Maybe Toiseday will be My Good Noise Day

Gold star for YOU if you know what lyric and song — and composer of lyric and song — that headline apes.

Wednesday I finished writing the last of 209 photo captions for the Arcadia book and sent them in my my favorite Chicago-based editor. It took a whaleofalot longer than I anticipated. The final caption was written by 3:50 but I was from 4 to 6:45 proofreading and reformatting them. Even with my glasses on I like to type in 14 point type and reformat to 12 before sending anything in. So it went with the captions. 

At 7:00 I was making a late lunch (two peanut butter & jelly sandwiches:American cuisine because I AM and American where at Least I know I’m free (don you luff it?). Washed it down with iced tea. LIPTON iced tea. None of that tree hugging hippie tie-die yippy yippy yay swill from Celectial Seasonings, no sirreeee! At least not for iced tea.

I was feeling so good I forgot I had promised mon editor I would not substitute this week. That’s why I called the office to ask them to put me back on the list, and bayh (make that boy) was I surprised when they asked me to teach at a notorious east side middle school! I was delighted! I need the pesos even though I won’t see them until May Juan.

For the first time this year I took no aviation lore for my quiet times. I took two of my books of poetry (which I’ll be offering for sale at MacMurray College next week when I recite there) and my street copy of Vachel’s Collected. I WANT to recite his The Santa Fe Trail, but the poem  takes more than a third of my promised time if I recite that. His Niagara is a definite. Probably A Curse for the Saxophone nad Simon Legree. And I’ll take requests. I know I’ll be reciting my Serenading the Wind, MAYBE Keep Them Squirming and probably Tuff Tookas. They’re giving me time to acellerate up to third gear before I have to turn off the ignition and hit the brakes, and I yain’t complaining. If I can’t convince them to bring me back for more than 30 minutes of reciting, it will be my fault; not theirs. And anyway, I’m just delighted to have been invited. Rehearsing the poems again (for the first time in longer than I care to admit) has me feeling the joy and excitement that I have felt every time I’ve recited them. I feel blessed by their gift of motivating me to recite  poetry. My interaction with them next week will be all icing and whipped cream with a cherry on top after I have savored the sweet cake of reacquaintance and preparation.

At the end of today I had reason to talk with a teacher who volunteered to stay at my room to lock things up after all students had returned their laptop computers to the cabinet. I asked her if she was a Language Arts teacher, and when she said “yes,” I gave her one of my Vachel Pages website cardsj and we had a terrific but all too short conversation. She asked me to come talk about Vachel and recite some poems to her students next week. I told her it would cost her. For one thing, I must refuse to substitute anywhere on that day, so I’m declining a respectable chunk of change if they DO call me. So I told her it will cost the biggest lunch I can eat at the cafeteria, and she assented. If you are a Springfield, Illinois school teacher, the same offer goes out to you. If you’re a civic club leader, the same to you as well. If you’re in higher academe or an event planner, ask about my rates. Anyhoo I’m thrilled to be headed back next week.

In the meantime I have the rest of a book to write.

Live long
and strong…..
and proper,
and don’t let ‘er go if you can stop ‘er.