Skip to content

Ecce Signum

Immanentize the Empathy

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Published Works and Literary Matters
  • Indexes
  • Laboratory

Poetry at the End of Days

2020-04-05 John Winkelman

Ugh. That was a week. The project I have been on for the past month crashed and burned, and I had the delightful and familiar experience of being thrown under the bus. Such is the life of a developer. The project manager was a good sort – smart, driven, creative, good ideas, but really bad with organization and communication. Thus the current view from under the bus.

A nice collection of reading material arrived this week, a combination of subscriptions, an online order, and a delivery from our superb local bookstore Books and Mortar.

On the left is the new issue of Poetry. Next to it is autobiography of a semiromantic anarchist by Monica Teresa Ortiz. On the top right is Kristin Chang’s collection Past Lives, Future Bodies.

Bottom row left is Palestine+100, a companion volume to Iraq+100, which I picked up a year or so ago. These are collections which imagine what the respective countries will be like 100 years from the catastrophic events which befell them, in the case of this book, the nakba in 1948. Lower middle is Barn 8 by Deb Olun Unferth, and bottom right is Wretchedness by Andrzej Tichy. These last two are the latest from my subscription to And Other Stories.

My girlfriend and I have adjusted to the new reality of both of us being home all the time and not being able to get out and walk around due to her recently-sprained ankle. We both have personal projects to keep us occupied, and house and kitten do take a lot of maintenance to keep them livable.

Speaking of kitten, Poe has been with us for just over three months. I think we will hit the 100 day mark on Friday, which will probably warrant its own blog post. Poe is a treasure, and her presence in the house is a wonderful stress reliever, even when she wants to be fed and entertained at 5:00 a.m. At this moment she is laying in my lap cleaning herself, sprawled across my left arm and partially tucked under my laptop. She is just too cute for words.

This past week I only read random bits of things, nothing meaningful enough to blog about. Likewise with the writing. The combination of existential uncertainty, coupled with the significant disruption to the daily routine, has diminished my ability to focus on what needs to be done. Even editing old work takes more mental energy than I currently have available.

But spring is here and the days are longer, warmer and brighter, and though the amount of time I have available hasn’t really changed, deep down in my bones I feel more energized.

Posted in Literary MattersTagged life, Poe, work, writing

Post navigation

The Marchest March that Ever Marched
What I Read in March 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Personal website of
John Winkelman

John Winkelman in a diner in San Francisco

Archives

Categories

Posts By Month

April 2020
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Mar   May »

Twitter Feed

Retweet on TwitterJohn Winkelman Retweeted
JordanrosenfeldJordan Rosenfeld@Jordanrosenfeld·
21 May

Don't like "Show, don't tell?" Try: "Demonstrate, don't lecture." Characters use words & deeds. #writetip #characters #scenes

Reply on Twitter 1528089044319617024Retweet on Twitter 15280890443196170241Like on Twitter 15280890443196170241Twitter 1528089044319617024
Retweet on TwitterJohn Winkelman Retweeted
The_Lady_RedThe Lady Red- the night is dark and full of terror@The_Lady_Red·
20 May

@notcapnamerica

Reply on Twitter 1527768341934272512Retweet on Twitter 1527768341934272512138Like on Twitter 1527768341934272512827Twitter 1527768341934272512
Retweet on TwitterJohn Winkelman Retweeted
JohnFugelsangJohn Fugelsang@JohnFugelsang·
20 May

But the archbishop gladly still serve Holy Communion to pro-death penalty politicians.

And the death penalty, unlike abortion, was actually something Christ spoke out against.

In case you thought this had anything to do with Christ. https://twitter.com/sfchronicle/status/1527733939275702274

San Francisco Chronicle@sfchronicle

JUST IN: The San Francisco archbishop issued a notice Friday that he would no longer allow House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Communion, an escalation of his feud with the Catholic Democrat over abortion politics. https://trib.al/Q3mKsI0

Reply on Twitter 1527744200753790977Retweet on Twitter 15277442007537909773567Like on Twitter 152774420075379097714178Twitter 1527744200753790977
Load More...

Links of Note

Reading, Writing
Tor.com
Locus Online
The Believer
File 770
IWSG

Watching, Listening
WYCE Electric Poetry
Writing Excuses Podcast
Our Opinions Are Correct

News, Politics, Economics
Naked Capitalism
Crooked Timber

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

© 2022 Ecce Signum

Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: x-blog by wpthemespace.com