Sandra Beasley tagged me with this meme:

“Here are five poetry collections you may not have read but certainly must. (Note: The collections, for whatever reason, should be a bit off the beaten path. And need not have caused the earth to open and swallow you whole.)”

The first book is Burnt Island by D. Nurkse.

From the book description at Amazon:

Arranged in three “suites” of lucid, often heart-wrenching verse, the book begins with a city under siege, in a group of poems that becomes a subtle homage to New York after 9/11–a metaphorical “burnt island,” where diggers doze on their shovels, citizens contribute bottles of water, M&M’s, and casseroles to recovery efforts, and survivors, mesmerized by the photos of the missing, compare them “scar by scar with the faces of the living.”

More book suggestions coming soon.

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I’d been thinking (wishing?) that I’d be told I could move up to level 2 in pilates. Guess what? I was told today! I was in a level 1-2 class until now and will continue with that while starting a level 2.

“I must be right. Never an aspirin. Never injured a day in my life. The whole country, the whole world, should be doing my exercises.
They’d be happier.” – Joseph Pilates, in 1965, age 86

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I’m going to LA and San Diego in June-July. I am thrilled. Anyone want to share must-see locations? In LA, I’ll be in Pasadena.

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Today I am grateful for recent good news, for what bees we have, for the warm weather, for the smell of cut grass, for M, for the fertilizer my neighbor gave me, and for my fun day job.