10 ways to a woo a word lover.

10. Do not give her diamonds; give her books.

9. Date night? Scrabble. Bananagrams if you want to shake things up a bit.

8. Court via letters. Your hand-writing on paper does something that no email, no matter how romantic and well-written, can ever achieve.

7. When she cries about feeling lonely and misunderstood, tell her she is avant-garde. What a word! She’ll perk up. Immediately.

6. Do crossword puzzles together. Gives new meaning to the phrase you complete me.

5. Tell her that her glasses make her look like a sexy librarian.

4. When she mentions that she’s never read Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint, give her the copy you read in college so that she can devour the book with the sprinkling of your adolescent marginalia adding to the flavor.

3. Understand that she might never pay attention to you with the same intensity that she lavishes on the book she’s reading.

2. Use the word “covenant” as a verb in a poem you’ve written. Yes, this means you must write her a poem.

Almost 1. Edit her work and point out typos. Especially glaring mistakes in the title.

1. Take her to hear Billy Collins read his poetry.

———————————

I love people that make me laugh. I love poets. Billy Collins is a poet that makes me laugh. Here is just a little taste.

Today’s Poem: (click link to read entirely) by Billy Collins

I Chop Some Parsley While Listening to Art Blakey’s Version of ‘Three Blind Mice‘

And I start wondering how they came to be blind.

If it was congenital, they could be brothers and sisters…

The underbelly.

Below is a conversation I had with S on Saturday..

S: It’s right turn only here?

L: Make a u-turn. It’s what we always do here. Make a right and make a u-turn!

S: Jeez, alright, why do you get so mad?

L: I’m emphatic, not mad. Just don’t pay attention to me.

S: Okay, fine;  I won’t pay attention to you anymore if that’s what you want.

L: There is nothing you can say or do that scares me.

[silence]

L: How’s your latte?

Nothing is ever simple. Black and white is simple; we dwell in gray. Following directions, paying attention, fear, possession, frustration, desire, shared coffee: just a few of the different file folders that fill the cabinet of marriage. There is bliss too. That sun-dazed place you wake up in every so often, surprised at having found the secret island again because you’ve both lost the directions to get there.

You can’t hold love–romantic and otherwise–in a cup without spilling. You can’t hold it in a cup and understand it. It’s messy and it dribbles down your chin.

———————

Poetry makes us think about things in a way we might never have before. Below you’ll find a poem by a writer who thrills me with her ability to disturb my world and make me think. This isn’t greeting card poetry. If you prefer a blanket-swaddled view of motherhood and womanhood you might want to skip this one. It offers difficult ideas and imagery, and I offer it to you as just one more shade of gray to the complicated tones of motherhood. I offer it to you because nothing is simple.

Today’s Poem:  (click link to read entirely)

Christmas Carols by Margaret Atwood

Children do not always mean

hope. To some they mean despair…