LX
Well, it was a hell of a party. My siblings, parents, ex-wife Cath and
her guy Terry, kids, Dima & Tanya, and Sweet Junie all were in attendance.
Junie organized the event, getting far-flung relatives to fly in from distant
lands (well, mostly California), and then whipped the house into shape with
rearranged furniture, fantastic ornamentation, and a fabulous menu. We
shopped and planned all day Friday and cooked most of Saturday, prior the the
evening event. The menu included: roast leg of lamb, The World's
Best Salmon, Junie's Special Lasagna, properly brined and baked Whole Foods
chickens, saffron risotto, baby red potatoes with parsley and butter, steamed
green and white asparagus, baby greens and herb salad with lemon vinaigrette,
and fresh bread and mini-ciabattas.
Junie asked everyone to bring a picture and a story. I wasn't too
worried about the pictures, but the prospect of stories gave me pause. It
turned out to be less of a roast than I had feared, though I did feel obligated
to wear the hat my sister brought for me. For the record, I read no
poetry, to the relief of many.
All my love to Sweet Junie, who thought up this bash, and who worked so hard to
pull it off.
~~~
Derek will be graduating from Columbia in May, and it will be a grand time
for all sides of my family to meet in Chicago. I'd like to stay in the
Palmer House, where Junie and I last attended an AWP together. Meanwhile,
Der is home for the holidays, and has lined up a couple of gigs to try out his
new material. The performances feature his vocal and song-writing skills,
something that most of the family were unaware of (we know he's a dynamite
guitarist). Here's a segment from his appearance at The Laughing Goat in
Boulder (full show
here):
~~~
GC had recommended
Mansion of Happiness, by Robin Ekiss, and I admit to being impressed and
delighted. Here are a few excerpts:
"Preface": "Windows grieve in their sashes. / They burn with interior
light, / like blood oranges."
"First Birthday": "When they lifted me out her / body's blue kiln, swollen
as a fistful // of walnuts, veined cord / clinging to my neck like wisteria, ".
"The Mansion of Happiness, iii What's Possible": ". . . It's not hard / to articulate the tongue, its little boats / crossing the crumpled paper sea."
"The Mansion of Happiness, x The Dollhouse": "A glass of water sweats
on a table, / a plate of palmiers snailed with sugar at its side."
"The Past Is Another Country": "I am no longer in love / with the sand
that makes the pearl // or anything grainy / that hardens its beauty // by
passing through pain. / Bone revisits the porous soil // and presses itself into
coal. / Whole colonies of canaries // refuse to return from that mine".
"Eight Views of the Hôtel-Dieu": "Whenever he loved her, he said so; /
it wasn't as if she was hungry. / The fish without scales was for supper. / The
bread was no harder than stone."