February 10th is always for Charles Henri Ford
Charles with his friends at Tea party hosted by him and Inrda. 1979, Dakota, NYC. |
Today is Charles’s birthday (Feb 10th, 1908- Sept 27, 2002), and if he were here, he would be 105 years old. One of my tasks these days is cataloging boxes of his papers. To celebrate his birthday, I decided to open a file and randomly pull one page to see what might be on it. The sheet I pulled was a typed page, and this is what I read:
CHARLES HENRI FORD INTERVIEWED BY TAYLOR MEAD
TM: “Is the Dakota full of ghosts?”
CHF: “In the Dakota ghosts may stand by invisible at noon but I’ve never seen any at night.”
TM: “What is your most satisfying achievement?”
CHF: “At an early age I aspired to generate poetry. Now I have the satisfaction of being the daddy of my favorite haiku.”
Wherever Charles is—and perhaps he’ll be standing by invisible at noon—I want to wish him the happiest birthday yet.
-Indra Tamang
Feb 10th, 2013
Copyright Indra Tamang, 2013, all rights reserved.
Indra thanks for bringing Charles and yourself into my day! I love the time I was fortunate enough to spend with you & Charles & Penny. The essence of special people sticks to us like glue and I carry a little Charles with me wherever I go. Hug to your family, Chris Rael
ReplyDeleteThank you, Indra. Whenever I want to go back to a person or place that is gone, it is nice to have a way of finding the way there again. Water from a Bucket always takes me to Charles Henri
ReplyDeletehttp://www.abebooks.com/WATER-BUCKET-DIARY-1948-1957-Charles-Henri/6678924644/bd.
Very sweet post, Indra. So gentle and lovely. k.
ReplyDeleteYou are full of stories.
ReplyDelete