The poets Alex Dimitrov and Dorothea Lasky met at a party in Brooklyn nearly a decade ago and bonded over astrology. Mr. Dimitrov, 34, a Sagittarius, and Ms. Lasky, 41, an Aries, went on to develop the Twitter account, Astro Poets. Now over half a million followers receive their weekly forecast and daily quips.
Their first book, “Astro Poets: Your Guides to the Zodiac,” comes out Oct. 29. Mr. Dimitrov lives in a studio apartment on the Upper East Side. Ms. Lasky, who teaches writing at Columbia University, lives on campus with her husband, Thom Donovan, 42, a poet and archivist, their daughter, Hera, 4, and son, Chance, 2.
The Astro Poets try to spend every Sunday afternoon together. Usually, the stars align.
RISING SUN Alex: I usually get up at 8:30, but I read before I get up. Right now I’m reading a bunch of novels because I’m writing a novel. I’m reading “A Sentimental Education,” by Flaubert. I’m also reading “Seize the Day” by Saul Bellow, which is a bit of a snooze. Dorothea: I wake up at 5 or 5:30 and try to do some writing before my kids wake up at 6. They both ask for milk first thing. They’re in love with milk. Not breast milk. It’s not a hippie thing.
ON THEIR OWN PLANETS Dorothea: We might go to the children’s museum near my house or the Natural History Museum. Alex: Before I meet Dottie for lunch, I always go for a run in the park. I walk from my house to the park, and that makes me feel guilty because I could run that walk. But I never walk leisurely in New York and that kind of upsets me. So it’s the only time I walk leisurely, and it’s a good time for me to think.
IN HARMONY Dorothea: We’ve been going to the same restaurant for 10 years. Souen is a macrobiotic restaurant downtown. Alex: We get the macrobiotic plate, which has brown rice and kale and two kinds of seaweed. Dorothea: Also a kind of yam which has a fancier name than yam but I forget what it’s called. Alex: We used to get an appetizer of seitan and guacamole, but they stopped that. For a while we were kind of lost at sea without the seitan. We’re ritualistic. I think most poets are. Dorothea: We’re both Midwesterners. It might have more to do with the Midwest than with poetry.
ELEMENTS Alex: After lunch, we go to this place called Enchantments. It’s a witch store. We shop there for things we might need for divinations or spells. We’ve bought rose petals there, and glitter and hyacinths and candles.
Dorothea: Alex and I are both strong believers in the idea of what emerges. So we’re not going to go in and be like, ‘Today I’m going to get five daisies.’ Alex: The stuff we get there doesn’t have to be witchy stuff. We’re just guided by what we feel we want to be thinking about. Sometimes it’s a color. Like maybe we’ll be in a blue mood.
PSYCHIC PREP Alex: We each get usually three things, then we bring them back to Dottie’s place. We don’t ever go to my place. If you saw how small my studio is you’d kind of understand. Dorothea: But a lot of times before we go to my house we’ll go to Crystals Garden. I don’t know if you’d call what they have there jewelry but there’s all these amazing rocks and crystals and plants. And sometimes while we’re still downtown we visit the wheel in front of St. Mark’s Church. There’s a karmic wheel on the ground that has all the signs on it. It’s kind of subtle, so you might never know it’s right in front of the church.
ENTERING THE HOUSE OF DOTTIE Alex: The purpose of us going to Dottie’s is really just for us to talk. It’s creativity related always. Again, we’re big believers in seeing what will come out of doing anything. So we might do free writing or divination, just to see what comes out of it.
TRANSIT Alex: From Dottie’s house I usually go home. Sunday night is the night Dottie Tweets the horoscopes out. I am equally obsessed with seeing them as everyone else. Dorothea: Sometimes Alex will be looking at it and he’ll let me know if maybe there’s a typo. We’ll text about that.
Dorothea: After the horoscopes are out I basically just fall asleep, or I might do some reading. I’m reading “Near to the Wild Heart” by Clarice Lispector. And I’ve been really in love with Shirley Jackson lately. Alex: Usually when I come home I try to answer some emails, which are the bane of my existence. I think emails are the most oppressive thing to creativity in 2019 and probably will be until I die. I might meet a friend for a drink at the Penrose. Then, when I’m so tired I can’t do anything else, I might look at Tinder. If I’m being completely honest, my love life is always very challenged because I never devote any time to it. So I’ll swipe and stuff but I never put any real effort into it, and that’s why my love life continues to be a disaster.
Sunday Routine readers can follow the Astro Poets on Twitter @poetastrologers.
