Oh, hi friends!
We’re here! We did it!
What are you leaving behind this week?
What are you taking into the weekend?
What did you unexpectedly accomplish?
What can you save until Monday?
Close down today in whatever way you need.
This week everyone is talking about the estate sale of Joan Didion’s personal belongings, and I also saw A Year of Magical Thinking, so here’s a poem I wrote yesterday, for you:
Buying Joan Didion's Notebooks
If you buy Joan Didion's notebooks,
will they contain the key? They are
blank, unmarked, covered in plastic,
like they just bounced off the store shelf,
but maybe those empty pages
hold a coded message.If only you look closely,
beyond the leather-like cover,
beyond the fine ivory stock,
beyond the thin black lines,
a directive from her awaits.If you buy Joan Didion's notebooks,
will your writing selves merge?
Incisive, precise, crystalline
prose. Oh, who knows.
Why didn't she fill them?
She ran out of words. No.
She ran out of ideas. Surely not.
Maybe she bought too many or
maybe she thought she'd live
long enough to crack their spines.Maybe there's a lesson then.
Do not extinguish your savings
to buy Joan Didion's notebooks,
but write with fire in the ones
you already call your own.
Speaking of poetry, the form has been on my mind more since subscribing to the wonderful newsletter Sonia’s Poem of the Week, which features one good poem a week and insightful commentary by Sonia Feldman. It reminds me to read more slowly and carefully and is a treat to receive in my inbox. Subscribe here!
One Last Good Read for the Week
I’m obsessed with the 90-minute story. Obsessed. Everyone’s like, “It’s the golden age of TV!” Who has the time? In 90 minutes or two hours, I want to meet characters, understand a world, go on a journey and land somewhere that’s slightly different from the beginning. I want to feel something and laugh, then walk away and talk about it with my wife. That’s it.
From this profile from the always-fun Mike Birbiglia, whose new Broadway show The Old Man and the Pool is running now. I like his commitment to doing what he wants to do, not what someone else thinks he should do.
Have a great weekend, friend. See you Monday.