Saturday, January 1, 2011

First sounds heard in 2011: simultaneous chorus of woodpecker, pulp truck, Tom's breathing, and refrigerator.

First Robert Louis Stevenson essay read in 2011: "On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places." Already this is in the running for best title of the year.

First beverages of 2011: icy well water followed by scalding French-pressed French roast.

First procrastination of 2011: doing barn chores and reading Moby-Dick. Some things never change.

First big question of 2011: Can I get this damp firewood to light? [Answer: yes.]

First regret of 2011: Oddly enough, I can't think of one yet. [Soon--very, very soon--this will change.]

First angry thought of 2011: Paul LePage, our governor-elect, has decided to nix the traditional inaugural poetry reading for "something a little more interesting." All right: to be honest I was mad about this yesterday in 2010. But I'm still mad.

First random quotation of 2011: From Jean Genet's Our Lady of the Flowers: "I'm getting old. Soon I'll be thirty."

[Sigh.]

First writing project of 2011: A lecture on Milton for the Frost Place Advanced Poetry Seminar. Apparently, 2011 is the new 2009, at least in subject matter.

First wish for you in 2011: I think yesterday's "scattered details" wish is still as good as anything I else could hope for you. May they be plentiful and unexpected.

6 comments:

Maureen said...

Everyone in the state should send the governor-elect a favorite poem. Poetry would be far "more interesting" than his inaugural speech.

Happy New Year!

Dawn Potter said...

He is a philistine, and we have four bad years ahead of us. Sending him a poem is not a bad idea, however. Not that he would read any of them.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad to have met you and made acquaintance with your blog in 2010. Thank you for yesterday's and many days of "scattered details." Your mention of RLS essay reminds me to return to an old, beautifully bound 15th edition of Across The Plains, etc., a Christmas gift from friend RV in NYC in 1985. I regret that time constraints that are human, all too human, make me primarily a Potter peeper rather than an avid participant in your on-going challenges to read and to share. Take heart! Who's getting old? Soon I'll be sixty-four! ... Best wishes for another productive year, writing (and laughing) with Satan in the 17th Century even as you continue to connect with the shadow of "Mocha Dick" through RLS, HM, and your own subversive imagination.

Dawn Potter said...

And best wishes to you as well! I would be the last person to recommend that every reader of this blog participate in my preoccupations. We all have our own trajectories: and I think it's important for us to follow those idiosyncratic paths. Happy New Year!

Ang said...

I, Angela DeRosa, do hereby absolve you, Dawn Potter, of any future guilt that might be incurred by giving up on one of your least favorite books, Moby Dick. I know, I know all you Yankees are cringing at the idea that doing something painful might just not be growth producing!!!!!
2011!!!!!

Dawn Potter said...

Oh, I don't hate "Moby-Dick." I like it. But it's not an easy read for me, which is actually a good thing. I'm too prone to get lazy and read only what mirrors myself.