Starting tomorrow, this is where I am writing my next book: In the "She Shed" on the property where we are housesitting in Northern California.
We've been on a kind of housesitting binge lately: end of the year in the
Pacific Northwest, Tahoe, and Palm Springs--punctuated by visits to friends and family all over.
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| Palm Springs hike |
And then for the 40th reunion shows of Dave's favorite band (The Radiators), we flew to New Orleans. God I love that town: the food, the music, the colorful houses, the life-is-right-here-right-now vibe.
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| Krazy krewe in NOLA. |
When we came back to California, I had the sorrowful honor of officiating at a memorial. Thi Aracelli, daughter of my friends Daisy and Tung, didn't make it into the world. The anguish goes deep. I was grateful to be in the Bay Area to offer my love and support.
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| With Stephanie and Daisy, and Daisy's son Luc |
In the midst of all of this, my new book of poems,
Target, was released. Like my
memoir, it explores heartbreak and healing--while performing the time-and-space magic of poetry.
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| There's even a poem about housesitting in here. |
The evocative art on the cover is by my longtime friend Nancy. I was lucky to spend time with her in LA. on our recent swing through and fell in love with her new
Art You Can Color book.
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| Coloring like the kids we were when we met. |
It's been six months since we left
China. And during that time we have not been in one place longer than three weeks. That's a lot, even for us nomads. Now we have two-and-a-half months in a house nestled in 41 acres. We are treating it like a retreat: time for yoga, meditation, healthy eating, hiking, studying languages (me, Spanish; Dave, German), and music (me, playing the ukulele; Dave singing along). And giving lots of love to Gracie, our golden companion.
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| Gracie in the house. |
As I write this, I hear frogs singing in the pond, in chorus with the crickets. A mass of stars is emerging. Savory smells are drifting over from the kitchen where my love is cooking us dinner. I feel the rhythms of life shifting. I feel a book coming on.
