Summer’s here. It officially arrived the day I began posting, last Sunday, and today it’s in full swing, nearly 100 degrees here in Silicon Valley (and remember, 3 hours earlier than BAP city). I live 20 miles from the town of Santa Cruz, home of all things alternative AND a coastline of beautiful beaches, and the highway traffic over the mountains to get there is backed up all the way. Sizzlin’.
It’s been a fun week. The Best American Poetry blog is a great place to be with so much going on. Of my postings, I enjoyed the tractor band link the best. It completely cracks me up and makes me happy simply remembering it. I also love the comments people take the time to leave on everyone’s postings, and hope more readers will remember it’s such an easy thing to do.
It’s been a sad week. The ongoing tragedies and repression
in Iran. The unmarked tragedies in less politicized countries and a dreadful
feeling of helplessness tinged with a sense of American complicity I often feel.
And here, the loss of several entertainment icons: Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett,
and of course Michael Jackson, each representing such unique aspects of
American identity, the faces of pop culture. The disparity between the loss of
these 3 and what’s at stake globally is ridiculous, and yet these deaths at
home give many of us pause, representative as they are of times and places in
our lives that pass with them.
Just like life, isn’t it, some relatively small passage of
time marked by a season, shaped by happiness and sorrow, accomplishments and
losses, things we understand and things we never will.
I began the week thinking about hats. Here I’d like to offer
a hats off to David Lehman, host, who among other things in the course of June
celebrated a birthday and announced 3 new books for the fall (woot!!!), all
remarkable accomplishments. Another hats off to Stacey for her skillful and
cheerful management of the blog and all my posting errors.
Hats back on. It’s summer. Stay cool.
-Sally Ashton, listening to “Sweet Georgia Brown” on the tractor.
(chugg-chugg, chugg-chugg, hit it!)
