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This one is called, “Love Heals Japan.”

Praise:  Many thanks to “New Pages” for sharing the word!

Peace: I am blessed to walk the long way around our little campus just to mingle with jasmine-soaked wind.  I think God is in the wind: the Holy Spirit.

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Prayer: Healing for a man’s eyes,  a woman who awaits birth (sent me a sonogram), and a woman who waits for a miracle.

Yes, this Penguin anthology is coming to bookstores in September… and I’m in it for the first time, thanks to the two wonderful Philips – much gratitude to Philip and Philip for their generosity! 

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Prayer: Psalm 150…”Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”

Overheard at the hairdresser’s this weekend, one Nepalese esthetician said to her younger sister, a Nepalese cosmetologist (no, I don’t know the difference between an esthetician and a cosmetologist: I only know their titles from reading the licenses on the wall.  I do know the difference between a cosmetologist and a cosmologist, will give myself credit for that) –

“The doctor said I can’t have any sugar.”

“What can you eat, then?” (Clicking noises for sympathy.)

“No rice… no potatoes… no corn, especially not corn, the doctor said, and no tortillas… no fruit… no oranges, no strawberries, no pineapples… if I have an apple, only half… no juice… no cookies… no sodas… no cupcakes…. no pancakes… nothing.”

My kind & patient hairdresser, a self-described “African woman in a Mexican mujer/cuerpo” b/c her great-grandmother was an African woman from Africa who lived in Mexico and married a Mexican, echoed, “¡Eh!  What can you eat?”

“Spicy peanuts.  I can eat spicy peanuts.” 

Cacahuates picante!  Ah, the little graces in our lives.  I actually think a Nepalese diet would be a vast improvement (smoked fish, black soybeans, pumpkin vine tips, lentils) over traditional American fare, but I also understand love for cakes.

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Prayer: For the women in my neighborhood who see me at the market or hairdresser & ask if I’m Filipina, or Vietnamese, or Thai, or Japanese, and I wish my response were all of the above y la Mexicana. 

When the women ask me what I do for a living, I say, soy maestra. 

I am a teacher.

“There were feathers and the light that passed through feathers.
There were birds that made the feathers and the sun that made the light.
The feathers of the birds made the air soft, softer
than the quiet in a cocoon waiting for wings…”

from “A Book Said Dream and I Do”
by Barbara Ras

From morning until late afternoon, I sat under a grapefruit tree reading psalms… one after another… until rust-colored hummingbirds shrieked at me in hummingbird language: “Eeeeeee!” 

I wasn’t even reading aloud.

The last time I presented a threat to hummingbirds, I was using my power drill to uproot an old satellite dish my association deemed unsightly.  

How do you say, “Peace. I mean no harm,” in hummingbird language? 

My little English department sponsored a regional conference, where I enjoyed fellowshipping with over 90 attendees.  We hosted 25 panel sessions with approximately 75 presenters.  “Just add mini-cheesecakes, fresh fruit, and cucumber sandwiches,” I said. ”Presto! Now we have instant Bloomsbury… within budget.”    

So, all that’s left for the rest of the semester are registration week, two annual assessment meetings, one assessment report, one action plan for next year, a smattering of committee work with “next steps,” one year-end internal budget review, appreciations to the adjunct instructors, capstone portfolios to evaluate, papers to grade, final catalog edits, one survey monkey (pas de jokes ’bout survey zebras or survey giraffes or survey elephants, s’il vous plaît), and other quixotic miscellania.   

God will carve out quiet spaces for me to review my notes for a lecture at Cal State and a reading at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, both later this month. 

None of this goes forward without prayer… we are nothing without grace.

*

I had fallen
asleep in the sunlit
room    the only sunny
room in the house

and I dreamed
you were talking:
Well, and don’t
you see, your voice

rising as in clear
discovery    (Fact
is the sweetest
dream)     your hands

in transport    to drape a large
book    an atlas
its jacket as an ocean
several pages

–from Restoration (TriQuarterly Books 2008)
               by Christina Pugh

This afternoon, we discussed feminist perspectives on “The Lady of Shalott” by Tennyson in my British Literature Survey course.  We ended partly by surmising what Aurora Leigh (of the eponymous poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning) and the Lady might say to one another.  Needless to say, lots of great insights from students who continually inspire me!

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“Portrait of the Transnational Woman Warrior as a Young Korean Woman” is the title of a paper I’ll present at Columbia College Chicago after Spring Break. 

The conference includes a guided tour of the Chicago Cultural Center to view an exhibition, “Off the Beaten Path: Violence, Women, & Art,” addressing violence against women. The exhibit includes work by Yoko Ono – who isn’t just “John Lennon’s widow,” et cetera – although that she certainly is, but an artist, poet, and musician in her own right, too.

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Prayer: For women everywhere… past, present, and future.

Update on Los Angeles adventures… If you plan to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in late April, I’ll be reading from my latest works, with gratitude to Elena and Ann for organizing the Poetry Stage at this annual event. 

A partial list of L.A. Times Festival of Books appears below from the “L” section of their line-up.  There will be an appearance by the adorable celebrity puppet, “Lamb Chop!!”   

Jessica Hagedorn, Karen Tei Yamashita, Elena Karina Byrne, and Yiyun Li will participate, too, as will my new poet-friend Teresa Chuc (representing New Poets of the American West) and actress Jamie Lee Curtis, who writes children’s books.   

• David Lauter
• Karen An-Hwei Lee
• Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
• Dinah Lenney
• Edan Lepucki
• Jonathan Lethem
• Adam Levin
• Josh Lewis
• Mallory Lewis & Lamb Chop
• Yiyun Li 

I’ll also read & lecture at California State University, Fullerton on Thursday, April 28 as a featured speaker for National Poetry Month and Asian Pacific Heritage Month.  Many thanks to Jie & her colleagues for organizing the event – so efficient, courteous & poetry-friendly!

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Prayer:  Gratitude for open doors to share….what?  Love?  “Connectedness?”  Community?  A listening heart or hearts?  Dialogue?

All of the above, I s’pose, and more…….