Poem for Friday and School Awards

The Snow Fairy
By Claude McKay

I

Throughout the afternoon I watched them there,
Snow-fairies falling, falling from the sky,
Whirling fantastic in the misty air,
Contending fierce for space supremacy.
And they flew down a mightier force at night,
As though in heaven there was revolt and riot,
And they, frail things had taken panic flight
Down to the calm earth seeking peace and quiet.
I went to bed and rose at early dawn
To see them huddled together in a heap,
Each merged into the other upon the lawn,
Worn out by the sharp struggle, fast asleep.
The sun shone brightly on them half the day,
By night they stealthily had stol'n away.

II

And suddenly my thoughts then turned to you
Who came to me upon a winter's night,
When snow-sprites round my attic window flew,
Your hair disheveled, eyes aglow with light.
My heart was like the weather when you came,
The wanton winds were blowing loud and long;
But you, with joy and passion all aflame,
You danced and sang a lilting summer song.
I made room for you in my little bed,
Took covers from the closet fresh and warm,
A downful pillow for your scented head,
And lay down with you resting in my arm.
You went with Dawn. You left me ere the day,
The lonely actor of a dreamy play.

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I got up early for a good reason, for a change: Adam's school was having an awards presentation and Paul and I had received an invitation. He had won several local and national photography awards, and the school was giving him a certificate in recognition of that, plus there was a display of work by all the student artists. And they fed us donuts and orange juice, so that was lovely.


Son with his photo of a zebra that won a Scholastic Gold Key award...


...and a photo he took at Mount Vernon that won an award from a local photography group.


This is a photo son took of his friend in a dark spandex outfit for a project.


Here are some of the projects on display at the school...


...which included ceramics and pottery as well as painting, photos, and mixed media.


Here is son receiving his certificate...


...and holding it up so I could take a photo after telling me that I was a scrub for wanting to take the photo!

I went to the mall to get new sneakers because there is a hole in the toe of my old ones -- I tend to use them as walking shoes, hiking shoes, and everything else, so I am pretty hard on shoes. Then I came home for lunch and to get some work done, and then my mother asked me if I wanted to go back to the mall to have frozen yogurt with her, which I did -- we also got Adam some running clothes (he was out biking with a friend).

We had butternut squash lasagna for dinner, watched an episode of Wild Russia on Animal Planet with many adorable critters, then watched Awake, which is getting really good but is apparently barely on the bubble for next season -- as are Harry's Law and Nikita, the other two network shows I care about. The ones I don't really care about have mostly been renewed already!