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A Week for Poetry


I just read a novel, The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker. It's a stream of consciousness kind of narration by a poet who is supposed to be writing the introduction for an anthology of poems that rhyme. It's very funny. At the same time, it seems very revelatory of the thought processes of a poet and it was chock full of tidbits of literary information. I was fascinated...and it makes me want to read some more poetry.


Then, I went to the UU church service this morning. The man who sat next to me said it was his second time in a UU church--last Sunday (about spirituality, which I missed) and then today which was themed, "Let the Good Times Roll," complete with New Orleans jazz and Mardi Gras
costumes (no nudity or drinking though). He said he was a Lutheran by upbringing so I kept wondering what ever must have been swirling around in his mind as the masked and bejeweled choir danced down the aisles. There was no sermon--just the minister reading poems he had written while he had lived in New Orleans followed by his piano playing (which he does very well, professionally, actually). It was brilliant. I don't think you'd find a church service like that anywhere in New England.
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  1. LindaFebruary 7, 2010 at 5:12 PM

    Found the UU part of your blog interesting. I grew up in Texas where everything is about church and lived there until we moved to Oregon 5 years ago. Oregon is one of the most unchurched states in the nation. Portland has a church for recovering church people. This group meets at church time because that's the routine they're familiar with. They have an invited speaker and then all go out to eat with whoever they want to after services. They own no property, and have no minister, it just fills a routine time in their week.

    I burned out on church years ago. Even a UU church is not appealing to me. Being unchurched in Oregon is wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Arkansas PattiFebruary 8, 2010 at 7:58 AM

    UU must have appealed to the Lutheran since he came back. It does sound different.

    ReplyDelete

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