the books are still free agents
Today's xkcd tickled me, not just because it includes the neighborhood I grew up in (Ozone Park!) but because I would love to be able to take the 1,2,3 to Boston or San Juan (though the latter would require a submarine interlude).
In other news, after I spoke with a lawyer last week, I sent a sternly worded letter to the management company (I felt it was combative, but you know, that is why I am not a lawyer; I enjoy arguing with people I know, but I dislike confrontation intensely, but I was assured by numerous folk, both online and off, that this was in fact what they were expecting, so I did it) and I received a letter in return that drops the amount they wish to collect by $1800 and increases the rent in six month stages rather than all in one go, so it seems to have been a relatively successful ploy (relatively, because I'm still going to be priced out of the apartment, but it might take an extra six months to happen). I'm waiting to hear from the lawyer now what the next step should be. At least the initial panic has subsided somewhat, and hopefully I will be able to devote some brain function to thinking about other things again.
On that note, today's poem:
Rent
If you want my apartment, sleep in it
but let's have a clear understanding:
the books are still free agents.
If the rocking chair's arms surround you
they can also let you go,
they can shape the air like a body.
I don't want your rent, I want
a radiance of attention
like the candle's flame when we eat,
I mean a kind of awe
attending the spaces between us--
Not a roof but a field of stars.
~Jane Cooper
***
People occasionally ask me where I find the poems I post, and it's fairly simple - I have a bunch of literary journals bookmarked (though I haven't cleared out dead links in a while; hmmm...that is a project I should probably undertake soon), I have a couple of poetry comms on my flist, and I copy down poems I like when other people post them, so I have a word document that's about 400 pages long just of poetry. And when I post one, I move it from there to a document that's about 300 pages long that is of poetry I've posted so I can keep track, though I will repeat poems I especially like or that seem apt or that have inspired a story.
which is way more than anyone could possibly be interested in about my poetry posting habits, but there it is.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/558337.html.
people have commented there.
In other news, after I spoke with a lawyer last week, I sent a sternly worded letter to the management company (I felt it was combative, but you know, that is why I am not a lawyer; I enjoy arguing with people I know, but I dislike confrontation intensely, but I was assured by numerous folk, both online and off, that this was in fact what they were expecting, so I did it) and I received a letter in return that drops the amount they wish to collect by $1800 and increases the rent in six month stages rather than all in one go, so it seems to have been a relatively successful ploy (relatively, because I'm still going to be priced out of the apartment, but it might take an extra six months to happen). I'm waiting to hear from the lawyer now what the next step should be. At least the initial panic has subsided somewhat, and hopefully I will be able to devote some brain function to thinking about other things again.
On that note, today's poem:
Rent
If you want my apartment, sleep in it
but let's have a clear understanding:
the books are still free agents.
If the rocking chair's arms surround you
they can also let you go,
they can shape the air like a body.
I don't want your rent, I want
a radiance of attention
like the candle's flame when we eat,
I mean a kind of awe
attending the spaces between us--
Not a roof but a field of stars.
~Jane Cooper
***
People occasionally ask me where I find the poems I post, and it's fairly simple - I have a bunch of literary journals bookmarked (though I haven't cleared out dead links in a while; hmmm...that is a project I should probably undertake soon), I have a couple of poetry comms on my flist, and I copy down poems I like when other people post them, so I have a word document that's about 400 pages long just of poetry. And when I post one, I move it from there to a document that's about 300 pages long that is of poetry I've posted so I can keep track, though I will repeat poems I especially like or that seem apt or that have inspired a story.
which is way more than anyone could possibly be interested in about my poetry posting habits, but there it is.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/558337.html.
people have commented there.