I want to take a time out from one-handedly packing to wish Cecily Parks a Happy Birthday! She is one of my favorite poem-makers but also one of my favorite people: bright, fun, sparkling, fierce. She is like a whiskey or a faerie tale: sweet but tough and layered and lingering. She'll teach you new words. She'll make you want to be a better writer and a better person. She'll give you the straight story on those jean shorts.
She is destined for magic, both the woman in the woods and the princess. She is gutsty and glamorous. Soon you will have her book in your hands, and you will wear the pages down with love.
She is thirty, though it was Cecily who reminded me we are not too old to wear pigtails. Let's do so with aplomb. Cecily, I love you. I'm sorry I can't be there tonight, but I'll be there soon. Let's sit on a patio. Until then, I'll be icing my hand with a pack of frozen cherries.
Love,
Sweet Ali
