Atticus Helps Me Keep Poetry Friday Afloat

Atticus sends me all kinds of links, but who doesn't love a man who sends poetry?

I've been so busy with stuff-stuff-stuff -- writing projects, fun with Ramona while her big sisters were out of town, cooking for those big sisters when they got home (after six days of road food they were ready for something fresh out of an oven), cleaning (which is, as Erma Bombeck once said, "like stringing beads without a knot), and homeschool stuff/reading stuff/planning stuff -- that I have neglected my poor little blog and nearly let Poetry Friday slip by unnoticed.

Atticus to the rescue. (He saved me last week and a couple weeks before that, too.)

This week he sent me this gem: "Winter Twilight" by Anne Porter. (You remember Anne Porter -- I've written about her before.)

Go ahead and click over to the poem now. You have time. It's all of five lines.

These five little lines bring to mind the winter nights here. When I run the dog outside for her last backyard break before bed, I breathe in the cold, Nebraska air, take in the starry night and think, "If I didn't have a dog, I wouldn't be out here at 11:00 at night. I'd be all Woody Allenish, quoting him from the comfort of my couch, saying, 'I am two with nature.' So, this dog business is a very good thing."

"Winter Twilight" is, then, a tidy package of love for my husband, gratitude for my dog, appreciation of nature and awe in the face of Anne Porter.

And let's not forget The Writer's Almanac.

On the same day they ran this poem, they also noted the birthdays of W. Somerset Maugham (who wrote The Razor's Edge, a book that affected me greatly when I was spiritually searching, and who said, "To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life."), Scottish poet Robert Burns (I have only to hear the name to have the Scottish blood in me stir), and Virginia Woolf (whose A Room of One's Own also greatly affected me when I was young).

So, huzzah for The Writer's Almanac and Atticus. Poetry Friday lives!

~~~~~~~~~~

Hey! The round up today is at Hey, Jim Hill! 

Head Over to Simcha's Right Now to Win a Book

Remember the book of which I am one-tenth?

Simcha's giving away two copies of Style, Sex, and Substance. She wrote the chapter on motherhood, I wrote the chapter on spiritual strength, and the other writers are:

Jennifer Fulwiler on “Who is the modern Catholic woman?”

Rachel Balducci on friendship

Annie Mitchell on the single life

Rebecca Teti on work

Hallie Lord on style, beauty and balance

Betty Duffy on sex

Danielle Bean on marriage

Barbara Nicolosi on engaging the culture

Run over there and enter!

And stay tuned here, as I'll be hosting a giveaway down the road, too.

Poetry Friday

Atticus sent this link the other day, and it seems an appropriate pick for Poetry Friday, with our daughters on the road.

The poem -- "Rest" by Richard Jones -- begins like this:

It's so late I could cut my lights
and drive the next fifty miles
of empty interstate
by starlight,
flying along in a dream,
countryside alive with shapes and shadows,

and moves into considering this:

This was before
I had children of my own,
and had felt the sharp edge of love
and anxiety whenever I tiptoed
into darkened rooms of sleep
to study the small, peaceful faces
of my beloved darlings. Now,
the fatherly feelings are so strong
the snoring truckers are lucky
I'm not standing on the running board,
tapping on the window,
asking, Is everything okay?

The only part I'm afraid I can't relate to is the later mention in the poem of country music. Even on a long road trip, I can't embrace country music. Unless Patsy Cline sings "Crazy." I can do that.  I live in a funny part of the country to be unable to embrace country music, but there you have it. My Friday confession.

And so, here I sit on a Friday, thinking of my daughters, off traveling* the country, wanting to tap on their window and ask, "Is everything okay?" I'm hoping they aren't forced to listen to any country music, and I'm thinking of their astonishingly excellent father. He will tap on my metaphorical window over the next few days, in our relatively quiet house, and ask, "Is everything okay?"

And it is.

Children grow up, and we embrace new ways of being. We adopt new ways of moving through our days. As the poem says:

Nothing for me to do on this road
but drive and give thanks

~~~~~~~~~~

Read all of "Rest" here, at The Writer's Almanac.

The Poetry Friday round up is at Wild Rose Reader.

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* Updated to note: Ramona is still home, so our place isn't entirely quiet. But in comparison to an average day with teens, well ....

