Sunday, January 29, 2012

A Life

Today I Saw Two Pink Flamingos, 2012

It was dark and silent when I realized I was awake. I was holding two socks in my right hand, beneath my pillow. Wearing socks to bed on a cold night always seems a good idea, until it isn't. I inevitably wake with my socks removed.

I wrote this down in the library, the branch that inspired Richard Brautigan's fictional library of unpublishable books.

There was an old Mason jar filled with paperwhites placed atop a shelf neatly stacked with various newspapers and Chinese magazines. I couldn't stop looking at the flowers, and the jar. I'd never seen fresh flowers in a library. They changed the space in the most positive of ways.

I was also surprised by the number of people without keyboards before them, and the library quiet of the past.

A hardcover titled Paris Trout seemed to scream from the shelf across from my table. The title font was enormous and slanted to the right, as if in action. Freedom sat on a shelf to my left. I guessed its days of having a queue were over.

Still holding my socks I thought of a sentence Annie Dillard had written. I'd found it the night before, in the form of a note in one of my old journals.
I hear the river outside the window, if I remember to listen.
My river was the moan of the distant foghorn. It was dependable, except on those days that decided to turn blue.

Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard

24 comments:

  1. somehow i never take off my socks at night, but maybe that is because i don´t share my bed with somebody else. the thought of flowers in a library is a most beautiful one - i´ll put some on my bookshelf immediatly.

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  2. I like that you kept hold of your socks, though you pulled them off your feet in your sleepiness. It's like you were thinking, "I don't want you there, but stay close, okay?"

    Love that Annie Dillard quote.

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  3. So funny. I always lose my socks during the night as well. However, I don't hold on to them - I find them everywhere!

    Books and flowers - the best combination.

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  4. You conjure up the pleasure of the library perfectly.

    I awoke about 3am last night, in haste to remove my socks.

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  5. I love that quote, and I wholeheartedly agree with Tracy.

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  6. me too.
    I like the idea of flowers in the library....
    and I wear socks to bed and inevitably take them off ... I usually hide them under my pillow.

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  7. I like the image of a library without keyboards. And a library with flowers. The librarian at my boys' school does a lot of creative things with her space - even has a gingerbread house there in december...

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  8. What a great quote, a good mantra to stay observant, grateful, present. Even though I feel I'm one to naturally do this, it's always a good reminder. Thank you.

    Too warm for socks these nights, we need a rain dance.

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  9. I love the quote. If only we always remember to listen. Lovely.

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  10. I love flamingos and the photo caught my eye right away. Oh so true with the socks, wore some last night and woke up with one on and one off. Fresh flowers brighten up every space,always try to have then at the house... until the cats start to eat them:( You really inspire me Dene!

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  11. Teaching a Stone To Talk is my favourite Annie Dillard book.

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  12. Fresh flowers in the library - how wonderful; and a distinct lack of keyboards - even more wonderful. Your waking clutching your socks seems sweetly amusing. My son always starts off wearing socks, then come morning he's tucked them under his pillow...

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  13. i think annie dillard was one of my first true literary loves. the first few pages of tinker creek always catch me in the right ways. happy winter to you.

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  14. And I thought I was the only one who wore socks so bed and took them off. I'm the same with pyjama trousers too. How I long for your old fashioned library where people favour the printed page and there are fresh flowers. I love the way you bring all these different strands together like stringing pearls on a necklace and realise how much I've missed your writing. I'm also jealous that you can remember sentences in books you've read; I used to learn poems to recite to myself but haven't done it in ages.

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  15. You've set off a little catherine wheel of thought with this lovely writing. Instead of socks, I have a hot water bottle. Sometimes I wake from a discomforting dream with the sensation of hot, heavy cat on my feet. Downsides to all these warming techniques I fear.

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  16. Michele, I see "Dene" and I pause... This must be the Michele I originally met in Manzanita. Hi!

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  17. I always start with my socks on, but end up taking them off sometime in the night. I love the description of the flowers in the library. What a wonderful smell among the books!

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  18. all of this unexpectedly leaves me with a fresh idea; a story made up from book titles only... strange.
    n♥

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  19. You have such an ability to pull me into your writing.

    And that quote..."I hear the river outside the window, if I remember to listen."...a simple, yet powerful commentary isn't it?

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