I survived my colonoscopy. The prep was not quite as unpleasant for me as it seemed for Eileen on her last one. We had to plow through snow to get back and forth to the hospital. The doctor found a small polyp which they will biopsy. If it’s cancerous apparently they recommend another colonoscopy in five years. In other words when I am 72. Sheesh.

Rev Jen and I canceled tomorrow night’s choir rehearsal. She emailed me asking about it.  My inclination is to never cancel and work with who can get there. However, this crew is so dedicated that I’m afraid that at the least I might make someone feel bad for not coming and at the worst have choristers stuck in snow banks instead of rehearsing. It’s a good call I’m sure.

All in all, this is turning out to be a light week for me. Prepping for the colonoscopy was like being on vacation. I did submit the information for Sunday but mostly laid around and read and worked crossword puzzles. The liquid diet was enough to keep me from feeling the effects of fasting.

With the rehearsal canceled tomorrow, I have little mandatory things to do for work this week. The upcoming recitalist has reserved a lot of organ time so there’s no sense going over unless the organ’s free. I will probably improvise the prelude and postlude Sunday even though I asked Mary at the church office to only put the words “prelude” and “postlude” in the bulletin with no indication I will improvise. That way I figure if I get inspired I can perform some literature. If I decide in time, I can get the titles in the bulletin. If not, I can still play it and not have people think I’m improvising it.

No drinky poo tonight due to post colonoscopy recommendations. Actually I could have a drink if I stayed up until midnight, but I like my Martini at five and am usually asleep by midnight.

I finished Lorrie Moore’s novel, A Gate At the Stairs. I am enjoying her writing immensely. I think it helps to read her through the lens of her friend and co-writer, Roddy Doyle. Eileen and I have listened to his podcast for the New Yorker where he reads and discusses Moore’s short story,  “Community Life.” A Gate at the Stairs is a charming read. I liked Tassie, the main character, quite a bit. She’s a bit like the main character in the short story. They both have a skewed view of life and can turn a phrase. The story is basically  her first year at college where she does some baby sitting for a very eccentric couple who have adopted a mixed race baby. Tassie lives through a love affair and also falls in love with the baby she is watching. Though there are oblique references to “gates” and “stairs” throughout, I think the book is basicaly a sort of a 21st century Jane Austen replete with the crazy shit that goes on now.

There are laugh out loud parts and there are rather astute descriptions of people’s behavior and conversations that ring true to me, even as I cringe at their inanity and silliness (not Tassie’s however). Everything rings bizarrely true as a picture of the USA in recent years (post 9/11).

I have a bunch of stickies of sections I want to type into a doc of book notes. I’ll spare you all but Tassie’s words that she silently puts to taps at her brother’s military funeral.

Day is done.
Gone the sun.
It will stun.
No more fun.
Have a bun.

And then the bridge off which the bugler hurls his lungs. (writes Moore)

Night is nigh.
Say good-bye.
People die.

They Created a Muslim Enclave in Upstate N.Y. Then Came the Online Conspiracies

I am more confident I am not missing as much in the NYT approaching it through the “replica” edition. This is a wild little story about an African American city named “Islamberg” back before that would provoke the idiot reaction ti does now. What a country.

‘The Nation Has Stood Up’: Indigenous Clans in Canada Battle Pipeline Project 

This shit just keeps going on and on. It reminds me of the story of the man who chopped down the last tree on an island leaving it totally bare. Sheesh again.

Today is a snow day in Western Michigan.

Since the church offices are closed due to the snow today, I dug out and drove over to let Jane Bosco in to practice. She has an upcoming recital at my church. Eileen is out snowblowing right now. Most everything is shut down today here in Holland. No school, no college, no library. It’s great!

Eileen and I had a nice online chat with Sarah and Lucy. My quasi son-in-law Matthew even ducked in to say hi to the camera (even though he doesn’t like to do online chats). It was great to see them.

Elizabeth sent the family a sketch she has done of Alex, my grand daughter. I think you can see the love and affection in the rendering, but I’m a bit biased all around. I do think it’s an excellent piece of work. Good job, Elizabeth!

For some reason traffic spiked a bit here on my blog post yesterday  (60  hits, a lot for jupiterjenkins.com).  Of course I had failed to do a daily update. Figures.

Today I fast for tomorrow I have a colonoscopy. Later I start taking stuff to clear out the pipes.

Yesterday was a bit weird. The morning service went splendidly. Attendance was down probably due to weather. The choir was in good spirits and sang well. We did an anthem that was a little showy but it fit the gospel like a glove and I think it was fun for the choir to sing well. I nailed the prelude and postlude both by Pachelbel.

But after the service my boss wanted to “huddle” with me. It turns out she had not been able to convince the hymn writer to let us use a slightly improved version of his terrible hymn. She felt bad. I tried to be good humored and reassure her that I don’t really give a fuck (this might not help all that much and is not strictly true). Ultimately I found this parishioner’s stubbornness and bad hymn writing provincial. He is also much less sophisticated than many if not most of our congregants.

We sang his hymn at the beginning of the annual meeting last night. My church’s annual meetings go incredibly well. Annual meetings in churches can be (and often are) a nightmare especially for the priest and the staff. My boss has done a fine job of defusing most of the usual parish anxiety and we have been lucky not to have scandal or truly bad behavior in our parishioners (to my knowledge).

Even last night, parishioners were very intelligent to me in their compliments. One woman observed the balance in our hymnody in the morning Eucharist. Bless her heart. We did have some good stuff. Another parishioner called out to me after the morning postlude thanking me for all the Pachelbel. There was applause after the postlude. This has happened more and more with the Pasi. I don’t need the applause but it is nice to think people are listening and appreciating what I do. I also gets loads of compliments in person.

So yesterday I had fun in the morning at church and duty at church in the evening (by attending the evening safe buy diazepam online annual meeting).

Despite the stress of the meeting I managed to keep my resolve about skipping alcohol last night. It didn’t make too much sense to drink anyway since I was in the 48 hour prep time for the colonoscopy. Today I’m on a liquid diet which (thank god) includes black coffee. I’m planning to do a lot of reading, practicing, crossword puzzles, and drinking tea and coffee.

