Am I half of the person that I could be?

[sovay]

I said last night that it is very difficult to observe a holiday that is supposed to place you outside of time when time has felt broken for six months and counting. Nonetheless, we managed to meet my parents for socially distanced break-fast after two stars and the planet Venus had come out in the sky. My body is convinced I ate my own weight in challah and chopped liver, courtesy of delivery from Mamaleh's. I have informed my body I fully intend to do it again tomorrow. We sat around the fire pit until it had nearly gone out and there were more stars and planets above us through the trees.

I spent the hour immediately after we got home sewing up the torn sleeve of the now something like forty-five-year-old leather jacket I haven't worn in seventeen years, since I procrastinated epically on getting it repaired. spatch listened patiently to me exclaiming things like "No wonder leatherworking is a specialized art! Why don't we have a real thimble? My kingdom for an awl!" while Hestia nosed excitedly at the leather, perhaps scenting long-gone other cat. The stitches stand out like the rivets on a 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic Coupe and I have told myself it's in keeping with punk aesthetic, not to mention kintsugi and tikkun olam. It's the right weather for it.

The mail had brought my contributor's copy of Not One of Us #64, in which my poem "Νυχαυγής" appears in the second half of the two-part issue. The first deals with travel, the second with baggage, and altogether the table of contents is jam-packed with fine work by Jennifer Crow, Pam Bissonette, Phoebe Low, Cate Gardner, Alexandra Seidel, Holly Day, and more. The title of my contribution means night-shining; it is an epithet of Melinoe, the daughter of Persephone and Hades (and Zeus) invoked in magic and the Orphic mysteries. It's autumnal. There are stars in it, too.

The cover and table of contents for Climbing Lightly Through Forests: A Poetry Anthology Honoring Ursula K. Le Guin (ed. R.B. Lemberg and Lisa M. Bradley, Aqueduct Press 2021) have been revealed and look spectacular. I wish I did not have to wait until January for it to come out. The future is such a complicated proposition. We move into it no matter what we do. The doors have closed; it's the new year now. G'mar tov.

Comments

[selkie]

YUP. That jacket.
It's like looking at a memory, but not in that very curated way that social media has made us understand that term; like I'm looking again at something that was immensely formative and highly treasured even in my very faulty brain, but with distance. I guess the distance is the years part.

But goddamn, that jacket. Edit: I have returned to say you should, if your self-esteem needs it, run this up the flagpole of the internet. I think it would be a star for the crown of your good name at this point in 2020.

[sovay]

It's like looking at a memory, but not in that very curated way that social media has made us understand that term; like I'm looking again at something that was immensely formative and highly treasured even in my very faulty brain, but with distance. I guess the distance is the years part.

Seventeen years is frankly ridiculous, but that sounds like the much better kind of memory, if you ask me. Thank you.

Edit: I have returned to say you should, if your self-esteem needs it, run this up the flagpole of the internet. I think it would be a star for the crown of your good name at this point in 2020.

I HOPE YOU NOTICE I TOOK YOUR ADVICE.

*hugs*

[selkie]

Well, that memory turns twenty next year, so it should tell you how perspective-altering it seemed at the time, that I retain it. You had clementines in your pockets. Plural clementines! I could go on, but it's boring to people who aren't me, and some of the rest is shallow.

GOOD YES YOU TOOK MY ADVICE. I HAVE THICK CORRECTIVE LENSES, BUT I AIN'T BLIND, AND I HAVE SERIOUS TASTE.

[sovay]

Well, that memory turns twenty next year, so it should tell you how perspective-altering it seemed at the time, that I retain it.

Look, I wrote a poem about it in grad school.

GOOD YES YOU TOOK MY ADVICE. I HAVE THICK CORRECTIVE LENSES, BUT I AIN'T BLIND, AND I HAVE SERIOUS TASTE.

IT HAS ALREADY BEEN SUGGESTED AS AN AUTHOR PHOTO. YOU ARE AN INFLUENCER.

(Also! We're in the same table of contents! That hasn't happened in ages on account of so many poetry magazines folding up shop and the world preventing everyone from writing as much as they should!)

[selkie]

We are! It’s a really cool thing we somehow managed!
I can’t wait, and also I hope someone corrects my bloody jinxed first name! (I should only, ever, publish under Selkie Surname. All the red has turned white in my hair, but people and computers can spell it.)

You did write a poem about it in grad school, and I have always put it on the pile of Things That Should Be Reprinted More. *makes the forefinger-smallest finger sign against grad schools and all their works*

Also you brought it up below but I am reluctant to splash my charming lack of boundaries on someone else’s thread: the detail and the meaning in that shirt is immense and clearly when you are wearing it I must revise my stringent policy of not gazing at AFAB chests.

[niqaeli]

Awls and leather needles are very much your friend when sewing leather, it's true! I'm glad you've rendered it useful to you again.

[sovay]

Awls and leather needles are very much your friend when sewing leather, it's true! I'm glad you've rendered it useful to you again.

Thank you! I used . . . whatever comes in a bog-standard pocket sewing kit and a lot of stubborness, but I did not stab myself backwards through the thumb and consider it an accomplishment!

