I had today off anyway since I work tomorrow, but I had planned to go to the local state university library, about 20 minutes away, to read. Really, the only thing that has changed is that I’ll be reading at home and, let’s be honest on a day like this, napping.
I’m starting my day this morning with a poem through the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day service that I’ve signed up for for the Poetry Reading Challenge 2020. The challenge, as outlined by Serena, is to read a poem-a-day for a week once per month and write about which poems were your favorite and why on your Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, or your blog. I am adjusting it to pick out my favorite from each week and write about it here on the blog, providing a link to the poem. So here’s a link to this week’s favorite, “Entering St. Patrick’s Cathedral” by Malachi Black.
These are the lines that stuck out for me:
and there, brightly skeletal beside it,
the organ pipes: cold, chrome, quietbut alive with a vibration tolling
out from the incarnatesource of holy sound. I turn, shivering
back into my coat.
especially the middle couplet there, with the way the line breaks: out from the incarnate” before striking the next line, like a note “source of holy sound.”
I’ll be continuing my reading this afternoon with:
- Heaven, My Home, the second in the Highway 59 series, by Attica Locke.
- How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi,
both of which I started last Sunday. I am about three-quarters through Kendi’s book, but to be honest, while I like it, I don’t love it because I am finding the structure offputting and overall more academic than I wanted. However, I am maybe a quarter through Locke’s book and am loving it. She continues to impress.
On Sunday as I mentioned last week, I would to begin digging into Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963-65, the second part of Taylor Branch’s history of the Civil Rights Movement in America. I had planned to begin reading the latter on MLK Day but that didn’t happen (I finished a book of King speeches instead). Based on the length of Pillar of Fire, it will be one I’ll be delving into over several weekends, not just this weekend.
I didn’t do as well with my planned short bursts of reading during the past week with the Sherlock Holmes short stories, but I’m hoping to do better this coming week. I’ll let you know on next weekend’s Sunday Salon.
Until then….
How is your reading going this past week? Anything to recommend (or not)? Please share in the comments.
This week’s shout-out goes to Chris Wolak and Emily Fine of the podcast Book Cougars. The two went to see Jeanine Cummins, author of American Dirt, which I’m sure by now you have heard about, on January 23 of this year at RJ Julia Booksellers in Madison, Connecticut. They shared their thoughts on the book, Cummins’ talk, and the controversy surrounding the book on Podcast 95 (click the link to be taken to a page where you can download the podcast).
Still an unfinished person... 
I love a snow day – very worth celebrating. 🙂 I’ve been trying to read more poetry but I am not super successful at it. I bought a book for our family for New Years, called A Poem for Every Night of the Year, and I had intended to read the poem out loud every night, but we usually end up doing a big catch up night of a bunch at once.
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Today we’ve had high winds. Much of the area is without power. There are trees and electrical lines down all over. Remarkably our little valley has kept its power on. We also were happy to not go anywhere. My weekly update
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Sometimes it’s good to just stay in. Hope you had a good day despite all the chaos around you.
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