I have been reading in the two old Greek reference books I interlibrary loaned. I don’t know how much longer I can resist attempting to purchase my own copies. This morning, in  reading The Greek Particles by. J. D. Denniston (Oxford at the Clarendon Press 1934), I ran across a charming example of the use of ?????? ?? which means “I AM lucky!” So true.

NYTimes: Elizabeth McCracken: By the Book

This is very cool. I don’t recognize this author nor did I recognize many of the books she recommends. I have already put An Exact Replica of a Figment of my Imagination by her on hold at Herrick. It’s sitting on the shelves but they’re having a snow day today (as is most of Western Michigan).

McCracken had me with her this remark in the linked NYT interview: “The towers of books around and upon my nightstand are bigger than the nightstand itself.”

Replica is, according to her web site, “A memoir of two pregnancies, & two children: the first stillborn, the second a year later, healthy; both loved.” The book begins: “Once upon a time, before I knew anything about the subject, a woman suggested that I write a book about the lighter side of losing a child. (This is not that book)”

I plan to check out more of the books she suggests in the NYT interview including the Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf series.

The Assassination of the Landlord’s Purple Vintage 1976 Monte Carlo by Martín Espada Poetrry Magazine

Jumping Off the Mystic Tobin Bridge by Martín Espada | Poetry Magazine

I’m behind in reading my Poetry magazines. I’m on November of last year. I was delighted to find a new poet in it this morning, Martín Espada.

The two poems above were apparently written for the magazine to commemorate him receiving some the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (which I don’t recognize).

In his intro to the poems, Don Share writes “In the preface to Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman writes, “The attitude of great poets is to cheer up slaves and horrify despots.”

I quite like that. I told Eileen I was reading poems by James Loganbach this morning after reading Espada and that I decided the poems by Loganbach weren’t that good. At this time, I am looking for poetry by living poets that “cheers up slaves and horrifies despots.”

Share quotes Esplade:

I think the deeper the crisis we find ourselves in, the more we need stories. The crazier the times we live in, the more we need the clarity and vision of stories. The more foolishness and stupidity we hear coming from places of power, the more we need the ?wisdom of stories. Martin Espada

These guys are singing my tune.

Next Tuesday I am scheduled for my second colonoscopy. I guess they recommend having these every ten years and I’m due. This means on Sunday I have to watch what I eat and then a liquid fast on Monday. Also, I have to take some doses of preparatory stuff to clean out the bowels. Fun.

Once again a church function is coming up and I am dreading having to do my part for it. This time I am supposed to play the intro to Phantom of the Opera during someone’s presentation. The presenter is also the author of the hymn I am supposed to lead. The more I think about the hymn, the worse I think it is. Ah well. I’m just the piano player.

Eileen and I walked in the snow and then treadmilled at Evergreen today. Ir’s left me pleasantly tired. I’m trying to build up energy to go out. I need to pick up some ginger ale and stuff for the upcoming colonoscopy ordeal. I also need to practice for tomorrow and post the hymns.

We are having lots of snow here in West Michigan. Winter has arrived with a vengeance. The temps have dipped below zero. I brought my apples in from the porch.  Both Eileen and I have had some apples out there. Eileen basically eats on Macintosh apples. I eat them all but like a little variety. Eileen suspected her apples of freezing and brought them in. I followed suit and did likewise.

As I prep for the colonoscopy I am obviously going to have to skip my martini and wine. I am planning on beginning that this evening. It seems to be the only way for me to lose weight. This becomes more important since I have stopped taking the blood pressure medicine that I had a reaction to. I am taking one med, but it is not enough to pull my blood pressure down into acceptable range. Losing weight and exercising will probably do this. Oy. Getting old is not always fun.

Does Journalism Have a Future? | The New Yorker

The Covington Catholic story went viral. The mainstream media chased it. The Trump Internet pounced. – The Washington Post

Usually I tr y to take it easy on Thursdays. But I have been putting off writing a blog post for the Church’s web page. This is silly because I don’t think there is much traffic on this page. I know they don’t keep it up to date. But if it’s not too outrageous, I try to cooperate when people ask me to do stuff at church. So that took a few hours. Here’s a link to the final piece if you’re curious.

At our weekly meeting on Wednesday Rev Jen and I discussed a hymn written by a parishioner to help celebrate our 150th anniversary as a parish. Jen wanted to sing it this weekend at our annual meeting. The person who wrote the words also wrote the music. The whole thing was well meaning but ill advised since the writer didn’t seem to understand either hymn writing or musical composition.

I took it and re-barred it so that the rhythm of the melody was accurately reflected by the meter. This involved sitting down and putting it into Finale which was not too arduous. I had a version done in time to add it to the choir rehearsal Wednesday evening.

By the way, the choir rehearsal went very well. I had asked choristers to stay an extra half hour but we didn’t end up needing the entire extra time.  We went through all the anthems through Lent plus Quia vidisti me Thoma by Hassler. This has evolved into our annual anthem for Doubting Thomas Sunday (Easter II).

Anyway, the hymn writer waffled on exactly how he wanted to words to read. He changed them twice after I had emailed him and Jen copies of what I prepared.  Thursday morning found me emailing a PDF of this hymn to the church office.

I’m also working on trying to get Nick Palmer to do a return performance of his composition, The Suffering Servant. I did some emailing about that as well.

My violinist decided it not to try to chance it on her bicycle in the bad winter weather, so it was just me and Dawn the cellist. We had fun going entirely through Brahms’ cello sonata which is wonderful by the way.

It’s still bad weather here in Western Michigan. I had my bi weekly meeting with Dr. Birky my therapist this morning. He lives in Glen. I tried to get away early to deal with slippery roads but only managed to leave with five extra minutes. I arrived late but safe. People were not driving well on the road. Most were going faster than me. But about a mile north of my exit there were multiple emergency vehicles dealing with some sort of an accident. On the return trip there were even more vehicles in the ditch. Sometimes going slower is a better idea.

I usually feel better after a chat with Dr. Birky, my therapist and today is no exception. I mentioned to Eileen that he treats me like I’m intelligent and besides her and Rev Jen, not too many people in my life do that. It’s pleasant.

Early yesterday morning, I began cleaning the kitchen so that I  could make bread. I have been alternating between two recipes. One comes from Lustig’s The Fat Chance Cookbook, the other from Lisa Leake’s 100 Days of Real Food. I like them both, but Eileen decided that she likes the Leake recipe better. I had some of the Lustig sitting in the freezer but none of the stuff that Eileen likes, so I decided I should make bread before church. The cool thing about both recipes is how easy they are. Also, it never hurts to smell up the house with the perfume of cooking bread.

