cross-sent — “I myself am heaven”
Explanation in the Margin - Zuzanna Ginczanka, tr. Alissa Valles | Guinness and Black Currant
this email was originally sent from https://tinyletter.com/brigid/ — cross-sending for confirmation! xo
The Poem
Explanation in the Margin - Zuzanna Ginczanka, tr. Alissa Valles
I did not rise
from dust,
I will not turn
to dust.
I did not descend
from heaven
and I won’t return
to heaven.
I myself am heaven,
like a glass vault.
I myself am earth,
like fertile clay.
I haven’t fled
from anywhere
nor will I return
there.
I know no remove but myself.
In the wind’s swelling lung
and in calcifying rock
I must
find myself
as I am
scattered
here.
The Beverage
Guinness and Black Currant
Would you like to order a beer but in an annoying way? A glass of Guinness and black currant! It’s a little sweet, creamy, Guinness-y — and if you get a glass, a half-size, it’s just a little more like …why are you doing this. It’s good. I definitely recommended this about five years ago. I stand by it.
I’ve been thinking about sending the newsletter again for a long time and even drafted one to send back in August featuring this same poem and a “dirty lemon tonic” — a little zero-proof sipper with preserved lemon, fresh lemon, olives and tonic. All good things. A great little beverage. I couldn’t drink for some months earlier this year, and I went even further down the novelty beverage path. That’s a second beverage for you to make up for my absence.
Here’s my own explanation in the margin today:
Anyway, I’m sending this today because tinyletter, which has been hosting this newsletter for the many years of its liminal existence/non-existence, will cease to exist at the end of February. I didn’t want to lose the archive of this newsletter or the list of your contacts, so I have set up a new archive within the newsletter platform Ghost. You can find the new home of my newsletter here. Your email is already registered — but you can opt out if you so choose.
Part of the reason I had delayed sending the newsletter this summer was a desire to reimagine what this newsletter could be, and I am planning to explore those possibilities further on the new platform. But rest assured, I will always send you a poem and a beverage. Just maybe a few other things as well.
Thank you for spending the last nearly seven and a half (!!) years sometimes receiving Sunday notes from me (though usually not), and I hope you will continue to spend Sundays with me at our new home.
Thank you, tinyletter, for being such an easy and aesthetic newsletter home. I will miss you. ❤️
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