Yesterday in the midst
of everything
this terrible war
speaker of the house
two friends with broken knees
yesterday even though I was up
most of the night before
wondering why I ever thought
I was a real writer why I wanted
to keep writing no matter what
yesterday at one of my favorite
places on this planet
The New York Society Library
absolutely gorgeous building
open stacks and small desks
where I write small sentences
with a carefully chosen pen
yesterday I did my first reading and writing
with a room full of beautiful writers
who wrote sentences like these:
As I age, I’m replacing disappointment with gratitude.
and
In the eighties, I had sex with
a criminal, an FBI agent, a gangster and a famous actor.
You wouldn’t guess that now.
People, as always, unpredictable
and amazing, made us all happy again.
I love the idea of working so hard at it all through the eighties. Now they have to figure it out IN their eighties.
That library deserves every bit of praise. I visited years ago. Never forgot it.