In my choir I have many interesting people. One woman Is a retired educator. She has worked in New York and California. She shares my interest in poetry. Recently she gave me a couple of books of poetry to read. Yesterday I finished one of them.

I have been realizing what a critical dude I am about music, poetry, and prose lately. These poems didn’t hit me very hard but they are well written.

I also finished The First Part of Henry the Sixth by Shakespeare. This trilogy is thought to be early Shakespeare. I guess it’s probably the result of a collaboration of the young playwright soon after his arrival in London. I am reading Stephen Greenblatt’s excellent book, Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. While the exact circumstances of Shakespeare life remain unclear, Greenblatt alerts me to interesting connections between what we know about Shakespeare and his plays.

For example, when Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway she was pregnant. Divorce was extremely rare at that time. Once you married you stayed married.  At the end of The First Part of Henry the Sixth, young King Henry the Sixth is contemplating marriage to Lady Margaret. Their union would help bring peace between their two warring countries, France and England. Leaving aside the fact that the real history is garbled in the play, there is a passage which made me think of Shakespeare’s own marital situation.

Marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship;
Not whom we will, but whom his grace affects, 2910
Must be companion of his nuptial bed:
And therefore, lords, since he affects her most,
It most of all these reasons bindeth us,
In our opinions she should be preferr’d.
For what is wedlock forced but a hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?  V. v 55-63

Greenblatt points out over and over again Shakespeare’s own sensibility regarding the difference between marriages of affection and those that have soured. Shakespeare’s long sojourn in London is sometimes seen as related to his distancing from his wife and family in Stratford.

I am reading Leonard Cohen’s last published book of poetry. He was working on its preparation when he died. I do like his stuff. Here’s one that struck me:

Lambchop

thinking of those lambchops
at Moishe’s the other night

we all taste good to one another
most bodies are good to eat
even reptiles and insects

even the poisonous lutefisk of Norway
buried in the dirt a million years before serving
and the poisonous blowfish of Japan
can be prepared
to insure reasonable risks
at the table

if the crazy god did not want us to eat one another
why make our flesh so sweet

I heard it on the radio
a happy rabbit at the rabbit farm
saying to the animal psychic

don’t be sad
it’s lovely here
they’re so good to us

we’re not the only ones
said the rabbit
comforting her

everyone gets eaten
as the rabbit said
to the animal psychic

2008

I love the lines: “if the crazy god did not want us to eat one another
why make our flesh so sweet”

In my last session with my therapist, I mentioned that I think too much. Yesterday I met a couple of musicians at church to let them in to see the Pasi. Unfortunately I got drawn into a conversation that left me off balance. These two men are thoroughly saturated with the bias of many American organists. I find it difficult to communicate my point of view in situations like this.

They weren’t creepy to me or anything. One of them was pressing me to hire him as a recitalist. Turning him down involved discussing why my recital series is coming to a close after two years. He seemed to have difficulty not taking it personally, but I may have been mistaken.

The energy of this conversation felt negative to me and last night I had trouble sleeping. Part of my obsessing comes from having to clarify myself as eccentric. I realized later that when I talked about music that wasn’t organ music these two guys didn’t seem to recognize much. Charlie Parker? Swingle Singers? Nope. They also didn’t seem very enthusiastic about Philip Glass. Sheesh.

There was more but that gives you an idea.

I did a lot of improvising at church today. The prelude was a 12 minute piano improvisation on two hymns: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “Christ whose glory fills the sky,” the sequence hymn and opening hymn respectively. The choir sounded great on “Walk in the Light’ a gospel tune anthem arranged by Andre Thomas. Jen preached on the sequence hymn and talked  quite a bit about singing together. That was nice.

I find it comforting to run across well written prose that reflects my own biases. Here’s some Updike on Bach. The speaker is standing looking out over Central Park in winter.

“Once in January I stood at Jane’s front windows looking down at the tops of a row of buttonwoods as a slanting wet snow laid crescents of white on each little round pod, while the apartment at my back over flowed with the plangent human pealing of the Swingle Singers performing Bach fugues—a record Jane had received at Christmas, I didn’t ask from whom

“The morning moment kept overflowing, on and on, Bach going crazy the way he does, never getting enough.—and I felt joy to the point of tears; my body, wrapped in a loose wool bathrobe of hers, felt stuffed inside with the spiritual woolliness of sexual contentment. At my back, just off the kitchen, she was setting up our breakfast. Cylinders of orange juice and a squatter cylinder of marmalade glowed with inner light. The healthy scent of English muffins toasting intersected the sight of the diagonal snow adhering to the buttonwood pods. The morning moment kept overflowing on and on, Bach going crazy the way he does, never getting enough.” John Updike, “The New York Girl,” The New Yorker, April 1, 1996

Yesterday, one of my organistas was playing through Bach’s lovely piece on the baptism hymn, “Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam.” We all discussing tempos regarding this piece.  As usual, my idea of tempo was slower (and also my registration a bit simpler). When we talked about slowing it down, was when I asked these two if they had ever heard of the Swingle Singers. I tried to explain the jazzy feel they put into Bach. I said that was how I heard it and try to perform that way. I think Updike’s clear and beautiful prose captures something about Bach, as does the next little excerpt from my new obsession, Lorrie Moore:

” ‘Oh, it’s the most beautiful thing,’ she said. ‘Especially with this pianist.’ It was someone humming along with the light dirge of the Bach. Later I would own every loopy Glenn Gould recording available, but there in the car with Sarah was the first time I’d ever heard him play. The piece was like an elegant man in a casket, not yet dead. It proceeded slowly, like a careful equation, and then not: if x = y, if major = minor, if death equals part of life and life part of death, then what is the sum of the infinite notes of this one phrase? It asked, answered, reasked, its moody asking a refinement of reluctance or dislike. I had never head a melody quite like it.” p. 39, Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs.

Lorrie Moore is really doing it for me these days. I think she is an amazing writer. I love her prose.

Letter: Liberals need to stop whining – Holland Sentinel

My grandson is safely back in California. That’s good. Eileen and I went to hear the 5 Browns last night.

