Thanks to Libby Hall, who submitted this and says: “Taken by my nephew, Mikel D.C. Moss in France. Road sign – apparently there is a town called Paradis but it is very hard to get to. Such is the case with Paradise.”

S’il ne me restait que quelques jours à vivre
J’irais au sommet d’une montagne
Je mangerais tous les chocolats dans le magasin
Mes jours seraient précieux
Et je ne voudrais pas les gaspiller
Je parlerais à une personne intéressante
Regarderais tous les belles images du monde
Ecouterais tous les sons d’une ville
Je conduirais aux extrémités de la terre
Et à l’arrière
Je ferais tout ce que
Quelqu’un voudrait faire
Mais
En fin
Rien ne ramènerait les jours
Que j’aurai perdus avec vous

***

In the End

If I only had a few days to live
I would climb to the top of a mountain
I would eat all of the chocolates in the store
My days would be precious
And I would not waste them
I would talk to an interesting person
See all the beautiful sights of the world
Listen to all the sounds of a city
I would drive to the ends of the Earth
And back
I would do everything that
Anyone would ever want to do
But
In the end
Nothing would bring back the days
That I would loose with you

I’m always, my young fathers, out in the air,/
loving you.

or (one line without a break): I’m always, my young fathers, out in the air. Loving you.

Which do you prefer?

***

Father’s Shirt by Natalie Goldberg

Reblogged from Elizabeth Melton Parsons:

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Yesterday morning I visited one of my favorite blogs (The Top Ten of Anything and Everything) and was surprised to find a post on shoe tossing. You really need to check out this blog. He has some of the most weird, crazy, yummy and downright beautiful photos on there. You'll love it. Back to the shoe tossing. We have our own local shoe tree and I'd planned to visit to get some pictures.

Read more… 371 more words

Reblogged from Always wandering, Never lost:

I have a story about my morning that basically explains my entire life.I go to the University of Minnesota and I will be graduating on Sunday. Two days from now.

We have this tradition on campus where when you graduate, you get to throw a pair of shoes on to the shoe tree. The omen is that if you miss you fail your finals.

Read more… 200 more words

ROADSIDE AMERICA has this to say:
Shoe Trees may be the greatest embodiment of the American Spirit you can find on the highway (free of admission charge, anyway). While cultural anthropologists trumpet the aggregated populist statement of the gum wall or the gob rock, we believe Shoe Trees soar to greater heights.

A shoe tree starts with one dreamer, tossing his or her footwear-of-old high into the sky, to catch on an out-of-reach branch. It usually end there, unseen and neglected by others. But on rare occasions, that first pair of shoes triggers a shoe tossing cascade.

deceived by searchlights,
birds wake and start their singing
atop the barbed wire

to settle a bet
the guards ask an inmate priest
what ‘Santa Fe’ means

near the barbed wire fence
cactus that was only thorns
now starts to flower

beneath guard towers,
the poetry club members
read haiku, softly

from the radio
the emperor’s surrender:
knees formally set

Do they mock or teach?
Dandelions on the grave
know no bitterness

***
Here is an archival photograph of the poetry group at the Santa Fe Japanese Internment Camp. Its source is the excellent http://santafeinternmentcamp.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

You can read haiku from the internment camps here and more poetry about this historic site here.

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Glam Rocker, Ardmore, Our Lady's Island, Ireland

Rose Tattoo, New Orelans, (my friend the artist, Thomas Mann’s home)

Holy Cow and Guilty Look: Santa Fe River bed prior to restoration
(The sign cites the ordinance that all dogs must be on a leash.)

The adoption in Mexico was the crescendo culmination of a decade of infertility and loss of our infant daughter. We’d settled on an international adoption and were slogging through the litany of forms, when we received a call from a relative in El Paso, Texas.

Four weeks later, we were in the process of adopting a bossy three year old and his acutely ill eighteen-month-old little brother. Over the next seven months we visited our sons in Ciudad Juárez and played house in a hotel whenever possible. The byzantine bureaucracy overwhelmed us, but every trip brought us closer to our boys.

Then, out of desperation, I moved to one of the most violent cities in North America with the mission of creating our family while finalizing the adoption. A Latina with American bravado, I counted on taking on five agencies and two countries in forty-five days. Tops!

I spent the summer and fall isolated with our oldest pining to go back to the orphanage and spending hours in serpentine lines and sweltering lobbies for a document, a signature, or a seal. Nights were excruciating. Fear kept my senses on over time.

Five months later we returned to our northern California home relieved and excited, but contending with a myriad of emotions. I felt out of step, off kilter and kept it to myself for years until I decided to revisit my journals and write Stretch Marks.

2. The experience itself must have changed you–but can you say how writing the book changed you, or added to your understanding?

Writing Stretch Marks took almost ten years and the process forced me to reflect, go inward, and dig deeper to excavate my painful but liberating truths.

When I sent you my so-called first draft for you to edit, Miriam, I’d merely transcribed my journals into my Mac. I was in a hurry to put it behind me and hadn’t a clue what the crux of the story was truly about. It’s no wonder, that soon after, when I submitted my manuscript to agents, I received a bevy of rejections.

I understand, now that time and distance is key in order to gain perspective of the events. Also a sense of humor and compassion is crucial in setting a tone that will hook your reader.

3. Did you work from journals and notes–or letters–or just a great memory?

I’ve always kept journals, but I wrote and photographed our time in Ciudad Juárez obsessively, which helped retain my sanity, and in doing so, I chronicled each of our one hundred twenty-seven days. The boys now have a memory box, their history.

I also do have a fabulous memory, much to the chagrin of my husband and sons, but fear has a powerful way of committing itself to memory. I’d miscalculated the intense brutality the drug cartels reigning over the city and found myself barricading the front door at night with living room furniture. But, I’d also underestimated the kindness and generosity of the good citizens of Ciudad Juárez who went out of their way to help us during our bleakest moments.

4. A lot of the experience seems to have been about intimacy–how parenting is about daily details, no matter the circumstance. How did you capture that in the book?

I learned in writing classes and my writers’ group to take great care in selecting journal entries that best illustrated the joys and struggles of a family coming together while moving the story forward.

I also read, reread, and studied every memoir and writing book by Lillian Hellman, Vivian Gornick, Isabel Allende, Mary Karr, Agnus Smedley, and Marion Roach Smith.

During the past three years I worked with an editor with a keen eye for spotting where narrative could draw the reader in and help pace the story. I also expanded on scenes by adding dialogue and layers of detail, I’d previously thought was cumbersome to the reader. The most challenging was including more of my inner conflict and myself.

5. How can readers order your book?

STRETCH MARKS is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and CreateSpace in paperback and e-book.

Thanks so much, Miriam!

Liz Raptis Picco is a writer and blogger at http://www.stretchmarks.me, featuring Stretch Marks, her memoir about motherhood and adoption. Her blog showcases her guacamole with feta cheese background (Mexican mother, Greek father, raised in a border town) and offers an edgy, no-holds-barred perspective. She lives in Northern California with her family. When she’s not writing, she works as a health education consultant.