Marianne profile picture

Marianne

If we're not supposed to dance, why all this music? -- Gregory Orr

About Me


EQUITANCE
In the dark, like a couple of
eight-year-old refugees
adrift in a backyard of june bugs,
you cup your hand around a flashlight
and show me the red and red of you
bone and sinew, knuckle like a donut.
I like the crimson lines between
and the levin that blinds me
when your fingers shift apart.
This is the drumbeat,
batik cloth after the boiling,
exposing the roots of ourselves
through the pitch and whispered hours.
We trace secrets on each other’s skin.
The light inside our house grows pale
a soft exhale after parsley.
Click the flashlight off, my love,
and listen to the dulcimer strings
of the long day slowing.
Later we'll scratch out a poem,
a quatrain of arms and legs;
after too long in the cupboard
certain words are getting soft.
Love...
...is love...
...is love...
...is love.
Isn't that what family's about?

My Interests

CURRENT MOON moon phase info

I REVEL IN: humor (whimsical, wry, or intelligent) poetry, the GLBT community, tarot, mother nature, metaphysics, beadwork/jewelry making, reading, long drives, essential conversation, beauty, family, my friends

IN THE GARDEN

There was this joke floating around for awhile, about how medicine has changed through the past four thousand years. It began something like this:

“Here, eat this root.”
“That root is heathen, say this prayer.”
“That prayer is superstitious, drink this potion.”
“That potion is hooey, swallow this pill.”
“That pill is ineffective, take this antiobiotic.”
“That antibiotic is artificial, here, eat this root.”

Herbs, roots, leaves, and bark flavor our food, soothe our skin, even provide essential medicine. They also have their magical uses, which steps outside the comfort zone of traditional medicine. In part because of the bad reputation the healers of old received. Any wisening woman was suspected and often feared. That whole “eye of newt” thing. Irony, and fallacy, is that rarely were ingredients as suspicious and nefarious as they sounded to the passerby. Here is a short list of folk names and their more common name. Imagine, hearing someone preparing a brew of fresh young eyes!

all heal – valerian
bad man’s plaything – yarrow
birds eye – pansy
cat’s foot – ivy
drunkard – marigold
eyes – daisy
gin plant – juniper
gooseleek – daffodil
jove’s nuts – oak
juno’s tears – vervain
lady’s laces – dodder
lizzy-run-up-the-hedge – ivy
mosquito plant – pennyroyal
old lady – elder
old man – mugwort
rabbits – toadflax
snakebite – plantain
true love – trillium
wintersweet – marjoram

I'd like to meet:



• Susan, for essential conversation over tea
• Sandi, so we can laugh our asses off
• Louise, for a hundred missed hugs
• Rose, as she was, to go nickel-tricking
• Robbie, to send messages into the ethers
• Raven, to explore lunacy and wholeness
• My thread sisters, for a circle of dancing
• Mike, for a long drive on a quiet road
• Brad, for a walk in the snowy woods
• Markus, for a day of train rides
• Will, for window-shopping and being giggly
• Rick, to read excerpts together
• Cain and Josh, for slide-shows and sangria
• John, for coffee, poetry and jazz
• AJ, for a grilled cheese lovefest, baby
• Danny, to visit the Seattle Art Museum in bowlers
• Kirstin, because she seems a sweetheart
• Dave, to show me his New York
• Stephen, to see what he sees through his lens
• Tony & Dylan because romance is timeless
• Shawn, to have a discussion in music
• Dale, for Mexican food and dirty jokes
• Nan, for one of our Saturdays
• A Witte, Keane, Nunes, Olmsted, Wade Christmas
• Al and Maggie, to finally unite the triumvirate
• Peggy, Pat, Janie, Debra, Philip, Kit, Rand, Amy. Poetry!
• Matt, because of who he is, not whom he loves
• And finally Nick...seriously, next door. Sheesh.

Blessings in My Life

AJ

Brad

Cain

Danny

Dave

Debra

Dylan

Janie

Jess

John

Josh

Julian

Kirstin

Maggie

Matt

Nick

Philip

Ste

Tony

Will

View All of My Friends

Music:

GROUPS: Brian Barber Trio, Chicago, Cream, Creedance Clearwater Revival, Crosby Stills & Nash, Deep Forest, Dixie Chicks, Doobie Brothers, Eagles, Pretenders, R.E.M., Scissor Sisters, Steppenwolf, Sukay, Traffic, Vanilla FudgeLADIES: Joan Armatrading, Tracy Chapman, Paula Cole, Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow, Blossom Dearie, Dido, Julia Fordham, Norah Jones, Janis Joplin, Sarah McLachlin, Natalie Merchant, Loreena McKennitt, Joni Mitchell, Anna Nalick, Laura Nyro, Joan Osborne, Bonnie Raitt, Linda Ronstadt,GENTLEMEN: Dave Brubeck, Michael Buble;, Harry Chapin, John Coltrane, Jamie Cullum, Peter Gabriel, Johnny Hartman, Eric Himan, Earl Klugh, Stever Miller, Thelonious Monk, Tom Petty, Robert Palmer, Seal, Sting, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young

