Memory is the Curse of those who care

Bleah...Monday morning.

But, my mood is much better and I seem to be awake (and all body parts are still attached).

I have not been writing much lately, but the poetic lassitude seems to be based on a certain emtoional flatness I encounter every year around this time...many anniversaries, birthdays and commemorations of special events for people whom I care of and for but are no longer in my life just reminds me of their absence.

I once wrote the line "memory is the curse of those who care" in my poem "Virgin's Dawn" and it is so true. If I had to make a list of my ten most profound lines in my poetry, that one would certainly be on the list...memory is fine if you are dispassionate, but when the memory invokes heartache or misery, that's a different ball of gall.

Of course, yesterday my old friend Bob Wasson told me he'd be reading my blog and noticed how busy I have been. Maybe my lack of creativity is more a function of I am temporarily diverted onto structuralizing existing projects rather than summoning new djinni? Another question to be resolved in time.

Went nuts yesterday, trying to select a gift for an acquaintance who is having a birthday. I had promised a book. Now, which one?

PANTHEON? Perhaps, but maybe she'd read that as a come-on and while she is most interesting, I'd hate to make her think the only reason I hang with her is an attraction on than plane.

FROM AN UNEXPECTED QUARTER? No, no, no. It has she-who-must-not-be-named on the cover and has too many erotic works (see reason for rejecting PANTHEON, above) and, besides, I was never 100% happy with some of the pieces that were slapdash added to that volume, why give a gift I am not that proud of?

THE COMPLEAT PANTHER CYCLES? God, no. No. No. Maybe. While it still carries the romantic/erotic tinge of PANTHEON and FAUQ, it is just such a fine book, able to impress on its own merits.

THE MORGANTOWN SUITE POEMS. Hmmm...leading contender. Not overtly romantic/erotic. Nice flavour to it.

Okay, my mind is not made up, but I am closer to deciding. I'd say 75% chance of 'Morgantown and 25% chance of 'Panther.