January 14, 2023
by jenniferpuryear
Have you seen the Apple TV+ series “Severance”? Color me obsessed with this smart and suspenseful exploration of memory and identity. I’d put it in a category with “Stranger Things”, “The X-Files”, and “Twin Peaks” for imaginative brilliance, haunting visuals, and on-screen chemistry. Imagine yourself – suddenly, jarringly – waking up on an office table in a conference room. You’re wearing a put-together outfit appropriate …
October 28, 2022
by jenniferpuryear
Halloween’s about candy these days. But maybe it’s still a little bit about ghosts and death and the meaning of life, too? In her article “Living among the Dead in Manhattan,” Faith Bottum thinks about how we moderns banish death to the sidelines… but not entirely. I hope you’ll enjoy an excerpt from her article, the photos of Manhattan cemeteries, and the link (at the …
October 23, 2022
by jenniferpuryear
As the days grow short and dark, novels beckon us into their bright worlds. Here are ten to consider for fall… The Marriage Portrait, by Maggie O’Farrell, is a gleaming invitation to 16th century Italy, a world in which court intrigue can lead to both love and murder. As the novel opens, Lucrezia, the third daughter of the grand duke of Florence, has married Alfonso, …
October 15, 2022
by jenniferpuryear
An October visitor has lately surprised me, sipping sage in the garden as the maples and oaks and hackberries and dogwoods show red and yellow and gold… Each day I wonder: is this our last together? And think: perhaps that is the not the right question. It seems a good day for this poem by English poet Mark Roper… Hummingbird Not just how it hung …
April 2, 2022
by jenniferpuryear
“Picture yourself walking through a meadow. There is a path opening before you. As you walk, you feel hungry. Look to your left. There’s a fruit tree in full bloom. Pick what you need.” Thus began one day’s reading, this week, from The Language of Letting Go: Daily Meditations on Codependency, by Melodie Beattie. It continued, in dreamlike fashion… ”Steps later, you notice you’re thirsty. …
March 26, 2022
by jenniferpuryear
Tulips at Cheekwood will peak this week! “Everything is Beautiful” at the Frist. Susan Page speaks, meets, and greets at the Nashville Public Library (Washington Bureau chief of USA Today, she’s written books on Barbara Bush and Nancy Pelosi). Nashville Ballet and our Nashville Symphony perform “Firebird” and “Billy the Kid” in an extravaganza at the Schermerhorn. Finally, Nashville celebrates all things Japan with the …
March 26, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
I was already feeling bad about uprooting the orange and black pansies – flourishing in their pots since October – for the sole reason that they look like Halloween, not Spring.“I’m sorry,” I whispered to them. “You have been very good pansies.” I felt like crying. What is wrong with me, I thought. “I’ll meet you in the dirt,” I whispered, but they just kept …
March 21, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
Yesterday in a fever dream I walked through a forest of strawberry cream – lay down upon a petal bed – swiftly sinking… sinking, sleeping… sleeping, walking… walking, waking… among the hellebores who hissed with dragon tongues and cursed me. Now – running – stumbling – falling – tumbling – into the bamboo forest – where possums and lions and even coyotes haunt and torment. Lost – …
February 7, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
Have you become more comfortable with silence and solitude in the time of corona? Has social media filled more time – or less? Friend of Bacon Beth Alexander was deeply affected by the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma,” and today she explains why… From Beth: During this strange time of Covid when the norm is separation, I’m missing friends and the little perks of friendship that …
January 10, 2021
by jenniferpuryear
In my yard, unsteady, I’ve taken my first steps since October. Winter’s glories abound, and its desolation… Winter’s Feast At winter’s feast, I drink the yellow jasmine – Paint my lips with blood-pink bloom – Rub my hands with Rose of Mary; In their rooms, dear pansies flirt and swoon. At winter’s feast, I touch the veined hydrangea – Dress my hair with leaves …