Miguel Hernandez, translated by Don Share

Every so often, I have to re-read this poem by Miguel Hernandez, translated by Don Share:

Everything is filled with you,
and everything is filled with me:
the towns are full,
just as the cemeteries are full
of you, all the houses
are full of me, all the bodies.

I wander down streets losing
things I gather up again:
parts of my life
that have turned up from far away.

I wing myself toward agony,
I see myself dragging
through a doorway,
through creation’s latent depths.

Everything is filled with me:
with something yours and memory
lost, yet found
again, at some other time.

A time left behind
decidedly black,
indelibly red,
golden on your body.

Pierced by your hair,
everything is filled with you,
with something I haven’t found,
but look for among your bones.

So beautiful.

Stay tuned.

Fresh 3: Landscapes with Snow

Being in the East Coast during a heavy snowfall is just . . . magical!

Some pictures of freshly fallen snow, to go with this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, FRESH:

Spring 2015 on the Northeast Coast

Chilly scenes of Spring 2015

Fresh Snow: Spring 2015

Still reading Roberto Bolaño’s 2666. Since it’s over 800 pages long, and self’s only got as far as p. 148, she wonders if she’ll ever get to finish it. But anyhoo, here’s an excerpt from the page self is on:

I stopped in front of a kind of landscape, a Surrey landscape from John’s earlier period, that looked to me at once sad and sweet, profound and not at all grandiloquent, an English landscape as only the English can paint them. All at once I decided that seeing this one painting was enough . . .

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Fresh 2: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

Spring is beginning slowly to appear . . .

The WordPress Daily Post

Spring means the opening of the farmers markets. Redwood City’s is right across the railway tracks from Peet’s. Self took these pictures last year:

Redwood City Farmers Market: Saturdays throughout spring and summer

The fresh flowers are gorgeous:

More flowers at the Redwood City Farmers Market

Self loves sunflowers:

Self can never have enough sunflowers.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Fresh: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

It has been snowing all day in New York City.

Nevertheless, self finds that she is still more than up to the challenge of posting about this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge:

FRESH

Share with us a photo that expresses something fresh.

Fresh strawberries on waffles: Nothing beats like.

Fresh Strawberries, Fresh Flowers, and Fresh Coffee: Queenie’s Road House, Elk, California

Next: Christmas isn’t Christmas without a fresh-cut tree.

Fresh-Cut from Wegman’s: December 2014

Finally: Fresh means flowers! This picture was taken in the Huntington Botanical Gardens on Sept. 11, 2014:

Huntington Botanical Gardens: September 11, 2014

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Wall 5: Walls of a Different Kind

Sometimes walls are just that: walls. Or sometimes they call your attention to something, like the two kinds posted here.

Yesterday, self spent most of her time in mid-town Manhattan, at the New York MoMA (The Bjork exhibit was fabulous!) She stumbled upon this quaint scene on her way to take the # 6 Uptown.

Man doing “Poetry Upon Request” near the IRT-Lexington Subway in New York City. His poetry was pretty good!

Poetry Upon Request, What a Fabulous Idea!

And now for something completely different: Redwood Forest, off CA-128, on the way to Mendocino. This is the scenery for almost 60 miles before you hit 1.

Heading to 1 (and the California Coast) on CA-128: Giant Redwoods

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Wall 4: St. Thomas Church and MoMA, New York City

“Much can be revealed from the items on a wall . . . “

— WordPress Daily Post Photo Challenge: WALL

Can an altar be considered a wall? Self hopes so. She discovered this beautiful old church as she was walking along Fifth Avenue, somewhere in the 50s.

St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Fifth Avenue, New York City, Built 1914 (Architect: Bertram Goodhue, who also designed the San Diego Museum of Man)

Self spent most of the day in the Museum of Modern Art, somewhere between Fifth and Avenue of the Americas. Keeping this theme’s photo challenge — WALL — in mind, she took pictures of the huge painting hanging in the main lobby.

Main Lobby, Museum of Modern Art

More of the Main Lobby of the Museum of Modern Art

She didn’t intend to include the people milling about, but let’s face it: self is fascinated by crowds.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Hunger Games! Fan Fiction! Self’s New Chapter!

An excerpt from self’s magical realist, Haruki Murakami-inspired, multi-chapter Hunger Games fan fiction:

There’s a sharp knock on the door.

A voice he doesn’t recognize calls his name:  “Mr. Mellark! Mr. Mellark!”

Then, the door seems to open by itself. Peeta turns. There, standing in his apartment, are two ordinary men. They are somewhere between the ages of 50 and 60, and Peeta is sure they aren’t from the Capitol because of the clothes they’re wearing.

“Who are you?” he blurts out.

“We are your friends, Mr. Mellark,” they say in unison.

“No, I don’t know you,” Peeta says. “It’s a trick.”

“We’re here in answer to your call,” the taller of the two says. “Do you recall, about a month ago, speaking to Greasy Sae at The Hob?”

Peeta gapes.

“Mr. Mellark, did you or did you not go to Greasy Sae at The Hob? About a month ago. Think, Mr. Mellark, think.”

It’s a bone-chilling day in New York City. Self spent part of the day on Columbus Avenue. But now that she’s back in the apartment, which is warmer than anywhere in California, she refuses to leave again. Cancel everything! Dinner plans, meeting plans. She’s going to finish reading the latest installment from one of the writers she follows, Fanfiction Allergy. And also write a little bit.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Wall 3: New York City

From the WordPress Daily Post site:

Walls are “where stories are read, voices are heard, ideas are shared.”

Below are a few pictures of walls from self’s peregrinations today, St. Patrick’s Day, in the great, ever-inspiring city of New York.

It was a blustery, chilly day. Self overheard this conversation, while sitting on the steps of the Metropolitan having a lunch of shish kebab and lemonade from one of the truck vendors on Fifth (And it was a pretty good shish kebab!)

Young Woman (wearing a dress, leggings, boots, and an absolutely radiant smile): “I just flashed everyone.”

Friend (seated behind self on the steps): “I know. It’s such a fucking windy day. Love the outfit, though.”

Chinese Courtyard, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

St. Patrick’s Day Parade Wall of Flags! Viewed from the steps of the Metropolitan Museum

Wall of People? We’re all waiting for the parade!

Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.

Further From the Latest Chapter of Self’s Hunger Games Fan Fiction

Self loves fan fiction. Especially, right now, Katniss Everdeen, Demon Hunter. Yaaaas!

Katniss is 500 years old (but, obviously, doesn’t look it). She’s on a quest to kill every last demon on the face of the Earth.

Peeta is a Demon. Ooops!

Katniss has a magic bow that vibrates when Demons are near. But with Peeta, it never vibrates. Never. So, several times, he’s slipped through Katniss’s fingers. She chases after him, over the rooftops of Manhattan. Then she ends up in Hoboken, New Jersey, where . . . there is the best Cuban restaurant in the whole United States, lol. Self is going there, if she can just manage to get on the correct PATH train.

In the meantime, here is a further scene from the latest chapter of self’s Hunger Games fan fiction. She loves this chapter so much, she can’t bear to write anything else. It’s been two weeks, what can she say? She used Haruki Murakami as her inspiration.

“Enough!” Snow says. “I know all about the rebellion Mr. Odair’s been planning. For years, it seems. And since you and he are the best of friends, I thought most likely you were in on it, eh? He wouldn’t leave you dangling in the dark all this time, would he? Especially after he found out how badly you wanted to return to your family business — that preposterous bakery in 12! Like I’d fall for that stupid drama. You underestimate me, my dear Victor.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a baker. You make it sound like it’s some sort of — disease,” Peeta says.

“Ha! Ever the silver tongue,” Snow barks. “From you, I would expect nothing less. Let me see: between your not knowing and your knowing, I’m rather inclined towards the latter.”

Peeta swallows. “Finnick’s a friend. Nothing more.”

“Pardon me if I find that rather hard to believe,” Snow says.

“He’s all talk, if you know what I mean,” Peeta says. “There was no rebellion.”

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.

Wall 2: WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge

Walls are the canvas of our lives.

— WordPress Daily Post Weekly Photo Challenge

Queenie’s Road House, Elk, California

Gallery Bookshop, Main Street, Mendocino

Visual Artist Kim Thoman’s Studio at the Mendocino Art Center