Month: April 2010

Have you been beguiled lately by a lime? I have. Actually, I’m pretty much food-beguiled on a daily basis, but I’m happily celebrating my favorite of the citrus fruits at Jama’s Poetry Potluck, with an original rondeau redoublé — yes, another one, I’ve become obsessed!

Please stop by and sample all the original and fabulous food poems and recipes found there. It’s been a real hoot hanging out with the potluck people this month, and as always, Jama makes even the most mundane things a visual and verbal feast. Browse through and find some fabulousness to feed your soul!

The great Guys Lit Wire/Operation Teen Book Drop book drive has sold out! 772 books were bought for Ojo Encino Day School & Alchesay High, which is everything they wanted on their wish lists.

Everything.

When’s the last time you got everything you wished for? Thank you, guys, for your help in making the world a beautiful place for someone else. (And psst, if you didn’t get your order in, you’ve still got their address, and you can send a book directly to their library!)

Peace.

Random fact: Troth, according to the OED, is the Middle English word for “truth,” so pledging one’s troth is swearing one’s truth — making a vow. Getting married.

Having just received my third wedding invitation for this summer, I realize it’s heading for that time of year.

Oh, those were the days, when I was in college. Come mid-May, I didn’t have a single weekend free. I was always at someone’s wedding. If I wasn’t helping slap on makeup and twist up hair behind the scenes, I was coordinating the cake-cutting, passing out programs and working the gift table, or singing the bridesmaids through the candle-lighting. During my junior and senior years in college, I made the rounds with my voice teacher, singing All I Ask of You, from The Phantom of the Opera at just about everyone’s wedding in two counties (He got paid!!! I, being the student, did not). Once we did it at an outdoor wedding, and I inhaled a gnat. That was … disturbing; I’m pretty sure when I inhaled, it sounded like I was snoring more than breathing. And then there was the wedding with the BEE zipping around me while I sang… But both times, I am proud to say, despite all insect incursions, I never missed a note. (Unfortunately, I now also know that song in my sleep. Ugh. Christine! Your hand! *shudder*)

But I digress. Badly, as usual.

The irony here is that I kind of hate weddings. (Shh!) It’s less the actual “I do” portion, and more a.) getting dressed up on the weekend when I’m too lazy to actually want to even get up, b.) the sentimental wedding poetry on the programs [“Today I marry my friend…”] and c.) the fact – at least in the media – that weddings are the End All, Be All and all girls want them, along with Barbie’s Dream House, and a big white flouncy dress. (Just Say No to flounces, kids.) And then there’s the endless wedding showers beforehand. Passing around someone’s Tupperware and ooh-ing is not my idea of a well-spent Sunday afternoon. (Sorry. Sorry. I know — I’m the Grinch’s evil baby sister.)

It seems my friends have, uh, noticed this small failing of my personality, so I have not been tasked with being a bridesmaid… yet. I know that day is coming, complete with the requisite turquoise dress with the foot-wide bow that I’ll never be able to wear anywhere else. 🙂

…all of which may make you wonder why I chose this song/poem for Poetry Friday. Well, that’s because weddings might stress me out, but I’m a big, big fan of love. (Note to Barbie: There’s a difference. Did you even LOVE Ken before that Dream House???) This song (and I wish I had the music so I knew who this arrangement was by) is a gorgeous translation of 1 Corinthians 13 that I heard a long, long time ago, and the words just came to mind lately.

Love Story

Love is more than speaking words of eloquence
Love is more than knowledge can express;
Love is not the root of man’s intelligence;
Love is not religious holiness.

Love is more than feelings of emotion;
Love’s not just a four letter word;
Love is more than human devotion;
Love’s the sweetest story ever heard.

For love is always patient, loyal, and true;
Love will never selfishly pursue;
Love will not uncover the wrong in review;
Love abides when others are untrue.

Love can bear rejection and injustice;
Love has faith when everything goes wrong;
Love can face a million broken promises;
And forever there will be always faith, hope, and love;

But the greatest of them all is …love.

Note to Jac & Kyle, Will & Julie, Isobel & Donal, and all the rest: I wish you the best of everything.

Poetry Friday is all love and roses at Anastasia Suen’s blog.

Guys Lit Wire is a book blog site aimed at providing suggestions and guidance to guys looking for good books – and help for their parents, teachers, advisers, et cetera. I have the privilege to be peripherally involved with this group.

Last year, our successful Book Fair For Boys netted an astonishing 600+ books for the LA County Detention Center in just two weeks. This year, our book drive turns another direction – to two reservation schools: Ojo Encino Day School in the Navajo Nation, and Alchesay High School, on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. Both schools have tons of willing readers and both schools have substandard libraries and rarely to never get brand new books.

And there’s your opportunity:

GLW and our partner, readergirlz, asked these two schools for a wishlist, and came up with an amazing amount of nonfiction requests, sports novel requests, and of course, fantasy — because vampires cross every culture and nation. (!!!) It’s been an experience for Colleen (GLW) to create these wishlists. It made me ache to hear of the trouble she had contacting the school — she didn’t get a lot of responses to her emails at first because the people at the schools didn’t believe she was serious.

Free books? SERIOUSLY?

And then, the excitement, when the students realized that a wishlist means you can ask for anything you want.

“Books are still gold. The emails I have received in the past week or so from Alchesay as the kids realized they could ask for books to come their way have been great. And with their internet hookup (more reliable than Ojo Encino) they are going to check their wish list everyday to see what is coming. They are so excited – both schools are so incredibly excited. Yes, the ipad and kindle and whatever else are all wonderful and good but these are kids who do not own a book.

Think about that. Not one single book.”

– book drive organizer, Colleen Mondor, at Chasing Ray

If you’ve ever played with an old-fashioned Roberval Balance Scale in science lab, you know that even moving a few grains of sand, or a single weight from one pan to the other will make a change. A few inexpensive books — the cumulative price of making coffee at home for two weeks, or walking the few blocks to the library instead of driving — would be a huge step toward changing the world for these kids. I’m still so astounded by the power of story — the luxury of a book is that it is an inexpensive way to get away from where you are, and choose someplace else to be, whether through educating yourself away from where you are, or just briefly escaping. This is the gift you have the power to give, and even one book will make a difference.

Interested in shifting a few grains of sand? Here’s how, via Colleen:

First, hit the Powell’s site and on the upper right click on “wish list”. From there you will be prompted for the email address of the list owner. Type in “guyslitwire@gmail.com”. You will then be given the choice to select either Ojo Encino or Alchesay. Once you are looking at the lists (which contain hundreds of titles) you can make your selection of a new, used, or sale copy. After your done and ready to make your purchase you will be asked to confirm that you are buying books for a certain wish list. Checking those boxes will keep the lists up to date and prevent books from appearing as unsold even after they were purchased. Now all you have to do is enter the mailing addresses, and here they are:

Mary Nickless
Ojo Encino Day School Librarian
HCR 79 Box 7
Cuba, NM 87013

Marilyn Hill
Alchesay High School
200 Falcon Way
Whiteriver, AZ 85941

CAUTION: Right now Powell’s is having trouble shifting from one wish list to the next. So if you want to buy for each school then go all the way through one order and complete it and then start the next one fresh. I’ve sent an email and hopefully they will get this fixed quick.

Please leave a comment at GLW or send an email so Colleen can keep up a running tally during the two weeks of names and places where the book buyers are from. This will allow the students to see how far away we might be from them, but how close in heart, and will hopefully make them feel really special.

And please — repost this, and broadcast widely. We have two weeks to change a little corner of the world. No time to lose!