RAIN AT LAST!Thursday night it finally rained.  After supper it began with a faint pittering.  Then it gained some strength into more than a shower.  it rained all night, and in the middle of the night it came down hard and continued into the next morning.  The air turned cool and fresh, instead of soggy, overheated, polluted. Everything was drinking it in.  The plants looked immediately greener, not sagging and limp. I had lunch in town with the poet Marilyn Nelson and Jose Gouveia, a local poet and orchestrator of various reading series.  They were very late but I was on time, so I chatted with the waitress.  It’s local place so they know me.  We were both exalting in the rain and the cool temperature after so long imprisoned by the unbearable heat.  She said it was so great to wear pants again. Knopf has given me a deadline for my next poetry book.  I’ll get it in by January 31^st at the latest – I hope earlier.  I have begun doing a little work on it, but this coming weekend, we’ll be teaching at Omega, our annual memoir workshop there, so I have had to stop.  We have to get everything together to leave early Friday. I love putting together a poetry book. It’s one of the most enjoyable things I do.  I begin by making a first pass of all my recent poems judging which to consider for the book.  There are about 120 to evaluate, at least.  The next step will be dividing them into sections and then winnowing the poems for each section, and all along the process, revising the poems that need more work, sharpening, adding or subtracting, finding a better word.  Getting rid of any flab.  It’s my idea of the most fun of anything literary.  Very soon after we return from Omega, we’re going up to Maine.  Right after that I’ll get down to serious work. I also will sign a contract this coming week with PM Press for an Outspoken Author’s book.  Due April 17^th.  That’s one reason I am hoping to get the Knopf poetry book done earlier than the 31^st of January, to give me more time to work on the other manuscript.  I also have a poetry contest to judge during the winter.  And a couple of speeches to write. BRAIDED LIVES is out now.  PM Press republished it with a new introduction I wrote.  It’s unfortunately very timely, with the Republican war on women getting more and more intense.  It’s about the time before Roe v. Wade, what it was like for young women when abortion was illegal and dangerous and even contraception was hard to get. I was dubious about the cover at first, but I’ve been persuaded by Woody and my assistant Melanie that it’s a very cool cover and I should be glad of it. The cover of the original publication was dismal and the mass paperback cover ordinary, to say the least.  So it’s the first good cover the novel has ever enjoyed. Saturday was sunny and we finally got into the garden.  We dug beets and I made borscht with a friend’s wonderful eggs [I let her pick as many black currants as she wanted – I’d already picked – and she brought me her eggs] and boiled potatoes and Hungarian style cucumbers.  Woody brought in a lot of red cabbages. The refrigerator is jammed with cukes, zukes, yellow squash, red cabbages, peppers and beets.  I am freezing the pick of the beet greens today.  I froze green and yellow peppers yesterday. Tonight I’ll make a Middle Eastern recipe from Claudia Roden of eggplants, of which we have many now, and shoulder of lamb from last summer’s trip to Maine. Nice spices.  Tomatoes, onions, and I may added some yellow squash. Parsley, cinnamon, ginger, I forget what all since the recipe is downstairs in the kitchen and I am upstairs in my office at my computer.  I haven’t made this recipe before, but I trust Claudia Roden.  I cook many of her recipes.