This was part of the Hope College Great Performance series. Five brothers and sisters who are pianists who all attended Julliard. There were five Steinways on the stage. They play like piano majors, i.e. impeccable technique. The two hour concert didn’t seem long to me even though it is longer than I myself would schedule. Eileen noted that by adding duets and solos to the full ensemble, each player played exactly the same amount on the program. That’s clever.

The non-musical aspect of this group is quite striking. The sisters are sexual abuse survivors. The abuser was their father who was the manager of the group up until recently when he was convicted of abuse and sent to prison.  The two older sisters founded a foundation to help survivors of abuse.  Their story was the subject of a 2018 documentary:  “Digging Through The Darkness.”

Last night the three sisters played “Clair de Lune”: by Debussy in a six handed arrangement. Their seating was reminiscent of the picture on the poster above. I’ve never seen that kind of piano trio.

The rest of the program included Gerswin’s Rhapsody in Blue, First movement of Beethoven’s 5th, Stravinsky’s Firebird, all in clever 5 piano arrangements.

These are fine musicians. I admire the  courage of them as a group speaking out against sexual abuse. That can’t be easy. However, they seem to be see themselves as bringing classical music to a wider audience. I think this is a dated notion. I wonder where it came from in this instance. One of the brothers played two compositions of his own and that was encouraging. The other brother substituted Chopin’s C Minor Nocturne for the Scriabin on the program. It was stellar.  There didn’t seem to be any improvising.

Their musicianship mesmerized me, but I would have loved to have heard some of the piece Nico Muhly wrote for them. But the program was a more 20th century approach to preserving the lines between academic classical music and the rest of music. I don’t think that’s where music is at right now, but they’re all Julliard trained. What do I expect?

They had a standing ovation and played an encore. The audience loved them. I guess I did too.

Hope College is still on my shit list. But it is nice to go to such a fine concert blocks from my home.

We had a small world wide crisis yesterday. My grandson, Nicholas, was on his way home from China when he got waylaid at the Shenzshen airport.

An observant airport official noticed that his visa was expired. There was a flurry of phone calls between China, California, and Michigan. My daughter Elizabeth eventually resolved the crisis. Nicholas had to return to Beijing and pay a fine. The lapsed visa was a mistake in one little tiny box on the application (if I understand correctly). Elizabeth beat herself up needlessly on this one. Nicholas should land in California 5 PM local time today. Another adventure comes to an end.

I finished reading a couple of books yesterday.

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari has some excellent observations in it. However, it ends with a whimper instead of a bang. The last two “lessons,” “Meaning” and “Mediation,” feel distinctly like a publisher suggested he add a couple so he could have a clever title for an otherwise enlightening book.

Harari has a helpful perspective. His knowledge is wide ranging and his insights invaluable. I like the way the book is arranged into sections and chapters with very helpful and often witty little subtitles like Chapter 5. Community Humans Have Bodies and War Never Underestimate Human Stupidity.

I also finished Puma by Anthony Burgess. I have actually read a version of it before.

He used it along with two other story lines in the novel The End of the World News. A libretto about Lenin and a biography of Freud were interleaved with the plot of Puma.

The story stands very nicely on its on. The intact novel’s creation preceded its use in The End of the World News. I read it in a beautiful Irwell Edition given to me by my brother for Christmas. The books is thoroughly annotated with footnotes and accompanying essays. I read the footnote as I read the book and am looking forward to the essays in the back. There are six of them and they are all by Burgess.

While reading this book, I became aware that Burgess had written the text for a Time Life book about New York. Paul Wake, the editor of Irell Edition, kept citing it. I ended up ordering a copy and am well into reading it.

Reading the book on New York was especially fun when the city ends up being destroyed in  Puma, the novel.

I’m beginning to sour a bit on Paul Westermeyer 400 page tome, Let the People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective. Westermeyer is a respected church musician whom I have followed over the years. This book was published in 2005 by G.I.A. The executive editor has retired to this area. He has been helping out at a local Catholic church and organizing the occasional hymn festival in the area. He has kept me and my church at arm’s length, rarely contacting us for local ecumenical projects. I think he’s a bit tone deaf to the politics of the Reformed church and the bigotry of Western Michigan. but he was instrumental in encouraging Westermeyer to write his book. It’s dedicated to him.

I have known this guy for a long time. I don’t think he respects my work. We have had conversations about church music especially as done in Catholic parishes. We have different points of view (soorprise… not many agree with me, except maybe my boss). Also, he always rejected my compositions when I submitted them to him.

All this is water under the bridge, but I haven’t exactly forgotten about it.

Westermeyer’s perspective is interesting. He seems to be attempting a bird’s eye take on church music in the last fifty years in the USA.  He works theology into this which is tricky when the topic is widely dispersed over conflicting traditions.

I was hoping to find his book helpful and full of insight. However, yesterday I began to notice how often he cited essays in The Hymnal 1982 Companion. This companion is a favorite of mine and the research was excellent when it was published. But that was a while ago. Writing in 2005 I was hoping Westermeyer would update research done for hymnal companions. I’ll probably continue to read in this book, since the topic is one I am interested in.

Eileen is waiting for the contractor who is scheduled to come and explain the bill for the renovation he did to our home. This has been a discouraging experience for her. The person who originally convinced her to hire him was a thorough salesman, but unfortunately the work was sloppy and required Eileen’s close vigilance. The billing was also not very accurate. The contractor is supposed to bring an itemized bill today. Eileen has told him that she thinks he overcharged her and requested this. She told me I don’t have to sit in on the meeting, only be around. I’m sorry to see her so stressed about this, but thankful she can handle it without me.

Post Script: The dude is forty five minutes late now. Sheesh.

I love the library.

I love being able to get books just to examine them. Today I decided I would  emulate my teacher at Notre Dame, Craig Cramer, and start my own running bibliography. I often get books out to see what they are like. Today I picked up several interlibrary loans. I’m not thinking of reading any of these right now. My list of books that I am in the middle is daunting enough already. I am making progress on most of them but think it’s silly to add any more right now. Nevertheless, I want to remember these books. The easy solution is my own bibliography.

