Poem for Thursday

Sonnet 6
By Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Edward Snow

Is he native to this realm? No,
his wide nature grew out of both worlds.
They more adeptly bend the willow's branches
who have experience of the willow's roots.

When you go to bed, don't leave bread or milk
on the table: it attracts the dead--
But may he, this quiet conjurer, may he
beneath the mildness of the eyelid

mix their bright traces into every seen thing;
and may the magic of earthsmoke and rue
be as real for him as the clearest connection.

Nothing can mar for him the authentic image;
whether he wanders through houses or graves,
let him praise signet ring, gold necklace, jar.

--------

Tuesday I had a cranky day, but Wednesday I got a reminder of why fandom is so wonderful. I spent several lovely hours with and (both of whom I met because of slash, one here on LiveJournal and one in a parking lot at Best Buy discussing Highlander) watching Jason Isaacs and Lord Byron in that self-same TV show, as well as bloopers and the scene where Duncan comes home and finds Methos in his bed. *g* I have never actually watched a full episode of Highlander before today, though I had seen the movies...and I admit that during "The Lady and the Tiger" I was rather distracted by Jason being a bad boy, mmmm, not to mention Elizabeth Gracen, though the guys playing Byron and Shelley could not hold a candle to Duncan or Methos and I see why everyone says to start watching when Methos shows up. Now, I realize that I am the last slash fan in the world to stumble into this fandom, but I need someone to explain: does an immortal pick up memories as well as whatever sort of life force comes into him or her during a Quickening? In other words, if a certain poet had memories of shagging Methos, did Duncan get them? *g*

So I was all set to root wholeheartedly for the Patriots in the Superbowl. Then, today, my younger son came home from school all excited because a Philadelphia Eagles player who was going to play in the Superbowl had visited his class! Why? Because the player had attended the school, had had my son's teacher, and had gone on to the local high school -- my high school -- before playing at Michigan and then for the New York Giants until he joined the Eagles. How did I not know that Dhani Jones was from this area, let alone that he went to my high school? How can I not root for him?

Tonight's Smallville was painfully awful, despite how hard Tom Welling was obviously trying, which made me sad for him. Which is not to say that it did not have its amusing moments, but at some point I asked my husband whether it was the "don't have sex in high school" episode and at the end we got a public service announcement from Allison Mack assuring us that, yep, it was! Did they get abstinence education money for this or what? Don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic that Lana didn't do it with her gay boyfriend and relieved that Clark didn't consummate his "marriage" (incidentally, didn't we find out that Chloe was still a virgin in the witch episode where Lana needed the hair of virgins, or am I misremembering?) The highlight by far was the Lex and Lionel show, as always. I am dying to know what's up with Lionel but at the same time I don't want to know...the longer this goes on as a mystery the better!

The West Wing however was quite enjoyable, again not a subtle or sophisticated episode but man I love seeing the primaries and caucuses pilloried like that! I'm annoyed that the writers had Santos cave when he argued so passionately against ethanol, though it's sort of hard to tell at this point how much that was his wife's issue rather than his own; we haven't really seen enough of him to know what his sticking points are and what issues he considers expendable so I'm not ready to see him compromise. Vinick came off wonderfully by contrast to all the Democrats, including the invisible Bartlet and missing Hoynes. I really like Santos' wife, though, and how much he seems to listen to her, and of course I adore watching her and Josh fight over Santos (he called him Matt!)

Both Smallville and The West Wing had extended sequences set to songs I like, and in the latter case the producers had BETTER provide the payoff on the Josh/Donna teasing or I am just going to scream. (Yes, I know I was just shipping Josh and Matt and now I am shipping Josh and Donna, but even though I'm not sure J/D is a good idea or even that I like them together, I firmly believe that it is not fair of producers to hint and hint and hint that they are going to do something and then jerk the audience around. I'd rather not watch than witness another case of the JanewayChakotayMulderScullyNikitaMichaelChickenshitTease.

Okay, so this is pretty much all fangirlish babbling and does not even discuss my younger son's incisive analysis of the eighth Lemony Snicket book nor my older son's explication of Tennyson for reading class. Incidentally, I locked yesterday's post because it has a photo of my kids where they look a lot more recognizable on my laptop than I thought they did on my desktop screen. Sorry about that.


Further proof that Jack was on the deck.