Saturday, February 28, 2009

February

February
James Schuyler

A chimney, breathing a little smoke.
The sun, I can't see
making a bit of pink
I can't quite see in the blue.
The pink of five tulips
at five p.m. on the day before March first.
The green of the tulip stems and leaves
like something I can't remember,
finding a jack-in-the-pulpit
a long time ago and far away.
Why it was December then
and the sun was on the sea
by the temples we'd gone to see.
One green wave moved in the violet sea
like the UN Building on big evenings,
green and wet
while the sky turns violet.
A few almond trees
had a few flowers, like a few snowflakes
out of the blue looking pink in the light.
A gray hush
in which the boxy trucks roll up Second Avenue
into the sky. They're just
going over the hill.
The green leaves of the tulips on my desk
like grass light on flesh,
and a green-copper steeple
and streaks of cloud beginning to glow.
I can't get over
how it all works in together
like a woman who just came to her window
and stands there filling it
jogging her baby in her arms.
She's so far off. Is it the light
that makes the baby pink?
I can see the little fists
and the rocking-horse motion of her breasts.
It's getting grayer and gold and chilly.
Two dog-size lions face each other
at the corners of a roof.
It's the yellow dust inside the tulips.
It's the shape of a tulip.
It's the water in the drinking glass the tulips are in.
It's a day like any other.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Most Important Academy Award

Smile Pinki is an Academy Award nominee for this years Best Short Documentary. It's the story of a young girl in southern India born with a cleft palate and the work of surgeons from Smile Train who repair her face.

Although I haven't seen it or any Oscar nominated film (I haven't been in a movie theater in years), its hard to imagine any other movie having more of an impact on the real world.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

I Told You I was Sick

Yesterday the doctor confirmed what I had suspected:

Bronchitis.

I'll be posting older photos until I'm back on my feet. Meantime, I'm prescribing lots of tamales and Trader Joes pineapple salsa. Try and stay healthy. This is no fun.