The subject line from Susan Firer's "Mrs. Post's 6th-Hour English Class," which I read in Visiting Frost (Iowa 2005), an anthology I borrowed from the library by accident. (I'd meant to reserve another book related to Frost.) It's a funny, lovely poem -- the writer talks about leaving the classroom in a

sweet suspension of sense
which I grew to understand as
only one of the many glittered

costumes of the lively breath-
ful poems I am always
growing to love.

Later, there's a poem by Gail White called "Traveling with Cats on a Snowy Evening" which begins:

I've no idea whose woods these are,
But I'm not getting very far
From Albany to NYC
With two cats yowling in the car...

I am still unwell. I am allergic to the Bactrim I was taking for the strep, and I am still mottled all the way to my fingertips and toeses with the resultant rash. In tandem with the other side effects (chills, severe headaches, yeast infection) and the recurring bronchitis, it is literally tiresome.

However, there are also a number of good things:

* The fortune in the cookie I just cracked open: "Life is a series of choices. Today yours are good ones."

* Sunday's service went well. The reader of the "story for all ages" selected a picture-book version of Rumi's "I am a lion" (in which a cub grows up thinking he is a sheep, is over-impressed with himself when he finds out he's a lion, and is subsequently schooled on being strong but not showy...). The sermon - there was enough interest in the various issues to generate a fair amount of discussion after the service (e.g., not assuming that corporate = evil, but nevertheless being aware of greenwashers and pinkwashers; taking advantage of resources such as the Better World Shopping Guide and its website; reviewing all of the above with the usual salt-shaker at hand (as I told them, I don't agree with all of BWSG's rankings, but it's a terrific place to start); and last but certainly not least, the ongoing connection between cheap chocolate and child exploitation).

(I also brought several samples of ethically traded chocolate. In honor of Washington's birthday (and because it gave me a great opening to talk about sorting out truth from myths), I chose bars with cherries embedded in them.)

* Received a surprise Valentine from a friend today...

* ... with an equally surprising note about how one of my recent poems moved her to tears. It's good to know something of mine is connecting somewhere... (what with illness and busy-ness, I fear it may well be summer before I can get myself back on track with getting stuff revised and submitted. It's not writer's block -- there's some writer's blah in the mix, yes, but it's mainly having too many priorities and not enough me, and right now non-assignment writing isn't even in my top five.)

(And if I sound frustrated, it's because I'm still five years old and want to be part of everything now and already even though I know better. *thwaps self with Franklin planner*)

* Dichroic (and a friend or two) have been posting a series of poems (inspired by Mr. Masters) about the riders of "Spoon River Rail." The ones that have clicked the most with me so far have been the two "by" Agnes Thu and today's post by Shoshana Segal.