Cherry-filled Chocolates and Other Thoughts

The house is enveloped in fog, but I am slowly coming back to the world, even though it is not only 16 years since we have not had our dog, but almost 30 years since we didn't have the responsibility of another creature — now it's just John and me and the various appliances, services, and equipment that seem to be absorbing our night and day, sucking our lifeblood. Yes, we finally got reliable Internet (goodbye AT&T), and we're working on getting cable television, phone, and the like working again.

But I've been thinking about that review, that contra-review, that everyone seems to be talking about. And I've been thinking about various remarks friends have posted on FB and in their blogs: so-and-so is not a proper poet, they would rather walk on nails than read so-and-so, while others extol the virtues of the selfsame poets and applaud them. Another piece recently on Slate gathered the thoughts of various well-known fictionistas and asked them to confess which classic novels they have not been able to read. In that piece, Elif Batuman says, "My view is that the right book has to reach you at the right time, and no person can be reached by every book. Literature is supposed to be beautiful and/or necessary—so if at a given time you don't either enjoy or need a certain book, then you should read something else, and not feel guilty about it." This is my view too, and the point I want to make about poetry. I mean, can't we all get along? Seriously!

If I were to list the poets (past, present, and probably future too) whose work I don't care for, don't like, don't get, I would probably lose hella credibility. Let's face it. There are poetry gods and then poetry minions, like me. But while I do not care for Berryman (ouch!), I do not run around saying he wasn't a poet. See, I love chocolate and I'm fond of cherries, but I have never cared for those cherry-filled chocolates that many others adore. But do I go around insisting that they are not candy, that they shouldn't be in your box of chocolates?

Perhaps it's a silly analogy, but you get my point. I think there's room for you to like Berryman and for me to like Plath. I don't think the world will end if Phil Levine is Poet Laureate, as it didn't end when it was Kay Ryan or Ted Kooser.

If you don't want to read something, read something else.

End of the dog era

Today was Greta's last day. I could go back and check my journals, and I'm not that sure, but it may be 16 years to the day that we picked up the cutest little 9-week old puppy from the SPCA, and that's also where she left us. I did not decide to let her go — I let John do it. So many things went wrong with her, that, well, if they could have brought her back to her happy self, I would have done whatever was necessary, whatever it cost, but the vet didn't think there was much chance that she would ever be well again, and there were signs that she might have kidney or liver failure or both. A lot of negatives, but I think her cry of anguish at 6:00 this morning was the worst. The rest of the details, well John knows and I know, but I will leave you with this picture of her in happier days. Maybe in the next week I'll post some puppy pics too.

We brought her in in her little red wagon, and that's the way she exited the world, wrapped in blankets, while we kissed her head and held her paws and told her how much we loved her.

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It was exactly 16 years. I checked my old journal.

Posted some puppy pics on Facebook for friends who asked:

Puppy Greta at Burning Man, September 1995

Dream email

Yeah, someone emailed me in my dream to ask me whether the name of my new book will be Hue and Cry or Hue & Cry, with the ampersand. According to the dream messenger, it will make all the difference, the decision. I think the dream messenger was hinting that the ampersand title was best, only now I'm not sure.

Foggy day, but we could not get the dog in to see the vet today. We'll try again for tomorrow.

There's some lack of clarity about date (September 11? 22?), but the group is fixing to do a group reading at Booksmith on Haight. The idea is to video it and put the videos on YouTube. More about this when the date is certain.