The Academy of American Poets offered an event of poets reading their favorite poems by other poets. Joy Harjo hosted the hour and over four thousand people logged on the hear them live. You can listen my clicking the link in the caption. The meme above is merely a screenshot.
Without Poetry, we lose our way.
—Joy Harjo, U.S. Poet Laureate & Academy of American Poets Chancellor (2019– )
Spring Morning When it is cold enough at night, spring's strawberries are sweeter in the morning. In the morning I woke before the sun blushed all across east and west, a gathering warmth slid around the Cape and over Tillamook Head. Before hard day pushed past, pink dawn had trailed her fingers all round the sky. In the morning I bent to berries' green tipping over into red. In that morning, red juice ran down his chin.
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Even though I’ve already made the herbed dressing, wild rice and mushroom casserole, twice baked potatoes, cranberry bread, pumpkin pie, I still have to make the Waldorf salad and roast the Brussels sprouts. I bought a wild fillet of sockeye salmon. We will eat flesh this day, our only seafood or meat of the year. I will pan-poach with lemon, garlic, butter, and wine. Or maybe with soy sauce, ginger, toasted sesame oil, and garlic . . . Gary seems to find it funny.
Anyway, I prepared most of this post a couple of days in advance because I didn’t want to be too busy. The holiday cards are all addressed to go out on Monday. I mean to slip handwritten notes into a couple of them. (I always mean to do that and never do.) A few gifts going to people far away are waiting to be wrapped and boxed for mailing. On Sunday I deliver a dozen shawls to the gallery in Manzanita. We have not driven there even once this year!
This morning I found an email from a small yarn company that has gone completely, and successfully, online this year. They offered a long list of of thank-yous to many specific people. The list ended with thanking their customers, like me. But it was the first block of thank-yous that led me to save the email in my covid folder: “Thank you to our fellow taxpayers, Congress, the SBA, and Columbia Bank for loans and grants. Thanks to Washington State for health safety cautions and unemployment benefits, and to the Kitsap Economic Development Council for weekly seminars on how to cope with COVID.” They are optimistic about their future. “Because of you, we are back on our feet, getting stronger, and feeling more determined than ever to make this a 100-year company. Only 80 more years to go.”
Well, I feel gratitude too. Thank you here to a great many people who read my blog, who respond to particular posts, ideas, and questions.
Most of the people I have known in my life have given me something good to keep. Just among my teachers I treasure studio skills and experiences from Del Hansen and Bob Gee when I was still a girl, and thoughtful perspective from Darlene Sherrick and James May, and serious artistic growth with Patti Warashina and “Jack” Marshall and Howard Kottler. They changed my life. Sherrick chose me for Honors History. Harriet Koenig stepped in three times to turn my life: a Design class, a conference, my first teaching job. Thank you.
You are probably avoiding the news, but an architect designed a prank Trump website, and this page is my favorite: https://djtrumplibrary.com/portfolio-item/tax
Happy Thanksgiving! Humor is back!
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IMPERFECT PATIENCE 
Wait a minute, how come I’m not in the list of thank you—I always thank you, for as Keye Luke said, it is the giver of the gift who is thankful—I think—and anyway, as Elvis said: thank you very much!
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I got hungry just reading the list of foods you’ve cooked. What is that yarn company that sent such a lovely email? I don’t think my town has any yarn shops anymore, which is so disappointing because I do prefer to shop local when I can. Thank you for the inspiration to be more organized when I retire. At this point, I never get my cards out on time 😉
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Thank you! It was a great meal
Churchmouse is on Bainbridge Island in Puget Sound (Washington state). They were my destination for yarn and wonderful patterns, and the only reason we went to the town. They couldn’t maintain their expensive storefront and are now online only. All yarn stores are family-run, in my experience. I would go to the store mostly out of gratitude for their online presence, but I will be sorry not to see them in person after the pandemic. It’s an issue too for the shawls I have woven. They cannot be touched when they are on display next month, so I borrowed a doll blanket I wove and will wash it afterwards. (I find hand sanitizer makes my hands sticky.)
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One of my favorite yarn stores was in San Francisco. It was located outside the Embarcaderos (a group of office buildings that included shops on the ground level). The shop was called Quercus and was run by a woman who had had a flower business in that stop for decades. She wanted an occupation that didn’t require starting her day in the wee hours of the morning. She organized the yarns by color rather than weight or brand. I found it fascinating and to the shop a lot, although I couldn’t afford much. It only lasted a few years though. This was more than 30 years ago but some of these memories are still vivid.
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There was a shop near me that did the same thing, organizing by color. I think Kaffe Fassett recreated the knitting world in terms of color. For many years I organized my own yarn by color. When I got serious about weaving last year, I sold most of my accumulated yarn other than what I was weaving.
The profit margin and gross sales are not enough to sustain a yarn shop in a location with high rent. Churchmouse was a destination shop for me, and I suspect the entire town will suffer its loss.
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Ah, Kaffe Fassett, more wonderful (and colorful) memories. Once I traded in yarn at a yarn store for credit. Aside from some kits, I have a mishmash of yarn in my cedar chest, including several skeins of “Peace Fleece” wool yarn that I’ve had for at least a couple of decades. Everything I think I might just give it away (the labels are gone), I tell myself to wait until I’m retire 😉
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I knit a sweater and a vest based on Fassett . . . maybe thirty years ago? That sweater was beautiful but I never wore it. No one in my family cared about it so I gave it to charity. I hope someone paid dearly to a good cause.
Fassett, Noro, and Koigu, imo, between them revolutionized color in yarn. Fassett’s mixing of yarns in a single project, Noro’s long color changes, and Koigu’s very short color changes were unique when they first appeared.
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I don’t think I ever knitted anything based on Fassett. I just loved looking at his books 😉 I did sew a small pillow cover that he designed, using machine embroidery. I’ve knitted with Noro and Koigu. Love both of those yarns.
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