Monthly Archives: May 2020

Unknown's avatar cedbrownsaid 8:07 am on May 30, 2020  

Birds.

Eastern Bluebird. Photo by Andy Morffew.

The sheltering slowdown & our thicket-facing back deck allow for splendid bird watching

We’re fortunate to live in their neighborhood,
awakening to insistent chirpsong & witnessing their busy business the whole day through

Inhaling heavily-perfumed humidity,
we blow good luck kisses to swooping bright cardinals, our reincarnated family reassuring us in these trying times

We note nesting robins & stacatto-necked sparrows
tall athletic bluejays & black speckled woodpeckers
groundhopping wren & sultry-throated mockingbirds

We crane in ominous wonder to see
soaring high high
a wide-winged bird of prey (I couldn’t tell what)
riding the low sky currents

Wild beings they remain, not as our entertainment but a graceful reminder
to our comparatively bumbling selves
that we too are in an ecosystem
bigger than the latest videconference
& we say thank you
avians,
Amen

From the bedroom window
Unknown's avatar cedbrownsaid 2:34 pm on May 29, 2020  

Child’s Pose.

one of the good things about Balsana is that you can essentially lie despondent on the floor in near-fetal position while also increasing flexibility & restoring your mind after the seemingly never-ending barrage of racial injustices witnessed during this past week…

It’s hard to cry in this position, but you can try!
Unknown's avatar cedbrownsaid 6:47 pm on May 14, 2020  

Nightstand Book Reviews.

Support local booksellers, now more than ever!

In my determination to not ever be bored during this sheltering, the books keep a comin’. From my nightstand:

Read How Much the Heart Can Hold; Seven Stories on Love especially for Bernadine Evaristo’s (love HER!!) piece, which did not disappoint.

Bird Summons (Leila Aboulela) is a read-in-progress, a bit slow to get started but interesting enough.

Questlove’s knowledge of music and history is encyclopedic in Mo’ Meta Blues:The World According to Questlove.

Malaika Wa Azania’s Memoirs of a Born Free is a letter to the ANC about their post-apartheid failures to fulfill the promises of a new South Africa. Maybe too many day-to-day details of her life and not enough analysis?

I Can’t Date Jesus (Michael Arcenaux) is a bit too pop culture (sorry Beyh1ve) and bitchy for me, but I needed to read something smart, Black, and queer.

(Reviewed A Lucky Man here)

(Reviewed Real Life here. Still my favorite SIP read yet.)

Maisy Card’s These Ghosts Are Family has a fascinating premise but is weirdly constructed; still worth a quick read.

Happy reading!

Unknown's avatar cedbrownsaid 10:40 am on May 9, 2020  

Becoming.

There are only two people I’d probably burst into tears upon meeting: Sade and Michelle Obama. Yesterday while watching Becoming, the wonderful Netflix documentary set against the backdrop of MO’s 2018-19 book tour, it was hard to keep the tears back (and I have chronically dry eyes, y’all). I so admire her poise, integrity, courage, intelligence, and outright flava. Watching her grace in action also made me deeply sad for how low this nation has fallen from the high mark of the 2008 election and POTUS 44.

As dessert, I followed up with a few of my other favorite FLOTUS videos, here, here, and here. And this one of her hubby always gets me too.

Unknown's avatar cedbrownsaid 3:43 am on May 8, 2020  

Letter to Jimmy.

I loved reading this book, not so much because of the analysis of James Baldwin but because it felt personal, like witnessing a student talking with a mentor. It’s one of those academic books disguised as a warm, digestible memoir.

I admit that I don’t love everything that James Baldwin did or wrote, but I deeply admire his unbounded courage and outspokenness, especially as a Black gay man in the 20th Century. Because there was nothing easy about being Black and gay in the 20th Century. Not. A. D*mn. Thing.

Written by UCLA professor Alain Mabanckou