We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage / And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, / We Poets of the proud old lineage / Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ... (James Elroy Flecker)

5.1.22

This Year, At Last …


After our 1998 world trip, Andrew and I left North America for home via San Francisco, an afternoon stopover to explore the city.

It was a holiday weekend. On Pier 39, Andrew briefly volunteered as assistant to a magician doing a show! Then we found a bookshop and I found a treasure: an oversized volume of quality prints of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings with her notes on their genesis.


I love discussions of artistic process. I adore Georgia O’Keeffe. Had to have it! But it was BIG. We’d need to post it … on a public holiday?


The shop assistant thought one particular Post Office might be open – but getting there wouldn't allow us time to make our outgoing flight. Could the shop send it to Australia later? That was complicated. No-one knew what the cost might be. In the end we just bought it and took it.

We found a luggage shop on the pier, and got a carry-on bag big enough. Because we were in transit between flights, we didn’t have to go through a full check-in. (This was before 9/11, after which security tightened a lot.) We ditched the small, very old and worn carry-on bag I’d left in an airport locker, packing my stuff around the book in the new one.


But, the weight limit – it mustn’t appear heavy! I managed to saunter aboard, swinging the bag carelessly, as if it wasn’t dislocating my shoulder!


This book remains one of my dearest treasures. So much so, I’ve scarcely dared open it since! It was displayed on my coffee table until the spine discoloured, then on a shelf in my bedroom. I have gazed long and often at the beautiful reproductions. But as for reading those fascinating process notes, I’ve barely begun. (Although bits I've dipped into did not disappoint.) It seemed too sacred a space to enter.


But I’m 82 now. How much more time do I have?


After some home renovations, that book is still among many in boxes in my garage. Time to find it, bring it out, really read it at last!


I don’t do New Year resolutions. But this year I have one. I’ll finally give myself that treat.





I found it! (It's a little larger than my laptop, 
14-and-a-half by 11 inches or 36-and-a-half by 28 cm.)





Written for Friday Writings #8: Resolutions at Poets and Storytellers United.




33 comments:

  1. Happy reading! I'm so excited for you. I was mesmerized by her art when I visited an exhibit of her work in NYC on a school field trip. LOL, I risked being late for the bus home because I HAD to buy a small print of one of her paintings. At some point I ought to make time to read about the history of the artist and her work too.

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    1. Interesting woman and interesting life – but the art's the thing. Isn't it stunning?

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  2. So interesting... hope you can share some of the good stuff from the book, as you read! Meanwhile, I must read up more on the artist! If I ever finish Middlemarch, that is!

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    1. (Ah yes, Middlemarch is not one to skip through quickly!)

      Just Google her art works!

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  3. Thought I'd catch you before Aus bedtime. I like your story and have lived many of its parts. I too have been chosen or "volunteered as assistant to a magician." Most memorable was the sword through my neck. Next was my younger cousin, now deceased, who was chosen by an evangelist who was chosen for his magic. The magician pulled a long string of sausages from the cousin's ear.
    And I too have boxes in my garage that I haven't opened since we moved here six years ago. ONE contains text books of disciplines other than the subjects that I taught. Some were updates from the 1950's text from which I had studied, World History for example.
    I am glad you have found your old friend, perhaps now you have the solitude needed for studying the works of your artist pick. You could share with us as well. Monet and Van Gogh are among my favorites, Rodin and Lautrec and others too of that era I like.
    My dad did crossword puzzles, I think I would enjoy trying to work one with no hints. My trouble is that my working vocabulary has a dirth for words longer than five syllables. I like working the "Jumble" puzzles and most times I can solve them.
    Living past 82? One of my dear Australian blogging friends, Merle, you might have known her??, and I were racing to see who could become OBE first. That's "Over Bloody Eighty." She died just shy of the mark but I had reached it already before she. I am 88 but people tell me that I don't look and seem to be that old. The doctors and modern medical advances have kept me alive. I don't tell my age a lot.
    HAPPY NEW YEAR and try to HAVE NO FEAR!!!
    ..

