Somewhere a kettle sputters on a stove on a Saturday that lasts forever, where evening is poised above afternoon like a story in a book on a bed face-down. Somewhere postcard bookmarks have all been sent or lost or laid to rest…
—from “Elsewhere”, 3rd & Orange
“Traveling Light” and "Souvenirs" are printed on the back of separate postcards that serve as bookmarks for and floating postscripts to 3rd & Orange. They can be acquired in 3 easy ways:
Pick up a copy of 3rd & Orange w/ postcards tucked ininside at the following independent booksellers:
LONG BEACH: Fingerprints Music, Page Against the Machine, and Casita Bookstore
OAKLAND: Owl & Company Bookstore and Spectator Books
SAN FRANCISCO: Christopher’s Books and Medicine for Nightmares
Send an email to thirdandorangebook@gmail.com (click orange button below). In your email, demonstrate your purchase of 3rd & Orange. How? You might include a screenshot of a receipt, a picture of the book in your hand, or try something more creative. Be sure to include an address where you want the cards mailed--be it a home, workplace, school, PO box, grandparent’s house, unsuspecting neighbor, whatever.
Attend a reading/event. Get the postcards as a gift if you buy or present a copy of 3rd & Orange.
Souvenir
"Souvenir": The markets here are filled with the sort of things you love: so much color, hand-painted ceramics, deep bowls and platters, glazed pots awaiting plants, figurines of papier-mâché, wooden creatures carved from dreams, textiles too, blouses stitched with flowers blooming round their collars, irregular rugs from a loom, bolts of fabric in bright piles, charms and trinketry, bracelets with patinas, delicate finger rings and rustic brassy things, and all the folks throughout, squat round-faced women, strong straw-hat men, and their bright-eyed, silver-toothed kids with shining sticky faces. I wonder: When won’t I want to bring such beauty back to you?
"Souvenir": The markets here are filled with the sort of things you love: so much color, hand-painted ceramics, deep bowls and platters, glazed pots awaiting plants, figurines of papier-mâché, wooden creatures carved from dreams, textiles too, blouses stitched with flowers blooming round their collars, irregular rugs from a loom, bolts of fabric in bright piles, charms and trinketry, bracelets with patinas, delicate finger rings and rustic brassy things, and all the folks throughout, squat round-faced women, strong straw-hat men, and their bright-eyed, silver-toothed kids with shining sticky faces. I wonder: When won’t I want to bring such beauty back to you?
Traveling Light
"Traveling Light": A bench under blue sky. The turn of leaves adrift, down onto the grass here, across the stones there. An old fountain big enough to swim in. A church with open doors, wooden pews in shadows. A bronze statue of a man who did something with his life. A slight breeze. Children at play. Laughter and footsteps. A flutter of pigeons taking to the air. A sleeping dog. If I tilt my head back, I can feel your voice and smile, your touch, bright and warm as the sunshine in this plaza.
"Traveling Light": A bench under blue sky. The turn of leaves adrift, down onto the grass here, across the stones there. An old fountain big enough to swim in. A church with open doors, wooden pews in shadows. A bronze statue of a man who did something with his life. A slight breeze. Children at play. Laughter and footsteps. A flutter of pigeons taking to the air. A sleeping dog. If I tilt my head back, I can feel your voice and smile, your touch, bright and warm as the sunshine in this plaza.
Watch “Traveling Light”
"Traveling Light" was made in the spring of 2021 in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, where the poem was written 10 years earlier. The song at the end of the video is "La Paloma Querida" by José Alfredo Jiménez. The song is performed by Don Luis, who can be found playing in the early evenings for the patrons of cafés and mezcalerías around the zócalo and plazas in town.
