The 2nd Half of December - Reverie 2011

Swallowed alive by the holidays, and so in a nutshell, here are the rest of my Reverie 2011 musings.  For each day’s topic, a few words of response or less.

Choice – writing

Protest – against SB5 - Ohio Workers' Rights - & for environmental awareness along the Gulf Coast

Solstice – so dark, so bright

Technology – iEverything!

Service – the Gulf Coast: wetland restoration awareness 

Bizarro – miscommunications

History I – Japan and the tsunami, Gulf Coast restoration, the deaths of Liz Taylor and Amy Winehouse and Steve Jobs, violence in Arizona, revolution in Egypt, tragedy in Norway, the Brits and their Royal wedding, the end of bin Laden, U.S. troops returning home

History II – reading, writing, places to workshop and write from San Francisco to Acadia

History III – short story publications, editing work, blog posts, nearly finishing the novel, traveling on West and East coasts, children's milestone birthdays and daughter's college graduation

Dreams – teaching, traveling, finally going back home to New Orleans, writing words that others want to read and that will hopefully make a difference

Table of Contents – Chapter title for 2011 – “The Year of Seven Stories”

A Day to Delete – the day the bizarro miscommunications began

New Year’s Eve 2010 – I could’ve been home – in New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl and bringing in 2011 – but I stayed alone at my desk in Columbus, writing and writing.  It took an entire year for me to regret this.  Serious delayed reaction.  Sometimes getting-things-done at the expense of not-visiting-your-mama is just-not-worth-it.  So 2012’s theme might just be, Make-Sure-There-Ain’t-No-Room-for-Regrets!

Brain, Hands, Breath – Reverie 2011 – Days 14-16

Brain.  Flying forward – the first draft.  Mindless wandering around in circles, going nowhere but around and around and around – the endless revisions.  Hitting the ground like glass falling from the sky – knowing the writing is almost there.  Searching the darkness for another planet – understanding that the story is never complete, but sending it out anyway, one final Apollo mission. 

Hands.  Clapping, crossed at the wrists, reaching for the sky, opening another door, fingers wrapped around the thin stem of a daisy-a wineglass-a pen leaking blue ink-Atticus’ leash-a pale pink ribbon, resting on this keyboard, pulling laces tight, playing against a washboard, stirring another roux, signing a birthday card, crossing knitting needles and T’s and hearts.

Breath.  Holding it.  Running out of it.  Catching it.  Forgetting it.  Waiting for a.  Breathless with expectation.  Deep – the ocean.  Shallow – the lake.  Hold your nose and jump!  Sinking to the turquoise bottom of the pool.  Drinking tea, finding a thin silver dime.  Weightless.  Bursting.  Nearly out of.  Remembering to come to the surface for another and then heading back under again. 

The 2011 Soundtrack - Reverie 2011 – Day 11

Music is the background for many writers as they wind their ways through novels, short stories, memoirs, sonnets and villanelles.  The characters in my novel-in-stories each have their own particular musical preferences, from Johnny Cash and Wanda Jackson to Elton John and Cream, and one sings songs from popular musicals to his daughter as lullabies.  But in these cases, of the writers and of those they've written, the music remains in the background, coming forward only to add color or dimension to a scene or to enliven a character.

In my next book, a collection of stories, the music will bellow and beat in the foreground, for each piece will recall an aspect of a country song.  Who can resist writing about broken-down trucks, broken marriages, and runaway dogs?  So thinking on the past twelve months, I can’t help but laugh a little.  The soundtrack of 2011 is certainly the inspiration for that of 2012, and out of the bend of notes come stories, each with a unique rhythm and framework and narrative voice.   

