- Got to see Marge Piercy read in person at the Longfellow House yesterday. I told her that The Moon is Always Female is still my favorite book of hers, and she recommended What Are Big Girls Made Of?. She also knew how to spell my name correctly. And she signed my copy of one of her latest volumes of poetry.
- The sun is shining and the relative humidity is low. I’m going outside for a walk while I still can.
- Got a call from one of my business owners at 9:30 AM. I had a mouth full of yogurt when she called, but at least I was on my way into the office, which is more than can be said for more days than I’d care to admit in the last year or so. After 7 hours working on something I expected to be able to fix in about 30 minutes, I’ve got the changes ready for release.
- Today is the 20th anniversary of the ADA. Thanks, the the first George Bush for signing that. And thanks, Bill Clinton, for signing the FMLA. Without those two pieces of legislation — and an employer big enough and honorable enough to care about adhering to employment law — I’d probably be out of a job right now.
- There was a big rally on the Common today to celebrate. I was hoping to go, but I have surgery scheduled on Friday. I’m grateful for the health insurance that makes the procedure possible, and all the love and support I’ve gotten from friends and family around this and the other health issues that have been KICKING MY ASS in the past couple of years.
tended by poet Frances Donovan
Garden of Words 
I was at that reading too. When I was a teenager I was crazy about Marge Piercy but now she’s slightly too raw for me. I’m not sure how I feel about my shifting tastes. I was quite taken with the first woman who read. I’m probably not being fair, but I thought the man who read was a pretentious dork.
Pretentious dork might be going a bit far, but I found his readings of Demeter and Eve to be annoyingly paternalistic. Neither of them are “ambiguous characters,” as he referred to them. He’s probably too busy writing light verse to pay attention to the strident feminists with their claims of an ancient goddess culture.
Ironic that he was one of the openers for Marge Piercy, of all people.
I don’t find her raw. I find her prolific.
Certainly she’s prolific; 18 books of poetry and all those novels I read when I was a teenager are nothing to sneeze at. I’m not sure what one has to do with the other. I suppose “raw” could mean many things. I’ll get back to you if I figure out which one I wanted. 😉