The Bed
by Jonathan Potter

That Sunday morning we arose from love,
In love, with love, of love, from the bed
We shared, that lovely bed we'd made from dreams,
That sweet bed that held us as I held you
As you held me, that bed, that bed, that bed.
Our love transformed that humble bed into
The bed of beds, our love unhinged that bed
And sent it floating, flying, bending, wed
To all the love the world has ever known,
To all the joy two bodies can contain.
We rose up from our bed, our happy bed,
And found our way downstairs to breakfast,
Our love transforming every sip of coffee,
Every bite of melon, every taste
And touch and sight and smell and every sound.


Jonathan Potter, “The Bed” from Tulips for Elsie. Published by Korrektiv Press, © Jonathan Potter. Used by permission. (buy now)

It was on this day in 1925 that Virginia Woolf's (books by this author) novel Mrs Dalloway was published. It's about a woman named Clarissa Dalloway who is hosting a party in London. The entire novel is set on a single day in June and it features stream-of-consciousness storytelling techniques. Virginia Woolf was a big fan of James Joyce's Ulysses, published three years prior, also set on a single day in June and featuring stream-of-consciousness storytelling techniques.

It's the birthday of Eoin Colfer (books by this author), born in Wexford, Ireland (1965), whose Artemis Fowl series of novels for young adults have sold more than 18 million copies around the world.

Colfer once described the series as "Die Hard with fairies." Its protagonist is a brilliant teenage criminal named Artemis Fowl II who masterminds various complicated scams around the world — the stories are set in Siberia, in Vietnam, in Morocco, in Paris, Chicago, parts of Ireland — all with the goal of getting filthy rich. The books are filled with fairies and fairy institutions; there's even a fairy government and a fairy police force.

It's the birthday of filmmaker George Lucas, born in Modesto, California (1944). His Star Wars movies are greatly influenced by Joseph Campbell's analysis of the mythic hero's journey. Star Wars was filmed in Tunisia and Death Valley. Lucas said, "Don't avoid the clichés — they are clichés because they work."

It's the birthday of fiction and travel writer Mary Morris (books by this author), born in Chicago, Illinois (1947). During a period of personal turmoil she received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and she took off for Latin America. Her experiences there formed the basis for her book Nothing to Declare: Memoirs of a Woman Traveling Alone (1988). She's also the author of Wall to Wall: From Beijing to Berlin by Rail (1991) and House Arrest (1996), a novel about a travel writer who is forced to stay home.

She said, "Life only seemed to come together for me in stories and in journeys and those two 'narratives' — one of the mind and the other of the road — have shaped my life."

It was on this day in 1948 (the year 5708 according to the Hebrew calendar) that David Ben-Gurion proclaimed that the state of Israel had been formed. He said later, "There was no joy in my heart. I was thinking of only one thing: the war we were going to have to fight."

It's the birthday of playwright María Irene Fornés, born in Havana, Cuba (1930). Her plays include Fefu and Her Friends (1977), Mud (1983), and Oscar and Bertha (1992). Her final play was Letters from Cuba (2000). María Irene Fornés died in 2018 at the age of 88.

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.^®

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