stonepicnicking_okapi

Views & News: we're all real tired edition

2026-04-15T02:45:54Z

1. Minor leaves on his first trip away from home, 5 days with the chorus in Nashville, at 430 am. I have been rushing around trying to get him ready. When he's finally gone, I'll just collapse.

2. But not completely. I had a new client today and will have another on Thursday and I had a different new client last Friday, all men, all different situations, from mostly independent to hospice care. It's a lot of new things.

3. My client last week had me paint the floor white. That was interesting.

4. Minisculus has gained too much weight per his annual check upand is back on his 'caloric modification' also a lot of parental discussion about sports for next year.

All this to say, it's kind of stressful, even more than usual.

Do you know Fable the raven?

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Music Monday: O What a Beautiful Morning by Ray Charles

2026-04-13T21:04:43Z

This is the best version of this song. Jazz man introduced it to me on Friday.

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Collage Journalling: Monadnock in Early Spring by Amy Lowell

2026-04-10T23:41:50Z

ETA: there's a prompt fest at Spring Renewal if you are into that: https://spring-renewal.dreamwidth.org/

So I went by my public library and they were doing the tiny scrolls of poems for National Poetry Month so I got two (one for me and one for Minisculus who I was taking for his annual check-up) so I had us unroll them at lunch...and they were the same poem! No fair! This one. So I used it in a collage.

Monadnock in Early Spring by Amy Lowell

Cloud-topped and splendid, dominating all
The little lesser hills which compass thee,
Thou standest, bright with April’s buoyancy,
Yet holding Winter in some shaded wall
Of stern, steep rock; and startled by the call
Of Spring, thy trees flush with expectancy
And cast a cloud of crimson, silently,
Above thy snowy crevices where fall
Pale shrivelled oak leaves, while the snow beneath
Melts at their phantom touch. Another year
Is quick with import. Such each year has been.
Unmoved thou watchest all, and all bequeat
Some jewel to thy diadem of power,
Thou pledge of greater majesty unseen.

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Poet's Corner: The Blackened Alphabet by Nikky Finney

2026-04-10T01:52:02Z

The Blackened Alphabet by Nikky Finney

While others sleep
My black skillet sizzles
Alphabets dance and I hit the return key
On my tired But ever jumping eyes
I want more I hold out for some more
While others just now turn over
shut down alarms
I am on I am on
I am pencilfrying
sweet Black alphabets
in an allnight oil

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Word: Choc-a-bloc

2026-04-09T00:37:04Z

Wednesday's word is...

...choc-a-bloc.

1. very full, tightly packed, or crammed together

I found this in my Rebus omnibus.

Yes, we were left a lot of old stuff when we bought this place. The store-rooms were choc-a-block.

What intrigued me was the origin.

The term has nautical origins dating back to the early 19th century. It comes from the combination of "chock", derived from "chock-full" meaning filled to capacity, and "block", referring to the pulleys (blocks) used on ships. When two blocks in a tackle system were hoisted to their maximum, they would jam tightly together, described as being chock-a-block.

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Books

2026-04-08T23:51:34Z

I just finished the audiobook version of Lucasta Miller's Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph and it was really good. Feel free to rec biography or autobiographies of poets.

Also, I DNF the audiobook veresion of something called Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. I thought I would like it but it starts off an abusive marriage, and I just couldn't go on with it. I didn't like Vera Wong that much.

So by accident (to replace it) I came across the audiobook version of Tokyo Express by Seicho Matsumoto. It's a modern Japanese police procedural but so far I am liking it. I REALLY liked it when I realized the narrator was Elanor Matsuura and I said 'Holy shit! That's my girlfriend!' Ha, ha, not my girlfriend, but she had a bit part in the Wonder Woman film as Epione and I wrote one of my few genuine femslashes (Carmilla/Laura, of course, being the other) with her and Epione. Then she reappeared as Hopkins in BBC Sherlock. Anyway, I am liking it.

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News & Views: Nothing much to say edition

2026-04-07T17:31:59Z

1. New client is an architect. Seems to be okay but we'll see. The one issue is that they (he and wife) have never ever had a caregiver so we'll see what they decide to do with me. There is something to be said for jazz man who has had caregivers 3 to 4 times a day every day for years and my Indian lady who grew up with actual servants that they know how to order me around properly. :) I also will try out a new Friday guy. He is hospice. :(

2. Spring break was fine. Easter was fine. The boys are back at school.

3. BTS will have the first concert of their tour on Wednesday. They have dropped much content, which is enjoyable. I have made a new ARMY friend of a long-time commentor on my fic so that's nice.

