Tomatoes and Other Good Finds

Tomato 1 by sfxeric via Flickr

Sorry I'm a day late with this post. My husband built me a small garden to plant in and we took advantage of the sunny Sunday we received. All in all, we've four tomato plants, two jalapeño, two cilantro, two basil, one rosemary, two strawberry, and one zucchini.

Because I'm still floating on new gardener air, I wanted to find a poem on gardening, or more specifically, tomatoes, and though this poem for the week isn't specifically on gardens or growing tomatoes, it does mention tomatoes in a dark yet touching sense: "Early Cascade" by Lucia Perillo.

Some other good finds:

How to be left alone to read while traveling (I got a good chuckle out of this write-up! I almost felt as if I was reading my own writing)

New video version of Taylor Mali's poem "What Teachers Make" via Jessie Carty

A favorite blogger of mine, Natalia Sylvester, on The Importance of Fictional Truths

Some Thoughts on the Lost Art of Reading Aloud via The New York Times - Do you read aloud anymore?


How was your week? Any good finds to share?

Happy Monday! Andrea

Poem Share and Other Good Finds Sunday/Monday

The poem I've selected for this week is Francisco X. Alarcón's "To Those Who Have Lost Everything" and I'm pairing it with the article below.

"Artists React to Mexico's Drug War With Music and Poetry" by Betty Arcos in NPR. Growing up and now again living in a border city, I feel the issues discussed in this article touch upon a familiar reality: violence on the border remains a mute point in today's media. I'm with Lili Downs in hoping "No evil can last a hundred years."

I posted Perpetual Follies' 2012 Pushcart Prize Rankings last week. Here is an article in Luna Park from Travis Kurowski that offers a different perspective: "Is Something Missing from the Pushcart Prize?" What are your thoughts?

Diane Lockward guides us in deciphering when a poem is ready to send out into the world. When do you feel your writing is ready to submit?

If you read anything this week, please read this touching story about stories "passing back through the heart" by Natalia Sylvester on her blog: "The Difference Between Recording and Remembering."

Come across any good reading this past week? What's on your desk for this week?

Wishing you a week full of wonder, Andrea

Four Comforts After My Husband's Surgery

My husband underwent surgery yesterday morning that will hopefully result in our beginning a family soon. The day was nerve-wracking and I don't know what I was thinking not taking the day off work (you know how Murphy's Law goes) but it ended with my being grateful for many things. Four stand out from the crowd:

1. We always know at some point in our lives, we tend to take the small things for granted. I try not to do this but the demands of work and life in general somehow sometimes overshadow the importance of these small yet essential things. Like how much time you enjoy spending with your husband on a daily basis. And how much he really helps around the house. Quiet time is nice, but too much quiet time, well, it's lonely, and I can't wait to have my husband back to his normal, jovial self.

2. Someone taking the time to come and sit with you at the hospital helps so much. Even though you pack a book or your laptop with you, these activities don't really distract you all that much when trying not to worry. Having someone to talk to, to wait out time with you, and help after surgery means more than most of us realize until we have it happen to us. I promise I will pay it forward. I'm blessed to have Tim's mom as my mother-in-law. The surprise of her face in the waiting room was and always will be a welcome one.

3. Chicken noodle soup is a staple after surgery. For the patient and for the caretaker. Even though I was beyond tired, I didn't want to leave Tim at the house by himself, and thank goodness I go a little crazy with vegetables at the grocery store and always have a surplus of chicken stock, pasta, and wine, because I had just what I needed to make my very first pot of chicken noodle soup. Yes, it was delicious. Tim lapped it up and was happy. I was even happier because after a stressful day, I felt as if I was seven again, sitting at my Grandma's kitchen table, enjoying a steaming hot bowl of feel good without a worry in the world.

4. A book is always a nice little escape from reality. I lost myself in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins last night. It was past my bedtime, but all I wanted to do was read one chapter. Just one. And then another flew by, and then this paragraph:

In late summer, I was wasting up in a pond when I noticed the plants growing around me. Tall with leaves like arrowheads. Blossoms with three white petals. I knelt down in the water, my fingers digging into the soft mud, and I pulled up handfuls of the roots...

