You don't have to go home in a straight line

[sovay]

My poem "Atque in Perpetuum" has been accepted by Not One of Us. It's not based on the dream I had a year ago about Catullus' brother, but it is addressed to him. It's another ghost poem. At a very bad point on Thursday, I almost posted, "I need to learn how to stop being a dybbuk." I'm wondering if this is how I'm doing it.

It is clear fall outside, cloudless. I fell asleep sometime after sunrise, having watched half a dozen episodes of Gravity Falls (2012) with derspatchel and talked until the light came in with leaf-shadows through the windows. I woke up with a cat on my feet. The last few days have been very good.

L'shanah tovah, all.

Comments

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

My poem "Atque in Perpetuum" has been accepted by Not One of Us.

Congrats!!

"I need to learn how to stop being a dybbuk."
Ikh darf dikh fregn - far vus?

[sovay]

Congrats!!

Thank you!

Ikh darf dikh fregn - far vus?

Ikh vel a blitspost dir shraybn.

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

I smell a ghost chapbook in the making.

Ikh vel a blitspost dir shraybn.
Ikh vel vartn!

A zisn yur :) :)

(I should be offline already... ehh. Perhaps destined to become a dybbuk. Oh, btw, that was an endearment in my family for little girls - a dybykl.)

[sovay]

A zisn yur

Du oykh!

Oh, btw, that was an endearment in my family for little girls - a dybykl.

I didn't know. I like that.

[sovay]

I smell a ghost chapbook in the making.

There are something like eighteen by this point, if you don't think it would be too repetitive. I've been thinking of them as Ghost Signs.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

U l'chiy! (He says, misspelling it.)

[sovay]

U l'chiy! (He says, misspelling it.)

Eh, thanks.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Whoo hoo on the poem; sorry about the sleepless night. We've had a lot of sleeplessness going on around here, annoyingly. And I swear I'm going to respond to your email about ...Suddenly soon.

[sovay]

Whoo hoo on the poem; sorry about the sleepless night.

Thank you! It was actually the good kind of sleepless, for once: we'd have slept sooner if we'd stopped talking.

We've had a lot of sleeplessness going on around here, annoyingly.

Bah. I hope that gets better.

And I swear I'm going to respond to your email about ...Suddenly soon.

No pressure. It should probably go in a post anyway. This week has been full of things I haven't written up.

[three-magpies.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

A happy and sweet new year to you also!

[sovay]

Congratulations!

Thank you!

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

What is a dybbuk?

(Well, I googled it, but I think your definition will be more interesting.)

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

This popped unbidden into my head when I read your comment, and it is totally unqualified and unasked for, but -

A dybbuk sits between memory and the dead and puts its fingers on the living.

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

As one who dreams/writes about the dead and ghosts very often herself, this makes a lot of sense.

[sovay]

A dybbuk sits between memory and the dead and puts its fingers on the living.

All right, next poem's yours.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Deal.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

A dybbuk sits between memory and the dead and puts its fingers on the living.

Very well said.

[rose-lemberg.livejournal.com]

A dybbuk is a restless soul tormented in the afterlife and unable to escape unless it finds a living soul and clings to it (=dybbuk from Heb. lidvok, to cling or stick) in hopes of being redeemed in this world so it can ascend to heaven.

Stories, of course, vary. Queer people often become dybbukim.

[sovay]

(Well, I googled it, but I think your definition will be more interesting.)

I'd have answered if my comments notification hadn't been completely borked!

Read this story.

[ajodasso.livejournal.com]

Link noted; sorry for the lag-time. I'll read it first thing in the morning!

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on the poetry sale.

And a happy new year to you.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poetry sale.

Thank you. Catullus has been important to me for years; it isn't a direct engagement, but it draws on his work.

[gwynnega]

I love Catullus.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed that poem a lot. Congratulations!

Sleeplessness visited the Eburg/Amundsen house last night. It was not welcome.

