Poem for Tuesday

From Alcestis
By Ted Hughes

The music was not the music of dancing
But of growing and withering,
Of the root in the earth and the leaf in the light,
The music of birth and of death.
And the stones did not dance. But the stones listened.
The music was not the music of happiness
But of everlasting, and the wearing away of the hills,
The music of the stillness of stones,
Of stones under frost, and stones under rain, and stones in the sun,
The music of the seabed drinking at the stones of the hills.
The music of the floating weight of the earth.
And the bears in their forest holes
Heard the music of bears in their forest holes.
The music of bones in the starlight,
The music of many a valley trodden by bears,
The music of bears listening on the earth for bears.
And the deer on the high hills heard the crying of wolves.
And the salmon in the deep pools heard the whisper of the snows,
And the traveller on the road
Heard the music of love coming and love going
And love lost forever,
The music of birth and of death.
The music of the earth, swaddled in heaven, kissed by its cloud and watched by its ray.
And the ears that heard it were also of leaf and of stone.
The faces that listened were flesh of cliff and of river.
The hands that played it were fingers of snakes and a tangle of flowers.

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This morning I did very poorly in fifth grade math. Well, actually it was seventh grade math, but that is not much consolation. I thought we were just going to get to observe for visiting day at school, but younger son's math teacher made us partner with our children on an assignment where we were given sixteen statements about a baseball team and had to figure out from the statements who played which position. It was a lot like Sudoku, which my kids are far better at than I am! This is the same math teacher that older son had in fifth grade and she is wonderful -- very smart and a good teacher and also young and pretty, with a Southern accent that the kids seem to find charming. The class has about 20 students, only four of whom are girls, which does not leave me feeling great about the new math program in the county even though my son has done very well in it -- the boys were volunteering answers more than the girls even though the teacher was trying to call on everyone equally to answer so the kids could show off for their parents. went to school with older son, but he had chorus first period, so he didn't get to observe much in the way of academics!

And I was stuck at home for the rest of the afternoon, because had to drive my minivan to middle school and work afterward as his wouldn't start. Ended up needing a new battery (old one ran for nearly seven years) but until AAA got here to test it and determine that it was definitively dead, I couldn't go anyplace. So I wrote articles on the Trek auction, the new Shatner DirecTV ad and the Griffith Observatory reopening, posted photos on my web site and plotted world domination. (Speaking of which, Betty Bowers on why George Bush doesn't listen to the Founding Fathers: they were sane!)


Having "tea" in the garden at Montgomery County Agricultural History Farm Park's Harvest Festival.


Some of the other activities included candle-dipping...


...white-washing fences...


...hay-baling...


...washing clothes early 19th century-style...


...and listening to music in the barn.

I watched Heroes, enjoyed it, but don't really have anything to say about it, as I seem not to be really emotionally invested in any of the characters, just kind of following the plot. Started watching Studio 60, discovered that I really had no interest and told that he was welcome to put on the Ravens game, which he did. Tuesday is the school's annual fundraiser where the teachers work as cashiers and servers at McDonald's, so guess what I have to have for dinner! All in the name of education. Well, at least our deck was raccoon-free this evening! The cats appear to be relieved.