Poem for Thursday

Young Orchard
By Richard Wilbur

These trees came to stay.
Planted at intervals of
Thirty feet each way,

Each one stands alone
Where it is to live and die.
Still, when they have grown

To full size, these trees
Will blend their crowns, and hum with
Mediating bees.

Meanwhile, see how they
Rise against their rootedness
On a gusty day,

Nodding one and all
To one another, as they
Rise again and fall,

Swept by flutterings
So that they appear a great
Consort of sweet strings.

--------

I had a nice afternoon -- first lunch at the Corner Bakery with Vertigo for her birthday, then brief stops at Target, Barnes & Noble, and Bath & Body Works (where I got younger son a penguin soap dispenser and a free fuzzy sheep, but managed to forget laundry detergent), then came home, did stuff with the kids for a while and took younger son to tennis, where, while he was practicing indoors, I took a walk over to Locust Grove Nature Center and around the outskirts of Cabin John Park, where the gorgeous cooling October weather and twilight worked together to emphasize some emerging autumn color:

















I did watch the debate, though I seriously thought about not doing so because I was in a good mood after Pushing Daisies, which I'm sure offended some Catholics but made me smile, particularly in its parody of Vertigo. Spoilers: I've always loved the Sound of Music nuns in their cerulean blue habits, and "Father Mulcahy" and "Sister Christian" of the Vatican Police -- not to mention the Mother Superior's characterization of their names when she realized who they were -- made me giggle. As usual, there was no real villain -- poor Pigby didn't mean to hurt anyone and Sister LaRue was a bad girl, not really a nun at all -- and the final scene with Chuck and Ned having a candlelight dinner on the rooftop by the beehives gave me warm fuzzies.

I did lots of screaming at the TV during the debate particularly when McCain told flat-out lies about Obama's positions even while Obama was sitting right next to him stating exactly what they were, and I almost developed a blood clot over the abortion discussion (except if I was pregnant I would probably die from it since McCain would insist that the fetus die with me rather than letting my doctor terminate the pregnancy if he were elected), but the shifting undecided voters increasingly favoring Obama over the course of the evening made me feel better.

I see that both the Madonna/Guy Richie and David Duchovny/Tea Leoni marriages are coming to an end. Do we think Madonna and David will run off together? Or Madonna and Tea?