This morning I spent an hour working on some Greek Grammar. I was excited that Denniston’s Greek Particles arrived at the library today! The book is an old dusty copy from Calvin College. I love being able to look through it even though it’s probably way out of my league. The picture above gives you more of a sense of what’s like than this:

I did spend most of my Greek Study time this morning working on understanding four words that were (in oder) an article, a noun, a pronoun, an adjective. The translation ended up being idiomatic. I don’t think I need a copy of Denniston, but it is fun to read through.

This book is all about algorithms. It was cited in one of the books I am reading. It was published in 2016 but is still very relevant. Again I’m not planning to necessarily read it, but it will go in my running bibliography.

Likewise with Timothy Snyder’s The Road to Unfreedom. This book was published in 2018. I find it helpful when authors have to factor in the insanity of the USA’s present government.

Age of Anger also comes from my reading. Mishra “casts his gaze back to the eighteenth century”  and then “leading us to the present.” (Quotes from the slipcover)

Liturgy and the Moral Self is a Festschrift for Don Saliers. It was published in 1998. I don’t know how it got by me. I love festrschrifts! They tend to have original scholarship in them that is sometimes not available any place else. And authors tend to air interesting differences and insights in them. I may end up buying this one. I meant to take it to my meeting with Rev Jen today since she likes Saliers. It doesn’t hurt that his daughter, Emily, is in the Indigo Girls (one of Jen’s favorite groups).

It’s a work day for me so I don’t have more time to blog. I have to go rest up for this evening’s rehearsal. Life is good.

I have been doing something I rarely do and that is read through old blog posts. This is an odd experience. I think I am my own best reader or at least I find my old posts interesting even as I always wonder why anyone else would find all this stuff that interesting unless they like the stuff I like or are interested in me in particular.

I was going through old posts because I am wondering if I ever finished Dairmaid MacCulloch’s huge book, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. I put notes in the back of books and find notes up to page 627.  There are 1016 pages of text and I’m pretty sure I haven’t read them all yest.

I have kept lists of books I have read over the years, jotting down the date when I finished them. But I have never been too systematic for any prolonged period of time. In 2017 I began to keep a google doc of finished books and also made lists from old written lists of finished books. MacCulloch’s book on Christianity appears on none of the lists I can locate.

I searched through old blog posts and that’s how I ended up going through old posts this morning. I didn’t spend too much time doing this, but it was long enough to realize that I have been blogging for a long time. I also added some books to my list of books read.

This morning I wrote a new music note for next Sunday’s bulletin. I drew mostly from J. R. Watson’s Annotated Anthology of Hymns. For what its worth here’s the whole note:

Music Notes: When I recommend hymns to Rev Jen, I look closely at Carl Daw’s wonderful index, Liturgical Music for the Revised Common Lectionary. He recommends hymn texts and anthems that are clearly related to the scriptures for each Sunday of our church year. Reexamining our choices for today, I discover two texts by Charles Wesley, our opening hymn and the stanzas of today’s gospel Choral anthem. Our opening hymn, “Christ, whose glory fills the sky,” has been described by James Montgomery (another important hymn writer) as “one of Charles Wesley’s loveliest progeny.” J. R. Watson, the hymnologist, writes  “The hymn brilliantly combines … metaphorical reading of the light and darkness imagery with the actual morning, in which the Christian awakes to find the skies filled with light and knows it to be the light of Christ’s glory. Thus every morning starts with praise.” The familiar text used in the choral anthem, “Hark! the herald angels sing” originally began with this fine line of poetry” “Hark how all the welkin rings.” Watson writes this line “was carefully chosen: the welkin is not only the  sky but also ‘the abode of the Deity … the celestial regions, heaven, … and.. is also used ‘in phrases descriptive of loud sounds, as in to make the welkin ring (Oxford English Dictionary, sense 2b).”  (An Annotated Anthology of Hymns edited with commentary by J. R. Watson Oxford University Press 2002) submitted by Steve Jenkins, Music Director

Daughter Elizabeth in China noticed that I haven’t posted lately, so here’s a little post.

I had an excellent meeting with Dr. Birky, my therapist, yesterday. He is really quite good. Of course, he was happy to learn that my operation was successful in removing my cancer. I bumped into someone I know as I was leaving. I mentioned how helpful I found Birky and told the person I hoped they would find him so as well. It’s a bit of a privacy concern, isn’t it? running into someone at the shrink. I wish that wasn’t so since mental health is real stuff and therapy is actually pretty much good for all.

On the drive down to see Birky, it occurred to me why I am feeling so discombobulated: I’m still getting used to the idea of having been diagnosed with cancer, having surgery, and then finding out the surgery was successful. This is a lot of stuff to process and I’m sure I haven’t finished doing so. But as I said to Birky despite this I think I’m functioning pretty well.

My biography of Burgess arrived in the mail today. I am so spoiled.

I made bread before leaving to see Birky yesterday. Actually I made the sponge, then let it rise a bit. Then I finished the dough and shaped it for its final rise and Eileen stuck it in the oven for me while I was gone.

I spent some time with Bartok on the piano yesterday. I remembered why I like him. His music is not that easy to play but I love his use of Slavonic folk material. It inspires me to think maybe at some point  I could use the wonderful folk tradition of Britain and the USA to make some fun pieces.

I continue to make progress with Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

Here’s some random shit from my reading (hopefully not as long winded as last time):

“Once AI makes better decisions than we do about careers and perhaps even relationships, our concept of humanity and life will have to change.” p. 55

“The word “Television” comes from Greek, tele which means far, and Latin, visio , sight.”
p. 52

Harari coined the word, “Coca-Colonialism.” Cool.

Speaking of words, my piano tuner gave me a word on the phone. He said it w as new to him and didn’t know what it meant but it was a real word. Indeed it is:

It’s the lowest note in the Ancient Greek scale.

Who knew?

I like the poems in the new New Yorker. Here are links:

“Etiology,” by Maggie Millner | The New Yorker

“American Sonnet for the New Year,” by Terrance Hayes | The New Yorker

Plus there was an article about a person’s passion for Greek.

Greek to Me, by Mary Norris | The New Yorker

Right after doing my Greek this morning, I skipped some of my regular reading to get back to reading Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. I ran across a reference to understanding the impact of infotech in this century. Harari used the phrase, “connectivity and updatability.” I recognized the idea of the huge impact of how connected and updatable a computer network is compared to a string of humans. For example, if there existed a world wide network of Artificiual Intelligence monitoring and dispensing medical help, it could be instantly updated when a new understanding occurs. The current model of humans  on the other hand takes an incredible time to distribute new information and often fails to do  so evenly. This all sounded familiar to me. Where had I heard about “connectivity and updatability” before?

