these precious things ~C.B.

Baby and I got on Barnes and Nobel so that we could order a book on electrolytes for school. Anyway, we don't usually like to get on that web site or some Ebay things because we have a love of books. We cherish our Annie Proulx signed first edition of short stories (even though looking back it may have been a better idea to have her sign Brokeback Mountain but that was after we listened to her speak. We are also always collecting Gertrude Stein books. One time we were looking on Ebay and found an origional signed copy of Everybody's American by Stein....had I have had a disposable 2 or 3000 dollars I would have bought it right then. Anyway, we have bookshelves filled with books...and boxes in the storage area....and though heavy to move...the books are the things that are the most beloved and the things that are the most kept and most prized. So, we were looking for electrolytes made easy and Baby said, "we should look for used Stein books." We got on the site..."I am not saying that we should buy anything," she said "just look around a bit." So we looked it up and found a book about Alice Toklas that we had never seen. It was used...hardback...and in "excellent" condition. We bought it. Then I asked Jess, "Do you remember that year in Kansas? Didn't we read that book of love letters between Stein and Toklas? She looked at me with slanted eyes. "Uh yeah...don't you remember?" she asked. I just looked puzzled. "We read them laying in each other's laps at the park in Manhattan while the kids played." Well....I was a little bit ashamed of myself..."Oh yeah....I do remember that." Because, during that summer Jess and I read "The autobiography of Alice B Toklas," many of Stein's short stories, "A charmed Circle," and the book of love stories that we checked out from the library in Manhattan. Our love affair with Stein and Toklas was born during that summer of loving, driving, and reading. However, now neither one of us could remember the name of the book of poetry. I had a light bulb moment and grabbed the phone. I called the library in Manhattan and asked them to look up a book of love letters and poems about Stein....However, not "Tender Buttons." They came back in one second..."yeah, I think it is "Baby Precious Always Shines." That was it....and I was so excited....I typed it in....never expecting to find it....but, there it was. It must have been fate because when it came in the mail....hardcover...with stiff pages....and not once written in...it was from a library. Anyway, I have chosen to share our book with anyone who reads these silly blogs...I am going to post a poem at a time....every now and then....and in yellow. We love it. The poems were written in the early to mid 1900s. Jess is picking the first one.

Precious wifey,

All flowers tell me

what a lovely flower is she

lovelier than any flower

can be is she

and I am all hers which makes

her glow because she

knows that it is so.

God bless wifey,

she is a tender page

and every page is open to

me and every page in me

is open to she and such

a sweetie is she such a

sweetie

Y.D.

(Y.D. is what Gertrude signed all of the letters to Alice

it was code for Your Darling)