4. I just finished a biography of Keats, which I will talk about tomorrow. I am also making my way through an Inspector Rebus short story omnibus.

5. This day in jazz tells me it is the birthday of Billie Holliday so have two poems about her. The second one calls to mind the moment in ACD's "The Dying Detective" when Watson reads about the attack on Holmes in the newspaper.

---

Canary by Rita Dove
for Michael S. Harper

Billie Holiday’s burned voice
had as many shadows as lights,
a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano,
the gardenia her signature under that ruined face.

(Now you’re cooking, drummer to bass,
magic spoon, magic needle.
Take all day if you have to
with your mirror and your bracelet of song.)

Fact is, the invention of women under siege
has been to sharpen love in the service of myth.

If you can’t be free, be a mystery.

--

The Day Lady Died by Frank O’Hara

It is 12:20 in New York a Friday
three days after Bastille day, yes
it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine
because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton
at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner
and I don’t know the people who will feed me

I walk up the muggy street beginning to sun
and have a hamburger and a malted and buy
an ugly NEW WORLD WRITING to see what the poets
in Ghana are doing these days

I go on to the bank
and Miss Stillwagon (first name Linda I once heard)
doesn’t even look up my balance for once in her life
and in the GOLDEN GRIFFIN I get a little Verlaine
for Patsy with drawings by Bonnard although I do
think of Hesiod, trans. Richmond Lattimore or
Brendan Behan’s new play or Le Balcon or Les Nègres
of Genet, but I don’t, I stick with Verlaine
after practically going to sleep with quandariness

and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE
Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and
then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue
and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and
casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton
of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it

and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing

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Music Monday: Song for my Father by Horace Silver

2026-04-06T11:21:45Z

A wonderful jazz song that jazz man played for me last week.

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Happy Easter!

2026-04-05T17:34:40Z

Happy Easter to all who celebrate it.

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Book Bingo 2026: April

2026-04-04T17:58:46Z

B-1: Non Fiction: Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. This was recommended by Ryder Carroll, the founder of the Bullet Journal method. I listened to the audiobook version (6 hours, read by the author, who is British). Interesting but too long. The gist is to re-think to-do list and expectations around productivity. It could've been a pamphlet. If I find a text version in the library, I will photocopy the actionable items in the appendix and that might've been enough.

I-1: Main Character Over the Age of 30: The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman. This is the latest installment of the Thursday Murder Club, a group of four residents of a retirement village who solve crimes. I love them. I listened to the audiobook version and loved that too.

N-1: Set in a Country Other Than Your Own: The Black Wolf by Louise Penny. This is the latest in the Inspector Gamache series which is set in Quebec. I listened to the audiobook version. Penny from the previous book (The Grey Wolf) is using a narrator from Quebec and I appreciate the change. This book is a continuation of the previous books, a lot of conspiracy at the highest level of government.

I-4: Female Author: The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) This was for the DW book club. bookclub_dw A horror story which begins with a woman reeling from a husband's infidelity moves to North Carolina and help her ailing uncle with a small town museum of oddities. There's a hole in the wall which leads to a supernatural world.

IF YOU WOULD LIKE THIS BOOK, SEND ME A MESSAGE. I AM GOING TO GET RID OF IT SOON. IT WAS A FUN EASY READ BUT I DON'T NEED TO KEEP IT.

G-5: YA/Children's: The Sherlock Society by James Ponti. This book came to me by way of Minisculus. He won a contest at school and the prize was getting to take this book home. He was nonplussed so he passed it to me. It is a Black-Eyed Susan award winner (which is a prize the State of Maryland gives to children's books) and this copy was signed by the author. A bunch of kids and a grandfather investigate a crime in Miami.

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Poetry & Collage

2026-04-04T13:33:01Z

I didn't get any creativity in yesterday. I was cleaning and decluttering my closet and bedroom so I did a small collage this morning. I am using some rather nice (but tiny!) stickers which came with the PAAS egg dying kit. I am going to do a proper Easter collage with some more. This is done in my smaller 'art' notebook which I haven't used for a long time. Sticking with my rule that five textures make a frame.

And Poetry Foundation tells me today is the birthday of Maya Angelou. Here's their poem of the day.

Awaking in New York by Maya Angelou

Curtains forcing their will
against the wind,
children sleep,
exchanging dreams with
seraphim. The city
drags itself awake on
subway straps; and
I, an alarm, awake as a
rumor of war,
lie stretching into dawn,
unasked and unheeded.

