Dostoevsky

against the wall, the firing squad ready.
then he got a reprieve.
suppose they had shot Dostoevsky?
before he wrote all that?
I suppose it wouldn’t have
mattered
not directly.
there are billions of people who have
never read him and never
will.
but as a young man I know that he
got me through the factories,
past the whores,
lifted me high through the night
and put me down
in a better
place.
even while in the bar
drinking with the other
derelicts,
I was glad they gave Dostoevsky a
reprieve,
it gave me one,
allowed me to look directly at those
rancid faces
in my world,
death pointing its finger,
I held fast,
an immaculate drunk
sharing the stinking dark with
my
brothers.

-Charles Bukowski

The wind here was absolutely rampant lastnight. Was lovely to stare at the flashing shadows on the ceiling and listen to the wine bottle wind chimes outside the French doors in our bedroom. The baby seemed mesmerised by the night also and was more content awake than asleep. The wind is still going and tornado warnings for most of today. The sound of wind in the trees always makes me think of Minneapolis. I know another woman from our church who lived in the Twin Cities briefly and also feels the same.

Finished watching the special features in A Very Long Engagement last night. Stunning. If you loved Amelie you’ll love this film. Many of the same actors (Audrey Tautou, others), same director, ambeience, etc., but in the 1920s. Jean-Pierre Jeunet knows something about retaining a sense of wonder.

Our baby is seven weeks old today.