#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Inside/Outside

Excerpt from Bernadette Mayer, “Midwinter Day”

Up early to see the storm happening. And, of course, go be in it. On my cross country skis. With my dogs. I went out early to lay my tracks. I thought the wind would likely pick up later on. Decided to stay on our property and make my tracks near home. Snowing heavily. Not as cold as you might think, and I bundled up. The river soft in the middle. Didn’t go on it, skied along it. Across the field. Staying in the open places. Hard to get a picture with my poles and the heavy snow blurring everything. I stayed out for quite awhile. Frank checked on me twice which was nice. I kept thinking about how my father would be tackling the driveway with his snowblower from dawn on, in and out, pacing it, staying with it, not letting the snow get the better of him, and my mother inside wishing he would come in and warm up. I went in and warmed up and let Frank do the shovelling because my back is finally better after tweaking it a week ago. Went into my office, felt the coziness of the closed in feeling as the snow made a curtain outside the windows. Did some poem revision and wrote a blog for the Journal of Expressive Writing about the Open Mic I’m hosting Wednesday night with Laura Davis as our feature, with her new memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars. Woke from a dream this morning that she came to meet me in my childhood bedroom so we could prep for her feature. Felt like I was meeting a soul mate. A sad phone call today to learn about the passing of a dear family friend of over fifty years. My older brother called me with the news and we called his wife with our condolences. I will never ever return now to New Mexico and not miss my dear Max. Someone so big from my childhood––gone.