Life has been moving so fast lately and although there are skillions of things going on that I could be writing about, it seems I've been doing life a little more than I have been writing about it.
Well, that's not 100% true; I still write in the mornings, but that's writing that's just for me - that no one else sees. (this blogging stuff is for me too, but it's a whole different sort; it's for me, but it's a lot about the "performance" of it too. i'm very well aware when i'm writing for the blog that people will be reading this at some point or another, and it can't help but make the writing self-conscious from time to time ...) (kinda like now.)
So, yeah, I haven't been blog writing much, but I've been doing some fun stuff and taking pictures here and there along the way so I thought I'd share some. (might also have the side effect of putting some momentum behind blogging more again ...)
A party on the back deck, COTU. Early September before the weather started to turn (and it has ...). Will be sad to see those impromptu summer marathons on the deck at COTU go.
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The full spectrum Fiestaware. My grandmother had a bunch of it when I was growing up, and TGFKAS had several place settings. "It's cheerful," he'd say of it. After TGFKAS and I split up, I found that I missed seeing those bright colors when I'd sit down to dinner, so I started buying it up - color by color, another place setting every couple of weeks. Got the whole Roy G. Biv now. A nice bit of the legacy of TGFKAS.
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A few shots from a glorious September beach day. I can almost feel the surf bubbling up in these two shots. I never thought my feet were particularly photo-worthy, but I thought that looking at shots of warmer days with my feet in the water might help me survive the coming winter months. 
(there might be a theme developing here about dreading winter ...)
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A couple of images from the Dodge Poetry Festival. ("the woodstock of poetry")
I woke up yesterday morning at the ungodly hour of 5:20am (on a weekend no less) and drove to this lovely little spot in rural-ish northwest New Jersey. There, I met up with friends and we went immediately to the main tent to watch Coleman Barks (in the red scarf), the quintessential translator of Rumi, recite some of Rumi's "greatest hits" while the Paul Winter Consort provided some amazing icing-on-the-cake kinda music. Got to hear Barks read two my favorites: Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in the grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase 'each other' doesn't make any sense.
And: Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened. Don't open the door to the study and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument. Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. 
YUM. (and that was just some of it; here's a new favorite to add to the hit parade ...)
When the Rumi presentation was over I had cried twice - and tried not to show it - didn't want to freak out the 13 year old son of my good friend Wes who was sitting on my right (or wes' wife, who was to my left). But hearing Barks recite Rumi feels as I imagine church or temple must feel to the true believer. It hits me in a place so soft and deep and primal that crying seems like the absolutely perfect response. When I hear those poems I think: if everyone in the world could experience Coleman Barks reading Rumi while the Paul Winter Consort played, the soul of the world would open up and all the negative energy in the world would melt away. (out beyond ideas ...)
The rest of the festival was lovely too - a pretty day in a gorgeous setting, hanging out with friends, hearing Billy Collins talk about craft (i caught only 1/2 hour of that talk, and i'm still getting great insights from what he spoke about ...), and wandering among other people who were celebrating beauty, the written word, and our humanity through the lusciousness of poetry. Yum city.
And this photo? I was trying to explain something to Wes about an issue I was having with a setting on my camera (wes is my personal 'geek squad'), and I took this shot to demonstrate. When I was finished, he said: "Now I'll see it on the blog: Wes' Feet, Dodge Poetry Festival." I had no intention of posting it - I mean, c'mon, it's a photo of Wes' feet standing by my car (and i already have two shots of my feet in this post already, and an unintentional theme is developing ...) - but I tend to rise to such "dares" - even when tossed out in jest. So here, for your viewing pleasure: Wes' Feet, Dodge Poetry Festival.
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