MORE 5 THINGS

Speaking of meme, Tim Peterson just tagged me. What is it with this tag? Ron Silliman already tagged me on the same meme and I replied earlier with Sex and Dread. Well, thanks for thinking of me, Tim, and here are 5 more unknown things about Moi:

1) I have (it should be had but I have a problem with tenses when referring to dead family members) a brother Roy. He died in a car accident when I was a college sophomore. He had basically ignored me all his life...until the summer prior to that accident--when he, for the first time, reached out to me with conversation and gifts. As if he knew something was going to happen and wanted to be sure we connected before it did. We connected. At his funeral, I laid down by his coffin the first of many thorned red roses (re link; see cover image) that would keep popping up in my life...or poetry.

2) When the Poetry Muse first appeared to me, she said my job was not to write poems but to heal P___ (I insert the blank line there because I can't remember whether the muse said "Poetry" or "Poets").*

3) This happened just yesterday: the hubby and I were driving behind a truck that bore the bumper sticker: "If you're going to ride my ass, the least you can do is pull my hair." I'm 46 years old but didn't know what that meant...uh, until the hubby humorously explained.

4) I have dreams of opening up a bookstore. Or a bookstore with art gallery. I have the name already picked out, with the puns absolutely intended:

POETRY: GIFTS AND NOTIONS


5) Because I'm unable to open a bookstore, I started a novel about a new bookstore owner. In St. Helena where I live. And involving Arnold Schwarzenneger who, with family, has been known to frequent the local Meadowood club. And how Arnold had gone to Main Street, St. Helena, looking for cigars but ended up in my wee bookstore. The novel's working title is How I Became The U.S. Poet Laureate ... which I always felt I should revise as I'd like this novel, once I complete it, to have a shot at selling enough copies to be an international best seller and what are the odds of that if the title contains any reference to poetry? Having just typed out that question, it occurs to me -- but maybe I should retain the title. Because achieving a bestseller with a title involving poetry would be more difficult. And (notwithstanding the pain that just erupted along my back at the thought), there is beauty stubbornly in difficulty.


I TAG anyone of my 10 billion peeps who won't tag me right back.

*****

*UPDATE:
Rereading No. 2, not that I think Poetry needs healing (or healing from me). This is a point that's muddy unless I clarify it's contextualized within "Babaylan poetics" (more about which: later.)