I checked LikeWar by Singer and Brooking. Nope not there.  I searched in my online bookmark service. Well, whatdoyouknow? There was a link to an article by Harari in the Atlantic.

Yuval Noah Harari on Why Technology Favors Tyranny – The Atlantic

Oh, that’s right. That’s where I got the idea to check out 21 Lessons for the 21st Century. It makes  sense that ideas in the book seem familiar since the article was adapted from it.

Harari has written two previous books: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind and Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. What attracts me about 21 Lessons is that his goal to shed light on what is happening right now in our world.

The first sentence in the book caught my attention: “Humans think in stories rather than in facts, numbers, or equations., and the simpler the story the better.” He says that in the 2oth century there were three competing global “stories”: Communism, Facism, and Liberalism. In the course of that century, Liberalism ends up sort of winning out. But now it is broken.

Harari explains the weird global shift to the right (including our very own Trumpland). He posits that some of these people are reasoning that maybe “maybe humans should abandon the very idea of a single global story.”

He continues in a helpful synopsis: “… [T]he vacuum left by the breakdown of liberalism is tentatively filed by nostalgic fantasies about some local golden past. Donald Trump coupled his calls for American isolationism with a promise to ‘Make America Great Again’—as if the United States of the 1980s or 1950s was a perfect society that Americans should somehow recreate in the twenty-first century. The Brexiteers dream of making Britain an independent power, as if they were still living in the days of Queen Victoria and as if ‘splendid isolation’ were a viable policy for the era of the internet and global warming. Chinese elites have rediscovered their native imperial and Confucian legacies as a supplement to or even substitute for the doubtful Marxist ideology they imported from the West. In Russia, Putin’s official vision is not to build a corrupt oligarchy but rather to resurrect the old tsarist empire. A century after the Bolshevik Revolution, Putin promises a return to ancient tsarist glories with an autocratic government buoyed by Russian nationalism and Orthodox piety spreading its might from the Baltic to the Caucasus.”

He continues: “Similar nostalgic dreams that mix nationalist attachment with religious traditions underpin regimes in India, Poland, Turkey, and numerous other countries.” He points out that no where are the fantasies more extreme than in the Middle East where Islamics want to turn the clock back 1400 years and are outdone by fundamentalist Jews in Israel who want to go back 2500 years.

I found this helpful. A couple pages later he addresses where this leaves us. “We are still in the nihilistic moment of disillusionment and anger,  after people have lost faith in the old stories but before they have embraced a new one.” [SJ note: “Disillusionment” is the title of the first of the 21 sections in the book referring to the disillusionment of the failure of liberalism despite being the best story so far] “So what next? The first step is tone down the prophecies of doom and switch from panic mode to bewilderment. Panic is a form of hubris.”

Wow. That hit me hard. “It [panic] comes from the smug feeling that one knows exactly where the world is heading: down. Bewilderment is more humble and therefore more clear-sighted. Do you feel like running down the street crying, ‘The apocalypse is upon us’ ? Try telling yourself, ‘No, it’s not that. Truth is, I just don’t understand what’s going on in the world.”

This all helps me because I’m sure I don’t understand what is happening. It helps to think about adjusting my own sense of self from panic to bewilderment. chapter 12 (which is way ahead of me in the book) Humility: You are not the center of the world.

There’s lots more but I feel like I’m being a bit long winded for a blog post. I finished chapters 1 and 2 this morning, respectively “1. Disillusionment The End of History Has Been Postponed,” and “2. Work When You Grow Up, You Might Not Have a Job.” The next chapter is “Liberty Big Data Is Watching You.” 

My copy of 100 Days of Real Food by Lisa Leake came in the mail recently. This morning I made Leake’s recipe for Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes (or Waffles). I followed her recipe closely except I substituted butter milk for regular mild in it. Yesterday I whipped up some of Lustig’s ranch dressing so it could sit over night. That’s why I had buttermilk in the house. Eileen and I had it on our midday salads. I thought it tasted great.

I like the idea of working on consuming as little processed food as possible.

My copy of Let The People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective by Paul Westermeye arrived today in the mail. I seem to periodically return to reading about hymnody. I enjoy checking out the hymns I am called on to lead. Plus I am trying to understand great hymnody as poetry as well.

There is a box from Zingerman’s awaiting opening on the kitchen table. We were running low on balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

All this is to say that I continue to be spoiled.

Hope professors under investigation resign, students call for answers – The Holland Sentinel

Finally some information is being made public. This looks like a power play. I have intentionally asked friends of mine who are more on the inside to not tell me the gory details. Just yesterday, Jordan V. and I were decrying the wide spread use of inappropriate motivation tactics by music teachers we have witnessed. Although I must quickly add that both of us have had some splendid teachers who do not reflect upper education at its worst. I wonder if what has happened at Hope will ever become public. It doesn’t look very ethical on the part of the college. But what do I know?

It’s been a full day for a day off for some reason. Jordan came over and chatted and brought music for us to play through! That made my day!

I was looking for videos to link for Jordan and ran across this. Amazing stuff.

Here’s the composer’s website. Ivan Trevino – Composer. Percussionist.

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m predictably tired.

While I tried to make this morning’s Eucharist easy for choir since we only had one rehearsal for the anthem and psalm, I ended up pushing my own abilities at the organ a bit. The prelude, choral anthem, and postlude were all by Healey Willan and they were all kind of a bugger for organ. I like the music but found that I didn’t have enough time to prepare the organ parts as thoroughly as I like to. Consequently I had some moments, especially in the postlude, which didn’t go as well as they would have if I had been more thoroughly prepared. But the music didn’t suffer too much.  And fortunately I pretty much nailed the organ accompaniment to the anthem. I feel a sense of responsibility to play organ choral accompaniments in such a way as to not goof the choir up or detract from the beauty of their performance.

Oddly enough another stress point for me today was the second communion hymn, “On this day” with music by Gustav Holst.

The verses begin with a two measure descending organ pedal part. The tempo is half note equals sixty and the descending notes are quarter notes meaning they move along a bit. My problem was I wasn’t able to breath before the congregation entrance at the beginning of each verse which would have been ideal. Wth as much prep time as I made for this hymn I was sweating getting the bass notes right.

