Annie Dillard wrote, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” On the first of each month, Catching Days hosts a guest writer in the series, “How We Spend Our Days.” At this time in 2010, I … Continue reading
In The Writing Life, Annie Dillard wrote, I have been looking into schedules. Even when we read physics, we inquire of each least particle, What then shall I do this morning? How we spend our days is, of course, how we … Continue reading
cover art: "Rooms by the Sea" by Edward Hopper
David Jauss is my adviser this semester at Vermont College. During the residency, each student creates a reading list, which the adviser must approve. The books on the list may change as writing issues come up, but it’s a place to start.
Both semesters I’ve included books by my adviser on my list. This seems like an opportunity not to be missed–to read a writer’s work and have a dialogue about it.
Before I arrived at Vermont College, I knew of David Jauss mostly from his craft essays in the AWP Chronicle. I had also read a story of his. For my first packet due on Saturday, August 7th, I read some more of his work.
I started with his poetry and loved almost every one of his poems in the collection, You Are Not Here.
From “Requiem”:
“…how many times
have I paused at the crossroads, then turned right
toward home, instead of left,
toward the darkening highway that leads to that nowhere
called everywhere…”
And from “You Are Not Here”:
“each morning I ask myself
where I won’t be today
or ever.”
catching days 
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