Imagine you’re reading 
Fixing the Musical by Doug Reside
And there is your own name and website 
Quoted in print! 
A much needed boost ​

The joy of the New York Public Library on 5th Ave 
The extraordinary Artifacts exhibit 
The joy of time with Lou 
Who traveled across the entire continent 
To be here 
Thankful thankful thankful ​

An extraordinary interview with 
​Shaun Tan
Australian artist and personal inspiration
The way he talks about craft and belief
And process
And technology
And being a soul
On this rock revolving.

Finally finished The Letters of Oscar Hammerstein II
Inspiring and moving and surprising
Lived theatrical history
The everyday-ness of it
The real struggle of it
How long it took for OH to feel financially comfortable
All the things he did besides writing some of the most iconic lyrics of the 20th century
The friends and acquaintances
The myriad of relationships that make a life
Extraordinary

How lovely it was to see Zoe
And how lucky that we could take a tour of the historic
Boston Athenæm
What a thrill it was to see books from the 17th century
Books then considered to be essential for human knowledge
Desert island books if you will
Sent from England to Boston (via the Caribbean)
And now sitting in an old glass lined cabinet
(There was an exhibit a few years ago that asked
What is essential knowledge?
…
What do you consider Required Reading?)
Being able to walk between the narrow aisles of the stacks
The wonderful smell of old books
It fills my soul and raises my heartbeat
I want to read ALL the books!
And see all the films
And watch all the plays!
And hear all the music!
And play all the instruments!
Why is our time so infuriatingly finite?!
Rachel and I decided on our afterlife meeting spot
And promised to one day haunt the halls of the Athenæm
Reading for all eternity
In this lifetime
We had lunch on the Common and
Sat with Zoe on her break
The full breadth of humanity on display

The afternoon was reserved for the quiet of Mount Auburn
A stunning garden cemetery full of faery energy
A resting place for the dead
A home for the towering trees
Moss covered mausoleums
And stone statues
Gravestones and crypts and a
Verdant landscape
That takes your breath away with its beauty
And you whisper to the trees
Thank you for this day.

A new musical about escaping into fairytales
And telling stories
And writing new chapters
With a female protagonist who is figuring herself out
And a non-binary bestie
And lesbian mermaids
And an uncertain prince
And painted butterflies that fly off the canvas
And lovely music and gorgeous singing
I cried so much that it hurt.

What a joy
What a luxury
Escape
Mind opening
Extraordinary phenomenon
This shaping of scratches and symbols
Into recognizable forms called
Letters
Which arranged in a dizzying array of combinations form
Words
Which arranged in a dizzying array of combinations form
Sentences
Express ideas
Convey meaning
Tell stories across time and space and minds.

The Letters of Oscar Hammerstein II
Within the epic tome of epistles
A letter detailing a live filming of
Oklahoma!
In 1951! In war torn Berlin!
The thrill of research.

​It is cold and
Pouring rain outside but I am
In the warm bubble of the
Library 
And for an hour or two
The outside world
Exists only on paper.