Marking the Day

My dad always said "women are the keepers of civilization" meaning they are the ones who maintain the annual and life cycle rituals like birthdays and weddings. He said this both jokingly and appreciatively because he loved these rituals. It was always important to him that we gather as a family to mark an occasion. Even during his last month in the hospital we had several family events (my birthday, my mom's birthday, Mother's Day) and somehow in the midst of his pain and the days blending together in the middle of an ICU room, somehow he was always keeping track of the dates and made sure we marked the occasion. Today is my dad's birthday and I don't know quite how to celebrate it. I am still in such a mixed up state of denial and sadness.Words and images seem to give me the most comfort lately. I find myself looking through family photographs and repeatedly returning to the poem a family friend wrote about my dad. This gives me comfort today. I think part of "keeping civilization" is also marking days like today even if it brings a strange mix of comfort and pain.

Where Land Meets Sky

“Where Land Meets Sky”
for Elemore Morgan Jr. By Darrell Bourque

He loves this place he’s fallen into:

his skies of smeared lilac, his clouds spun
by muscled ether, congealed air so newly blue
it’s hard to tell it from the sky we knew once
and loved so. After shot-silk sky, what else?
All the earth and all that’s creatured in it. Tongues
of irises from the swamps, big lazy trees, bells
on boats in creeping rivers and cows like peace
flags grazing in the prairies, or lying in wells
of cow dreams making milk. He loves the creases
and the blur: stalks filled with rice to falling,
water rushing from pipes, and a leaf in wind. Leases
on anything that takes us to the places these converge,
a line in all we see and know, oh holy curve and surge.


(from the 2005 collection of poems The Blue Boat. Bourque is the Louisiana Poet Laureate.)
“Vertical View” by Elemore Morgan Jr., 2008, acrylic on masonite

Bubbles

We have a tropical storm off the coast which made today pleasantly breezy so we spent the morning outside blowing bubbles. We experimented with different items from our recycling pile and found some great bubble "wands". Today the pie pan (cut a hole in the center), tin can (remove both ends of the can), plastic cups (cut off the bottom) and six pack drink thingie worked the best. We used store bought "bubble juice" but we have also had success in the past with making our own. Here's our homemade recipe:

2 1/2 1qts water
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 cup liquid dish detergent
Mix water and syrup until blended, then slowly stir in detergent

And at the end of the bubble party just hose everyone and everything off. Super easy summer fun!