A STORY. 106. THE DAYS KEEP SLIPPING BY

When you left the bookstore the last time, when you walked out into the cold, you thought you would be back in a day or so, ready to turn to another love poem. But it’s been much longer.

One day passed. Then another day passed.

It’s been a very cold January. The temperature went down to minus 20 three days in a row. It sounds less cold in Fahrenheit. Minus 4. But Celsius or Fahrenheit, it’s too cold for you.

You have spent hours hunkered down at your desk, sorting through your ruminations on the creative flame, and adding to them.

You have spent many more hours rereading favorite nineteenth-century novels. The Mill on the Floss. The Mayor of Casterbridge. Tess of the d’Urbervilles. So much you had forgotten. Such deep moral dilemnas. Such rich inner lives.

Perhaps next will be The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.

The books are in some way like the poems you’ve been reading. They bring you more alive.

Lines from the last poem you read come to mind.

That is not from the nineteenth-century world of Tess of the d’Urbervilles.

And it is from far from your own world. Breaking floodgates? Right now floodgates are frozen.

Or almost.

Inside you, even though it’s cold and another snowstorm left deep snow everywhere last night, you feel the tug to put on boots, coat, scarf and make your way back to the bookstore.

To be continued . . .
https://elsaiselsa.substack.com/p/a-story-107-it-feels-good-to-be-back

A STORY. ALL THE CHAPTERS ... UP TO NOW
https://elsaiselsa.substack.com/p/a-story-table-of-contents-up-to-now

Posted February 1, 2025