I am glad the last few days have been good.

[sovay]

Congratulations!

Thank you! Now send something to the magazine yourself!

Sleeplessness visited the Eburg/Amundsen house last night. It was not welcome.

I began to wonder years ago if I knew a single person with a straightforward relationship to sleep. I think the answer was no.

I am glad the last few days have been good.

It's been really nice.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The forest creatures are all very interested in Gravity Falls these days. And how lovely to let the sunrise be your lullaby.

Congrats on the poem, too!

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

A sweet and happy new year to you. May it go on as this one ended, in joy.

Nine

[sovay]

May it go on as this one ended, in joy.

Thank you.

[sovay]

The forest creatures are all very interested in Gravity Falls these days.

I'd never heard of it before derspatchel showed me the first two episodes yesterday, before the housewarming party we went to in the evening. I had the same jolt of delight and amazement as the first time I saw Avatar: The Last Airbender: it started impressively (especially for children's television!) and then it just kept getting better, not to mention weirder, funnier, and in the case of that four-handed flying dolphin-mouthed hallucination, WTF. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season and whatever happens next. One of the episode titles looks like there will be time travel.

Congrats on the poem, too!

Thank you!

[mrbelm.livejournal.com]

Gravity Falls rules.

And yup, time travel.

[sovay]

And yup, time travel.

Sweet.

I am actively looking forward to the rest of this show. I don't have this experience often!

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the poem.
Happy New Year!

[sovay]

Congrats on the poem.

Thank you!

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

L'shana tovah, and congratulations on the poem being accepted. (Really, I should congratulate you every time, but I'm shy and think I'd get too repetitive. Sorry about that)

[sovay]

L'shana tovah, and congratulations on the poem being accepted.

Thank you!

(Really, I should congratulate you every time, but I'm shy and think I'd get too repetitive. Sorry about that)

Neh. I appreciate it as part of the New Year's wish!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I'm glad that poem is accepted. It's a wonderful one.

I'm wondering if this is how I'm doing it.

If it works, I hope it is.

The last few days have been very good.

I'm glad for this.

L'shanah tovah! I hope this will be a very sweet new year for you.

[sovay]

If it works, I hope it is.

Art might as well do something.

L'shanah tovah! I hope this will be a very sweet new year for you.

Thank you. Signs are good.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Well done. May the New Year be joyful.

[sovay]

Well done. May the New Year be joyful.

Thank you. And yours.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

I think, for once, you have enough to draw you back from becoming a dybbuk. Not just the various threads that would tug at your limbs; enough of a spark of your own to get you through autumn.

At least, that's my wish. Happy new year. And please do cold-ship me some of that apricot fool.

[sovay]

At least, that's my wish. Happy new year.

Thank you. I like to think you know whereof you speak.

And please do cold-ship me some of that apricot fool.

I heard nineweaving ate the last of it, but the recipe is very simple . . .

[selidor]

Excellent.

(How many ghosts make a ghost chapbook?)

[sovay]

Excellent.

Thank you.

(How many ghosts make a ghost chapbook?)

I seem to have about twenty. Most of them written this year.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

L'shana tova u'bracha.

Congratulations on another well deserved poem placement!

Appropos of At a very bad point on Thursday, I almost posted, "I need to learn how to stop being a dybbuk." I'm wondering if this is how I'm doing it.

I dreamed on Rosh Ha'shannah that I was being asked to host the annotated TV anthology series of The Dybbuk. I was attempting to decline on the basis on not having the appropriate piano, but they provided me with a baby grand, a blue spotlight and a cave, so I was then in a position to accept. Dream life is weirder than real life, if only by a fractional margin.

It occurs to me now that I ought to have called and asked if you wanted to co-host.

[sovay]

Congratulations on another well deserved poem placement!

Thank you!

It occurs to me now that I ought to have called and asked if you wanted to co-host.

If anyone ever makes the offer: hell, yes.

L'shanah tovah!