At a quarter to four
The last clouds passed
But far from you
Like a migrating bird
My heart lies
Sleeping in the rain
With its head
Tucked under a wing
Dreaming of a warmer place.

Is there anything more sacred
Than 300 curlews sleeping
In the mid-day winter sun?
On a sandbar they lie,
At the edge of the bay,
Their long, curved beaks,
Tucked under a wing,
A rising wind,
A rolling swell,
Now soaring high,
One flock dreaming.

Call the Nestle Crunch Hotline at 1-800-295-0051

I know I have not had the virtual presence I once had so I am now having my call center handle some aspects of my social life.

It is hard to believe that Ferlinghetti is about to turn 90. I first saw him in the mid-80s with Jacqui at a poetry reading to benefit the United Farm Workers at the Museum of Natural History in Santa Barbara. When spent some time running around the streets of Santa Barbara, got two "bullfighter" sandwiches to go and hung out in the park across from the museum till the poetry reading began - he read with an ancient sax player from Monterey - seminal musician in bop and the beat generation but his name escapes me. The reading was incredible. There were folk harpists from Mexico there too and members of Teatro Campesino. This night lead to a long love affair with J and Ferlinghetti's poetry. I read him before and loved his poetry, but seeing him perform his poetry (that is what he really does) is a whole other thing.

Years later I went to the American Library Association Convention to hear him read. There was not a lot of room in the audience so a handful of us were asked to come up and sit with him on stage. That was hella funny.

From City Lights:

HELP US WISH LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI
A HAPPY 90TH BIRTHDAY

I was watching the news and there was some cascade of movie/sports/"music" star news and there was some hot breaking story and this tool in a little box on the screen starts yappin and his title was "CELEBRITY CRISIS EXPERT." Just like freakin FEMA! Around 2001, I began to see "Internet Expert" as a title of whatever talking tiny head they could get to comment on any topic: savings and loan failures, middle east, or shakespeare. I would like to record generic commentary that could be used for any crisis - financial, weather, or celebrity. Something like "What is there to be said? Many pundits claimed they saw this coming but I don't think anyone really predicted events to unfold exactly in this way. Hindsight is always 20/20. We have to resist the urge to over-simplify the issues. If we have learned anything from history is its that it is too easy to make generalizations based on the past. All parties effected by this are going to have to really step back and reflect. We can only be grateful it isn't worse."

I linked to the special edition of Vogue here:


I went with my cover girl to Seattle on Sunday. We had a great time. We went to see Monteverdi's Orpheus. This was the first opera I had seen from start to finish (I saw it on TV). The first opera I went to in a theatre was "La Boheme" at the Dorothy Chandler in LA in 1977 (or '78). But the production of Orpheus I saw on PBS as a young teenager was pretty incredible and it really sold me on the idea of opera. I have been a big fan ever since. We hung out at the Brooklyn afterwards. This is a great bar across from the symphony hall and the art museum on 2nd. Amazing happy hour.

The day before all the fun, I presented online for an online conference. It went really well. It was called "Concept Maps: from pencil to virtual worlds." There were people "there" from all over the world - I learned a lot from them too!