Many a Thing…(A Trip to the Antiques Shop)

Tues. Apr. 12, 2022

photo from Tues., Apr. 5th—“Pants by Peeko 🐱,” a perfectly good hemming this time, Peeko helping on his own when I got the pants ready (just ‘loungewear’, shown in previous post.)

He was proud of both the task and his own joke: sitting like this holding the pants in place and turning when I’d tried to capture his face / front view in the photo.

I wanted to try again for fun after my first truly failed attempt, shown in: A Profession I Am Not Pursuing and A Dream to Match It

Update: months ago, Peeko had looked disappointed in me when I tried to make them better and ended up ruining them; let the tailor do the hemming next time, I have more lounge pants now.

I’d thought to buy a new teacup this spring and found this one at an antiques shop over the weekend, not too close and not too far away from home. It is delicate looking and smaller-sized, but also very nicely and noticeably insulated— I could barely wait to capture a photo of it on the car ride home. I got it for $5 including saucer, and it is the first new one in a good while. I loved the design of fruits on the teacup & saucer when I saw it, as it is unique and interesting to look at.

Peeko loves the word, ”hobbitses”; he has furry feet made up of gray and creamy-white fluffiness and fuzzy little gray toes. Will now answer to ”Mr. Bilbo Baggins,” but he prefers much more often to be called his name, “Peeko.”

Peeko threw this basil plant, I’ve called ”Baby Boy Basil”, my only surviving plant from last year (I really tried with my plants 💕🍃💕)…on the floor, and the next day he sat next to it as if posing for a portrait with his baby brother, with at first a look of deep emotion and affection combined. I did not add in the rainbow. 💕😊

Longfellow, a poet I know by name…and nothing else. I found this book, too at the antique shop that day ($20) with no copyright date but in strong condition and lovely to look at, and hold. Research shows me this book might’ve been printed in 1890 or earlier (when the publisher, “The Mershon Company” was a printer and not yet a publisher), yet color interior likely means 1890 or later— it is a pretty book I display, and will read too.

Reading this book recovered a lost memory, early on when I was dating my husband Dan, he noticed my green jade ring and said without a joking sense, “Is that from Lord of the Rings?” I said, “No, it’s a jade ring.” And he said, “But your name is Jade?” I said, “Yes, the ring is made of the jade stone…What are the rings in Lord of the Rings?”

—Oops, I need to correct this because I enjoy accuracy—this came to mind clearly as meeting his best friends, and a friend who enjoyed / talked of science fiction and Lord of the Rings more than my husband does. My husband knew my name well, No joke, no ill humor. 🙂

(And Dan assumed I’d seen the movies because he felt like I reminded him of someone fitting in that world and was surprised I hadn’t.)—this was true, as he himself has found he would be a Wood Elf.

And I think that gave me pts in his book as he’d loved recalling The Shire and Rivendell in the movies.—Yes! True.

When I asked what the rings were he’d said it’s too much to sum up from the movies.—This I am unsure of. I was glad there were books too!—with Tolkien’s art. And we talked of other things.

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The Book of Khalid (1911) by Ameen Rihani (b. 1776 error accidental!, should be b. 1876 – 1940) with illustrations by Kahlil Gibran arrived last night, and I brought it in this morning in time for today’s, Tuesday literary salon.

I opened it mid-salon, afraid there would be no illustrations by Gibran in the copy, but they are there. Ameen was the author who campaigned to have May Ziadeh (writer and literary salon host) released from the psychiatric asylum she was unfairly placed toward her life’s end (and she was released): Kahlil Gibran was Ameen’s artist / poet friend whom May was in love with and wanted to be with…Kahlil Gibran was early on inspired by this author, Rihani. I don’t know who modeled the book cover silhouette.

At the beginning of the salon, I read aloud a poem from the most recent great poetry collections I’d read, a random poem each: ”The Androgen Paradox” and ”The Apple” by Kansas City, KS author, Jason Preu’s two poetry collections (recently reviewed) and Kansas City, MO author, Alarie Tennille’s poem, “The Caregiver” from her wonderful ekphrastic poetry collection, Three A.M. at the Museum.

An immediate review I wrote of Tennille’s poetry book, Three A.M. at the Museum:

One of my poetry book top picks this year — poems inspired by artwork also known as “ekphrastic poetry.” Artist name, painting name, and date are included for poems about specific paintings. The book is a direct adventure through the museum and other museum-like places. So many memorable, quotable poems, and it is all so very funny too.

The poem “Poetry 101” brought back memories of my first poetry class in school…Teacher said, “Don’t imagine your poetry. If you’ve been told you can write anything you want, you actually CAN’T. Just write what you know. Even if you don’t like it. That’s the only way to be good at poetry; you have to start at what is “BORING.”

Tennille’s “Poetry 101” reminded me too that I didn’t think to write about jellyfish myself then, although I had already seen some in my childhood at the beach.

These are interactive, eloquent poems that may bring up ideas of similar experiences you may tell about in your own writings! And yet in the midst of reading this book, it can be very speech-pausing, soul-stunning deep! Rich in language, philosophy, and art history!

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I’ve wanted to compare The Hobbit (1937) and this book, The Book of Khalid (1911) in terms of simply literature; for right now I delved into this book by author Ameen Rihani again, following The Hobbit.

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When I first found Ameen Rihani and added his novel ‘to read’, I didn’t read it right way when I saw a photo of the author, and I left a little note in my Goodreads as warning: ‘This man’s face just made me feel sad.’

But then I had a different vision. It’s funny how two ideas came to mind in the midst of reading The Book of Khalid: that I’d pictured Ameen Rihani as a much older, professorial man for a reason central to the man no matter the age, and that I’d imagined him wearing much too much of an older man’s cologne, in a quick, spontaneous imagination of him while reading the novel. I was thinking, just a better scent, lighter, maybe, the cologne just isn’t so sweet or pleasant, at least a little less of it. 😊Also, parts of the book as I read would be as if subconsciously read aloud to me (but silently) with a booming man’s accented voice with excited intensity.