On the road again..

at least, that is the plan. I think I'll leave tomorrow.

My daughter-in-law's baby shower is Sunday, so I think
I'll go early and spend time with my friend in Lexington.

We never get much time together, even if I stay in town 2 nights.
The days and nights are filled with talk about
literature and science and family and sickness and loss
and friendship. Rarely do we get in bed before the sun comes up.

She is a research toxicologist at UK. I confess to not understanding
half of what she shares about her research, but it is so interesting
to listen to and to think about. She got her BFA from NYU in the 80s,
and acted for some time and wrote and all of that stuff. She still
loves theatre and art and we spend time as well singing songs
we both love and know so well. She was a madrigal singer in high
school and has the most beautiful voice. So, I am looking forward
to the visit. I am just looking forward to being with my friend,
who loves me for who I am.

So, hopefully I'll find a job soon, and so, it is good
to take the time now to make a prolonged and invited
visit with the person who knows me best.

*

I just want to share these thoughts from Jane Hirshfield:

Poetry leads us into the self, but also away from it. Transparency is
part of what we seek in art, and in art's mind of concentration that is
both capacious and focused. Free to turn inward and outward, free to
remain still and wondering amid the mysteries of mind and world, we
arrive, for a moment, at a kind of fullness that overspills into every-
thing. One breath taken completely; one poem, fully written, fully
read--in such a moment, anything can happen. The pressed oil of
words can blaze up into music, into image, into the heart and mind's
knowledge. The lit and the shadowed places within us can be warmed.