January – The Black-Eyed Peas’ “I Gotta Feeling”

• Hey, it was the new year, when one eats black-eyed peas for good luck and then dances around to their sweet, bouncing beat  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSD4vsh1zDA

February – The White Stripe’s “Jolene”

• Flying over the snow-covered Sierra Nevadas en route to San Francisco for a Narrative Writing Workshop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m5KrPXL4wI&feature=related

March – Paul Simon’s “Rewrite”

• I rewrote the first chapter of my novel-in-stories, later published by Iron Horse Literary Review in their Father’s Day Issue – June 2011 - just like Paul sings, “I said, Help me, help me, help me, help me -Thank You!” - exactly…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi2DypBHyUg

April – Cream’s “White Room”

• That’s what happens when you plant your ass in the chair and don’t get up until it’s done – the room turns white and weird, Eric and Jack begin to sing, while Ginger just thrashes about…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRC0rdFokKM

May – Wanda Jackson and Jack White – “Thunder on the Mountain”

• When it’s raining out and you’re wishing for the sun and a fast car and a mountain to race down – “You better roll your windows down” – by the way I love this video!  and yes, admit it, you love the white fringe and have been in that room!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnULGVbhPcY&feature=related

June – John Prine and Iris Dement’s “In Spite of Ourselves”

(written by J.P.)

• The realization of what we've done and what remains to be done!  Ah, couples...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5axlwCBXC8&feature=related

July – Steve Earle’s “Every Part of Me”

• Learning compassion for characters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hf_jEKZ77So - album

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPXr3UiuueY - live

August – Steve Earle’s “This City” 

• The sixth anniversary of Katrina - S.E. with the Preservation Jazz Band in NYC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjhegm4JiQM&feature=related

September – Emmylou Harris’ “Wrecking Ball”

(written by Neil Young)

• Summer ends and you realize you just wanted one more dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9N5MGRPV0I

October – Townes Van Zandt’s “To Live Is to Fly”

• This is what happens when you light up with ideas…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JGc2CvM0EQ

November – Steve Earle / Emmylou Harris – “Goodbye”

 (written by S. E.)

• Preparing to bid farewell to the old year and a finished draft

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=ctDVZditHzY - S.E. – album

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr2IY8q687I&feature=related - S.E. & E.H. – live

December – Emmylou Harris – “Sweet Old World

  (written by Lucinda Williams)

• Dark winter days, Xmas lights reflecting the snow and ice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUHrFo4aPGI&feature=related

And just because I’m from New Orleans and believe in baker’s dozens and lagniappe, here’s one more!

Wanda Jackson’s “Sparklin’ Brown Eyes”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=HvnWcb6mu4Q

• This one for the brown-eyed boys in my story, “Skylight,”  in New Delta Review's Issue 2.1

http://ndrmag.org/fiction/2011/12/skylight/

Best of 2011/The List – Reverie 2011 – Day 9

Snow-encrusted walks

Reading

Plane ride over the Sierra Nevadas

Bittersweet goodbyes to The White Stripes

Sun over Alcatraz

Writing

Wintertime workers’ rights demonstrations before the Ohio Statehouse

Revision, revision, revision

Hannah's 21st!

Paul Simon’s “Rewrite”

Nancy Zafris on Flannery O’Connor

Kentucky Derby

Roses

Heat

Stop ‘n’ Go

Friends

Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont

Writing alone and together and at dusk when the hummingbirds are searching the wide-open flowers for some answers

Secrets

Wide-plank floors

Sex with a one-armed man

Surprises

Concessions

Patience

Live Fast, Die Young

Hunkering

Lighting candles

Giving thanks

Jeni's ice cream

Walks with Atticus

Wrapping

Hannah - all grown up and saving China!

Zak's 18th!

Thinking

Considering

Congratulating

Sleeping

Shout from the Levees! -Reverie 2011 -Day 3

What am I passionate about, what would I shout about from the rooftops, or in this case, the levees?

The Gulf Coast – its landscape, people, music, its abundance of blue sky and oysters and soul – always, always, always influences me.

Always makes me want to sing and shout and carry on!

When I know it’s time for the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival or the Cochon du Lait Festival in Mansura or the Andouille Festival in St. John Parish, for Mardi Gras or St. Joseph’s Day or Jazz Fest, for wandering through the Washington Avenue graveyard on our way to brunch, or down Frenchman to Three Muses for feta fries and lamb sliders and the rompin’ tunes of Washboard Chaz and The Palmetto Bug Stompers, then I wish my pockets were deep and I wasn’t so far from home.

But when I do get back to New Orleans, I let the world there seep in, so that once I leave, the spirit of the place will last awhile inside my bones.

And this Christmas I’ll imagine the Festival of the Bonfires along the Mississippi River, looking to the northern constellations as if they were the communal Cajun pyres of Lutcher, Gramercy, and Paulina, their levees aflame with lantern light.