We seem to be here, all over again—this year is ending just for me, another begins just for you. We will have to get used to writing eight instead of seven, we will have to get through January and the rest of winter before we can lie down in spring green. The planet has not been paying attention to things as impermanent as days of the week or the time, preferring instead to watch the moon and the stars and the seasons, hugged to the sun and the centre of everything.
There is a single streetlight halfway up the mountain on the other side of this humid valley, shrouded in deep trees and forever-lit, illuminated hour after hour, while those to its left and right are obediently dark during the day. It has become one of my most favoured things to look at in a half-distracted manner when my fingers need a break from writing; I have found myself admiring its steadiness, wondering whether or not I am this consistent with anything, whether we ever can be.
WORK-RELATED NEWS:
I'm now only ten (eleven, twelve?) entries away from completing the draft manuscript for An Illustrated Guide to the Universe, which is excellent—it's somewhat surprising that I've managed to get so much done here in Brazil, because even if my primary reason for coming here was to work, even the air here is distractingly sweet, and if I crane my neck I can see the blue, demanding ocean; asking with each change in tide to be marvelled at, swum in.
When I return in mid-January, to whatever is left of my houseplants, I will be frantically completing the lettering for the upcoming German edition of The Illustrated Book of Sayings, and starting to create the artwork for the new book, which is a daunting and sickeningly exciting prospect—just how do you fit the universe into fifty or so illustrations? How have I ended up having to decide what the light of a thousand galaxies might look like as ink on paper?
THIS WEEK I FELL IN LOVE WITH:
These paintings on books by Leeds-based illustrator Catherine Pape.
The end.
"but
i am running into a new year
and i beg what i love and
i leave to forgive me"
Lucille Clifton, from ‘I am Running Into a New Year’
Copyright © 2017 Ella Frances Sanders, All rights reserved.