(I was equipped by my parents with most of the necessary home repair skills, which I really appreciate, but some of them have gotten a lot more workout than others.)

[kore]

That is a stylin' jacket! And that would make a really great author photo.

[sovay]

That is a stylin' jacket! And that would make a really great author photo.

Thank you! So noted.

It is an Israeli motorcycle jacket which I remember being about twenty-five years old when I acquired it, hence my estimation of its age now. I was really fond of it and really bad at remembering to take it to a tailor's and then this autumn that wasn't an option, so: tikkun olam.

[gwynnega]

I love chopped liver but almost never eat it (because I have to watch my cholesterol). You will just have to eat my portion of it!

The Le Guin tribute anthology looks amazing. I am so looking forward to its publication.

[sovay]

I love chopped liver but almost never eat it (because I have to watch my cholesterol). You will just have to eat my portion of it!

I believe I can throw myself on this grenade!

The Le Guin tribute anthology looks amazing. I am so looking forward to its publication.

I am in a table of contents with so many cool people, including you!

[minoanmiss]

"night-shining"

*makes a note*

[sovay]

*makes a note*

I look forward to seeing what the note turns into.

[minoanmiss]

So far, this.

https://minoanmiss.dreamwidth.org/746211.html

:D

[thisbluespirit]

Another random aside (sorry!) but: https://designyoutrust.com/2020/04/french-world-war-i-soldier-s-bedroom-untouched-for-over-100-years/

Fascinating in the rl world sense and also clearing an S&S Assignment just waiting to happen.

♥

[sovay]

Another random aside (sorry!) but

Why on earth would I mind being informed of something so time-slipped? Please continue to send me random things; they are consistently wonderful.

Fascinating in the rl world sense and also clearing an S&S Assignment just waiting to happen.

Seriously, jeez.

"When you walk into it it's as if time has stood still."

[thisbluespirit]

Why on earth would I mind being informed of something so time-slipped? Please continue to send me random things; they are consistently wonderful.

Oh, I will, I just don't like to ignore the actual content of people's posts but I was tired and thought I might forget if I didn't just do a fly-by link. (So, let me say, I'm glad to hear that you managed to celebrate even if it was all very weird because 2020. ♥)

"When you walk into it it's as if time has stood still."

*cue credits* SAPPHIRE AND STEEL HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED!

[sovay]

Oh, I will, I just don't like to ignore the actual content of people's posts but I was tired and thought I might forget if I didn't just do a fly-by link.

Okay, that's fair and also considerate. (And if you ever write that assignment, I will gleefully read it.)

(So, let me say, I'm glad to hear that you managed to celebrate even if it was all very weird because 2020. ♥)

Thank you.

*hugs*

[thisbluespirit]

I don't know if I ever would, but I added it to my inspirational S&S bookmarks. XD

Anyway, talking of links & S&S, Peter Cushing as Palladium finally made it out of my queue this afternoon: https://thisbluespirit.tumblr.com/post/630608645976096768/original-other-elements-27-palladium

[sovay]

Anyway, talking of links & S&S, Peter Cushing as Palladium finally made it out of my queue this afternoon

Hooray! I shall share him with my internet.

[selidor]

Seems like Melinoe should at the very least find a moon one of these days.

Since everyone else is rightfully noting the excellent jacket, I will squee over the Philae+Rosetta shirt!

[sovay]

Seems like Melinoe should at the very least find a moon one of these days.

Should you come across the opportunity, I am stating for the record that I am very much in favor.

Since everyone else is rightfully noting the excellent jacket, I will squee over the Philae+Rosetta shirt!

Thank you! I've had it since whenever they started making them. I used to wear almost exclusively T-shirts with things on them (including the logos of fictional bands) and then sort of fell out of the habit of acquiring new ones and because of the relentless way I wear clothes my wardrobe eventually began to suffer an inevitable die-off and now I am sort of gravitating toward new T-shirts, or at least I can strongly recommend Crowglass Design's This Queer Heart.

[choco_frosh]

Next time, I can lend you an awl...

[sovay]

Next time, I can lend you an awl...

I didn't know you owned one, but I am unsurprised to hear it. Thank you!

[gaudior]

I said last night that it is very difficult to observe a holiday that is supposed to place you outside of time when time has felt broken for six months and counting.

This is, like, the most accurate. Glad you guys took the time (heh) to do it anyway? Like, I suspect that trying to notice the seasons changing and time passing is good for us, even if I still on some level believe that it is March right now.

[sovay]

This is, like, the most accurate. Glad you guys took the time (heh) to do it anyway?

Thank you! We made a liminal space inside a liminal space!

Like, I suspect that trying to notice the seasons changing and time passing is good for us, even if I still on some level believe that it is March right now.

Same, and seriously.

*hugs*

[sartorias]

That is a terrific jacket. And you're right, stitches would only make it that much more awesome.

[sovay]

That is a terrific jacket. And you're right, stitches would only make it that much more awesome.

Thank you! It was inherited and I treasure it.

[davidgillon]

All hail the leather jacket - and its pockets!

[sovay]

All hail the leather jacket - and its pockets!

Thank you! It does have pockets; they're so great.