“Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”
Matsuo Basho
Translucent (in the age of nothing to lose)
I’ll give you space
In which I’ll grow open and toil with elemental joy and pain
Tend to the timely turning over of soil
Welcome sunlight
Oxygen to Embers
Knowing nothing is what keeps the furnace kindled
Receiving barely enough fuel to maintain a glow
Oxygen to embers
your withdrawal opens up the perfect cleavage for combustion
The more you remove yourself
The brighter the coals
Ognissanti
I'm not ready for immersion but the feeling of these damp steps beneath me will become a perennial part of my being. I lift heavy hands to mouth thinking only about breaking suddenly into from veganism to vegetarianism. I taste nothing new. The sensation of being relinquished and forgotten here, deep in the fall, will stay with me for years.
The season between us
You are autumn
I am spring
Allow me to walk with you
Through winter
I’ll show what’s coming
Hand you bits of bloom
Clothed in Arrival
Further down, on the receiving bank of this bridge
when I’m dripping from the humidity of one of your more sultry days,
You’ll brush my skin with a warm current of memory
And my chest will go on pause-
20 Anni Fa, prima parte
20 anni fa volevo solo scrivere
ma sono andata in Italia ed ho perso la voce.
Occasional bursts of light kept me turning the corner
around and around the inner perimeter of a grave that I had dug;
Born a Lover
My new friend (born of another love) shows me:
I would not eat rotten meat!
Nor would I waste the purity of sustenance
Where integrity is pillaged in the name of taste
I was born a lover, my purpose is bliss
Antica Cucina Cooking Tour, 2018
You are a traveler of the road or of the imagination. If you cook and explore food culture, one of two explains You. The idea that a recipe can open up generations of memory and and knowledge excites you - and makes you a good listener. It makes you a traveler.
Dog In a Box
Born in Ponsacco, Marty came to live with me in Lucca at the age of two months. Our home is a dreamy and wonderful town…a jewelry-box-of-a-city surrounded by a Renaissance wall which is actually a tree-lined boulevard filled with bicycles and joggers, walkers and lovers and, every morning, the two of us on our daily outing. Since Lucca is doggie-friendly (he has dinner at Burralli and cappuccino at Tessieri as well as a treat awaiting at the local butcher shop) I have tried my best to take him with me anywhere I go.
Questions about Traveling Native: Organic, Local Enjoyment
This week, a discerning traveler and food critic inquired about joining our upcoming cooking tour in Tuscany this July. Here are a couple of her questions and our responses.
The Long Haul
We had a rough start and after the first year it could have dissolved into history. But I chose Italy again and again. Not because she was beautiful or romantic but because she asked a lot of me. It took a long time, many years, before I trusted that she wanted me. It took time to see that her demands were forcing me to build a framework for a new home.