farmer’s market – panache, perhaps

Autumn jubilation; three cheers for autumn (photos, words).

Published on 10/20/2013 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

Some things:

1. Sissy visit. Beautiful leaves. Beautiful little wreaths. Jokes & foods. New plan hatched where sissy moves to Montpelier. Scheming, scheming.

2. We’re handing out little poems of mine (free verses from Free Verse Farm!) at the market now. It’s the best.

3. Wendy Guerra, Cuban poet and fantastic human, read and chatted at Revolution this week. Just what I needed. Wendy says:

“The wounds, before healing, should be named.”

4. We’re moving! We’re moving into the woods! Into the woods with friends!

5. And now: coffee with a lot of hot milk! Apples to be picked and pears to be dried! Two new sweaters made for boys but befitting this small woman! Here we go Sunday here we go (clap clap).

(photo credits to Sarah S. Katz)

A little poem of life (mine).

Published on 08/01/2013 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

Life As a Woman

I braid my hair,

I braid my garlic.

I go to work;

I go to market.

“Ode to the First Peach” (poem) (Ellen Bass).

Published on 07/21/2013 by taylor mardis katz1 Comment

A San Diego friend emailed me this poem this week. How did she know this was the week I was missing peaches so badly? Also missing Annie of Sweet Tree Farms, the best & coolest fruit farmer in the Whole World. We do have a couple of peach trees on the property, but no fruits yet. Although there are huge, bodacious raspberries blooming. Also blueberries. And plums! So there is really nothing for me to complain about. But ooh. The joy of eating a peach. While standing over the sink. The juice dripping down my chin. And looking out the window as I bite. And taking the pit in my fingers. And throwing it outside. Just in case. It wants to grow. Into a peach tree of its own.

Ode to the First Peach

Only one insect has feasted here,
a clear stub of resin
plugs the scar. And the hollow
where the steam was severed
shines with juice.
The fur still silvered
like a caul. Even
in the next minute
the hairs will darken,
turn more golden in my palm.
Heavier, this flesh,
than you would imagine
like the sudden
weight of a newborn.
Oh what a marriage
of citron and blush!
It could be a planet
reflected through a hall
of mirrors. Or
what a swan becomes
when a fairy shoots it
from the sky at dawn.
At the beginning of the world,
when the first dense pith
was ravished and the stars
were not yet lustrous
coins fallen from the
pockets of night,
who could have dreamed
this would be curried
from the chaos.
Scent of morning and sugar,
bruise and hunger.
Silent, swollen, clefted life,
remnant always remaking itself
out of that first flaming ripeness.

—Ellen Bass

Why not: a birthday collage.

Published on 03/15/2013 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

Dear Scott,

I made you this internet collage comprised of (beautiful) images that remind me of you. I really hope you like it.

Love,

Taylor

Happiest of days to you, friend. I hope your weekend is full of even better things than Ellie giving the sneaky middle finger to you in a photo, though it’s hard to imagine what’s better than that.

Things that are small in Vermont (piglets! piglets are small!).

Published on 08/26/201208/26/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

We arrived in Vermont on Friday evening. Yesterday, Saturday, we visited the farmers’ market, unpacked our trusty truck, Egret the Egret, visited piglets down the road, sampled raspberries and blackberries, went for a dip in the pond and ate delicous foods we did not cook ourselves, amen. Here’s Misha, in the sun. Here are the piglets.

West Coast Poetry Project, Part 2: San Luis Obispo!

Published on 08/08/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

San Luis Obispo Poem

for Rachel, who said I had to go to SLO

“Let’s just take in this purple

for a moment” and we do

as the line for meats grows

longer and the street fills

up. We thought we’d just stop

to café but we chatted to a stone

man who told us that the market

would be starting soon and here

we are. We types can’t miss

a farmers’ market. We gotta

see the squash and beans

for sale, we buy more apples

and some avocadoes and a pint

of Golden Kiwi raspberries.

A man named Rick asks to take

our picture and we say yes.

We eat our good brown bread

with cheese and talk to Rick

and watch the kids around

eat corn. Kindergarten gymnasts

do their flips and men in camo

are the band. A kid can bounce

in one of three inflated castles

and I want to. The jacarandas

haven’t finished blooming here.

We catch the purple petals

that fall and strew the ground

like rice after a wedding.

