Getting back in the groove

This is what I sent to my email list on September 11.  It was a way of getting back in the groove.  I am still amazed that I was away from my home base here on the 3rd floor of a tenement building in Bed-Stuy.  And at every place, I was on the water: Florida, Massachusetts and then the South of France.  I’d never done an international residency, but the BAU Institute organizers were really helpful and my fellow residents are “old hands” at residencies so they were super helpful.

It has taken me time to get used to American food again.  I ate such amazing vegetables and fruits while in France and so inexpensive was the food (other than cheese, cheese was pricey) that the sticker shock at the KeyFood took my breath away.  Oh the peaches oh the apricots, oh the melons.  Oh Oh Oh.  We did several potlucks and I have to say, the visual artists were the best cooks.  Cassis was craggy and the Mediterranean sparkled and I loved the light house. It was fun watching the French vacationers–whole families and their dogs walk up and down the hills, hang at the beach and listen to the dj’s boring disco selections for the young people.  ABBA will never go away Never.

But I am back.  I am teaching a poetry workshop at Hunter.  I have a range of readings and events but not as much out of city traveling as done earlier this year.  So I will participate in a reading for Barrow Street Press, Belladonna Collaborative, etc. and will participate in tributes to poets who were also good friends:  Fay Chiang, Bill Kushner and Lorenzo Thomas.  October is always the month of ghosts.

Yesterday I voted for Cynthia Nixon.  I knew she wasn’t going to win, but I just wanted the party establishment to know that there really are a third of the party that questions the manner and policies of the establishment.  I am pleased that Leticia James prevailed over 3 other candidates for AG.  I have been a supporter since she ran for City Council representing the district I lived in.  I so hope she prevails.  Walking around on a rainy, foggy day and seeing folks going to vote in the primary was sobering and encouraging.  There were definitely more people voting and it turns out 23% voted which is twice as many people as done 4 years ago.  And progressives are starting to make serious inroads.  This lifts my spirits.

Spirits and ghosts–it feels like I am working with spaces that limn the living and the dead.  Years ago, this would have terrified me, now it seems as if those deep into language, into observation are working the lines between the many worlds we may inhabit.  Ancestral memory is a real thing. Conversations with the dead are powerful and useful. And calling the names of those we love clothes us in compassion.  That is why I loved the movie, Coco.  For years I have talked abut calling names and so the names of Fay, Bill and Lorenzo will be called.  And it has been a joy to learn about Pauli Murray–her life of service, study, writing and organizing is a HONORABLE LIFE.  If I can do half of what she did, I’d be more than proud.  Next Tuesday, we give her props.  I am honored to have been asked.

The city is loud and every time I go to Hunter I plunge myself into the land of the Young (loud) and the last stubborn roses always amaze me.  But I miss the terrace of the Panorama Building at Camargo Foundation.  Loved drinking wine and looking at the stars.  Loved looked off to the beaches and hills during the day.  My last look before I left makes it hard for me to get back into the groove.