Bits and Pieces of Our Days

* When I last did a Bits & Pieces post, my kitchen counter was messy. A percentage of the messiness was the huge project in which Anne-with-an-e and Betsy were immersed. Their play -- a musical performed by the parish youth choir and written/directed by Anne and Betsy and their two best friends, Sarah and Mary -- came off beautifully last weekend.

The week leading up to it featured last-minute costume runs, and some final T-shirt prep:

We also ran around town to a couple of different radio stations so that Betsy and one of the stars of the show could participate in interviews. Much fun.

Performance day arrived on Sunday. The choir was in top form, we had a great, big crowd, a terrific pre-show (a magician who still has me scratching my head over his Houdini thing), and lots of pizza, good company, and chatting afterward. If I do say so myself, "Bible Bound: The Ultimate Journey" was a musical of Biblical proportions. I'm so proud of my girls (and my other two girls, Sarah and Mary) for taking on this project. We're so blessed to have an amazing liturgy director who had faith in the girls when he asked them to take this production on.

* We've also been busy getting the girls ready for a big pilgrimage. They took off today and we now have a rather quiet household. Ramona and I have a few Mommy-Daughter projects planned since she has me all to herself for a few days. Are Barbies in my future? Maybe I can just talk her into a long walk and then ply her with chocolate.

* Anne-with-an-e is loving her community college Spanish class. She's not used to this thing called "homework" but she loves learning the language. Ramona, however, still can't get used to the phrase, "Anne's at school, remember?"

* Pizza Fondue was recently a hit here. I highly recommend it for a quick and tasty meal.

* Recently the subject of Daniel Radcliffe came up. Both Betsy and Anne think he's exceedingly adorable but Betsy pointed out that she could never truly love someone who doesn't love cake.  I think I'm raising them right.

I Have a New Book! And It's Available For Pre-order ...

My newest book will be published soon, but it's available for pre-order right now at Amazon.

You can head over there to find After Miscarriage: A Catholic Woman's Companion to Healing and Hope. 

Each one of my books has been, in its own way, personal  -- hey, let's face it, anyone who knows me knows I can barely tap out an email without getting personal -- but obviously, having experienced five miscarriages myself, this book occupies a special part of my soul and my psyche. These are words I've wanted to share with and offer to other women for a long time.

Here's a small glimpse into the book -- some reviews/endorsements:

Lisa M. Hendey, founder of CatholicMom.com and author of A Book of Saints for Catholic Moms, said:

"For every soul who has felt the loss of life through miscarriage or the absence of hope that accompanies infertility, After Miscarriage by Karen Edmisten offers a wellspring of grace. Filled with both the voices of those who have experienced this sacrificial love and helpful resources full of practical insights, Karen's book will be a gift of compassion and healing for many."

Kate Wicker, author of Weightless: Making Peace With Your Body, wrote:

"Any mother who has suffered the loss of a miscarriage knows just how empty her arms and heart can feel. When I lost my first baby, it felt as if my insides had been scooped out, leaving nothing behind but a sun-scraped void -- if only I’d had a resource like After Miscarriage: A Catholic Woman's Companion to Healing and Hope to help me to fill my emptiness. Karen Edmisten has written a wise and beautiful book that delivers just what the title says. This gentle companion gifts hurting mothers and their loved ones with both practical and spiritual wisdom to help them find hope and healing in the wake of a great loss. After Miscarriage is a must-read for anyone who has been touched by miscarriage and would also be a valuable guide for someone who is seeking to minister to a mother who has lost a baby.

In this treasure of a book, Catholic convert Karen Edmisten not only shares her own experience with multiple miscarriages -- including personal entries from her journal that are so filled with honesty, hurt, anguish, and hope, they read like prayerful Psalms -- but she includes stories from other women who have lost babies. These women’s unique voices delicately probe the myriad emotions the loss of a miscarriage brings to a mother and her family. Their honest words beautifully convey the ache-all-over kind of longing for a child they will never know on this earth as well as reveal the glimmer of God’s hope that shines through the suffering. By sharing their pain, Edmisten and her contributors give other women permission to mourn their babies in a world that might discount a tiny, new life. This deeply moving account of loss, suffering, grace, and redemption has the power to open the door of the reader’s soul to God and His healing grace."

And, from Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle, author of numerous books:

"This lovely and sorely needed book will powerfully and tenderly touch your soul with abiding comfort and blessing. I highly recommend it for mothers who have miscarried, family members, priests, deacons, Religious, Catholic medical staff, and those in ministry."

