a trip requires books and music.

books i brought with me to mom's:

homer's Odyssey
berry's A Place on Earth
hejinian's My Life
garcia marquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold
berry's Selected Poems
goodrich's The Unforeseen Self in the Works of Wendell Berry

books i found and bought at prairie archives in springfield:

gardner's October Light
moliere's/wilbur's The Misanthrope & Tartuffe
o'neill's Long Day's Journey into Night
alexie's The Summer of Black Widows

music for the trip down and back:

d'angelo's Voodoo
coltrane's A Love Supreme
hüsker dü's The Living End
various (motown) artists' Hitsville U. S. A., volume 1
dylan's Live 1966
lennon's Lennon Legend
bartoli's An Italian Songbook
hendrix's Electric Ladyland
eisler's/goerne's The Hollywood Songbook

wednesday and friday mornings i went for a walk down the road

past this field...

and over to new salem state park...

which is authentic historical kitsch... tastefully done...

long long ago i couldn't come here because i had a stomach ache or something... i wailed and groaned "i'll NEVER get to go to new salem"... and now i've got it all to myself... almost any old time... whenever i'm in the neighborhood...

i saw some big animals... you've got to stand next to them to understand what "big animal" means... just me and them... and the rough log fence...

and i saw...

and a summerful of queen anne's lace...

and chickory... chickory everywhere... looks like a roadside weed... but turns out kind of elegant once you get to know it...

and back in the neighborhood... a reminder of current events...

but i prefer other yard ornaments... like mom's wild... pretty... flowerpatch...

Using a camera appeases the anxiety which the work-driven feel about not working when they are on vacation and supposed to be having fun. They have something to do that is like a friendly imitation of work: they can take pictures.

Susan Sontag

 

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