"Victory filled up the little rented boat, from the pool of bilge to where oil had spread a rainbow around the rusted engine to the bailer rusted orange, the sun-cracked thwarts, the oarlocks on their strings, the gunnels--until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go" 
-Elizabeth Bishop, "The Fish"

Having finally polished up my Catullus 8 translation, I came up with a new idea for my response. While I am finishing up the Latin advice to myself, I am also writing a direct response to Catullus's poem from the perspective of an exasperated friend. I would empathize with that theoretical friend because it feels like I am all too often in that position myself, advising them to stop moping and get a move on with their life! "Wretched Catullus..."

I went to Fall Forum yesterday, a day-long event for Latin students from all around Georgia, and so I am even more fired-up about Latin than usual. The namesake of a year-long team I have in my AP Latin class is from a Catullus poem complaining about his friends stealing his napkins (they are very nice napkins), and I'm thinking it's about time that I turn to that one. That will be part of my project for the week.

The other part of my project uses an unintentional burst of inspiration from this past week as a springing-off point. After a tiny, family Diwali celebration, I wrote a poem that was very much about the senses, the sights and the feel of the ceremony. I will once again create a poem a day like I did a few weeks ago for my project, but this time, I will focus very much on the outward physical experience of the day and extend it back to my emotional state. I will write in the afternoons, as I am expecting a more relaxed week. I will likely do a mid-week blog post on Wednesday.