We keep our purple vows.

Yesterday’s poem of the morning (mine).

Published on 07/03/2012 by taylor mardis katz2 Comments

I’m wearing all my rings this morning

Norah Jones is singing about flowers growing

in the frozen snow, how it’s all a show

She’s saying everything she wants to in a song

It will take me my life to say everything I want to

especially on the topic of hands and feet and happy

I shined up all my rings this morning

The broken turquoise one, the thin swoop of gold

from Sam that I wore for weeks after her surgery

I shined my only sapphire and my TAYLOR ring

given to me by whom I can’t remember

What’s the point if I can’t remember who gave it to me there still

must be a point

I have fat thumbs and new sandals

from Moya who said, Oh just take them

they’re your going away present you’re going

away now you’ll remember me

A baby’s shoe! A baby bunny! A tiny artichoke!

Published on 06/26/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

Not last Sunday but the Sunday before, this tiny Converse sneaker appeared on the ground just outside our market stall. Look at this! A tiny shoe! I yelled. Don’t you think it’s a hint from the universe that you should have a baby? someone asked. No! I said. It’s a hint from the universe that the more I love small, the more small that arrives!

My really cool crew wears Converse (Owen in grey, Sara in purple) and I wear Blundstone boots with my pants cuffed because I’m short.

The only thing better than a tiny sneaker is a tiny creature, and here below is Little Debbie, or Little Deborah (or Debra, if you like Beck [I like Beck]). She was found at the farm on a Thursday, looking terrified and alone. She’s currently being cared for and will be let back into the wild when she’s a little bigger. But for now she’s so small she looks like a squirrel.

Here she is in her little box:

And here’s a small artichoke going bad, plus my feet and Misha’s.

The End.

So many wonderful smalls (photographs)!

Published on 06/20/2012 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

Well, first this tiny pitcher was found at the yard sale that happens outside of Ellie’s house every Thursday. It’s ceramic and according to the guy who gave to to me (for free! thank you!), “very old.” After bringing it home I filled it with one sip of lemonade, made from 1/16 of a lemon plus some sugar. I’m kidding!

Ellie made me the ultimate tiny thing: she filled a tiny gold book box she found with the tiniest ojo de dios (god’s eye) known to man or god, and affixed a hummingbird feather on the other side. Are you dying right now? SHE MADE IT WITH HER HANDS! I open it to look at it at least twice a day. It is the best thing.

On Saturday I received a package from my dad, also known as Jonathan F. Katz, aka Poppa Dids, aka P.Diddy Poppa. In it were three small things: a tiny mug with my name on it that I bought during one summer at camp, a small silver spoon from my great grandmother’s collection of silver spoons (COOL), and a photo of me, aged three, with a big belly. Here’s me:

And here’s the spoon and the mug. Tiny mug! With a font that I associate with 90s computers.

My thumb is so stubby.

And here you can see the mug in the Cuteness Lineup I set up on Saturday morning:

I present to you the full lineup:

The Hershey’s kiss is from Marilyn’s birthday party on Friday night, where she slaughtered a pinata! And I found the little terra cotta pot at the thrift store. And inside that little bowl are seed packets the size of my pinky finger. They’re so small my human eyes can barely see them! They’re from a vintage dollhouse set! Maybe you can kind of see the tiny seed packets in the bowl in this photo below?

Let me tell you, ever since I’ve started blogging my small things, I’ve been receiving them left and right. It’s been a most thrilling time of life! Stay tuned for one tiny living creature and a present that was dropped from the sky for me at the farmers’ market on Sunday.

Honey & elderberries (small things photo).

Published on 06/10/2012 by taylor mardis katz1 Comment

Here is a tiny jar of elderberries. Misha’s really into the elder tree right now (for proof click here), and I’m really into small things right now, so I took some elder berries he’d dried and put them in a tiny jar with a rubber lid that I bought at the herb store. And next to it is the honey that I get at the farmer’s market every week, which Sam loves and Kathryn also loves, in fact Kathryn made a honey pie out of that honey. Sam just eats it out of the jar with a spoon. I wish I had a tiny spoon as a part of my miniature collection. Soon, little spoon.

I like how the honey looks like it’s the proud older brother of the elder jar. Like it’s puffing out its chest a little.