During April, in honor of National Poetry Month, I read 77 Love Sonnets by Garrison Keillor. (Here’s a link to purchase this collection at an Indie Bookstore.) A modern collection of sonnets is, unfortunately, rather hard to come across. I was delighted last year to find out that Garrison Keillor was publishing a collection of his sonnets, and I bought it right away. I had been reading from the collection somewhat sporadically, and decided to read the collection from front to back in April. Many of them are about romantic love, and others are tributes to a variety of other people/things. All of them are lovely.

Here is one of my favorites:

November

How is your bookstore doing? people ask, and I say,
“Holding its own.” And they smile and say, Great.
A bookstore is like an old father. If he has a nice day,
Goes for a walk: fine. It’s enough to perambulate,
No need to run a six-minute mile.
A bookstore is for people who love books and need
To touch them, open them, browse for a while,
And find some common good – that’s why we read.
Readers and writers are two sides of the same gold coin.
You write and I read and in that moment I find
A union more perfect than any club I could join:
The simple intimacy of being one mind.

Here in a book-filled sun-lit room below the street,
Strangers – some living, some dead – are hoping to meet.

Garrison Keillor

Last night I saw Garrison Keillor for the fifth time at his book event for Pilgrims at the Lincoln Center Barnes and Noble. He’s an incredible speaker and storyteller, and it’s such a privilege to listen to him in person.

This was a particularly special night, since it was his first book signing post-stroke. He’s doing incredibly well, thank goodness.

He started off the evening by reciting three of his sonnets. (His sonnets, which I love, are collected in 77 Love Sonnets.) Then he talked for a while and told us the story of his stroke. He introduced his book – it sounded like he was doing a monologue about the plot of the book – telling the story of the beginning of the book, without actually reading word for word. It was fantastic. Then he took questions and signed books. I always laugh so much at his events, and love his stories, so I attempted to take notes and translate them after the event.

I’ve come up with a system for noting how well I think I did sharing his stories:
Regular font means I’m just paraphrasing what he said.
Italic means I think I got it down as he said it, might big a bit off.
“Quotation Marks” mean I know I got the quote spot on.

Here we go:

On the pleasures of singing in choir in high school:
Choir is as close as you can stand to girls and not be weird.

His Stroke Story:
He was at a coffee shop ordering a Venti Latte when all of a sudden he started feeling odd. His speech was slurred. The barista noticed, and asked if he was ok. He said he was fine and left and went to his car. (Men are capable of incredible feats when in the presence of women.) He drove from Minneapolis to St. Paul, and when he got to St. Paul he just kept going to the emergency room. He parked in a no parking spot and went to check in.

The woman who checked him in wrote this about him on his admission report (it was sent to him later in the mail, with his paperwork:
“A nice, 67 year old man, awake, alert, and appropriate.”

“I cherish this.”

He’s felt enormously lucky ever since his stroke.

On NYC:
“NYC is a place I would rather be than just about anywhere else, although you shouldn’t tell that to anyone back where I’m from.”

On who will win the Tigers-Twins series:
The city of Detroit is in such dire straits that we Minnesotans, being Christians, cannot hope to beat them.

On recording an audio book (he said it would have to be his memoirs):
I really can’t write my memoirs until my mother dies, and she’s 94 and still hanging in there.

Someone asked what amount of the Prairie Home Companion show is scripted and what amount is ad-lib:
The skits are scripted, because actors like scripts. He likes to throw in lines during the skits.
His monologue is not scripted. “If you’ve lived a long enough life, you’ll have plenty to talk about.”

That’s about all I got that can be somewhat easily explained here. As with most things in life, it’s not a substitute for being there, but hopefully an enjoyable snapshot nonetheless.

I’m excited to read his new book. It’s about a group of Minnesotans from, of course, Lake Wobegon, who travel to Rome, along with Gary Keillor (sort of an alter-ego to Garrison).

Signed copy of “Pilgrims”

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)

top five

In the spirit of High Fidelity, I’m going to start a “Top Five” feature where I will post my picks for my five favorite things/people in any category that strikes my interest. Today’s Top Five was inspired by reading Bill Bryson’s African Diary. I started thinking about notable (famous, living) people who inspire me because of the talents they have, the kind of person they are, and the lives they lead. I admire many different people for many different things, so making the top five was no cake-walk. I listed the top five, and wrote a few sentences about why I chose them.

1. Bill Bryson. Bill is the world’s best travel writer. He is interested in absolutely everything and describes the details of his journeys masterfully. He’s also hilarious. He has travel books about Europe, America, England, and Australia. He wrote a book that details the origins of the universe in a way that conveys the immense wonder and amazement of it all, while still making you laugh. He wrote a beautiful memoir, a tribute to the wonderful lost days of post-war America. He visited Africa with CARE and wrote a diary of his experiences – donating all royalties to CARE. He was given an honorary Order of the British Empire for his contribution to literature. Oh yeah, he’s also a loving husband and devoted father.

2. Garrison Keillor. To me, Garrison Keillor is the world’s best story teller. I grew up listening to him on Prairie Home Companion, and to this day his voice still sooths me. I respect all that he has accomplished – on the radio, as a writer, in cinema. He is one of a very small handful of people keeping the glory of radio still alive. I love his taste for and appreciation of poetry. His books of selected poems are beautiful. He’s a literary hero that no one from our generation can match.

3. Ben Folds. Not only is Ben Folds an original, talented, and fun musician, he is also a stand-up chap. Who else would not only make friends a cab driver who shuttled his band around East Lansing, but invite the cab driver on stage that evening to play harmonica and jam with the band? I work with someone who met Ben at an airport and gave him his cd, and Ben called later and asked him to tour with his band, and was nothing but wonderful the entire tour. Ben’s talent and humor are also inspiring. I don’t know any other artist who can write songs about love and his children and have them be incredible and sincere without being cheesy. Only Ben.

4. Kurt Vonnegut. Kurt is hard to do justice to in words. He is such an outstanding author. His writing is meaningful, funny, accessible, and relevant. He is a pacifist. I love that he is also interested in art and graphic design. He’s just an unbelievably cool, larger than life guy. There’s so much to say about Kurt Vonnegut, but I can’t do him justice.

5. Johnny Depp. I love how devoted Johnny is to his family. I respect his hatred for paparazzi and his decision to live in France to have a normal life with his girlfriend and children. I love his choice in movies. I love that he likes to play the oddball. He’s made amazing film choices, and is an incredible actor.

I’ll continue this feature semi-regularly. It’s just for fun. I encourage anyone else to comment with picks for their own top five, or to start their own top five on their vox.

(This post was brought over from emilyw.vox.com. Click here for the original post and comments.)