Suddenly, July and Summer in full swing

Lake Ontario, Fourth of July Weekend
Photo by Meghan Rose Tonery

We had the perfect holiday.  Weather, family gathering, good spirits all around. 


Content:  I think that's how I'm feeling lately.  Summer allows me to sleep soundly, but before I fall asleep I see the vexing weed of my garden.  The one I have been removing carefully from the raised bed of carrots.  I have 400 carrots, all named Jack, growing in orderly rows.  It took me three days to clear all the weeds, which is actually a cattle feed.  Its rye zone  has lasted over 100 years.It's such tedious work.  I had to switch up the weeding to other rows that were easier to clear and lay down hay to keep future weeds at bay.  The gardens look amazing this year.  I think we finally have it down.

I think this year will be the year of the tomato, like the harvest of 2012 , when I put up over 100 jars of  That'sa Good Sauce. I shared with family and friends, of course.

Right now, I have spied tiny blue lake string beans, a yellow squash that's the size of a cigarette and three yellow grape tomatoes nearing perfection!  But soon more will come.  Blossoms in abundance.  Weather is so much better this year. Although, others would say this isn't so.  There have been some fierce rainstorms that have caused a lot of damage.  We had the rain and wind, but escaped the ruin.  That was last year for us.

In my writing life, I accomplished my 12 lyric CNF essays by July.  July 3rd to be exact.  I posted my progress on Facebook.  I'm grateful to friends who gave me thumbs up.  I think going public with the challenge kept me honest. Often, I attempt the  monthly poetry challenges.  The 30X30 is difficult.  I have some friends who draft more than one a day to stockpile.  I think my personal best is 25.

I have written one poem since I finished the essays, and have revised it extensively (snip, snip, snip!).

I feel a bit wobbly now, trying to accomplish some domestic tasks and allow my self to dip into my box of dreams.  I realize that I write from my life experience, but the one who is writing isn't exactly the struggling me-- the one who worries day to day about survival.  My writer I writes with a knowledge beyond me. I realize that this may throw readers who are invested in finding the Truth/truth in poems, stories, essays. 

Some of us read to experience another life.  Some of us write to make sense of a life that doesn't quite make sense.  Some of us want love's solution.  Some of us drank too much Love Potion Number 9. Some of us just want to be tickled, or touched, or held.  I'm somewhere in that sum.

I have a GREAT idea for a play.  I have had this idea for quite a few years.  Now I think I can get it down on the page.  My challenge is to have it written and ready for a salon reading by the last weeks of August.  We'll see if I can pull this together.