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Poem-a-Day

2026-04-03T21:22:35Z

So there are two poem-a-day systems I know of (there may be others! let me know in the comments!) which send a poem to your inbox in email. I sign up for them in April.

1. From the Academy of American Poets: https://poets.org/poem-a-day

2. From the Poetry Foundation: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/poem-of-the-day

Here's one I got Wednesday

Peonies by Danusha Laméris

What are these strangers
sitting on the table in their ruffled
collars. They open, close, open,
emit the scent of cracked pepper
and honey. Magenta punctuation marks
at which to pause. Pink commas
against the green scrub.
I would trade ten goats for one whiff
of peonies opening in a vase.
An ancient proverb says
you should not let a woodpecker
see you plucking a peony
lest it peck out your eyes.
We are afraid of happiness.
Peonies are to loneliness
what wind is to the trees.
Are they animal? Mineral?
Vegetable? They move
as the sun moves. When I
brought them home
they were dark. Now,
a whisper, balletic tulle.
They are not diminished
even as they turn to smoke.

I know I posted this last year, and the year I made it, but this is still my best poetry-themed collage.

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Poet's Corner: excerpt from Tintern Abbey by Wordsworth

2026-04-02T19:55:10Z

This is a short piece of it which my spiritual guru quoted in a talk I watched recently.

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798 by William Wordsworth

...And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.

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Words & Music

2026-04-02T18:56:32Z

I did not post music on Monday or a word on Wednesday so I am making up for it today.

The words is...epistrophy.

Also known as epistrophe or occasionally antistrophe is a figure of speech in which a word or expression is repeated at the end of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences, often for rhetorical or poetic effect (such as Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address: "…government of the people, by the people, for the people").

And I found it because I look up 'this day in jazz' before I visit jazz man every morning and yesterday the entry was: Trumpeter/bandleader Cootie Williams is the first to record a Thelonious Monk composition, Epistrophy, 1942.

Here's Monk doing it in Paris in 1969.

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Poetry Month: Books on Wiriting Poetry

2026-04-02T02:40:02Z

It's National Poetry Month in the US! Huzzah!

Since I often think of Wednesday as book day on this journal, I am going to mention four books I own about writing poetry with a bias toward metered verse, form, things that rhyme, ha, ha, etc.

What books (or other resources) have you found useful in writing and/or understanding poetry? Please drop recs in the comments.

The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms by Lewis Putnam Turco. This is a very useful dictionary for poetic forms. There's also a helpful section which lists poetic types by the number of lines.

Rules of the Dance: a Handbook for writing and reading metric verse by Mary Oliver. Easy to understand book which covers the basic elements of poetry sound, rhyme, meter, and scansion.

How to be a Poet by Jo Bell and Jane Commane. A collection of essays about the practicality of being a poet in today's world, including the importance of reading poetry, understanding the business of it, career paths, dealing with blocks, harsh realities, moving from an amateur to a professional mindset.

52: Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going. by Jo Bell. A set of weekly prompts for a year with examples. I started two years ago and stopped at 30. I hope to pick it back up one day.

The other book which is very good which I don't own is:

The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by E. Boland and M. Strand. It goes into more depth about smaller subset of forms: villanelle, pantoum, sonnet, etc.

---

And to start us off how about some Dorothy Parker? I like this part: The sweet transparency of glass /
The tenderness of April grass.

A Fairly Sad Tale By Dorothy Parker

I think that I shall never know
Why I am thus, and I am so.
Around me, other girls inspire
In men the rush and roar of fire.
The sweet transparency of glass,
The tenderness of April grass,
The durability of granite;
But me—I don't know how to plan it.
The lads I've met in Cupid's deadlock
Were—shall we say?—born out of wedlock.
They broke my heart, they stilled my song,
And said they had to run along,
Explaining, so to sop my tears,
First came their parents or careers.
But ever does experience
Deny me wisdom, calm, and sense!
Though she's a fool who seeks to capture
The twenty-first fine, careless rapture,
I must go on, till ends my rope,
Who from my birth was cursed with hope.
A heart in half is chaste, archaic;
But mine resembles a mosaic—
The thing's become ridiculous!
Why am I so? Why am I thus?

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Happy April!

2026-04-02T02:18:29Z

Wishing everyone a lovely April!

A simple card to mail to air force guy for Easter.

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The State of the Ficcery: March 2026

2026-04-01T01:57:54Z

I feel rather...untethered. Unmoored. A little anxious. A little depressed. A little tired. A little bit hyper-fixated. A little bit distracted. I have been thinking about routines and their importance (and limitations). And about the nature of discipline, will power, and all of those things, habits. Mindfulness (or lack of it). I forgot to do some regular things I do (like Music Monday!) and it's spring break so the boys are home and I'm still down work hours. I've been eating a lot of raw cookie dough, which is a bad sign.

