Maggie's Farm

It's not about God. but it is wonderful. Even tho I can't think of anyone I would send it to...Personally, locked in the 13th century as I am, true love is all about anticipation, not retrospective maundering...

Anonymous, like you I see these sonnets as "universal expressions".

As for the critics you cite, I hope that some day, when I am pushing up the daisies, twits with axes to grind don't say that all my love letters and poems were written to a girl! It is so tedious pondering the obsession with the idea that a man can only love a boy! One would hope that we have progressed from the Greeks...Call me narrow-minded, call me dull, but it seems to me that grownups should only make love to grownups. When they don't, it is rightly prosecuted as a crime.

Not to mention, what inadequate man can only love someone way younger than themself? Could it be that it is more about power and influence than l'amour??

The thing I love about the internet stuff is that it's easier to find a specific book or a passage quickly. Trying to find some poetry in the playroom today and completely flummoxed by husband having double shelved all my poetry, theology, psychology, anthropoklogy, French and English novels, etc. to make space for his business and photography collection. Once the real books get messed up, it is near impossible to find one you just have to have. Of course, I like to gloat over my hoard, like a dragon on their pile of treasure.

One problem for me, as I need stronger and stronger reading glasses, is that my favorite editions of various books become more and more tiring to read. Hence my infatuation with electronic media!

My kids, like anonymous', love their real books, spend a fortune on them, and their favorite Christmas presents are the Folio society editions their doting daddy buys them of special favorites. They are surrounded by leather bound inherited first editions of same in varying stages of preservation and decay here, so they critique bindings and paper and type face, but they do cherish their books.

Habu, you are too kind, thanks. I was raised by a daddy who never ceased to lament that I was like him in all respects but the most crucial one, being born a mere female. He used to howl that his son was a complete disappointment, but he could not just settle for the fact that certain of the family talents and drives had been "wasted" on a female. I received much paternal advice on the importance of deferring to males, never arguing, etc. and this made me a tad cranky. The feminine virtues most often preached to me were those of submissiveness and agreeableness.. When, of course, reading and studying and arguing and debating and writing were life's blood to me.

I was reminded of this while watching our new kitten this week. She is a bundle of ginger fluff, all affection one second with needle sharp claws slashing one the next, tearing about the room, then falling asleep exhausted in one's arms. This week I began opining pompously to the children "I've raised many cats, and I think this is not a female. It acts too male. It is too aggressive, too athletic, it doesn't submit to the older female cat. It doesn't seem female." Of course, this was nonsense, only made possible by the difficulty of sexing very young kittens. It just reminded me how chauvinist one can be without realizing. The point to this is that, to this day, even in middle age, I frequently worry that I come across as a bitch or a man-hater if I am even moderately assertive...I do envy you guys that declaring yourselves and standing up for what you believe is something you have been encouraged to do all your lives....

In any case, you made me realize that it's time for me to dust off and give some exercise to some of those other personalities...