After Miscarriage, published by Servant Books, will start shipping/arrive on bookshelves on February 13th.

On the radio tomorrow

I'll be on Morning Air with Sean Herriott tomorrow morning (Tuesday, January 17) at 8:40 a.m. central time, chatting about family, and faith, and a new book I have coming out next month. More on that later today!

If you can't tune in locally, join us tomorrow morning online via the Relevant Radio link on this page.

Poetry Friday: The Joy of Books

No poem today, just some book love.

(Tip of the hat to Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda):



The Poetry Friday round up is at A Teaching Life.

Quotes for a Thursday

 from Through the Year With Mary, January 12: 

"I force myself in vain to meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary; I don't succeed in fixing my mind on them. For a long time I was desolate about this lack of devotion which astonished me, for I love the Blessed Virgin so much that it should be easy for me to recite in her honor prayers which are so pleasing to her. Now I am less desolate; I think that the Queen of heaven, since she is my Mother, must see my good will and she is satisfied with it."

~~ St. Therese of Lisieux

A great saint admitted her struggles with prayer; pray for me to humbly persevere, Mary, just as the Little Flower did. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Charlotte's Web (which I'm reading aloud with Ramona), on Wilbur's plans for the day:

"From three to four, he planned to stand perfectly still, and think of what it was like to be alive, and to wait for Fern."

Book Highlights: A Few From 2011

In no particular order of importance:

~~ 2011 was the year I discovered Connie Willis, thanks to some friends. Blackout, All Clear and Doomsday Book were the ones I dove into. I had some frustrations with her repetitious style, but ultimately enjoyed them all. Of the three books (though Blackout and All Clear are really one story) I loved Doomsday Book the most. Fr. Roche was a beautiful and noble priest.

~~ The Penderwicks at Point Mouette and A Homemade Life were both mentioned in this post last summer.

The Penderwicks have become Edmisten family friends. Long may they live on our bookshelves.

A Homemade Life managed to change one of our Christmas traditions. We always make a birthday cake but this was the year that we used the Winning Hearts and Minds Chocolate Cake recipe. We found it fitting -- Jesus has won our hearts and minds, and a cake like this is nothing if not proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

~~ I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron. She makes me laugh. I like to laugh, and I need to laugh. By some weird algorithm, I apparently need Nora Ephron.

~~ Read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban to Ramona. (I don't need to link to anything regarding that book, do I? You've heard of it?)  Pure fun to share it with her and see the story unfolding through her eyes.

~~ Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell. Utter delight. Reviewed here.

~~ A Little Princess with Ramona.  A different kind of utter delight. Ditto for Trumpet of the Swan.

~~ The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Recommended by my sister and a friend. A book to escape with at the end of a day. A puzzler, fun to sort out and guess about.

~~ The Provence Cure for the Broken Hearted, by Bridget Asher, aka Julianna Baggott. Sweet, touching, a bit magical and romantic. The story is not afraid to take us on a real trek through grief (the main character has lost her husband and is trying to move on with her young son.) Ultimately hopeful, a portrayal of coming out on the other side of pain. Lovely.

~~ Parched by Heather King, followed as quickly as I could get my hands on it by her Redeemed. (Soon to be followed by Shirt of Flame: A Year with St. Therese of Lisieux, courtesy of Atticus, Amazon, and Christmas presents.)

What's that you say? The rest of the world has already read Heather King and I am, as always, roughly seventeen steps behind the rest of the cosmos? Okay, fine. If you want to get technical, yes. That's true. But the following point remains: she is an astonishingly good writer. Loved reading her. Nodded my head too often, thinking, "That could have been me. Oooh, that one was me. Oh, that could've been me if I hadn't gotten out of there ..." She writes about beauty, chaos, confusion (past and ongoing), grace, and mystery. So glad I'm only seventeen steps behind, not a-hundred-and-seventeen.

~~ Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. Loved it so much. Fascinating, and fits so neatly with my own philosophies about education, work, goals, and motivation.

Countdown to Downton

41 minutes.

Monday -- Updated to note: 

My reactions in the comments. Spoiler warning!

I copied the comment I just left over at GeekMom, with Lissa's discussion. Might be easier to discuss it over there, rather than here, there and everywhere, but leave a comment here if you like!

Updated again to add:

Discussion at By Sun and Candlelight, too!

