winter reading

one of my very favorite things to do is to stack up all the books I plan on reading (a pile always overly ambitious in size) during my winter break (which, this year, is more like an eternal break from school....unless I go to grad school...in the fall....womp womp). Today I was doing that and thinking about all the books I'm excited for this winter (and the many I have already started because I don't have the will-power to just start and finish one at a time) and at the same moment I started thinking of some of my "greatest hits" from last winter break. Without a doubt, one of my favorites was "Never Let Me Go" by Kazou Ishiguro (fun name, right?). The prose is haunting and so is the story-line.

Coincidentally enough, a few nights ago I stumbled upon a poem I'd written in response to that novel last break. There is this part of the story that I just sort of fell in love with - it was an idea the characters had as children about the county of Norfolk, England. They thought it was this land where everything they ever lost would go. They thought that when they were older, they could travel to Norfolk and find what they'd been missing for so long. It is such a beautiful idea, isn't it? That there is some magic place where everything you lose washes up on shore.

So I wrote this poem last winter, sort of in the voice of Kathy, the narrator/protagonist, about Norfolk. I just couldn't get it off my mind!

maybe this will intrigue you to read the book if you haven't already :)

and p.s. always looking for more great book recommendations! so holler if you've got 'em!

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Norfolk

"What was important to us, as Ruth said...was that 'when we lost something precious, and we'd looked and looked and still couldn't find it, then we didn't have to be completely heartbroken. We still had that last bit of comfort, thinking one day, when we were grown up...we could always go and find it again in Norfolk," (66)

Everything I need is there:

the feeling that my skin is real,

blood coursing through

the body that I can keep there,

through a heart I can keep, built

for me and my soul -

my soul is there.

There are seagulls also,

a misty heavy air

you can taste

and so many people

walking somewhere

all knowing they own

themselves.

They wear funny hats.

We'll window-shop-watch-them,

not caring if they care.

Everything I need is there.

You are there

and when I shout Tommy across

the field you'll move

like paint shifting

and deepening

from the brush

until you're standing

and smiling in the salt air.

We'll set up blankets

right against the shore,

making a picnic lunch

next to the water

so we can explore what

washes up:

house keys,

teddy bears,

a hidden stare I gave

you that you lost once.

You can take it back there.

And when the wind is

sharp and tries to undo

us we'll shout no,

we're staying

and show them

if we care.

We'll press

our shoulders

together

like an accident.

I'll hold your chin

in my palm

and hum to you

all afternoon.

We'll talk

and lose everything

by choice this time,

and not too soon.

Sometime later,

I'll try to pray

to lose

the memory of

losing you,

of that afternoon,

and discoveries,

and of the warm salty air -

I'll leave it in Norfolk,

and lose it once

so that it stays

right there.