What comforts does today bring you? What small things are your grateful for today?

Penelope's Corner: Cheers to Rain and Turtles

Penelope and her Red Umbrella

My Goddaughter Penelope is the source of inspiration for today's post. Children are the truest reflection of the world and they fill it with hope, wonder, and spirit. Three things I learned from Penelope this week:

1. Don't be afraid to go out in the rain. That's why umbrellas exist. Rain takes on many forms in life and it's just like death and taxes in that you can always count on it coming around at some time or another.

2. There is always time to say, "Cheers." Raise your glass and say it as much and with as many as you can. You don't need a special occasion for it. The moment you're in is the special occasion. Cheers!

3. This one needs a preface: Nicole (Penelope's beautiful mother) and I took a trip to Hobby Lobby the other night because she wanted to buy some beads and other accessories to make Penelope a bracelet for Valentine's Day. While we waited to check out, Nicole eyed a little turtle you could "grow" in water and decided she wanted one for Penelope. Penelope named the turtle "Shrek" and curiously eyed him as Nicole placed him in a bowl of water while explaining to Penelope that "Shrek" was now sleeping and would grow to full-size over the next couple of days. You could sense her anticipation. Throughout the evening, she kept asking to see the turtle. The next day, Nicole told me Penelope kept wanting to see "Shrek" all night long. The moral I gleaned from this story: Too often we are so busy with our lives, we forget the importance of watching life grow and the joy that can come witnessing the every day.

What or who has inspired you this week?

A poem for you today: "April Rain Song" by Langston Hughes

Poetry: A Livelihood or a Way of Life

This week, The The Poetry sent the thought-provoking article "Livelihoods of the Poets" from New York Magazine into my timeline. I had to read it a couple of times to let it sink in.

I'm disappointed to see this article did not include a unit of measure along the lines of "Reward for following poetry (or any other writing) as your passion: PRICELESS," or "Reward for poetry as a way of life: IMMEASURABLE."

What are your thoughts?

Lunch observations: Books in Public, Job Interviews, and Love

Enjoyed a nice lunch with myself today; twittered a little, mused a lot, and caught up on some reading. A few observations from my chicken-tortilla-soup-and-tuna-sandwich hour:

1. If you are reading a book in a public restaurant, expect to be stared and smiled at. People may even worry about you. These "observers" make me worry. There is nothing wrong with eating lunch by yourself, and it is even better when a book is your companion. Who cares what anyone else thinks. Read away. And don't look lonely or embarrassed. Be proud of the time you are taking for yourself. You are a student of life.

2. I don't know why people hold a job interview over lunch. How awkward! It is hard enough to eat on a first date, much less a first interview, without obsessing over what you should eat, whether you have food in your teeth, how you managed to spill that raspberry tea on your shirt, etc. How can an interview be successful when you are musing over a lunch menu, drinking tea, and eating a whole plate of food? You lose a lot of important time and conversation - at least that is my opinion.

3. Love is all around if you look at listen for it. In a time when we are inundated with
negative news delivered to our PDA's by the second, love is hiding out in the booth behind you, giggling and smiling. You may not know what the cute couple behind you might be laughing about, but you know that blended sound of two people's laughter makes you want to giggle along with them without any reason whatsoever. Just because. Then they round the corner and you notice this little old man is helping this little adorable woman put on her coat. He is having difficulty with his task because she is at least a head taller than he is and he can barely lift his arms from his sides. Yet, he persists. They giggle some more. He finally conquers the coat, grabs her hand, and they walk out smiling as if on their first date. This couple will never know the smile they brought to a stranger's face today.


Wishing you a happy day with lots of love and giggling in between!

Smile, Andrea

I Execrate Cancer

Don't really want to go into the details of today, just had to write it out.

I have removed my poem "Stage 4" because I have submitted it to a literary journal.  Crossing my fingers and toes.


At the end of a bad day, it was nice to see this walking in my front door:

It's Never Too Late to Become a Gardener

One of my favorite passages from Ray Bradury's Fahrenheit 451:

"Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.

It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."