Current
(Okay, I'm finally getting off my ass and taking off all the pregnancy books. You, know, since Squidgey is SIXTEEN months old!)
Letters to a Love Rat~Niamh Greene
Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista~Amy Silver
One Good Affair~Tess Stimson
The Girl Next Door~Elixabeth Noble
*Disclaimer: I will read ANYTHING, so you will see listed here anything from vapid bodice rippers to beloved childhood friends. Read at your own Risk
I'm not really a poem-y literary person; in fact until now, I'd only ever seen the first stanza(?) of this, and I read it in a Stephen King novel (that last part's a bit bleak, huh?). But it struck me so much that I copied it out and clipped it in my day planner, and have transferred it from month to month, from year to year, for almost 10 years now.
Pursuit
Each thing I do I rush through so I can do
something else. In such a way do the days pass -
a blend of stock car racing and the never
ending building of a gothic cathedral.
Through the windows of my speeding car, I see
all that I love falling away: books unread,
jokes untold, landscapes unvisited. And why?
What treasure do I expect in my future?
Rather it is the confusion of childhood
loping behind me, the chaos in the mind,
the failure chipping away at each success.
Glancing over my shoulder I see its shape
and so move forward, as someone in the woods
at night might hear the sound of approaching feet
and stop to listen, then, instead of silence
he hears some creature trying to be silent.
What else can he do but run? Rushing blindly
down the path, stumbling, struck in the face by sticks;
the other ever closer, yet not really
hurrying or out of breath, teasing its kill.
-Stephen Dobyns