But first, books:
Moonlight Rests on My Left Palm (Yu Xiuhua) - “When I see you, you can’t see me / I want your night shadow / when I call you, you can’t hear me / I want your twilight years”
Home is Not a Country (Safia Elhillo) - “"it seems to me that this knowledge - that you could just as easily been any one of a hundred other people - is at the heart of empathy"
At Night All Blood is Black (David Diop) - “Temporary madness, in war, is bravery’s sister.”
I think I’m going to love: Lady Joker, Vol. 1 (Kaoru Takamura), Noopiming: The Cure for White Ladies (Leanne Betasamosake Simpson), Simulacra (Airea D. Matthews)
Revisiting the Backlist: I am tired of reading things because they are new and forthcoming. So much of the best literature is of the past, and I am gifting myself some time with it. This month I am reading Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison), If Beale Street Could Talk (James Baldwin), and Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (Olga Tokarczuk)
(book drop low low - no date set yet, but I am moving this month and want to do a big, big clean out. Stay tuned lovelies)
A word: synchronicity
Perhaps the more God-oriented of you would call it destiny, the romantics: serendipity, the fatalists: fate. It is (noun): the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection.
The order of events: I pulled Marie Kondo’s book about cleaning (you know the one) off my shelf, and flipped it open to see if I might like to read it. I often choose a book that way: an eye-catching cover, followed by a quick flip through to find an eye-catching paragraph. My finger landed on a line, to dispense almost every book you own. You will NOT revisit them. And so, I dropped Marie’s little book into my book drop pile >:)
Recently, quite a few of you have asked me how I choose which books I drop, and if I can make a Bookshop shelf of the ones I keep. Yes and yes! I choose the books I keep based on 2 criteria:
I follow Marie Kondo’s tip - when in doubt, clear it out. I only keep the books I am SURE I will revisit at some point. Usually, because it is built of language I want to study.
I also like to keep books for the future. I want my library to be small and ultra-curated. I like to lend favorites to friends, and maybe someday I will have kiddos to pass them on to. I keep some signed copies, and some special edition/soon to be vintage copies. I have lots of beat up YA for future kids to devour.
As for the e-shelf? Forthcoming. Enjoy Toothless until then:
April was National Poetry Month
How did it go for you? Did you even know it was poetry month? Did you get time to make space for reading and writing it? Did you listen to it on audio, attend any events? Send me ALL the recommendations!!
As for me, wow. I participated in something that goes by many names: The Grind, April 30/30, #NaPoWriMo - whatever you call it, it’s the same practice. Write a poem, every single day. And yes, I did it! I wrote a poem every day, and somehow I managed to eke out effortful ones most days (not just a haiku about my lack of inspiration for the day, lol). From Feb-March I was in a poetry workshop through the Room Project Detroit, and met amazing established poets and casual writers like me. Everyone is throbbing with talent. Our workshop nostalgia kept heat; we did April 30/30 together! So yes, I got 10 or so poems in my inbox every day. I could shed tears. It was amazing.
What did I learn this month through poetry?
I have a lot of feelings. I am always in my feels. I will cry on a dime as I write, I will feel red hot anger, I can make myself laugh. But wow, I also realized I have so much to explore. I revisited memories this month through writing that I thought I had finished extracting, but there were more stones left to turn over. Some stones were the same, but sun-baked. Eroded. Rubble.
Getting 10 poems from the same writers each day was interesting. I have not many a single one of these people in real life, but I feel like I got to peek through a crack in their souls. If you send me 10 poems with no name attached, I could tell you who wrote it. I love these people from afar. We are intimate in the strangest way.
I submitted some poems to lit mags, and posted some in my Instagram stories. I blushed along to every heart reaction or heartfelt message. Thanks for making me feel seen!
What’s next? More writing, more submitting. Our group is going to do a weekly poetry thread, because daily poetry can extract you of more than you have to give. For a month, it’s magical but grueling. Longer than that? I am not sure, and we as a group are not ready to find out.
Here is a little poem to end this section:
Soft Spots
Things I can’t stop looking at: here and here (you’re welcome)
An interview with the author of one of my most anticipated memoirs!
“Sunday Funnies” by my perennially talented friends Olivia and Fiona
Wisteria season is closing in SF, but look at this bloom by my library (on an abandoned public restroom) below