A rainy Sunday in June

Here's Elena last night at her first rodeo!  I wasn't there--because it looked all day like she wasn't going to be able to ride.  She had had a fever and a "bubble" in her throat. But I see there's a blue ribbon attached, and her daddy said she did great.

During the rodeo, Suzanne and I had dinner together, and she re-introduced me to Ted Kooser's poetry, which I love.

Here's one, from the book she gave me, Delights and Shadows:

COSMETICS DEPARTMENT

A fragrance heavy as dust, and two young women
motionless as mannequins, dressed in black

The white moth of timelessness flutters about them,
unable to leave the cool light of their faces.

One holds the other's head in her hands
like a mirror.  The other leans into the long fingers

knowing how heavy her beauty is. Eye to eye,
breath into breath, they lean as if frozen forever:

a white cup with two lithe figures painted in black
and the warm wine brimming.



Today we got a generous rain, just the right amount to soak the yard and flowers really well before and during writing group.

Sharon brought flowers, Diana and Peggy brought munchies, Cecelia wore her mother's amethyst ring, and Knoel brought herself all the way from Austin in a downpour--along with writing about our recent floods.

Today I read three Kooser poems and suggested that we all pay attention to moments like these that show up in our everyday lives--at the beauty shop, in the doctor's office, in stores, on the street. Revelations often occur in the tiniest and most ordinary-seeming moments, if we are looking for them.

I love writing groups!  I love hearing well-crafted stories read aloud--and the questions and conversations that spring from them.