Writing Journal

I've been picking up poetry again. Most of what I've been coming up with is too personal for me to post right now, though.

I did discover over the week of Christmas that I have to tap myself when trying to figure out the syllables for a haiku. I can't tap the table or someone else's leg; it has to be my own. I guess I have to feel the weight of my fingertips in order to feel the poem. (Yeah, that was intentionally artsy-fartsy.)

To prove that I've been writing, here's the haiku I was composing when I learned the above quirk.

One Way
There is only one
Way to kiss the insides: to
Love as He doth love.

Reading Journal

Well, I finished the first book of 2010 tonight. Yep, I finally finished O Pioneers! A good read, as always. I was a little hesitant to read it tonight, since I was in the middle of the White Mulberry section, and that one is particularly depressing. And I've been of such good spirits lately that I didn't want to lose that. But I pushed through it, anyway. And, boy, am I glad I did! I forgot how much the ending cheers me up. Alexandra's story has always brought a peaceful feeling that I don't get from many other stories. Here's what she says to Carl at the very end of the book. (Not quite the final lines.)

She admits to belonging to the land "now more than ever. You remember what you once said about the graveyard, and the old story writing itself over? Only it is we who write it, with the best we have."
...
"Lou and Oscar can't see those things," said Alexandra suddenly. "Suppose I do will my land to their children, what difference will that make? The land belongs to the future, Carl; that's the way it seems to me. How many of the names on the county clerk's plat will be there in fifty years? I might as well try to will the sunset over there to my brother's children. We come and go, but the land is always here. And the people who love it and understand it are the people who own it for a little while."


I finished The Greatest Virtue a while ago. It was commonplace.

I started Tweak, but don't feel comfortable reading that on Sundays. I'm really hoping it picks up, though. I don't know how much more I can take of it. And it better end well, or I'll be mad.

Looking forward to starting Dreams of My Russian Summers. This is one I picked up a few days ago, when Half Price was having a 20% of sale. It's my Random.
List time!!
New: Tweak
Random: Dreams of My Russian Summers
True: Planet of the Umps (tale of Ken Kaiser, the only baseball umpire to make a name for himself)
Old: Catcher in the Rye (I just discovered that I do have a copy of this book, despite thinking otherwise. It's been so long since I read it that I want to see if I still like it.)

Off I go to reading land!!