Postcards (&c)

Pictured: twin postcards. One realized, one in process. On the left, the card I received from Sam about a week ago. As you might imagine, I praised its charming home-made quality as well as the verse. You probably can't read Sam's poem, but I believe it is her right to share it (or not) as she chooses. Her poem is a Vietnamese verse form called Luc-Bat; not having read previous examples of this form, I'm very impressed with the product. I'm also impressed by Sam's knowledge of non-traditional foreign verse forms, and her willingness to try them out.

On the right, you see a draft of the poem I mailed Sam on Saturday. Having less confidence in my skills in the plastic arts, I sent Sam a commercially-produced card. This time, I sent her a picture of a brindled cat - who might be a cousin of Dame Julian. Her use of a rhyming verse form inspired me to try something more formal. As I explain below, I didn't aim for a particular verse form. Instead, I started with a rhythm, and tried to see if I could maintain that rhythm for more than six lines. For most of the poem, my rhyme scheme is ABAB.

With the exception of the first two lines, most of this was written at the public library. I found a quiet corner, and started writing. Writing at home is problematic, as my kitten perceives the moving pen as an invitation to play. You ever tried concentrating on scansion while your pen was under attack?

But, in a typical authorial delaying tactic, before I started writing, I picked up some books from the "Newly Received" shelves. One was the book of Gary Snyder poetry, which I quote below. I checked out the other, The Rabbi of 84th Street : The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser. I'm over half-way through this biography, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Recommended.

After I went as far as I could with this little study, I moved to a table near the magazines to begin the painstaking process of translating my chicken scratching into neat printing on the card to be sent to Sam. Although I am almost as self-conscious about my printing as I am my cursive, there have been fewer complaints about the former.

Being so close to the magazines, I noticed the headlines on last week's Christian Century: “What Would Buffy Do?”, along with a couple of other titles caught my eye. The Buffy article was actually a review of a book of the same name (along with The Gospel According to Disney; in brief, the reviewer seemed to appreciate books which strive to dialogue between Christ and popular culture.

There was also an editorial responding to the Eames report concerning the ordination of a gay bishop in the Episcopal Church. The editorial basically said the U.S. church erred in acting pre-emptively. It's a troubling question. I have argued against the pre-emptive invasion of Iraq, and I believe the issues have some similarity. At the same time, I think all the hub-bub about ordination of gays or recognition of same-sex unions is disproptionate to the weight of the issue. It's a question I'm still pondering, and will no doubt return to as I work on it.