Informality

"I know the silver ready of takeoff and the

unearned divinity of cruising altitude.  I know, too

the melancholy rush of final approach, of

returning, as we must, to earth.  I know 

the allure of always going somewhere else...

"I know girls who love their bodies, who let their hips draw commas in the air before them, paving the way.  I know women who used to, whose hands and teeth and shoes are asking always:  how do I get back there...

"I know the words--the yes and the sorry and gone--that stand in for other things we can't say.  The constellation of freckles on my left arm I am waiting for someone to read me like tarot.  I know the aftermath of want."

--Kate Petersen, "To All Those Who Say Write What You Know"

This was a lyrical essay I read last semester and it's haunted my thoughts for months.  I found a copy of the piece tonight stowed away under my bed in a box full of school folders.  

I miss the intellectual atmosphere of the university, the creative atmosphere of my writing classes.  You can find the full text on the cool non-fiction site called Brevity.  The publication is entirely online and only accepts non-fiction pieces of 750 words of less.  

I also found a copy of another essay I enjoyed by Nancy Mairs titled "On Having Adventures."

I want a copy of Evangeline Patterson's poems.  

I had, what I consider, a nightmare last night.  There was a group of false prophets that picked people at random and somehow forced individuals into conversion.  I dreamed they were spreading lies to my family about God and I kept trying to tell them the truth about Jesus and I didn't think anyone was listening.  They were especially targeting/going after my brother.  Brittany and I watched a documentary on Jonestown recently and I worry about my brother a lot.  Maybe this dream was a combination of those things.