is actually trauma—the smell of chemical defenses called green leaf volatiles.

At least I don't eat fish.

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Osthøvel

June 4, 2017
Tags: Norway
The Norwegians, as I’m sure everyone knows, invented the cheese slicer, or osthøvel. This one was given to me by a friend whose mother is Norwegian and was just there on a family trip. Everyone is going to Norway except me. I can’t wait to buy some cheese and feel a little norsk.  Read More 
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Hello from the Adirondacks

May 26, 2017
I am here for 5 days without a lot of internet access. Can't add photos or they would show how gorgeous & green Blue Mountain Center is. Getting to be a full-time poet for the first time in 5 years, after being a full-time worrywart. Poetry is better. Back with blog posts when I can, likely not till Monday, Memorial Day.  Read More 
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This is a wall

May 22, 2017
This is a sign on—yes—a wall at a construction site around the corner. What did Paul Richard imagine people thought this was if not a wall? Who is Paul Richard, for that matter? What precautions do people generally take around walls?

They might want to stay out of the way of my favorite 3rd-grade joke:

What did one wall say to the other?

Meetcha at the corner.  Read More 
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Partners in crime

May 21, 2017
Tags: Melissa Zexter
"Flowering Gum Tree." Buy it for me? Only $4,000.
I met Dot (aka Melissa Zexter) more than 20 years ago at Blue Mountain Center, an artist residency in the Adirondacks. She was newly switching out of using standard art materials, which had become toxic to her.

I love seeing how this has developed into embroidery and scratching on photographs—adding, removing till she's created something new & beautiful. OK, I'm partial to cars & baseball (as is Dot) but this picture is something I could look at for a long long time, drift into its story & landscape. I love how the car is outlined in a simple stitch, a reminder that we had to keep our old cars running with crackerjack toys & ingenuity, & that even a beater can be loved.  Read More 
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Knocking

May 19, 2017
Tags: Carlina Rivera
Inspired this week by all the political ferment to volunteer for a candidate running for City Council in my district, the smart, charismatic, & local Carlina Rivera, who I'd met at an event sponsored by Eleanor's Legacy, a group that works to elect pro-choice Democratic women in New York City and New York State.

A day or two ago, I went out "knocking," which literally is knocking on doors. I was surprised how many people buzzed us in without question. Mostly our encounters were brief, just handing out information & reminding them to vote in the primary. One guy, however, said-shouted, "I'm a registered Democrat! but I voted for Donald Trump! I wasn't getting behind what Hillary Clinton was selling! I see your face! I see  Read More 
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What I had for breakfast

May 18, 2017
I told someone I couldn't remember what I'd had for breakfast this morning, let alone something he'd said in passing a month ago. He said, That's why you have a blog.

And I do remember: I slow-cooked two organic brown eggs with a little butter & cheese, then rolled the mess into a toasted whole-grain tortilla.

I'm not usually that ambitious or healthy. Usually I get a burrito up the block or warm up an Amy's bowl but I had a little time this morning.  Read More 
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Hell bank note

May 16, 2017
I remember having a big stack of these.

I remember handing them out.

I remember it seemed funny at the time.
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The 5 Spot

May 15, 2017
Tags: The 5 Spot, Frank O'Hara
One of my favorite poems is Frank O'Hara's "The Day Lady Died." I've read it a thousand times & taught it in most workshops, & it still makes my heart stop every time:

and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT

I knew the 5 Spot was in my neighborhood but I never knew exactly where till I happened to walk past this commemorative sign. What must have been a row of Bowery tenements and bars is now a senior citizen center.

I was watching a short video of my neighborhood 30 or 35 years ago with a friend, age 30, who asked, referring to the endless blocks of burned-out buildings & cars, the junkies & broken glass & dog shit: Was that really what it was like?

I almost can't believe it either, not when I see how entirely the East Village has transformed.

The golden age, always a little further in the past than when you were young.  Read More 
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Nature girl

May 14, 2017
Still counting my nature blessings.
I was walking through the Village View apartments & saw many daffodils. So nice, but where are the irises?

Just ahead! That's so much more a Sioux Falls flower & I was immediately happy.

Oh look—lilies of the valley! I practically threw myself to the ground to smell them & was transported back to the damp & unvisited side of our house on Summit Avenue, where I would lie down for their sweet bright scent & perfect white bells.

Also, there were 2 chickens in a park on Avenue C. Too quick for me to get them in the frame. Read More 
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When I was fearless

May 12, 2017
The freedom now desired by many is not freedom to do & dare but freedom from cares & worry. —John Truslow Adams

I've been pondering this. While I am sure he means it generationally ("now"), I think as I've gotten older I've gone from do & dare to cares & worry. Just as I can't really remember those  Read More 
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Cats & dogs

May 11, 2017
My cat Buster, guarding his catnip banana.
I just came up with this theory:

Young women who have dogs are more likely to have children eventually than young women who have cats.

Among my acquaintances it's more true than not, & it makes sense: dogs require more attention & care, so women who are willing to take care of a dog are primed for kids.

I have no idea if this is true, or what it means.

Update: My brother just pointed out that some people have dogs [& cats?] in lieu of kids. Read More 
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"Frankly I am very shocked"

May 10, 2017
This is a letter that came to me from a woman in South Carolina (with my my mother's maiden name, btw) when I was fiction editor of a weekly woman's magazine in the late-80s. [It was in a 6" stack of cover letters that I had saved for some reason. Not no more!] She says she is a "saved and Christain [sic] woman" who took issue with someone taking the lord's name in vain. "If it's a womans [sic] magazine how about making it for a lady and not for some bum who doesn't care for nothing."

Did I respond? Probably, as we were "encouraged" to do so.

Whenever I got a letter like this (rarely), the editor-in-chief would go into a frenzy of apology & swear that things must change. I would respond by havin my sister (using a pseudonym) write an enthusiastic letter of praise about the same story, how refreshing to tackle contemporary issues in a fresh voice etc.  Read More 
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Illness in public office

May 9, 2017
I must confess to idle speculation about the extent to which the course of world affairs may have been affected by illness among those holding high public office since, say, the time of Woodrow Wilson. I say “idle” because it would probably be impossible to isolate the effects of illness and we cannot know  Read More 
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Wall, Riverside Park

May 8, 2017
My goal this week is to remember I am connected to nature, hence the photo of this wall in Riverside Park.

The Hudson River, daffodils, flowering trees, spirea, clouds, tulips, rain.
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Another afternoon in the universe of baseball

May 7, 2017
Tags: baseball
My granddaughter Meagan is the pitcher her, her team the Lightning in the West Side Little League. She's 12, has power & a great motion, with that little hiccup in the hip that you see in college ball. It's softball & underhand so her arm doesn't wear out. The girls know the rudiments & occasionally execute well, although most of the scoring was on overthrows & stolen bases.
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