I just read up on this hymn in the Hymnal 1982 Companion and The New Oxford Book of Carols. It turns out that the original arrangement for this tune was orchestral. That makes sense. I looked on YouTube. The organist for the Kings College Cambridge recording of this carol doesn’t play the descending run on the pedals. Instead he plays them on the manuals. That hadn’t occurred to me. In all the recordings I could find (and had the patience to listen to), none of the organists phrased before the congregation begins.

In retrospect, I think I could have lengthened the very last note of the scale just a hair and that might make this carol a bit more congregation friendly. As it is, I’m feeling pretty good about not screwing up that pedal part this morning. But I was sweating it a bit.

I continue to try to figure out how to get news online. I have been thinking about the New York Times online access, apps and web sites. I have been accessing their online pdf of their front page lately to get a sense of the day’s news before plunging into articles. The benefit of this is that the old newspaper format seems to weigh the articles on the front page as important enough to lead with. This importance is lost in all of the website set-ups of the newspaper. This morning I looked at the pdf and bookmarked all of the articles to read even though they are buried in the app and the website. I admit to not looking too closely at the Today’s Paper format. I wonder if the people who do journalism online will ever develop a format that helps the reader through the news as efficiently as the good old paper newspaper does.

Here are the links to the articles I have read or plan to read from today’s paper.

The Border Wall: How a Potent Symbol Is Now Boxing Trump In

‘There’s a Real Tension.’ Democrats Puzzle Over Whether a Women Will Beat Trump

In the comment section on this article, there was a category I hadn’t noticed before called “NYT replies.” It seems to be direct replies from the authors of the article to readers’ comments. That’s cool!

After a Rocky 2018, Populism Is Down but Far From Out in the West – The New York Times

Dr. Barb Vincensi, an alto in my choir, is having some rather serious surgery today. Eileen just left to go be with her for that. Last night’s choir rehearsal was very encouraging to me. We got through all of the new anthems plus we read Quia vidisti me,Thoma by Hassler. This is an anthem that we have been regularly singing on Easter II, but it’s a bit difficult. I am trying to hit the ground running this season and continue building the choir’s skill. It was very satisfying to go through this anthem successfully twice on the first rehearsal of the new season. I think it shows how well the choir is coming together this year.

My energy levels were good yesterday. But today I’m predictably tired. I had trio practice this morning.

[Break]

It’s now a couple hours later. I have just spent an hour with Scarlatti on the piano. I think he is an amazing composer. Eileen is still not back yet and martini time approaches. I’m still tired but now I feel inspired by Scarlatti. What cool music!

Here’s a recording of the one I liked the best today. I like the way this guy plays it.

This player does some interesting things with it.

It does sound nice on the piano, though:

It’s about 5:30 on the afternoon of my first  post-Christmas choir rehearsal. With Eileen’s help, I’m feeling prepared for this evening. She went with me both today and yesterday and filed and put new pieces in the choir slots.

I have anthems picked out for this month. I think it’s a good group of pieces. They are all new to this choir. But I’m hoping I won’t have to adjust and substitute easier stuff.

This weekend will be Healey Willan weekend. We are doing this anthem (with organ not with piano as at the link). I have scheduled Willan’s Prelude and Fugue in G Minor for the prelude and his  majestic piece, Aeterna Christi munera, for the postlude. 

The following Sunday I have scheduled a lovely little piece by David Herman based on the traditional Lutheran chorale about Jesus’s baptism, When Jesus went to Jordan’s Stream (Christ unser herr zum jordan kam). My violinist has already consented to come and play the C instrument part. 

I have been doing the usual afternoon resting before this evening’s rehearsal. Right now I’m feeling pretty perky. My piano student didn’t show and I resisted staying during that time to practice organ more. I had the energy but didn’t want to use it up.

We’re having some snow here. Eileen was driving and she managed to do some surprising sliding around. The snow is falling lightly but the streets can be slick. My Grand Haven choir member has already chosen the better part of valor and stayed home.

I met with Rev Jen today. She is still recovering from 2018. It’s been a tough year for her, mostly the stupid Hope College evil follows her at work and also at home with Beth and friends trying to cope.

We had a nice chat about bringing the Grace Notes Series to a close. She is concerned that the instrument will not be used in recitals. I told her that wouldn’t happen and that relies on whoever has my job. Without the series to tend to, I will have more energy to scheduled recitals and am seriously considering scheduling June 9 as a recital a bit like the very first Grace Notes recital with a sort of Greatest Hits. That will be the end of our year long 150th as well.

A Holiday Mystery: Why Did John Roberts Intervene in the Mueller Probe?

Some interesting insight into Roberts.

Father Time, by David Sedaris | The New Yorker

Mitt Romney Faces Counterattacks From Trump Allies – The New York Times

This stuff is breaking today. I read Romney’s article in the Post this morning. I dearly hope that 2019 is a worse year for Trump and a bit better year for the USA.

I spent some of this morning at church planning this upcoming Sunday. I decided on an anthem by Healey Willan and then decided to do organ music by him. My teacher, Ray Ferguson, didn’t like Willan’s organ music much. But he did like his choral music. I like both.

I think Willan has made a unique contribution to the Episcopal Church in American and Canada. He has been one of my heroes in the past. I have learned and performed a lot of music by him. At this point, I look back over music that I have done on inferior instruments. Reviving this kind of repertoire is fun and breathes new life into some of the music. After all with beautiful sounds like I have on the Pasi, almost anything sounds great!

I love  my new speaker. I took it with me to church. I like how I can turn up the symphonic music and hear it so well. I haven’t done much rock and roll yet, but I’m sure I will. I’m listening to Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra right now. Earlier I listened to the D major symphony of Vaughan Williams. Lovely stuff.

I had planned to go back to church this afternoon and pick out more anthems for the upcoming choral season. I don’t have much planned right now. But I’m feeling a bit lazy this afternoon and rationalizing that I will go over tomorrow and do some more prep and planning. Honest.

In the early morning hours today I found myself reading Blake and Milton. Did you know that Blake wrote a poem about Milton called “Milton”? I sometimes read Hymnody in the morning. Excellent hymns seem to satisfy my poetic jones. This morning while reading Blake’s “Milton” I discovered it is the source for the hymn, “And did those feet in ancient time.” You know, the “Chariots of Fire” hymn.