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    1. Same to you, Jim.

      We seem to have similar tastes in art!

      No, I never came across Merle.

      People are always surprised by my great age, too – and I love to tell it.

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  4. Ah, yes .. enjoy, devour every detail in this book / your treasure. I was lucky to be in Santa Fe in 2001, visited her Museum which was fairly new. What an extraordinary experience! Cheers and Happy 2022!

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  5. Beautiful and relatable. I sometimes wish we could mind meld books like Spock. Does there presence tweak something in us even if we haven't read them?

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    1. MInd melding books, what a fabulous idea! I do wish we could.

      Maybe the presence of a book in the world alters the collective energy a little, and those who would resinate to that book do feel something? I'd love to think so, anyhow.

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  6. I love this story, Rosemary! It's dear to me in many ways. I have savored the same magical light in New Mexico that inspired Georgia O'Keeffe, and my sister lives in San Francisco, so there's that connection. May that book from the USA that you lugged all the way back to Australia give you pleasure for many years to come!

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    1. Thank you! It's lovely to think of that magical landscape which inspired her continuing to inspire you too.

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  7. A fascinating tale, and I certainly agree with your decision to enjoy it at last. After my holiday hospital escapade, I can say who knows what tomorrow may bring!! Have a great New Year, Rosemary.

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    1. A timely reminder, thank you. And I wish you the same.

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  8. glad you managed to get home with your oversized book. my bookcase is mostly poetry, and a lot of it local poets i use to know, i love digging thru it and finding old treasures to discover again. enjoy your o"keeffe, you've erned it, and happy new year!

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    1. Ah yes, re-reading old favourites is one of the great pleasures of life.

      Happy new year to you too.

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  9. Ah a new year resolution. That's cool
    Happy New Year

    Much🥂love

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  10. Enjoy your book Rosemary ! Happy New Year !

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  11. Finding treasures that one isn't necessarily looking for are sometimes the best finds. I discovered that when I'm searching for object A, I feel that I miss finding the prize.
    May you find many such treasures this year and savor this art book as well.

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  12. Some books, we have a deep connection to. I know, I have some which have pages falling out. O'Keeffe is an extraordinary artist, and to read the artistic process with her own notes would be interesting reading.
    Enjoy your book and have a very Happy and Healthy New Year. :)

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  13. First, I must say how much I love your telling of this story. I love how it shows us how time has changed--the idea of being able to leave the airport between connections (and still make it through security in time) is a thing of history. I love the exchanges, the details, how we start decades ago and end in the present. It's a lovely story. And the one of the best resolutions I've read this year.

    This bit make me roar: "But, the weight limit – it mustn’t appear heavy! I managed to saunter aboard, swinging the bag carelessly, as if it wasn’t dislocating my shoulder!"

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Our prose word limit of 369 words has, fortuitously, proved very useful to me! By the time I fit a story into that limit, I have tried out various ways of saying things, and honed it pretty well.

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  14. I have a book that looks exactly like this, but no notations. Mine is discolored as well. I have always loved her art, and visited the museum when I was in the Southwest. Continue to enjoy this wonderful book, Rosemary.

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    1. Wow, must be from the same publisher. I'm sure you enjoy your version too.

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  15. Oh definitely bring it out! And hopefully in the new year new trips await you. Covid has dampened our wandering spirit. I'm ready to break free. How about you?

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    1. Not so much. With ageing and various bodily ailments, travel is more arduous than it used to be. I have no aspirations for further overseas jaunts. I'd just like to be able to get to Melbourne to see family in person, or for them to be able to visit me – but the Omicron variant has made everything uncertain again.

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  16. So glad you found it again, keen to find out what you get out of it

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    1. Thanks. I am getting so many similar requests, I'll definitely be sharing!

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