Year of the Phoenix | Pursuing Parallels

One of things I used to love to do, was use Mercury Retrograde to dive back into the books I love. I would have the dates marked in my diary and a list of books to chose from (along with knowing exactly where they were on the shelf!)

In the last few years, with chronic depression, insomnia and disenchantment with myself and the world at large, it was one of those time-loved activities that was mothballed, less as an active choice and more as ambivalence-in-motion. You have to care enough to make the effort and I just didn’t care any more.

Mercury turns retrograde today, and yesterday (as it stationed) I went on a mission to assemble a feast of reading for the next three weeks. With the exception of The Passion (which I first read in October 2015) these are books I have not picked up since life imploded in 2013. It would have been much longer.

Yet another small activity that joyfully points that the tide has turned and I’m living on the verge of thriving again, rather than just surviving.

I’m beginning with The Time Traveler’s Wife (which I had to go and buy as an ebook because my papercopy cannot be found?) I’m not sure where I will go from there. Probably The Red Tent. And so on. And so forth.

Do you re-read books? If so, what are books are on that list? What one will you pledge to pick up and read in the next three weeks?

Four years ago, while we were writing Post Marked: Piper’s Reach, I dared Adam to write a bad poem every day in February. Adam dared back – the poem had to fit on a post-it note. Post-It Note Poetry was born as a monthly adventure. From humble beginnings in 2013, Post It Note Poetry has grown, and now commands international participation and the generous stewardship and curation of S.B. (Sean) Wright. (A big wave to our friends at Hartlepool Libraries in the UK!)

2013

The participation guidelines are pretty simple:

commit to producing a poem daily in the month of February.
give yourself permission to write as well, or as badly, as suits.
poems must fit on a post-it note (they come in a variety of sizes and there are various apps and program that will emulate a post-it note or found poetry techniques of a suitable size).
photograph or screen capture the poem.
post to social media with the hashtage #pinp17.
get involved by sharing the poetry of other participants via your favourite social media platform or by joining the FaceBook community.

2014

Follow @seandblogonaut or @jodicleghorn to keep abreast of what’s going on during the month. Sean has a dedicated Twitter timeline for it.

2015

In 2016 I was able to test drive my poem squares for #pinp16. I’ll be pushing the boundaries again with #pinp17 to create a basis for a new project I’ll be launching in the next few weeks. I’ll be posting pics here every few days, but Instagram will be my main haunt.