My Love For All Things Warm and Breathing
- William Kloefkorn
I have seldom loved more than one thing at a time,
yet this morning I feel myself expanding, each
part of me soft and glandular, and under my skin
is room enough now for the loving of many things,
and all of them at once, these students especially,
not only the girl in the yellow sweater, whose
name, Laura Buxton, is somehow the girl herself,
Laura for the coy green mellowing eyes, Buxton
for all the rest, but also the simple girl in blue
on the back row, her mouth sad beyond all reasonable
inducements, and the boy with the weight problem,
his teeth at work even now on his lower lip, and
the grand profusion of hair and nails and hands and
legs and tongues and thighs and fingertips and
wrists and throats, yes, of throats especially,
throats through which passes the breath that joins
the air that enters through these ancient windows,
that exits, that takes with it my own breath, inside
this room just now my love for all things warm and
breathing, that lifts it high to scatter it fine and
enormous into the trees and the grass, into the heat
beneath the earth beneath the stone, into the
boundless lust of all things bound but gathering.
Speaking of love... it's concord grape season here! Besides grape juice, my favorite thing to make with them is Rosemary Grape Focaccia Bread. It's a winner in our house, there are never any leftovers. I first saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen years ago, and have been making a similar version ever since. If you have a source of concord grapes I highly recommend making it.
A few pictures from my morning walks with my moni girl. I am constantly in awe of the world around me. It's always changing and I love being able to capture a few moments here and there with my phone/camera...if Moni allows me to stop for a minute.
This summer we finally ventured out for an overnight hiking trip as a family. It's been 15+ years since we have spent nights out on the trail. It was fun, hot, hard, buggy, exhausting, and invigorating. Coming home we all felt like we had accomplished something great, even if it was only for one night... we survived the wilderness. Next time maybe we'll take on two nights. ;)
Deep sigh... I am trying very hard to be patient when it comes to getting back into pottery. My clay studio has a brand new beautiful floor, but it has no windows, or doors, or stairs to my glaze ingredients. So, for now I have a wheel in our dining room, where I am quietly sulking about not have a functional space to throw clay around in, but for now it will have to do.
A few other things...
I just finished a wonderful book. I loved it! Mao's Last Dancer. This book really made me think about life and how lucky I am to live where I have so much freedom to do, say, and feel as I please. I highly recommend it. The movie was okay, but nowhere near as good as the book...as usual.
This new episode of This American Life ranks pretty high up there with some of my other favorites.
If you are looking for a good mix to listen to I have many on my spotify account that are public...
If you are not on my mailing list then you missed my online course announcement. I will be teaching a new online course this January... two actually! One Fine Arts workshop and one art journaling workshop. I am still working out the details, but I will post more about both in the next month or so.
Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you are doing well!