Word Count: 14,128

It's just two updates of my BTS soap opera. I haven't done any other writing this month. No fills for any comms. Sadness. April is National Poetry Month and I have a horrible feeling I will not be doing it justice this year. I can blame the state of the world but it isn't just that.

Reading: 7 books, which is not bad actually.

Crafting: Only one spread and four cards.

Health & Fitness: I did manage some of the workouts of my new program, but I can't seem to convince myself to do the calorie tracking. I got a year subscription to MyFitnessPal so I could do the barcode scanning. and make it easy on myself, but I am not using it at all. I did manage 16 days of Yoga with Adriene and 3 days of jogging a week. I feel like stretching needs to be a non-negotiable daily thing because when I don't do it, even for a day, I have a tendency to skin back into feeling like shit.

Personal: April is Minor's birthday which means...he's fifteen...which means...learner's permit (driving!!!) And he's going away on his first overnight school trip ever. Gosh. It's going to be a lot.

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Into the Void: Baby not Baby no more edition

2026-03-26T21:26:53Z

Today, my baby turns 11! Happy birthday Minisculus!

1. I need to make the cake. Now. [Edited to add: it's in the oven now]

2. The other big thing is that BTS dropped their new album Arirang. The seven have finished their military service obligation and are getting ready to go on a world tour. They performed a one-hour showcase of the new songs in a historic square in Seoul and now are making the rounds doing promotions.

I like the album more and more as I listen to it. I am so glad I got the Netflix. I think I have watched the showcase at least 10 times (more in bits and pieces) since it aired live on Saturday morning. I pre-ordered a version of the album and it came but I wasn't entirely smitten with my photocards so I ordered a different version of the album today which comes with STICKERS (very important) and photocards I think I am going to like more. For ARMY reading this, I got the simple Rooted in Music version and the other version I ordered today is Living Legends. Needless to say, I did not tell the boys' father I ordered another version of the same album. These are the secrets which keep a marriage strong. I am looking forward to bethctg visiting in August and going to the concert when they come here. RM seems to be recovering from his sprained ankle and I hope the boys stay healthy and strong for the long journey ahead. They performed at the Guggenheim in NYC which was very nice, elegant, classy. I will be posting videos and fan cams as we go along. They did a Spotify event in NYC and were looking very good, more fuck boy style.

So when I was a nurse in the nursing home a long time ago, there was a resident who was a fan of Prince and she had a little VCR and watched Prince videos (concerts, Purple Rain, etc) day and night and I always thought it was a bit bizarre but I will be her one day with my BTS videos.

3. So air force guy moved two weeks ago and I have been filling in here and there at work, picking up shifts when regulars go on vacation or call out. I had a VERY stressful lady last week. I had a quiet guy yesterday. I am supposed to start a regular next Wednesday. I still have jazz man and my Indian lady as regulars.

4. Minor is doing track and chorus. Minisculus is doing soccer and gaming.

5. I am reading The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher. I am listening to Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals read by the author Oliver Burkeman. Stil trying to get through the contemporary black poetry anthology This is Honey.

6. I watched The Glass Onion (Knives Out) and loved it. This is my kind of film. I really loved Brick, too, back in the day.

Here is a fan cam of the Spotify event:

5. No weight loss. Sigh.

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Word: Theremin

2026-03-26T18:31:51Z

Wednesday's word is a day late...

...theremin.

a purely melodic electronic musical instrument typically played by moving the hands in the electromagnetic fields surrounding two projecting antennae.

---

I read this in The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher which is this months's book over at the DW bookclub_dw:

...All that buildup and it didn't even make a noise. I don't know what noise I wanted it to make. Glorp or some kinda theremin shit.

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Poet's Corner: The Black Girl Comes to Dinner by Taylor Byas

2026-03-26T17:58:52Z

The Black Girl Comes To Dinner by Taylor Byas

We drive into the belly of Alabama,
where God tweezed the highway’s two lanes
down to one, where my stomach
bottoms out on each brakeless fall.

