Today’s poem speaks to me on a deep level. I have almost 40 blank notebooks and journals, patiently waiting on the shelf of my study for their turn to be of service.

Notebooks
—Allison Joseph

What good are notebooks?
—Talking Heads, “Life During Wartime”

I crave them as if craving something carnal,
blankness of pages erotic, clean with sensual
possibilities and ready to be dampened
by my insistent ink, swirls of language

made plain on thin blue lines taut
as tightrope. I collect them like other women
collect shoes or boyfriends, fingering pristine
pages while standing hushed in aisles

of bookstores and stationery shops,
stroking plush-covered ones with a single
finger, loving floral-print ones more
than actual flowers, needing another and

another until my house is overrun
with them, and they start arranging
cocktail hours and support groups—
for the ones I have not written in

grow lonely, and the ones managing
the burden of my desperate handwriting
need someone to talk to, peers to confide in
about these dog-eared secrets and semi-scribbled

imaginings, covert half-truths, outright lies.
How they congregate around my bed,
waiting for me to pick one up, start
another hazy page of scrawls and arrows,

cross-outs and restarts, confessions
that will never be confessions until
I judge them fit for judgment. Sometimes
when fate has flattened me with its one

hard fist, only the black-and-white
composition notebooks of childhood
will do, marbled covers unchanged
from when I first learned cursive—

one letter reaching for the next
in the crazy tilting of my untested hand.
Only those wide-ruled lines will do,
those patient beginnings.

[Image description: A stack of notebooks of various sizes and colors.]

Weekly Insight from the Oracles for January 25, 2021

The Weekly Insight from the Oracles for January 25, 2021 is live on my Patreon!

Many thanks to my amazing Patrons!

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[Image description: A teaser screenshot of this week’s Insight from the Oracles, with just a hint of the cards and runes showing.]

Today, I woke up in a country that is led by people who understand that science is good and fascism is bad. What a wonderful morning!

[Image description: A double rainbow against a blue sky, over green field with trees at the back.]

The Snow Arrives After Long Silence
—Nancy Willard

The snow arrives after long silence
from its high home where nothing leaves
tracks or strains or keeps time.
The sky it fell from, pale as oatmeal,
bears up like sheep before shearing.

The cat at my window watches
amazed. So many feathers and no bird!
All day the snow sets its table
with clean linen, putting its house
in order. The hungry deer walk

on the risen loaves of snow.
You can follow the broken hearts
their hooves punch in its crust.
Night after night the big plows rumble
and bale it like dirty laundry

and haul it to the Hudson.
Now I scan the sky for snow,
and the cool cheek it offers me,
and its body, thinned into petals,
and the still caves where it sleeps.

I find it’s easy to fall into being so caught up in the rush of daily life that I miss opportunities for small devotions. I’ve been working on slowing down (no, really, I have—there’s nothing like a set of week-old abdominal incisions from surgery to make one discover the benefits of moving at a stately pace), which has allowed me to think about what I’m doing, and how a blessing or prayer might fit with the action, no matter how minor.

I’ve actually had time to read two entire books in the last ten days! Which led me to think about ways to take the opportunity for a blessing and gratitude.

Before starting to read, I recite:

Hail, Saga! Source of all stories, and keeper of histories!
As I read these words, help me to take the time to savor and imbibe them,
Giving them due consideration and contemplation,
That their meaning and their lessons are clear and useful.

This covers a wide range of topics, both fiction and non-fiction, and is usable for pretty much any book.

You could also invoke Bragi for fiction or drama; Odin for magic and myth; Loki for psychology, technology, and communications; or any other deity you feel is a match for the book. For example, my next volume is a book on grief and mourning, so I think Hel (as the Goddess of Death) and Sigyn (as the Mourning Mother) would be fitting choices. Reading a book on gardening, plant life, or similar? Idunna would be a good fit. A book on historical women in government? Frigg, as Allmother and Sovereign, is a clear choice.

You can alter the invocation as well—if you’re about to read a novel of comic misadventure, you could mention appreciating the entertainment and the release from care for the time you read reading.

When I’m done reading, I recite:

Thank you, Saga, for this story.
May the examples and lessons stay firm in my mind,
Guiding me as I journey through my life,
Helping me to live more fully and wholly,
As the characters’ experience informs my experience.

Again, you can customize the thanks to suit the book’s subject and the deity. You can start with these examples, and let your intuition and imagination run free!

[Image description: An open book sits between two glass candle jars. Stacks of books are arranged on the surface behind it.]