L'aura del Campo

Haggis and Romance novels ...

L'aura del campo

WINTER: 11 Sultan (29 January) 25º on a sunny morning.

'é a lua, é a lua, na quintana dos mortos'
♣ Federico García Lorca ♣

Haggis

Ingredients: water, lamb hearts, oats, pork fat, lamb liver, pork, salt, natural flavors, dehydrated onion. (nothing artificial in this product from Stahly Quality Foods of Fife, Scotland.)

Serving suggestions: traditionally, haggis is eaten with mashed potatoes and turnip (rutabaga). For ultimate enjoyment this dish should be washed down with a glass of Scotch whisky. Use as a stuffing for poultry or game. As a snack, serve on hot buttered toast with melted cheese. Also makes an interesting base for canapes. Or how about haggis with fries?

Recipe: Haggis Jacobean

Place 2-3 oz haggis in an individual serving dish. Add an extra teaspoonful of whisky and heat in oven or microwave until piping hot. Serve with a generous portion of fresh cream.

Nutrition: 290 calories per serving (160 from fat; 27% daily value 43% saturated fat daily value) Sodium 35% D.V.; Cholesterol 18% D.V.; Dietary fiber 7% D.V.; Iron 6% D.V. That's per half cup = 126 grams.

Not exactly the most healthy food is it? Of course, I had to have some! I liked it. Kinda has the consistency of dog food. Not as smelly. I like lamb, heat, liver, oats; so, no problem with the ingredients.

Would I eat it again? Yep. I would also eat more of the 'tablet' which was sweet with the taste of almonds.

There was a Scottish Festival at the Art Center Sunday night while my writing class was meeting. We endured the bagpipes and all these men running around in plaid skirts (okay ... kilts ... but they look like skirts and swish like skirts ...). One line of my heritage goes back to Britain, but we don't where. That family name belongs to Clan Fraser (that tartan is mostly orange, red, yellow).

Me?

I did okay this weekend. No anxiety nor depression and no one pushing my buttons.

I saw Rodney ... before the police came with 5 cars to pick him up on a warrant ... so that was good.

No one died or got beaten up that I know of. No one called me names or threatened me. Jonathan threw a pencil at me, but that was cool because I needed one.

Tonight I sat down with Erin, who I'd met once before through Kylie, and gave her a booklet of my poetry. She is struggling with Spanish 216, which I tutored last semester, but they changed the books. Argh.

Erin's major is Anthropology and Biology and she is hoping to go into Public Health. So she and I had a GOOD talk!

Too much coffee today? Prolly too much. I just toasted a bagel and hopefully that helps.

Watt's Gnu

Sleepy?

http://food.yahoo.com/blog/beautyeats/746/top-10-foods-for-a-good-night-s-sleep

The above link lists ten foods to eat before bedtime:

chamomile tea, warm milk, bananas, turkey, honey, wheat bread, flax seed, almonds, potatoes, oatmeal.

So my bagel doesn't count .

But this poetic sketch might:

February

Sunshine slants over these old hardwood floors
and the soft rays of dawn strengthen till noon
with long fingers melting ice with its touch,
probing the shadows and hollows of night.

Your soft rays of dawn strengthen till noon
awaken the neurons deep in my brain
shed light on those cobwebs, dance with dust motes,
lighten the load of depressing short days.

Long fingers melt my ice with your touch,
stirring the hope, that wells up from depths,
that I've lived through this passage, small death,
and your warmth hails the promise of spring.

Probing my shadows, my hollows, my night
eroding sharp edges of stone off my heart
you quick slip away to set at the dusk,
returning tomorrow to greet me again.

[163.563]

Do you see how this might be a modified lilibonelle?

The following sketch needs work, but I was trying a concept that alfred booth, wanbli ska suggested:

The Zen Center's ghosts

Here lie the bones behind stone walls
atoned now, alone through this night.

Behind stone walls secrets call out;
they crawl down the hall out of sight.

Atoned now, awash in the glow,
Buddha's veranda welcomes a

Lonely long nightfall, the right hand
of might, the enlightened left palm.

[163.564]

Argh, 'twas a difficult assignment. I further modified it, of course. Never like to do things as told!

The first stanza has the repetition of bones/stone/-toned/'lone, the second: walls/call/crawl/hall, the third: a-/the/-a's/-a (an unaccented syllable best described as 'uh'), the fourth: night-/right/might/-light-.

It's supposed to become a longer Than Bauk written in couplets. Stanzas 2,3,4 begin with parts 2,3,4 of stanza one, kinda like the lilibonelle! Still awkward ...

Weather has been cold but nice. Sunny yesterday. Better winter now than on the 4th of July! My mother said there were flakes in the air when I was 5 years old and going up to Blumen's for the fireworks ...

IMAGES

Added at 10 pm (after the first 11 comments!): scattered bricks, blocks of concrete, brown bagged bottles; sidewalks unshoveled, unsalted, now refrozen, slick; 3/4 moon waxing high in the sky, north of Orion; the moonlight on ripples of ice; South Park lit up like a carival circus; the porch-light on at the back of a friend's house.

READING

I grabbed two books of poetry to read: I think I am going to call my wife Paraguay by David Kirby and Dailies and Rushes by Susan Kinsolving.

My friend Hub reads about 500 romance novels a year and I mentioned to him that I'm going to make a random pile of them and write down the titles ... If I need 20 lines, 20 will do. I could title it: "Romance found in Hubbard's Cupboard" or something equally absurd and then write 20 more poems, one each per title. That would give me a small chapbook to dedicate to him and a present for his birthday June 3rd when he turns the big Six-oh!

Oh, the pain of it ... Laugh. I don't read romance novels myself; although, I did read "Outside In" by Beverly Sommers last week at Hub's request and it was quite good.

Prosperous Snow celebrating inspired the above comment I left in one of her blog entries.

Oh ... Hub just gave me twenty books! Could I work with these lines?

Looking for Mr. Claus
Texas Pride
Night of the Phantom
Romeo in the Rain
Against All odds

Child of the Night
The End of the Rainbow
The Knight, the Waitress and the Toddler
What to do about Baby
Angel of Darkness

Her Destiny
Revenge
Once Bitten, Twice Shy
Loveable Katie Lovewell
Married by a Thread

Viking magic
A Man to Trust
The twelve-month Marriage
Prodigal Father
The Playboy and the Widow

Now about Hub ... imagine a husky bearded viking who drove cab for years at night in the inner city, who has a degree in business ed and there you are! But ... he loves his romance novels .

Quote

A man may conquer thousands and thousands of invincible foes but that is of no real consequence; his greatest victory is when he conquers only his own self through indomitable courage.

from Excellence in Jainism

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