Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

Remember when we used to have Walkmans and listen to Prince while we took a giant walk around the perimeter of the neighborhood? Remember when, in childhood, we briefly had a cat? Remember when we had a tetherball court in our backyard, and we practiced and practiced so that we could beat Diane S., who was the best tetherball champion in the sixth grade? Remember when we had a yellow ten-speed, and rode it to the beach before the fog had burned off? Remember when we had delphinium, cosmos, asters, roses, baby's breath all blooming in our garden? Remember when we had a Great Dane that ate the tomatoes off the vine, and the peaches off the tree?

Remember when everyone had a blog?

Well, I remember all of this. Mostly because all of it happened to me, but you can substitute your own events, and you'll, all of a sudden, remember when you were younger, too. And when you blogged, maybe. Well, maybe you never blogged, but I did. I blogged a lot. There were a couple of years when I blogged almost every day.

Catch the light, 9/30.

A post shared by Lisa Bickmore (@megastore) on Sep 30, 2017 at 5:31pm PDT

I'm in my office, and I should do a little grading before 11 a.m., when I have a commitment. So I will, but before I do so, I want you to know that I have the following before me:

• a stack of bookmaking books.
• a copy of Anne Carson's NOX.
• a copy of Ander Monson's Letters to a Future Lover.
• a certificate of tax exemption for the next time I buy a passel of fancy paper for the Publication Center.
• My lunch. 
• a postcard of Hovenweep. 
• broadsides galore.
• a copy of the Eduardo Corral itinerary.
• a kaleidoscope.
• an opalescent glass globe.
• Dayanita Singh's Museum Bhavan.
• India ink.
• a David Hockney print of his acrylic painting of Mulholland Drive.
• a photo of the crowded Beijing Metro.

With everything happening in the world, I want to try--try--to keep choosing love, beauty, and joy, while also still flooding my congresspeople's offices with strongly worded faxes. I want to try.

Hibiscus in the gloaming, 10/1.

A post shared by Lisa Bickmore (@megastore) on Oct 1, 2017 at 7:53pm PDT

To Autumn, worth reading every autumn.