sue clancy – artist

So this medical boot on my right foot is new and has affected the movement of my apple cart. I say this dryly and wryly but to quote Kurt Vonnegut “and so it goes”. Here’s a link to my email newsletter with more details about the boot. I’ve named the boot Smithwick. Suffice it to say I’m spending my days reading while laying on the couch with Smithwick elevated on pillows and a strategically folded lap blanket. The view from my apple cart currently looks like this.

I’m enjoying The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker particularly for its descriptions of living the creative life. As I read I keep thinking “yes, it’s exactly like that!” and feeling kinship with the book’s character and author. The story is surprisingly suspenseful: will the character manage, despite circumstances, to get the introduction to a poetry anthology written in time – or not??!! 

I’m finding the book’s discussion of poetry soothing and Baker’s defense of poetic rhymes invigorating. Reading this book has reminded me of the consolation of poetry generally and of the “feel good” there is in copying out poems by hand just for the pleasures of thinking about them in the process. Plus it’s a way to enjoy using my fountain pens.

One of the first poems I remember being struck by and deliberately memorizing, was “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost. I had encountered that poem when I was in my early teens while reading the novel “The Outsiders” by S. E. Hinton. (One of the characters in Hinton’s novel quotes the poem by Frost.)

I double checked my memory of Frost’s poem online (I remembered it mostly correctly! Yippee!) before handwriting it in my book.

Btw, I’ve loved the TWISBY fountain pens for their, refillable, large ink capacity and now I also love it’s ability to write while being held upside down in the air.

Yes, I could have included more links in this blog post but my apple cart is tipping just now and I trust that you can do internet searches if you want to.

Please be careful of your feet this week.