This morning I turned to poetry before doing anything else. I lay in bed and read poetry by Basho and Derek Walcott on my tablet. After I got up and did my morning tasks, I continued reading poetry in real copies of Walcott, as well as poems by Hardy and Tyehimba Jess.

This is a photograph I believe of Millie and Christine McKoy. They are fictionalized in Jess’s Olio which I am reading. They are real life people. Siamese twins who were celebrated for their ability to sing. They manage to shake away the white people who were exploiting their abilities and then make a fortune for themselves. Jess’s poetry is amazing.

Today is definitely a day when I am feeling washed out from the week end. Saturday was a full day. Eileen and I went to the Farmers market, then I went and practiced organ. I made us late for leaving for the Hatch reunion. Plus as usual the reunion fell on Coast Guard Festival weekend which means driving through crazy traffic in Grand Haven.

Seeing Eileen’s extended family and being with her through this experience is both fun and also a bit stressful. It’s so much better than it used to be, but it still takes energy.

Sunday morning I went to church early enough to practice my postlude. I went through it slowly four times. Unfortunately, this didn’t seem to help when it came time to play it. I had the first two pages in very good shape, but it got harder for the last two pages. I wasn’t happy with how I performed it but by the time I got to the tricky part the congregation was ignoring me for the most part and talking loudly. Probably a good thing.

Yesterday afternoon I spent a good amount of time with Bach on the piano. I have been playing through the three part inventions (sinfonias) and finding them very satisfying to play. Then I started playing through the Goldberg variations. I played through a couple of those this morning as well. This music has the effect of calming me and strengthening me.