I find myself remembering the days of the week by my “blog calendar” and have felt the need to spend more time here, which is not a bad thing. Today I am joining Carole and friends to share three things with you today.
Some years ago, Kym introduced me to National Poetry Month, which, I confess, I did not know existed. I did not read poetry. My maternal grandfather did though – he not only read poetry, he had so many poems memorized! My favorites that he would recite were Trees by Joyce Kilmer, and Fog by Carl Sandburg. I know these poems, but did not really “get” why poetry. That is until Kym. Today I am going to share three things that I hope will draw you into the lovely world of poetry. I have found great comfort in these uncertain and unsettled days in poetry.
I just finished reading Susan Stewart’s Columbarium, a lovely little tome of incredibly moving poems. I have read it through three times now and each time I discover something new. But, every time I have read this book Dark the Star has called to me.
Dark The Star by Susan Stewart
Dark the star deep in the well, bright in the still and moving water, still as the night circling above the circle of stones the darkness surrounds. Dark the wish made on the star, a true wish made on the water’s image.
There’s no technique in the grass. There’s no technique in the rose.
Thing Three:
This is perhaps my favorite poem of all time. I discovered Derek Walcott via Kym’s blog. His poetry is the best discovery ever.
Love After Love by Derek Walcott
The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome, and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
Starts with a trip down the loveliest rabbit hole!
Clara started it, but that led me to this and this and finally this! These kids… PURE JOY (and you can believe me when I tell you that because joy has been a scarce commodity in my life these days!!)
Perhaps, a trip down a rabbit hole is the perfect thing for today since I spent much of the weekend with things on repeat!
I could not get enough of this and I listened to it several times on Saturday and again on Sunday.
Which led me to “Google” Pádraig Ó Tuama and I discovered he has a twitter account! (My twitterverse just grew infinitely richer!)
Ode to Patrick Swayze
‘the perfect proletarian / butt in the black pants of you’
I finished Clue One of the Genius of Romi! My brain loved every bit of everything I thought I could not understand – that is until I broke it down and just did what the direction said to do, and not worry about that next step until its turn. (I am knitting this with a heavy-lace weight yarn and a bit of a smaller needle than the pattern calls for, but oh my do I love this start!)
I also did some “repeats” knitting and finished a long lingering UFO* (I saved the pattern in 2015 and I think I cast on shortly thereafter, but never started a project page.) Today, a good soak and some blocking to reveal the beauty! (My yarns are about a half a ball of Zauberball Crazy – in the colorway that the designer used, and almost an entire hank of Lorna’s Laces sock yarn.) There was something entirely satisfying about knitting alternating repeats of welts and wedges.
I hope you enjoy these rabbit holes! Happy Monday!
It was a wild weekend here in the Burgh! Crazy winds brought insane storms over the weekend, but the temps in the 70’s were awesome!
Steve is not working on Friday’s these days as his office is closed, but the power went out so all the pc’s turned off so no one could remote in which meant he did have drive in at a time which used to be peak rush hour traffic. On Friday however, there were less cars on the road then there is at 5am when he normally drives in. Eerie.
We did make a visit to our local TJ’s on Friday as well. We stood in line roughly 30 minutes… the sidewalk was well marked and the people in line were lovely
Photo courtesy of @stevofc who does not understand the concept of landscape photos….
Friday there was a typical happy hour with French Manhattans… they were so good!
Cognac, orange liquor, sweet vermouth, orange bitters, and a cherry.
No one takes better photos of the Pittsburgh area than Dave DiCello… but his lightning photos are just crazy.
Spending this rainy, stormy evening listening to everyone’s favorite neighbor and capturing some incredible slo-mo lightning above #Pittsburgh. Don’t worry, Mr. Rogers and I are observing the required 6+ feet of social distancing.
More lightning from last night’s storms in #Pittsburgh. The reason I’m posting this one by itself and not with the 3 others in the thread is because it really stands out with the fog on the river. The lightning ‘reaching’ towards the city with glowing fog on the water was surreal pic.twitter.com/GThrXypqlf
Sunday meant sock knitting and Negroni’s. (I don’t know if it is just me… but are you all drinking more these days?)
Working through clue two!
Then the sun came out and dried up much of the rain, so I could drag Steve out for a “forced photo shoot” (which he hates so much, lol) But anyways, here is my finished and MUCH loved Nightshift! It is HUGE and it is perfect! I only pinned the edges so they laid flat with really no stretching at all and it is so generously sized! I love it so much I **almost** wish for the tiniest sliver of cold weather to wear it a time or two…
There you have my weekend…I hope you managed to find some bright spots in yours! It seems unreal, but I will be back tomorrow with an update on my word!
You cannot see the wood for the trees. — John Heywood
This week brought increased worry for both the rapidly increasing numbers of the sick as well as all those who are caring for them. The stories don’t sound like something from a first-world country, but rather they sound like the horror stories from a war zone or a third-world country that you might vaguely notice in the news.
I read this post yesterday and it really made a huge impact on me. Gratitude + Perspective is my new focus. Less complaining. Less rose-colored glasses views. Less meaningless lists. Less foolishly looking back at unimportant things with misplaced longing.
But, it’s not all less…because there is so much more! More heartfelt conversations with loved ones. More prayers for the sick and those caring for them. More gratitude that I have a home to shelter in and that I can easily communicate with my children. More gratitude that my library is serving the community mightily from a distance. More gratitude that I have no lack of projects to work on. More gratitude that I have an abundance of food. And, finally… more gratitude in just staying home!
Thank you, Carolyn for helping me adjust my perspective!
I do have some “lighter” things to share… things to, you know, STAY HOME and do!
