Poem for Friday

Inventory
By Reed Whittemore

To pass through the season of loss and emerge with a good suit
Is to thank God
And take inventory.
The season of waiting is slow.
The clouds hang listlessly.
Where the path bends into the woods
From the meadow
The light is a half light,
And one looks to the north to the hills,
Which are blue.
I will carry the meadow view
Back to the city.
But the woods are close. They crowd in officiously,
Shutting the heavens out.
One sits in the sullenness
With spiders.
I think that before I die I would like to live
In my good suit
In the meadow.

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My week of new year catch-up luncheons continued Thursday as I met Twistedchick at the Hollywood Diner, where I had a bagel and Nova lox, feeling a need for comfort food, and we discussed such weighty matters as politics, religion, and the comparative merits of Ronon Dex and Tyr Anasazi. She brought me a Terrestrial Tarot deck, which I had never seen before -- it has symmetrical images of animals and insects that I find weirdly inspiring. My kids have exams starting tomorrow, so I tried to oversee their studying, though like much of the U.S., we were transfixed from about four o'clock on watching footage of the plane in the Hudson River and the inspiring rescue of the passengers. The television at the tennis center was tuned to NBC so everyone waiting for their kids and practice partners could keep up when I took Adam for his lesson.


Demonstrator Paul Collins made this sign, now displayed at the National Museum of American History, in 1984.


Miniature silverware from the Smithsonian doll house. None of these pieces is larger than half an inch long.


You can probably read the labels on this sewing machine and toaster, both displayed in tribute to American technological developments at the museum formerly called History & Technology.


The Lowe Press No. 2, invented in Philadelphia and patented in 1856, then sold to a manufacturer in Boston.


The shot that sank the Philadelphia, the only surviving Revolutionary War gunboat, was found inside her when she was salvaged in 1935.


The American Presidency exhibit was very crowded last weekend, so we figured that since we saw it before the museum was renovated, we'll go back after the inaugural crowds.


Here is the entrance the museum facing Constitution Avenue. Another entrance faces the National Mall just past 14th Street.

Smallville is back, which is a good thing, and supposedly may even get a ninth season, which is an amazing thing, though I didn't particularly love this episode...I have no investment in the Legion, I was enjoying the fact that the original cast was finally growing up and don't want a batch of new kids around, and although I like Lana standing up for herself and really like that the writers are giving the character something to do besides being Clark's girlfriend and/or Lex's wife, she had too many lines that reminded me of Kristin Kreuk's limitations as an actress...I don't know if she genuinely can't portray sophisticated emotion or if the directors are determined to limit her to trembly-lipped dewy-eyed looks, but it slows everything down when she's on screen. Plus there was no Lois, Oliver, or Tess, which is always a bummer. Spoiler: I am very relieved that at least they didn't kill Chloe off!

After that we all watched Next Gen's "Data's Day," which I need to review Friday, and enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting based on what I remembered about the episode (Keiko and Miles' wedding day leading to an entire series' worth of squabbles and far too few happy moments). Admittedly Adam's major point of interest was wanting to see Data's cat, but he stayed for the whole episode. And then I had the less fun task of testing Daniel on his vocabulary words for his English exam, which hopefully he will define in a less disinterested manner on the test!