New Poem Up in Tahoma Literary Review, Holiday Lights at Bellevue Botanical Gardens, Flat Tires and Holiday Poetry Shopping

Panorama of Bellevue Botanical Gardens Holiday Lights

New Poem Up at Tahoma Literary Review

Thank you to Tahoma Literary Review for including my poem “Flare” in their latest issue, which you can order a print or e-edition of here.

This is the title poem of my latest manuscript, so I’m especially excited to see it up!

Poinsettia tree with dancing mushroom lights

Holiday Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens

I had a few down minutes before a doctor’s appointment Monday so Glenn and I decided to take a quick detour (bundled up and bringing hot thermoses of cider with us) to see the holiday lights at Bellevue Botanical Gardens, which are pretty elaborate representations of animals and flowers. We’ve had several clear cold days this week and we really have to take advantage of our non-rainy December days, because they’re rare. It was really beautiful but I was grateful I’d worn my fuzzy boots, mittens, and earmuffs – by the end we were both freezing! You don’t get to wear your winter extras all that often out here – but we definitely needed them! It gets dark at about 4:30 PM – that’s when these pictures were taken, believe it or not, so I think Seattle-ites definitely celebrate with extra lights during the holidays – we put up our own house lights before Thanksgiving. When I’m not so sick I can’t move, I try to get out and see a couple of different holiday displays – both Woodland Park and Tacoma zoos have holiday lights festivals too, plus you get to see animals. I was shocked to see a still-blooming fuchsia, which had little white lantern flowers that looked so ghostly in the dark. It was definitely more fun than the doctor’s office! Got to squeeze in a little bit of fun when and where you can, I say.

Flat Tire Surprise and a Little Holiday Poetry Shopping at Open Books

We noticed a flat tire when we got home, and this will shock others our age – most of the newer cars (including our 1.5 year old Acura) do not come with spare tires, so Glenn has to take off the tire, find the hole and patch it up! There is so much construction around our doctor’s office, Redmond, and Bellevue it’s not too much of a surprise that we ran over a screw or nail somewhere but we hadn’t had a blown tire in a long time!

Open Books Display of Speculative Poetry

Back safely on the road, we were able to stop in yesterday at Open Books for a little holiday shopping. I was in a positive surprise – I saw my book, Field Guide to the End of the World, on the display table under “speculative poetry” right next to Tracy K. Smith! And then I got to chat about speculative poetry with Luther and Billie at the store, which, along with seeing holiday lights, might be one of my favorite things.

I bought a few books as gifts and a few for me – so I ended up leaving with more books than I meant to, but it’s a great time to support your local indie poetry bookstore AND give poetry books, so I had no buyer’s remorse at all.

Open Books Poetry Haul – gifts (and some for me!)