Laurel Snyder, “Paper Dolls”

This is the shape of some words,
but not just.

This resembles the story
of a girl, but not just.

This is called
making it daily.

Go ahead. Take scissors,

and with a snip, make a girl.

Might as well make many.
They’ll all look alike,

but some will hold fewer hands
than others.

You’ll see what I mean,
but not just.

Make a flurry
of paper bits that won’t

seem to end, and what else
might you have made?

From The Myth of the Simple Machines. I’ve known Laurel Snyder for a few years now, first through email and then in person when she was promoting Half-Life, the anthology of essays she edited about growing up in interfaith families. Right now, she’s getting ready for Random House to publish Up & Down the Scratchy Mountain, her first novel for young readers, and as part of the buildup to that, she’s participating in the Class of 2K8, which makes her a perfect choice to start off a new year of Beatrice posts, right?

1 January 2008 | poetry |

Hey America: It’s Christmas Time!

I pretty much have next week off from my other blogging gig, so I thought I would take advantage of my free time to hunker down with the 5-disc deluxe edition DVD of The Bronx Is Burning, ESPN’s adaptation of the Jonathan Mahler book about the 1977 New York Yankees. You couldn’t pay me to wear the Yankees “World Series Championship” hat that comes with it, but the extended interviews with Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner should be worth a look, along with all the ESPN promo clips. And, heck, put Oliver Platt and John Turturro in a miniseries and I’m pretty much sold.

Then, when my eyes get tired, I’ve still got most of the 8-CD unabridged audiobook of Christopher Lee reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Children of Hurin, imported from England to listen to. Which is funny, because—well, I loved the films and all, but I wouldn’t say I’m the biggest Tolkien fan in the world; read the books when I was in junior high, thought they were fine, never really looked back. But, come on—Christopher Lee. So that’s fun. And between that and the DVD, I ought to be suitably distracted until 2008.

21 December 2007 | gift ideas, read this |