I KIND OF hate it when people claim that they turn to poetry for comfort, but lately I've found myself doing that. I recently pulled an anthology from our shelves called A Green Place, a collection of "modern poems" compiled by William Jay Smith. It was a gift to my parents years ago from our good friend Gail Lockman, a children's librarian who introduced me to many of the books I still love today. I always thought this book was meant for children, since the poems seem so "accessible," but reading the introduction now, there's no mention of this at all. Instead, Smith writes that the collection is meant to evoke a place that is "eternally green, made up of parts of our world, but wholly new and different."

I thought I'd try reading some of these poems to Michaela as part of our bedtime routine, but reading to her felt more like reading at her. Also, as I flipped through the book trying to find the perfect poem to get her to love poetry as much as I do, I kept getting sucked in, remembering all the poems I used to love when I was young, and she would rightfully lose patience with me. That said, she did like the poems that play with words, or are a riddle, such as this one by Mary Austin:

I come more softly than a bird / And lovely as a flower; / I sometimes last from year to year / And sometimes but an hour.

I stop the swiftest railroad train / Or break the stoutest tree. / And yet I am afraid of fire / And children play with me.

(If you correctly guess the answer to the poem, which also happens to be its title, I will telepathically send you a high five!)

Anyway what struck me in rereading this collection is how comforting the poems are not because they are about anything in particular but just because they are such a joy to read. Like The Centaur, by May Swenson, about a ten-year-old girl pretending to be both a "horse and the rider." I don't think there's any hidden meaning to it. It's just about being a kid and being free.

In other news, we've started The American Revolution. The celebrity voice cameos are a little distracting. The show is excellent, though. Parts of it are so familiar you could probably recite them along with the narrator (84-year-old Peter Coyote). Other parts are not at all familiar, but make total sense. Like George Washington being a slaveholder and also petty? This was the first US president? Actually of course.

George Washington, whew, what a complicated dude.

This quote from The American Revolution's first episode really struck me in light of all that is happening now. When a government feels free to fire on its own people . . . yup, it causes an outrage.

Three Things Keeping Me Going This Week

1. Speaking of getting back into poetry, I am in a group that is reading Bernadette Mayer's Midwinter Day out loud. I love listening to people read poetry out loud because so much of understanding and enjoying poetry derives from the musicality of the language. This line in particular is one I could see as a potential tattoo:

"An idea I have is to spend days walking nights writing never eating, sleep only when it rains and have an occasional beer."

2. Tim Meadows's instagram feed documenting his life as a cat dad brings me much happiness.
3. Staying with the poetry theme: U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis read Carl Sandburg's 1914 poem "Chicago" out loud just before she ruled to restrict ICE agents use of force. To usher in the new year, "with a rush of civic pride going into this weekend’s Bears playoffs," WBEZ recorded the poem read aloud by broadcaster Bill Kurtis, Mayor Brandon Johnson, emcee Sir Michael Rocks of the Cool Kids, The House on Mango Street author Sandra Cisneros, Congressman Danny Davis, Bears tight end Colston Loveland and WBEZ host Mary Dixon.

This Week in Mushroom News

A design exhibition inspired by fungi!

In this show, fungi are not passive building materials, but rather anarchic co-designers – unconscious and uncontrollable – of a world that can only exist through alliances between humans and other living things.

Thank you, Friend of Mushroom Head Sarah Herda, for the tip!

xo,

Claire

Thank you for reading! I started writing Mushroom Head because I was getting sick of using social media to keep tabs on friends and family and wanted a more direct (and unmediated) way of keeping in touch. It's more or less a blog, a record of things going on in my life and also some comics. If you like Mushroom Head, please consider leaving me a tip, or share it with a friend. If you'd like to get in touch with me, please feel free to respond directly to this email. I'm always happy to hear from you! (Also, you might want to put the Mushroom Head email address into your contacts to avoid having it go to your junk folder.) And if someone forwarded this email to you, I hope you will subscribe, because you are welcome here! Unless you are a bot. In that case, boo, please go away.