Played with my sewing machine today, and used the bright, layered fabric I had made on a journal cover. It’s great to do things in the spirit of fun, but still end up with something that I’m happy with and can use in my work! Feels good to be productive without really putting pressure on myself to produce.

The City of Light was inspired by—naturellement!— Paris; by the cabaret, by visions of whirling boulevards and sparkling laughter spilling out of nightclubs…by la jeune fille élégante aux cheveux rouges, the magic of a glittering metropolis at night, every light an iridescent sequin flashing. And by the poetry of T.S. Eliot and this excerpt from The Bistro Styx by Rita Dove…

…Fruit and cheese appeared, arrayed on leaf-green dishes.

I stuck with café crème. “This Camembert’s

so ripe,” she joked, “it’s practically grown hair,”

mucking a golden glob complete with parsley sprig

onto a heel of bread. Nothing seemed to fill

her up: She swallowed, sliced into a pear,

speared each tear-shaped lavaliere

and popped the dripping mess into her pretty mouth.

Nowhere the bright tufted fields, weighted

vines and sun poured down out of the south.

“But are you happy?” Fearing, I whispered it

quickly. “What? You know, Mother”—

she bit into the starry rose of a fig—

“one really should try the fruit here.”

I’ve lost her, I thought, and called for the bill.

*******************

Book no. 907 is in my online shops

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