The Slow-Cooked Sentence

Lamentations on June

Rachael Conlin Levy

I don’t like Seattle in June,
which is shrouded in endless gloom.
I shout, Cease and desist!
for if clouds persist,
summer will surely be ruin’d.

Gorbachev 055

Kultura 036
Denise shared the idea a sky scarf, which is a knitted weather calendar with colors corresponding to the day’s sky, and it prompted some riffing on my part: What about color-coding yarn to document the birds identified in my backyard, or to mark my mood for the day, or whether I exercised? What about a wearable record of a year spent writing, submitting, and (hopefully!) publishing? What fascinates me is the scarf’s potential: To convert the pattern from a simple act of recording an occurrence into a vehicle that can be manipulated in order to reinforce a desirable, yet weak, habit.


5 responses to “Lamentations on June”

  1. We’ll have to start an “It Gets Better” Project geared for Seattle residents mired in June…

  2. It is lovely here, but not warm, or anywhere near the Midwestern summers I experienced growing up. Our beach walk last night was cut short because the cold wind was really whipping.

    I was having similar thoughts about the sky scarf. Love your ideas. So many possibilities, so many I’m not sure what I want to begin.

    Hope you see a little sun, soon.

  3. Andrea says:

    I am so with you. It’s been in the 40s every night this week. We’ve given up on calling baseball games due to rain and have started to just play right through fog, mist, showers and downpours. I fear I”l never be warm!

  4. Gracia says:

    Wishing you a little sunlight. Here, winter has only just begun and it is glorious, to me. A still and quiet day, with sunlight , long shadows, and the need of a scarf. Not so very wintry at all. Perhaps more like your early summer thus far.

    Beautiful collection of images. That first one is especially fantastic. Those Russians sure knew a great deal about the art of brilliant posters and signage.

  5. Rachael says:

    Gracia, I’ve been fascinated with this collection of propaganda artwork, spending too many minutes thumbing through the images. The sun is, hands-down, my favorite.

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