Thanks so much for indulging my love of poetry this month.
LOVE AFTER LOVE
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.
---- Derek Walcott, Collected Poems: 1948-1984
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Enjoy the weekend!
(The flower in the photo is not from my garden; rather, it was blooming at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh last weekend.)
Knitting . . . Nearly finished with my toddler sweater -- and . . . just in time. Because the recipient is growing fast! Now, I think this one is up next (even though I swore I'd never knit with linen again).
Listening to . . . Sirius radio. That channel that is just like listening to the car radio back in 1976? Yep. That one. (Pablo Cruise, anyone???)
Drinking . . . Beer on the patio. (And, my. That feels good!)
Itching to . . . Plant my herb garden. (But not quite yet. I need to be patient for a couple more weeks.)
Humming . . . Poetry Man by Phoebe Snow. I heard this one the other day - for the first time in probably 30 years or so - and now? Can't get it out of my head! (See Sirius radio; above.)
Needing to . . . Put away my winter clothes. Really. I'm sure I won't wear them anymore. (Even if the weather turns winter-y again.) (Once I put on the flip-flops, it's All Over.)
Dreading . . . Not being able to hear for a couple of weeks. (Because my hearing aids went haywire yesterday and need repair.)
Celebrating . . . An 80th birthday just around the corner!
Delighted by . . . Grape hyacinths. I think I planted about 100 bulbs last fall. (And I have no regrets!)
Looking forward to. . . Lilacs! I planted a lilac bush of my own last year -- and it's full of buds. (And, of course, there is my neighbor's lilac. Which happens to drape over my side of the fence in a most accessible way . . . )
Thinking about . . . Gratitude. And feeling the need to acknowledge it in a more intentional way. Every day.
Planning . . . My garden. Home improvements. Trips up north. My workload. How to make everything work.
How about YOU? What's happening for you . . . right now?
Tom and I headed to Pittsburgh last Friday . . . to visit Erin and have a little adventure.
Erin and Keith moved into a nice, spacious apartment since our last visit, so it was fun to see their new place. AND . . . meet their kitten, Dash.
Dash is adorable -- a tiny, mini-panther with tons of energy and fearless athletic abilities!
We ate a lot.
We went on some very cool field trips. Here is Erin, showing us around the Humanities building at Carnegie Mellon -- where she will (again) be a graduate student in the fall.
We also visited the Phipps Conservatory, a pinball emporium/coffee shop, and a micro-brewery/pub. (Each place has a story to tell, so watch this space next week.)
Pittsburgh is a great city -- and a fun place to visit. Especially when you have your own trusty tour guides! (Also really cool bridges -- that turn color at night.)
Mostly, though, it was great to spend time with Erin and Keith. Lots of fun; lots of laughs; lots of love!
A perfect weekend adventure!
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(Bonus surprise: Pittsburgh is a few weeks ahead of us, spring-wise. The dogwood trees are in full bloom everywhere!)
Yesterday, Tom and I were in the car for a long time.
We passed several miles of our trip discussing this week's Ten on Tuesday topic: 10 Movies You Have To Stop & Watch When You Come Across Them While Channel Surfing.
Our lists vary a bit, but we share a few, too.
We seem unable to look away from pretty much any Quentin Tarantino movie . . .
1 -- Pulp Fiction
2 -- Kill Bill (1 or 2).
And, equally, get sucked right in to the Bourne series . . .
I have a star magnolia in the border in front of my house, and it is just stunning each spring when it blooms. Although it's hard for me to choose, it might actually be my favorite of all the early spring blooms in my garden.
The flowers are lovely. Delicate and graceful. Creamy white, with just a hint of a pink blush.
Fragile . . but tough.
I've been worried about my magnolia this year, though. Because its buds were just barely beginning to pop open when that nasty second-winter-worse-than-the-first-winter hit a few weeks ago.
I was right to worry, because there was a lot of damage. But, like the good, hardy bloomer that it is, my star magnolia hung in there! Once the weather warmed and the sun came out last weekend, the buds - damaged from the freeze - just continued to open.
Right where they had left off -- before getting frozen-in-time by the freeze.
Damaged. A bit funky looking. But still doing their spring magnolia thing!
It got me thinking again . . . about us. About people. Because we're like that, too.
We all carry our damage -- the imperfect bits and general wear-and-tear -- yet there we go! Opening up and blooming our fool heads off. Beautiful.
Salvage!
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Just a reminder: Tomorrow is Poem-In-Your-Pocket day. I'll be sharing a poem. How about you?
Some Ten on Tuesday topics are oh-so-much harder for me to put together than others.
Like this week. Ten Albums We Love.
Ten?
Only ten?
Because. Well. I love a lot of albums.
Loving an album, you see, is so much . . . more . . . than loving a song. To love an album, you need to love each and every song. Each. One. And, for me . . . there are just so many!
It sort of pains me to limit myself to only ten. So I had to pretend that I was stuck on a desert island, and could only have 10 albums on my iPod. To listen to forever. Here they are (and, if you know these albums, you'll notice that I've stacked the deck with four double-albums; so bonus!):
Stadium Arcadium - Red Hot Chili Peppers
White Album - The Beatles
Nevermind - Nirvana
Joshua Tree - U2
Tapestry - Carole King
Unplugged - Eric Clapton
Hotel California - The Eagles
Rearviewmirror - Pearl Jam
So Far- Crosby Stills Nash & Young
In Your Honor - Foo Fighters
But it really does pain me. And I'd try to sneak in another ten . . . Kind of Blue, Rumours, The Stranger, Harvest, Breakfast in America, Brothers in Arms, Synchronicity, Red Octopus, A Few Small Repairs, Jagged Little Pill . . .
How about YOU? What albums do you love best?
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See what everyone else has to say this week over here!
You might see an angel anytime and anywhere. Of course you have to open your eyes to a kind of second level, but it's not really hard. The whole business of what's reality and what isn't has never been solved and probably never will be. So I don't care to be too definite about anything. I have a lot of edges called Perhaps and almost nothing you can call Certainty. For myself, but not for other people. That's a place you just can't get into, not entirely anyway, other people's heads.
I'll just leave you with this. I don't care how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. It's enough to know that for some people they exist, and that they dance.
---- Mary Oliver, Blue Horses
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(The photo, above, is a tree peony. In bloom at a nursery near me.)