Poem for Thursday

Far Away
By Julia Hartwig
Translated by John and Bogdana Carpenter

She ran faster than tears
ran straight ahead
no boundary was in front of her
no one chased her
no one was racing against her
luminous space waited
to take her in its embrace

--------

From In Praise of the Unfinished, translated from the Polish, published by Knopf. Published in "Absence, Opera, Beans, Dreams", a selection of verse from new collections from The Washington Post Book World's poetry issue the week of April 20th.

Adam had his final orchestra concert of the year this evening, so I had to get done on Wednesday the chores I didn't manage on Tuesday because my in-laws were coming for dinner. So I folded laundry while watching the first episodes of The Practice that William Shatner was on -- I never watched that show during its eight-year run, and it's so much fun to watch Alan fall in love with Denny that I don't know if I want to watch Alan before Denny, though I'm tempted just to get Alan's backstory (he shoots at targets and calls them "mother"?!). Paul brought home pizza for dinner, so we had that with his parents and looked at some family photos.

The concert was held at my high school in the refurbished auditorium -- apparently a pitch the keep the middle school's award-winning eighth grade orchestra students together in the school next fall. It was a terrific program; Adam's group, the intermediate orchestra, played a Korean folk tune, "Canyon Sunset," Brubaker's "El Toro", a Celtic fiddle arrangement, and the final movement of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. The advanced orchestra (which has won lots of state and national awards) played Frescobaldi's "Toccata," Hofeldt's "The Gift," Brahms' "Hungarian Dance," "Colors of the Wind" from Pocahontas, the theme from The Godfather, and, as an encore, "Stand By Me."


The middle school music teacher conducts the intermediate orchestra.


The cellos, violas and second violins play together.


The advanced orchestra stands for bows and to present the music teacher with a scrapbook of their festival visits.


Remember how my kids' elementary school was being torn down? Now it's being rebuilt.


I'd hate to live any closer to the construction site -- we already get a lot of the dust -- but it's neat to see the structure's beams go up.


Here are three residents who couldn't care about the concerts or the school rebuilding.


In general, the violin only interests them if they can chew on the bow, which they are not allowed to do, and outside noises are only worth checking out if they might be a squirrel, chipmunk, mouse, moth or fellow cat.

As if we needed another reason not to mourn Elliot Spitzer, New York Governor David A. Paterson is telling New York agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions. I am a tiny bit nervous that the anti-gay-marriage coalitions could get something on the ballot by November and bring out the conservative crowds who otherwise wouldn't bother to turn out to vote for McCain -- someone please tell me that that is not possible in New York or California at this late date!