August 15, 2014
Where has Brenda Hillman been all my life? I have just
started reading Seasonal Works with
Letters on Fire. I love it—playfulness, attention to sound, wordplay,
interjections of Latin insect names, scattered vivid image, white spaciness
later on. I felt more excited reading the Section I title page (4 epigraphs and
a section called “Argument” which is a very, very long list: “microseasons,
vowels, panticles, California
grasses, existence, sex, the cosmos . . .) and the first three poems than I
have felt all summer.
August 16, 2014
Things I have heard this morning: operatic-y voice singing a
hymn, somebody practicing the piano, church bells tolling the hour, church bells
playing a Woody Guthrie song, boat honk, parts of a sermon, motor boat buzz. I
have practiced my reading which will be today at 3:30. I have studied on the
parts of my first workshop tomorrow. I have worked on the lecture that will be
on Tuesday at lunch. After lunch today, I took a short walk down to the
lake shore and over past the Atheneum to the beach. Later: reading + reception +
more Brenda Hillman+ listening to Thrity Umrigar’s NPR interview. (Swimming in words.)
