May 23, 2011

Misty dawn and sharp calling of birds over my wet garden. The Florentine adventure is, for the moment, over. Slept badly last night. My internal clock was off, and in an extended, restless dream, it seemed I had six or seven wives and each was trying to conjure us a house in Florence under a different set of magical codes. I was awake at 2. Chatted with MA on Facebook, after he had been working on his novel all the night.

Next days after homecoming are awful. The brain is in the wrong zone, and that final leg of the journey, the hour from Atlanta or Charlotte to here, is given over to blasting the airlines for their multifarious idiocies. May mayhem take Charles de Gaulle. All was in order here upon return. The garden in a week is woodier and bloomier, with the pale foxgloves finally looking like the foxgloves in the Saint John’s gardens. My little jasmine vines bloom low to the ground. I tell them stories of their luxuriant kindred in Florence, to encourage them upward in glory.

DJ had been falling hard and frequently toward the end of the trip. There was always a flock of Samaritans to help him to his feet, but I worried that sometime he would fall and not be able to get up, despite me, despite the kindhearted Florentines. One does not always know what to do nor when to do it. I am not the world’s best caretaker.

The Indian-named guy from AWP congratulates my manuscript on reaching the final judge. The judge wants an electronic copy of Riding Funhouse. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I read half of it this morning before sending. No major errors or problems, but it doesn’t really sound like me. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I meant it not to sound like me, but one analyzes one’s choices into mush. Dos Passos Review wants two stories. An agent whose name I will remind myself of in moments want to see The Falls of the Wyona. Absence was profitable for me this week. Il mia coppa trabocca.

Went to the studio almost as an afterthought, but painted mightily once there. To say that Florence influenced my approach is an understatement.