Movies:

MY PERSONAL FIFTY FAVORITES:
• 84 Charing Cross Road • Barefoot in the Park • Big Chill • Bridges of Madison County • Color Purple • Defending Your Life • The Doctor • Desk Set • Ever After • The Family Stone • Four Seasons • Fried Green Tomatoes • The General’s Daughter • Harry Potter (x4) • Heartburn • Hunt for Red October • Inn of the Sixth Happiness • The Last of the Mohicans • Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring • Men of Honor • Moonstruck • ‘night Mother • Norma Rae • Out of Africa • Outbreak • Parenthood • Passion Fish • The Pelican Brief • Postcards from the Edge • Practical Magic • Prelude to a Kiss • Presidio • Rob Roy • Romancing the Stone • Sense and Sensibility • Shawshank Redemption • Shirley Valentine • Sneakers • Sound of Music • Steel Magnolias • Stepmom • Terms of Endearment • The Thomas Crowne Affair • Tombstone • Truly, Madly, Deeply • Witches of Eastwick

Television:

Brothers & Sisters, The Closer, Medium, Criminal Minds, Ghost Whisperer, Numbers. I've got most Charmed episodes, will always watch a MASH re-run, and I'll tape CSI while watching Grey's Anatomy. When I had cable, I watched Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Absolutely Fabulous and Queer as Folk. I was hooked on Gilmore Girls until the writing and/or production staff changed this season and mucked up the show beyond redemption.

Books:

Authors are easier; the list of books would topple my page:

• Margaret Atwood • Rob Byrnes • Michael Connelly • Rick Copp • E. E. Cummings • Nelson DeMille • Janet Evanovich • Michael Thomas Ford • Dick Francis • Dean James • Faye Kellerman • Jonathan Kellerman • C. S. Laurel • David Levithan • me (yes, I enjoy my own novels) • Michael Nava • Dorothy Parker • Robert B Parker • Sylvia Plath • Lev Raphael • Rick Reed • Rainer Maria Rilke • Anne Sexton • Nancy K Shapiro

LOVE BREAKS DOWN BARRIERS

Heroes:

My sister Nan, and my friends Shawn and Ali, who make manifest the best of what it is to be a parent.

My Blog

Wide awake...unfortunately

What are one's choices at three-thirty in the morning? In a dark room it's inappropriate to make a youtube video because the light's unavailable. It's inappropriate to turn too many lights on and chas...
Posted by Marianne on Wed, 23 May 2007 12:40:00 PST

Consumption of Poetry

  I do this sometimes, I read Anne Sexton in a chunk.   It doesn't do to read certain poets, their collected works, in a single sitting. It's like eating an entire tray of baklava, or the w...
Posted by Marianne on Sat, 07 Apr 2007 05:19:00 PST

In the wee, small hours.

  I fell asleep at eight last night, wrapped in a comforter, feet next to the plug-in, unable to feel warm. When the cold is internal, makes even a powerful heater ineffective. More snow ove...
Posted by Marianne on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 02:51:00 PST

Life In a Snowglobe

The fire hydrant's nearly covered, just robotic round yellow head sticking out above the white. I'm waiting for the plows to come down our street. They did earlier, when Rand's snore woke me at 4:30...
Posted by Marianne on Sat, 03 Feb 2007 05:15:00 PST

damn damn double damn

I'm on the Mac, which means no bells and whistles, no graphics, no font selection. Just me, the words, the mood. I yelled tonight. Again. Followed by crying. (Mine, not his.) I came upstairs spindle...
Posted by Marianne on Mon, 15 Jan 2007 06:25:00 PST

Bring Back Playland by the Beach

I prefer the circular rides. The octopus-type with the car that rises and falls, and on occasion spins in a circle while it rises and falls, and the whole thing rotates, so for a few minutes I spin a...
Posted by Marianne on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 03:00:00 PST

Supporting Gay Kisses

Well, I was less calm yesterday when I wrote the letter below and sent it to youtube.   Actually, I was more perplexed than upset.  Vexed and nonplussed. I genuinely don't get it. ...
Posted by Marianne on Mon, 11 Dec 2006 05:44:00 PST

on The Big Hurt

My mother remained functional, with her husband's help. Which was laughable because the man was no titan. His memory had been selective for twenty-five years. Hers just became full of holes. Towar...
Posted by Marianne on Sun, 19 Nov 2006 05:32:00 PST

a bit of fun during a Saturday night lull

  It's Saturday night, Sean's away at his grandmother's house, Rand's catching up on ITT homework, and I'm relegated to using the Mac.  I say that like it's a bad thing. I do still have grea...
Posted by Marianne on Sun, 05 Nov 2006 06:13:00 PST

on frolicking around the spice rack

  Anne Sexton wrote: "Loving me with my shoes off means loving my long brown legs, sweet dears, as good as spoons; and my feet, those two children let out to play naked." I began second-guessing ...
Posted by Marianne on Fri, 03 Nov 2006 03:15:00 PST