Christmas Books

They probably look like an odd pair, but both were gifts from people dear to me.

Nearly 50 years ago, I responded to an article in my local newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio, offering to match local young people with their counterparts in other countries who wished to be penpals. A girl about a year older than me, living in Caerphilly, South Wales, was my match.

I can still remember the excitement of receiving S's letters, written on the tissue-thin blue paper required for airmail letters, and hearing about her life there. We met for the first time in spring 1968, when I went to the UK for the first time, doing a "study abroad" quarter as part of my college years.

We've stayed in touch all these years, and I've visited her and her husband K many times. They are still in Caerphilly, where her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren also live, but have traveled widely, including visiting us in 2001. I'm looking forward to trying the recipes in this lovely book and hope S and K will visit us again and enjoy them with us!

The autographed copy of Finding My Elegy (2012) was a gift from my son, W, who loves Ursula K. Le Guin's works and was delighted to hear that my Blip friend kendallishere lives only a few blocks from her. Le Guin's Blue Moon Over Thurman Street, with photographs by Roger Dorband, is what led Kendall to the One Street project that many of us have joined.

W had inserted a bookmark for the poem he wanted me to read first. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

For the New House

May this house be full of kitchen smells
and shadows and toys and nests of mice
and roars of rage and waterfalls of tears
and deep sexual silences and sounds
of mysterious origin never explained
and troves and keepsakes and a lot of junk
and a flowing like a warm wind only slower
blowing the leaves of trees and books and the fish-years
of a child's life silvery flickering
quick, quick, in the slow incessant gust
that billows out the curtains for a moment
all those years from now, ago.
May the sills and doorframes
be in blessing blest at every passing.
May the roof but not the rooms know rain.
May the windows know clearly
the branch and flower of the apple tree.
And may you be in this house
as the music is in the instrument.

-- Ursula K. Le Guin