31 Comments

So haunting--from very first image to the interplay of poetry to the revelatory wisdom... "No one can provide anyone else perfect safety. But two people may provide moments of perfection that build on one another..." Love seeing this sensibility at work! 💜

Expand full comment

Love seeing you here. Since finding you via Kimberly Warner, you have become one of my favorite writers on women and relationships and much more. Thank you. lovely.

Expand full comment

This is another wonderful chapter. I love how fairy tales, food and family memories keep getting revisited and used to explore old and new loves. K, my partner for 21 years, had his birthday on 3rd August... oh, those Leo men!

Expand full comment

Oh, these Leo men, indeed. D.: Leo.

Expand full comment

"No one can provide anyone else perfect safety. But two people may provide moments of perfection that build on one another and that give them a sense of connection in the world, the sense, the belief that “again” will occur, with all the risks of existence, with all the changeable nature of the all too human."

great stuff right there

Expand full comment

Fab. What a reader you are.

Expand full comment

god i hope you arent giving me too much credit (wink(

Expand full comment

"We are blind when we believe we know the other’s story." - this line really hit me in the feels, Mary. It is such a profound truth and requires a great deal of humility to acknowledge how little we really know of others.

Expand full comment

Oh, Matthew, as you know, I so agree but more key is to tell you how grateful I am that you took the time to not only read, but to comment with such wisdom and feeling. Heart to heart, ~Mary

Expand full comment

He responds to the story, responding to you. Beware the snake indeed!

Expand full comment

Will take care, for sure.

Expand full comment

This is wonderful, with all the erudition leading to insight. And I love the use of the Cinderella story.

Expand full comment

You give me courage, Jeff, because you keep reading and commenting with heart.

Expand full comment

“We are blind when we believe we know the other’s story.”

Being on the other side of that is so disheartening. Reading this, validating that it occurs, lifted my spirits. I love this chapter, and yet I’m dying to know so much more….

Expand full comment

So glad—and much more to come! Your comment lifts my spirits.

Expand full comment

Watching each other undress cannot reveal each story. We are all alone.

Expand full comment

Another wise comment. Thank you, Bill.

Expand full comment

Beautiful. I love(d) a man who had strong opinions on Wallace Stevens. He could spend hours ranting about "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"

Expand full comment

One of my absolute favorite poems, Alicia. So glad to have you back reading, my love!

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Wallace Stevens

I

Among twenty snowy mountains,

The only moving thing

Was the eye of the blackbird.

II

I was of three minds,

Like a tree

In which there are three blackbirds.

III

The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.

It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV

A man and a woman

Are one.

A man and a woman and a blackbird

Are one.

V

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of inflections

Or the beauty of innuendoes,

The blackbird whistling

Or just after.

VI

Icicles filled the long window

With barbaric glass.

The shadow of the blackbird

Crossed it, to and fro.

The mood

Traced in the shadow

An indecipherable cause.

VII

O thin men of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?

Expand full comment

"O thin men of Haddam,

Why do you imagine golden birds?

Do you not see how the blackbird

Walks around the feet

Of the women about you?"

I want to say two things: I have not taken the time to decrypt this poem, but... there is majesty in those lines. Sometimes that is enough for me. Do not report me to the poetry teacher.

Expand full comment

Wondrous! Thank you, Adam, my virtual friend and grand writer.

Expand full comment

First poem of Stevens I ever read. Intrigued me from the get go.

Expand full comment

I'm so glad. Fab comment, much appreciated. I have the sense that we'll connect further through poetry and the love of literature--and I so hope from this memoir, as well. ~ Mary

Expand full comment

So glad to have found your writing ✍️❤️

Expand full comment

And me to have found yours. 💕

Expand full comment

Wow, that was an incredible read Mary! ❤️ After reading it, I giggled and thought- Who else but my Mary L. Tabor has communication exchanges quoting, the sonnet in Act I of Romeo and Juliet?

I adore you

Expand full comment

You are such a love, Debbie. big xo ~ Mary

Expand full comment

"Nietzsche, Match.com, a Chinese buffet in Sarasota..."

It all adds up to another stunning chapter.

Expand full comment

A lovely comment. My heartfelt thanks. ~ Mary

Expand full comment

Amazing enriching read. Thanks, Mary xo

Expand full comment

Lovely, thank you, Isabelle.

Expand full comment