Tuesday, February 4

Hilo, day 10

An absolutely gorgeous, cloudless sparkling day here.  We were both feeling a bit under the weather, though, so took the day inside and slow.  We did succeed in making some plans, though, for our first week in Ireland.  While Pattie was taking the lead on that plan, I was working a bit on planning something that we and Joe/Cristin are interested in doing while on Maui. 

A bit of writing, too, led to the first draft of the ending of “Let Them Not Say.”  I’ll still need to work on some lines in the middle, but the ending was becoming clear and I had to get that down.  It’s essentially continuing the “it burned” texture, but subduing it a bit and adding the final lines over it.  That is the “it burned” continues from its first appearance through to the end, shifting from the foreground to the background as the penultimate phrase is heard…”it burned” the final words, as well.

[A kerosene beauty.
It burned.

Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,
read by its light, praised,
and it burned.]
exc. from “Let Them Not Say,” by Jane Hirshfield