Poem for Wednesday

Still
By A. R. Ammons

I said I will find what is lowly
and put the roots of my identity
down there:
each day I'll wake up
and find the lowly nearby,
a handy focus and reminder,
a ready measure of my significance,
the voice by which I would be heard,
the wills, the kinds of selfishness
I could
freely adopt as my own:

but though I have looked everywhere,
I can find nothing
to give myself to:
everything is

magnificent with existence, is in
surfeit of glory:
nothing is diminished,
nothing has been diminished for me:

I said what is more lowly than the grass:
ah, underneath,
a ground-crust of dry-burnt moss:
I looked at it closely
and said this can be my habitat: but
nestling in I
found
below the brown exterior
green mechanisms beyond the intellect
awaiting resurrection in rain: so I got up

and ran saying there is nothing lowly in the universe:
I found a beggar:
he had stumps for legs: nobody was paying
him any attention: everybody went on by:
I nestled in and found his life:
there, love shook his body like a devastation:
I said
though I have looked everywhere
I can find nothing lowly
in the universe:

I whirled though transfigurations up and down,
transfigurations of size and shape and place:

at one sudden point came still,
stood in wonder:
moss, beggar, weed, tick, pine, self, magnificent
with being!

--------

Had a much better day today than yesterday for no really good reason -- got my work done, took some gratuitous pictures, wrote some gratuitous porn that will never see the light of day. And I got mail: Keeper of Words, the book of Anna Marie Ferguson's lovely Arthurian Tarot deck, for $6 from Discount New Age Books, and the wonderful sent me a chocolate bear! (See photos below.) My children are very jealous. Plus stopped at Best Buy to get Aladdin on DVD for the kids and picked up the fourth season of Dawson's Creek for me, and although Colin Hay's "Waiting For My Real Life To Begin" and Tuck and Patti's "Take My Breath Away" are no longer on the soundtrack, Eva Cassidy's "Fields of Gold" is and that's what really matters. Yes, the spirit of acquisitiveness can improve one's mood.

Also, I'm loving the online polls so far about the Edwards-Cheney debate (did MSNBC's, CNN's and ABC's; couldn't find CBS's). I voted for Edwards in the Democratic primary because it was already obvious that Kerry was going to get the nomination and I wanted Edwards on the ticket specifically for tonight -- he's the best public speaker of the lot of them, and it's Cheney, not Bush, I expected to make a coherent case for the administration even though personally there are a million ethical issues to throw in his face, as Edwards did. A couple of times I thought Edwards sounded a bit too rehearsed, but Cheney sounded tired of his rhetoric as well as rehearsed and didn't score points on experience that I feared he might because he had to keep giving Bush the credit for everything.

Part of me wants to think it's sad that the Kerry-Edwards ticket is apparently enjoying a surge because according to some pollsters women find Kerry assertive and Edwards nicer to listen to than Bush and Cheney, but most of me just doesn't care why Bush loses so long as he loses. I have to grit my teeth any time Kerry or Edwards opens his mouth about marriage being between a man and a woman and remind myself of the importance of winning the election, but, you know, if it was abortion rights they were fudging like this, I'd have a hard time dragging myself to the polls.


wanted to see the cats doing something to make me smile. Here they are patiently (heh) waiting to be fed, an hour and a half before dinner. ( wanted a cat belly, and Rosie's cannot be missed.)


asked for the back of my neck. My husband couldn't get a single clear picture of it with my hair held up, which, trust me, is no great loss. Here is the back of my neck with my hair down, which is how it looks except when I am in the shower or in a swimming pool.


requested the moon and a sign. Here she gets two for the price of one, though perhaps they both count as cheating. But look, gratuitous Xena portrait and ship reflected in mirror!


and wanted Aragorn and Boromir. Here they are, running side by side on their wheels, getting ready to take on Sauron.


wanted something Halloween-y. I bought this witch three or four years ago to hang on the tree outside the house on October 31 and she's been flying over my desk ever since.


wanted my closet floor. Obviously she is a brave woman. The black thing on the left is a cape, a gift from my beloved , that I will wear to the Renaissance Festival on Shakespeare weekend if it's cool enough. The leopard print bag was bought in L.A. in commemoration of Barbie N. Spots whom some of you know. And yes, that is a Gryffindor scarf, a gift from Anriebear whom others of you know from her days at Warner Bros.


also wanted to see the next thing I made for dinner, since I can't show her my driveway, not having a driveway which is nobody's fault, not even the Romans. Here -- because older son had chess club and younger son was at a friend's house and none of us were feeling ambitious -- is a double serving of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. , there is your something orange!


Chocolate the Bear, courtesy . Isn't he adorable?


This is just here because when I was taking photos in my bedroom I couldn't resist getting the brothers side by side. Do we think they stuck a Boromir head on a Faramir body mold, since Boromir's head is so much larger in proportion to the arms? Do we care? I had to track him down via eBay but he is so worth it.

Shall get leaves for , , , , , and everyone else who wanted neighborhood and nature scenery this weekend!