Poetry Friday and a reflection about my husband and daughters

Atticus sent me the link to this poem yesterday. Coincidentally, just yesterday morning, I was gazing at a set of pictures -- three snapshots, lined up, one atop the other -- on the wall in front of my desk. Pictures of my daughters. They are each about three months old. They are wearing the same dusty pink and white outfit, passed down from one sister to another, as if they simply slipped it neatly down the stack of photographs.

These girls and their father are the reasons I do everything I do. I love to look up from my work and see my daughters, and remember when they slept on the couch in the dusty pink of a late afternoon. And I think of the shoulders of the man who carried them across streets and sheltered them from gales when they were tiny and delicate, dreaming dreams they were too young to whisper.

How I love the man who gave me these children, these pictures, these memories. I love the links he sends me, and I love the way we share a wish for a world in which (go read the end of the poem) the rain will stop falling.

Anne-with-an-e

Betsy

Ramona

Shoulders 
by Naomi Shihab Nye

A man crosses the street in rain,
stepping gently, looking two times north and south,
because his son is asleep on his shoulder.

No car must splash him.
No car drive too near to his shadow.

This man carries the world's most sensitive cargo
but he's not marked.
Nowhere does his jacket say FRAGILE,
HANDLE WITH CARE.

His ear fills up with breathing.
He hears the hum of a boy's dream
...
(Read the rest of the poem here, at The Writer's Almanac.)

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The Poetry Friday roundup is at Teaching Authors this week.

And, you can find the upcoming Poetry Friday schedule -- January through June! --  in the sidebar at A Year of Reading.

Books, Glorious Books!

Booklists abound in Blogland! This makes me beatifically happy!

Jen Fulwiler asked a number of bloggers, including moi, to recommend "just one book" for 2012. Find her compilation of recommendations here at the National Catholic Register, along with plenty of other suggestions in the combox.

The seventh edition of "Best Books I Read" is up at Ignatius Insight. Funny: I found the Ignatius list in its first year of existence (2006) when I was new to blogging. I shared my list of books read in 2005 and -- no surprise -- the recommendation I gave to Jen for this year was on the '05 list, too. I meant it when I said that I "turn and return" to the spiritually evergreen Abandonment to Divine Providence.

Happy Catholic's list is here.

My pal Lissa blogged about her 2011 books here.

Here is Mental Multivitamin's list of books read in 2011.

And -- oooh! Possibly the mother lode! -- Go visit Semicolon to overdose on booklists.

A Beautiful New Book From Josephine Nobisso

I've mentioned Josephine Nobisso a number of times, starting here (wherein I talk about The Weight of a Mass -- if you haven't read that one, go buy a copy right now for every child you know who will be receiving First Holy Communion this spring), and then here, when I reviewed Take It to the Queen. I mentioned her again here, and here you'll see that Josephine was kind enough to endorse my book, Through the Year With Mary (in which I included a couple of quotes from Take It to the Queen.)

Now, Gingerbread House Publishing has a new offering: Francis Woke Up Early: 

Every bit as beautiful as Josephine's previous works (of which I'm a huge fan), this jewel is illustrated by Maureen Hyde, an American painter who also lives and works in Italy. 

The story is gentle and lovely, and the paintings immediately transported us to gorgeous Assisi. This book is a bit of a respite, an escape from the noisy world -- an imaginative immersion into beauty, love, and saintly goodness. 

Highly recommended.

On the Eighth Day Of Christmas, My Blog Said To Me, "You Never Call, You Never Write ..."

We've been, as Bob Cratchit said, making rather merry.

                     

I love the Octave of Christmas, and a full Twelve Days of celebration, and the repeated enjoyment of new gifts.

                     

I love all the time we get to spend with Atticus, and I love all the feast days of Advent and Christmas.

And I love my poor, neglected blog and plan to get back to really, actually writing something on it soon. Time to talk about upcoming school plans, and books we read in 2011, books we want to read in 2012...

Soon!

Post-Christmas Guilt. Or Not.

On Christmas day, as the dog blissfully gnawed and slobbered on a gargantuan rawhide bone, I walked into my bedroom and saw the cat cozily napping on my bed. I felt a little bad that we didn't get him a present. For about three seconds. Because then I remembered -- as I looked at him owning that bed -- that his whole life is a present.

Except, of course, when Ramona has dressed him in this: