First Snow

I do love the first snow! Today it brought a mini-fiber-optic Christmas tree to the door, mis-delivered mail. (I picture the poor mail carrier shivering and overburdened with yesterday's Veterans Day mail in addition to today's.) Anyhoo, I went out in my winter coat, hat, and gloves to re-deliver it to our neighbor a few doors north. In our mail: coupons, bills, retirement account disclosures, requests from charities, and the ISU Alumni magazine, with great stories about local Route 66 doings. The first snow was minimal and is gone, but I wrote a poem about it. That matches.

Up today at Escape Into Life is my review of The Dailiness, by Lauren Camp. I have been reading this book of poems, gently, for almost a year! That's often what I do for poetry reviews--read and re-read slowly, or read a book all at once quickly, and then re-read slowly. Her original solo feature, as well as the review, are accompanied by wonderful and whimsical art by Andrea D'Aquino. Whimsy with an edge, as in Bathers, pictured above.

I am currently reading The Man Who Loved Children, a novel by Christina Stead, and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, nonfiction by Nassim Nicolas Taleb. I recently finished Little Women of Baghlan: The Story of a Nursing School for Girls in Afghanistan, the Peace Corps, and Life Before the Taliban, by Susan Fox, the topic of tonight's book group, with the author in attendance! I do look forward to that. And I note, with glee, that it is highly improbable that a lion would blow dry his mane! Thanks to Andrea D'Aquino for that!