I feel pretty absent-minded sometimes. It’s possible you may have noticed that I have a propensity for tangents. I prefer to embrace them when they stroll by – you just don’t know what could befall when you link up arms! But there are some days when it is not so much a wayward string that I must follow – but a complete lack of brain.
Yesterday we talked about the heart, remember? Probably not. Don’t care. But I spent a good deal of the afternoon flinging about descriptions that may have involved squids. Yesterday was a good day for me. But today I have a brain to worry about. I worry that it’s not there. I know I still have one because my head feels like the same kind of heavy as yesterday when I knew knew I had one – but it’s a cotton ball today. And all the color has drained out of it. And I simply cannot focus, darling.
Sometimes this is just fine. Sometimes cotton brains are the best kind of organ meat to be having because a mind that won’t focus should really just be un-collared and allowed to roam where it wants. Many times this means Art happens soon after.
I am now going to link my own selfish desire to simply talk about my tired head of wrung-sponge to the renaissance writing of George Ella Lyon. This is because – if I tried hard enough – I would carefully bring us full circle until the rumination about my fluff head joined up smoothly with the various and sundry modes of literary prowess Lyon produces. Because eventually my “wandering and wanderlust brain” thread would have made a nice transition into how “the best kind of brilliance knows neither bounds nor genre.” It would have been nice. You would have been impressed yet again.
But I’m really just too scattered-brained for that part.
Listen: some writers are poets, some writers are playwrights, some are minimalists or realists or epistolary gurus. Some writers are fluff heads. And some can do it all. Beloved and award-winning Kentucky writer, George Ella Lyon is one such wordsmith that dabbles everywhere she feels lead, and both she and her colorful repertoire will be on hand this coming Sunday, November 18th for a special reading and signing at Carmichael’s Bookstore.
The author of dozens of books covering a myriad of genres and topics, George Ella Lyon is a well known Kentucky writer, environmental activist and advocate for the Appalachian region. With titles spanning a range from picture books – All the Water in the World – and teen novels – Holding On to Zoe – to poetry – She Let Herself Go – and anthologies, novels, articles and compilations, Lyon quite literally has created the so-called “something for everyone”. Her newest release, the compilation A Kentucky Christmas, features memories, essays, recipes, fiction, poetry and songs from sixty of the Bluegrass’ finest wordsmiths.
Join George Ella Lyon starting at 4pm this Sunday at Carmichael’s, bring money for the stack o’books at your disposal – but don’t feel too terribly obligated to bring a tethered mind. I’m sure Ms. Lyon would more than appreciate a brain that might be just a bit too full to stop fidgeting. I sincerely hope so at least.
Carmichael’s Bookstore has two area locations: 1295 Bardstown Road and 2720 Frankfort Avenue. For more information, visit the event page or call the Frankfort Avenue store at (502) 896-6950.
Image: Courtesy of George Ella Lyon’s website www.georgeellalyon.com
