Poem for Sunday

Painkiller
By Jane Mayhall

Ardent work is a painkiller,
like just your handwriting on a page,
and doing mathematics -- that connects with central
neurological tracks, vast circulatory blood-

lights, into aphrodisiacal
forgetfulness. And the more aching a line
of poem, the more it lulls.
Intense dancers on broken toes

insist they never noticed. Like Tchaikovsky
using his tears on laboring music scores, the
melody narcotic. Or running the good
race eludes the hurt.

Mind over matter? It's the brandy gift
of life. Or from a crack in Nothingness --
creation of the world. And must have
been some backbreaking,

godless job. Enormous, long time
over-hours. Working like a dog, that
sweet analgesic postponement
of the End.

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From "Poet's Choice" in The Washington Post by Edward Hirsch, who says, "I've been deeply moved by the love poems -- urgent, ravishing, grief-stricken -- in Jane Mayhall's exceptional new book, Sleeping Late on Judgment Day...at 85, Mayhall has broken through a wall of silence and transformed the oceanic depths of feeling into the faithful nuances of art. She is not seduced by sadness ("You think death is a nostalgic passivity;/ wrong") but overwhelmed by loss, ferociously recalling how her husband grappled with heavy medication and physical pain...there is something holy and crazed about an intensely personal grief."

Finished my review round-up, yay! And Caillan posted the site columns even though I wrote 3/4 of them last night...ah well, will try to save for next week. Today we are being hobby geeks and going to model train stores and the Boyds Bears factory, and to hike a little at Gettysburg if it's not too cold. Guess I will be missing the BAFTAs -- someone tell me if M&C wins anything big! The New York Times has an Oscar section today with another full-page ad, and A.O. Scott picks Weir for Best Director.

It seems quite chilly here but the groundhog that lives in my in-laws' backyard is out, so it must not be that bad. Here he is:


For obvious reasons I am dubbing him Maximus.

Will post spectacular sunset pictures tonight. The sky here is unbelievable.