“Chariots of fire” is actually a Blakian phrase from his poem. I then turned to book on hymnody  I have been reading once in a while (An Annotated Anthology of Hymns edited by J. R. Watson) . I was curious what the scholar Watson had to say about this hymn.

It is specifically an nationalistic English hymn.  These words are not in the American Episcopal hymnal, but its tune, Jerusalem, is. “Jerusalem” is the name of another Blake opus. Watson enlightened me that that the reason the hymn tune was named for a different Blake poem can be traced to Percy Dearmer, the great English church music dude. Commenting on Parry’s tune, Dearmer said that “Parry had made a tune so exalted, and fitting so marvelously with the words, that Blake’s Jerusalem had become possible for an ordinary congregation.”

Watson says that though Dearmer was mistaken about which poem was being represented, he “was definitely right in other respects.”

So Jupe tries to start out his day not being religious in his reading and is dragged into church stuff anyway. What the heck.

My brother gave me a copy of Puma by Anthony Burgess for Christmas. I am finding it delightful. Burgess is a life long passion of mine. I have read many if not most of his books. Now, the University of Manchester is reissuing his books in scholarly editions in a line they call the Irwell Editions . The name comes from an idea Burgess himself had about just such a collection of editions he speculated about but never brought to fruition.

The edition is a gas! There are extensive footnotes which explain many things. I seem to be in love with footnotes in general at this stage of my life. To learn more about Burgess and his opus via footnotes combines two of the pleasures of my life.

The book Mark gave me, Puma, forms a third of a book by Burgess I have read called The End of the World News.

The title comes from a phrase Burgess heard used by a BBC news announcer at the end of the broadcast of the World news. The book is three narratives inter-weaved.  Burgess who apparently despised waste had revived a work he created in preparation for a movie script. When asked to do movie scripts, his first step was to write a book. This was preparation for a screen treatment or screen play.  Stanley Zanuck approached Burgess about working on a science fiction movie. The result was a book length novel which is now called Puma. But this book was not published in Burgess’s lifetime as it first appeared by his hand. Instead, it saw the light of day as part of The End of the World News . Burgess himself describes this book as “… a television series, the libretto of a musical, and a science fiction novel. I had really written a tripartite novel in a form appropriate to the television age.”

So reading Puma on its own is a much different experience than reading it as part of The End of the World News and I am loving it!

Burgess seems to be a type I don’t come across so much any more: highly educated, articulate, witty, and dissatisfied with the status quo, be it the academy or the market place of art and/or ideas. I have already ordered two more books from reading the footnotes.

I have read Burgess’s two volume autobiography twice. I was delighted to find the editor of Puma referring to a bio of him that I did not know. I look forward to reading it.

The footnotes and introduction of Puma keep mentioning a book by Burgess I had never head of entitled, New York. Apparently it is a Time-Life book for which he wrote the text. My used copy is on its way.

My cool new Bose speaker arrived in the mail yesterday.

I am feeling very spoiled!

Minnesota Town Defamed by German Reporter Is Ready to Forgive – The New York Times

NYTimes: New Life for Old Classics, as Their Copyrights Run Out

He Was a Gay Man on Staff at a Catholic Parish. Then the Threats Began Coming In.

Tough times for gay Roman Catholics.

A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident?

This looks like excellent journalism to me. I have read about a third of it so far. I’m still figuring out how to keep informed. The New York Times doesn’t seem to have quite figured out how to move to in the Internet. Neither does any other news source that I can access. But their reporting can be state of the art. This looks like one of those.

We are now  back to Holland. It was good to spend time with the fam.

Last night we all went to see the new movie, “The Favourite.” I was surprised that I enjoyed it so much. It’s probably good for me to have low expectations when I go see a movie. Eileen and I have difficulty finding movies that look interesting to us. This time I was glad to accompany my fam no matter the flick.

The plot centered around three women, Queen Anne, her advisor, Sarah Churchill, and Abigail Hill… You can see them in the picture above. Hill is combing Anne’s eyelashes and Churchill seems to be measuring something in this photo (which does not come from the movie but I found intriguing).

The story is very loosely based on history. I would like to see it again. The actress playing the Queen (Olivia Colman) gives a stellar performance encompassing royal madness and decay.

I would definitely recommend seeing this movie. I’m still thinking about it and those are the movies and books and poems and music I like: the ones that stick with me. In the meantime, I am beginning to think one weak part of the movie was the ending. The plot ties together nicely at the end but the director cannot resist some artsy photography as the scene slowly dissolves and you begin to realize the movie is over. I think it detracts from the beauty of the rest of the film. But what do I know?

The answer to the question “What do I know?” for Jupe seems to be “less and less” even as I indulgently delve into the world of ideas and beauty. Maybe that’s part of aging for me. It’s part of my personality my therapist has pointed out to me: my lack of awareness of my own intelligence.

I think this lack sometimes helps me gain insights. As Leonard Cohen puts it “He was starving in some deep mystery Like a man who is sure what is true” (from The Master Song). I’m the man who is not sure.

The Trial by Zbigniew Herbert 

“… when I wake I don’t open my eyes
I clench my fingers don’t lift my head
breathe lightly because truly I don’t know
how many minutes of air I still have left”

I read this poem this morning and quite liked it.

Then there was this one:

This Little Island by James Longenbach 

“…you’ve been young for a long time,

An embarrassingly long time.

Look what you wrote!

Remember how much, despite

Your ridiculous behavior, you’ve been loved.”

The Jenkins Christmas in Chelsea is coming along nicely. The conversation and food has been great! Yesterday all of Mark’s fam came together for a meal and to exchange gifts. They had already done so as a family on Christmas eve so it wasn’t too crazy.

Everyone has mentioned how happy they are about my  beating the cancer thing.

I am getting some good relaxing and resting in. Unfortunately, I think I am gaining about two pounds a day. I am certainly eating well!

Leigh got one of these cool little speakers for Christmas. It sounds great! I ordered one this morning.

I have been trying to catch up on my poetry reading. I ran across a poet I like quite a bit, Jane Wong.

Here are links to two of her poems.

After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly by Jane Wong | Poetry Magazine

Everything by Jane Wong | Poetry Magazine