authorial confessions

seeing how even i did not really enjoy my latest published rant, i deleted it, post-haste. instead, i would like to share with you all some more authorial confessions.

1) in my great ignorance, i once publicly made fun of John Steinbeck. the following day a friend introduced me to Travels With Charley---may God forgive me. i am now a devoted fan of every word he has written.

2) given the opportunity i would make-out with Arundhati Roy: she is the only living author i have wanted to marry.

3) i have for a little more than a year had a secret crush (barely admitted even in whispers) on Gertrude Stein. i wish i could have met her if only to have asked "what the hell?"

4) under pressure i have admitted that J.K. Rowling isn't that bad. but the comparison of her with Tolkien is wildly unfair to her---she ought to be compared with Jonathan Swift (whom i personally care for a great deal less than Rowling).

5) i would rather write a thesis on the collective works of General Motors than ever be exposed to Nathaniel Hawthorne again. in my teaching i plan to pretend he never existed.

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flowers
watch
the fall
in envy
of autumn leaves
and land
as winter dreams
well fed
in the rain
of butterfly wings
the orange and yellow
of leaves
in their golden dresses
in the bluegray of her eyes
color of the ocean she possesses