Where God tweezed the highway’s two lanes
with heat, a mirage of water shimmers into view then
bottoms out. On each brakeless fall,
I almost tell you what I’m thinking, my mouth brimming

with heat. A mirage of water shimmers into view then
disappears beneath your tires.
I almost tell you what I’m thinking, my mouth brimming
with blues. Muddy Waters’ croon

disappears beneath your tires.
I want to say I’m nervous beneath a sky brilliant
with blues. Muddy Waters’ croon,
the only loving I’m willing to feel right now, the only loving

I want. To say I’m nervous beneath a sky brilliant
enough to keep me safe means to face what night brings.
The only loving I’m willing to feel right now, the only loving
that will calm me—I need you to tell me I am

enough. To keep me safe means to face what night brings
to the black girl in a sundown town—
that will calm me. I need you to tell me I am
safe. That they will love me, that the night will not gift fire

to the black girl in a sundown town.
Your grandmother folds me into her arms and I try to feel
safe. That they will love me, that the night will not gift fire
are mantras to repeat as

your grandmother folds me into her arms. And I try to feel
grateful. But get home before it’s too late and watch out for the flags
are mantras to repeat as
we drive into the belly of Alabama.

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Music Monday: Electric Green by Kim Richey

2026-03-23T21:31:32Z

Thank you to my friends for the recs of songs with green in the title (green is the low-key theme for March here in okapi-land).

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Poet's Corner: The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes & Beloved...by Elizabeth Acevedo

2026-03-19T15:02:59Z

The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway. . . .
He did a lazy sway. . . .
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!

( Read more... )

Beloved, Or If You Are Murdered Tomorrow by Elizabeth Acevedo

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Word: Egregore

2026-03-18T19:27:55Z

Wednesday's word is...

...egregore

An egregore is a non-physical entity or thought-form created and sustained by the collective thoughts, emotions, and attention of a group of people.

Origins and Etymology

The term "egregore" comes from the French égrégore, derived from the Ancient Greek egrēgoros, meaning "wakeful" or "watcher". Historically, it referred to angelic beings known as "watchers" in the apocryphal Book of Enoch. In modern esoteric and occult traditions, the term evolved to describe a collective psychic or spiritual entity generated by the shared focus of a group.

An egregore is not merely symbolic; it is considered to have a form of independent existence, influencing the thoughts, behaviors, and emotions of the group that created it. It can arise intentionally, through rituals or focused visualization, or unintentionally, through repeated collective attention. The more energy, devotion, or attention a group invests, the stronger and more autonomous the egregore becomes.

--

I found this in this YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsvMrDldOpQ

The Patriarchy's Secret Weakness | Why Withdrawal Works with the summary: Patriarchy is not just a system of laws. It is a ghost we keep alive by feeding it. In this video, I explore the concept of patriarchy as a "Stealth Egregore"—a self-sustaining psychological pattern that survives not through our consent, but through our compliance

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Views & News Day: Luck o' the Irish edition

2026-03-17T22:57:19Z

1. Good things first: I updated my soap opera today. I got a lovely Saint Patrick's Day card from dine.

2. I went running today at the lake, but it was FREEZING and my time was as slow as the first of the year. :( On Sunday, I picked up Minor's prescriptions, three of them were $5 each and the epi pen was...$560! I didn't get it. I asked the doctor to send it to another pharmacy and will use a Good Rx coupon to try to get down to something more reasonable. Epi pen. Like the thing that prevents ANAPHYLAXIS. American healthcare, ladies and gentlemen.

And the boys' father changed our insurance. So we used to pay $50 for specialist visits, but now Minor's 20-minute visit to the allergist was...$311. I feel like I need a lie down and a cold compress and smelling salts every time I get a healthcare bill these days.

3. I had an awkward conversation at dinner last night and I came to realize that I have no idea how Minor's brain works, and after a long, long discussion trying to understand, many questions trying to tease out his logic, I still don't understand him. And he said some hurtful things among other things, I am 'a character' to him. :( I wish I were a character in my own fanfic! What a wonderful world that would be.

4. I have a new lady client on Thursday and Friday. We'll see how it goes.

5. Diet isn't working. I am trying to track my calories but failing. I got a year subscription to My Fitness Pal app so I can just scan the barcodes but I am not doing a good job of keeping up with it. The good thing about the diet is I have access to a web portal with Monday, Wednesday, Friday new 20 minute workouts with the Australian/New Zealand young lady screeching at you (not the British lady with the beautiful wife who runs the programme) and it is strangely motivating to do it and finish so she can rest her voice.

6. I got the Netflix (for BTS comback!) and watched Kpop Demon Hunters. It was okay. It was a bit too close to home at the portrayal of kpop fans for me. I feel SEEN and I don't want to be SEEN. But I didn't mind them poking fun at the 6-pack abs phenomenon among kpop idols.

My favorite Irish YTer:

I blatantly stole this from dine:

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Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

2026-03-17T10:51:19Z

May the luck of the Irish be with everyone today! Thank you to dine for the fun card.

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