the clouds, the rennovations, and the Neruda
April 1, 2007
T he sky was a grey bundled mass of snow cloud today – a beautiful, inspiring messy sky. And the chill would not be ignored. I enjoyed every frigid second of it. It was a glorious mountain day – those clouds invoked memories of the Columbia Icefields camp, sitting high up behind the camp, up toward Wilcox Pass with a good friend, and an unobstructed view of the icefields, drinking wine out of the tin camp cups and eating onion sandwiches. Oh that cool breeze! And the sporadic sun that would take away the chill and then allow it back again…give and take, give and take…
I woke up to one of my reviews in SUNDAY READER, Books, in the Edmonton Journal, a review of the book “Dancing to Almendra ”, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Wish I could link to the review here but it’s a locked page on the Journal site.
I wandered the aisles of Home Depot looking for a half sheet of drywall, and two eight-foot sections of corners for the pillar I’m dry walling. I’m happy to report, the drywall is up, and the hole in the ceiling is patched and ready for mudding. I had to crawl up into the attic and secure a hunk of board that was just floating around up there – made it difficult to press the drywall up into the hole. Ya, crawling around in 40-year-old insulation is always fun!!! Found the spot — first try — by measuring how far I had to go on the floor and taking a tape measure with me. Tomorrow, a hunk of 1/4 inch plywood for the floor and then I’m picking up the hardwood flooring. Saturday, it goes in. Did I mention that I have no idea what I’m doing? My friend Dave is directing the install of the hardwood.
This just in: Pablo Neruda’s “Winter Garden” and “The Sea and the Bells” arrived via Amazon…translated by William O’Daly. These are from Neruda’s desk…These are two of eight unfinished manuscripts on his desk on the day of his death. I am even more in awe of this man’s talent, and of his humanness. I continue to read.
Namaste
4 Comments
1. ELLIOT had this to say: Apr 02, 2007 ~ 03:27 ~ #
thomas! the winter garden? this is mediocre book at best, you could have asked for my copy, it was a waste of 20 dollars for a dying stalinist’s ruminations on nature, the people at Copper Canyon Press are just trying to take our money. Shame on them that they got the rights to a dead mans secrets somehow and the services of a slightly above average typesetter.
2. Mike had this to say: Apr 02, 2007 ~ 08:19 ~ #
Winter Garden isn’t that bad. I enjoyed it. The Sea and the Bells is quite excellent in my estimation, as is The Yellow Heart (also from Copper Canyon and Translated by O’Daly).
3. Thomas had this to say: Apr 02, 2007 ~ 09:04 ~ #
Ahhh, I’ve just begun to digest these two volumes! I’ll weigh in later…but I appreciate the warnings. Don’t know about you guys, but I read poetry books by chance. I’ll carry them around and flip the book open and read what I find, then maybe the next in line…then, later, at a new locations and time, I do the same thing over, and over until I think I’m done. Can’t read poems in order.
4. e had this to say: Apr 02, 2007 ~ 15:56 ~ #
fair enough, perhaps I should take a second look