In the Dark. . .

— From CB — Sitting now on a shady bench by Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, Elizabeth walking elsewhere, meeting at the car again at 1:30. Friday night, our opening of King Lear in San Francisco. In the small North Beach gallery, a nearly full house of 27. Methodical...

Spring Fools. . .

— From the Fool — I went to this Fool Parade. It was a nice day. There was a band playing pretty loud, and people had funny wigs and noses and bright colored pants and hats and hair and a dog with a baseball cap that peed on a tree. The dog did, I mean. They all...

Sheba, Lear, and the Begats. . .

— From EF — Sheba came home this morning . Not the “little Sheba” of the 1950 William Inge play — this is our beloved whale of a Dodge Maxivan, and she had gone across the street to visit the neighbors for the weekend. (We needed every inch of parking space for our...

— From the Fool — I was driving this bus, which I never do, but this was a dream, so you don’t have much choice in the matter. We were going to a picnic, my friend Marge and some other people that maybe I knew, or else they’d just caught the wrong bus. It...

What Comes Next. . .

— From EF — Basic training. My first concept of this came from war novels, and what I remember is thinking that it was like sports training with a really tough coach, and that the “graduate” had toughened physical skills and a stronger sense of self. Ha. As I write...

On Poetry. . .

— From EF —             Lotta poetry right now; our periodic Oral Traditions Salon just happened, and a day after that was the annual Favorite Poems event. Sebastopol is a good place for poetry — one of our past mayors is a substantial poet. Imagine a meeting-room...

Presidents, Chickens, and Voice

— From CB —             On our local Web bulletin board, inevitably before every election, the same debate recurs verbatim. Will you vote your conscience (i.e. third-party) or for lesser-of-two-evils? We’re in an ultra-liberal region, but I suspect it’s the same among...

Alternate Realities. . .

— From CB —  Saturday we celebrated the 2nd birthday of Junah, our friends’ daughter. Sunday we celebrated Elizabeth’s 75th. Junah is luminous, shy. Elizabeth is luminous, less shy. Depending on one’s fortunes, life may take a very long time. Sometimes...

Birthdays. . .

— From EF —  I’m writing this on Sunday morning; it’s my birthday. Seventy-five years ago I was born in the midst of Brooklyn’s worst blizzard in four years — four people died in the immediate area, more than twenty-five along the Eastern seaboard. I wonder how Mary...

Chronosynclastic Infundibula. . .

— From EF — The Goldberg Infundibulum. Or, if you prefer, the Chronosynclastic Variations. There are times when I’m going along, minding my own business, and suddenly a word or a phrase comes leaping down from a low-hanging branch and snarls all its paws in my hair. I...