Monday, September 20, 2004

Poem for Monday


The City Limits
By A. R. Ammons


When you consider the radiance, that it does not withhold
itself but pours its abundance without selection into every
nook and cranny not overhung or hidden; when you consider

that birds' bones make no awful noise against the light but
lie low in the light as in a high testimony; when you consider
the radiance, that it will look into the guiltiest

swervings of the weaving heart and bear itself upon them,
not flinching into disguise or darkening; when you consider
the abundance of such resource as illuminates the glow-blue

bodies and gold-skeined wings of flies swarming the dumped
guts of a natural slaughter or the coil of shit and in no
way winces from its storms of generosity; when you consider

that air or vacuum, snow or shale, squid or wolf, rose or lichen,
each is accepted into as much light as it will take, then
the heart moves roomier, the man stands and looks about, the

leaf does not increase itself above the grass, and the dark
work of the deepest cells is of a tune with May bushes
and fear lit by the breadth of such calmly turns to praise.

--------


Another low-key day, with preparations for my son to leave for two days of outdoor education with a group of kids he barely knows (neither of the boys in his carpool are going with his team; they're going Wednesday-Friday) around a birthday party at a local park in absolutely perfect weather. Now it's quite cool and we have all the windows open and I'm wearing a jacket and heavy slippers with socks underneath and am still chilly and it's delightful. May be deeply traumatized tomorrow evening not having my son home (he's slept at friends and away with grandparents but has never gone to overnight camp -- no interest -- so this is his first sleepaway with a peer group). Prepare to console me. *g*

In between bouts of preparation, I half-watched the Emmys. Adored Kushner's acceptance speech. Was delighted Something the Lord Made won for TV movie. Was cranky Alan Rickman didn't win for same (I know we're all supposed to be rooting for Angels In America to win everything because lots of awards are apparently supposed to make us feel better about the lack of actual AIDS funding, but I rooted for Alan over Al Pacino anyway). Also cranky Anjelica didn't win even though I didn't watch Iron Jawed Angels because -- and this is really dorky -- I always forget that we get HBO. Nice to see Shatner on the big show and I suppose I will have to watch Boston Legal with its gaggle of Emmy winners. Thought about being bummed Meryl beat Glenn again, but Glenn was playing a role for which Katharine Hepburn only won half an Oscar for a much better performance, so I guess it's fair enough. Sex and the City saved my sanity several times during the worst year of my life, but I still can't bring myself to care that it's off the air...I wish they'd gotten rid of Carrie and her men and kept Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda.


The pesky squirrel that stole a pizza crust right out from under our picnic table and ran off to eat it.


The totem pole at Wheaton Regional Park.


And the play equipment at the park. I love the way it looks in summer and fall under the leaves.


The only thing my older son wanted to do was to read his latest Redwall book -- I think he's on the fourth.


How the bowling lanes look when the pizza arrives.

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