Sunday, March 29, 2009

Poetry and rain


On this rainy Oregon day I baked a loaf of lemon bread, thought about painting, organized stuff, drank a lot of coffee, and revisited Raymond Carver.

April is National Poetry month.

Loafing

I looked into the room a moment ago,
and this is what I saw –
my chair in its place by the window,
the book turned facedown on the table.
and on the sill, the cigarette
left burning in its ashtray.
Malingerer! My uncle yelled at me
so long ago. He was right.
I’ve set aside time today,
same as every day,
for doing nothing at all.

From All of Us: Collected Poems
by Raymond Carver

4 comments:

laura said...

Brilliant! How decadent and appealing (and un-American?) the idea of setting aside time to do nothing at all.
Your lemon bread looks delish!

A Brush with Color said...

Oh, what a beautiful photo to accompany this fabulous poem. And I agree--that lemon bread looks divine. I'll have to write this book down. Thank you! And enjoy your malingering. I made chocolate fudge today and went for an hour walk through the spring trails after a ton of rain the last few days. Heaven.

Nancy Van Blaricom said...

Oh my you are making me hungry. The bread looks like a recipe I have tried out of "Taske of Oregon" cookbook. It makes my mouth water just looking at your photo. Thanks for sharing the poem.

Tess Kincaid said...

I am definitely a malingerer! And I would die to have a slice of that heavenly lemon bread. Recipe, please?