Poem for Friday

Called into Play
By A.R. Ammons

Fall fell: so that's it for the leaf poetry:
some flurries have whitened the edges of roads

and lawns: time for that, the snow stuff: &
turkeys and old St. Nick: where am I going to

find something to write about I haven't already
written away: I will have to stop short, look

down, look up, look close, think, think, think:
but in what range should I think: should I

figure colors and outlines, given forms, say
mailboxes, or should I try to plumb what is

behind what and what behind that, deep down
where the surface has lost its semblance: or

should I think personally, such as, this week
seems to have been crafted in hell: what: is

something going on: something besides this
diddledeediddle everyday matter-of-fact: I

could draw up an ancient memory which would
wipe this whole presence away: or I could fill

out my dreams with high syntheses turned into
concrete visionary forms: Lucre could lust

for Luster: bad angels could roar out of perdition
and kill the AIDS vaccine not quite

perfected yet: the gods could get down on
each other; the big gods could fly in from

nebulae unknown: but I'm only me: I have 4
interests--money, poetry, sex, death: I guess

I can jostle those...

--------

came over for lunch and put me through the extremely arduous task of watching Heath Ledger in Casanova again...without my children interrupting through the first half, this time, so I heard the dialogue much more clearly! That is really a tremendously delightful movie, well-acted, beautifully filmed, and I remember it did not get great reviews and can't figure out why. It's historical fluff, but engaging and entertaining historical fluff, so who cares? Next week we are going to watch the Tennant Casanova so we can compare and contrast particularly since Tennant's Casanova supposedly seduces men as well as women and this we've really got to see. I also got Adam Rhine's extremely beautiful Hebrew Illuminations in the mail, having found a new copy for $12, so I sat around reading for awhile.

And hey ! I finally wrote up your interview with La Mulgrew...happy now? *g* Reading Kate interviews is always good for a laugh, particularly when she warns "radical feminists" that she may be about to offend them and then goes on at length about how all female strength comes from a woman's maternal potential, even among women who neither have nor want children. Janeway, she also explained, could never have had sex with Chakotay or anyone else because she had to be everyone's mother. When I think of how much time I spent blaming Brannon Braga for this attitude...! I take back what I said about Adama and Roslin a couple of weeks ago; I think they should have wild, gratuitous monkey sex. Even if they don't have a relationship per se. Because she should be able to be president and get laid by one of her senior advisors, dammit.

Shark was a rerun tonight but I read that my beloved Glenn Close has signed to star in a TV pilot for FX on which she will play a litigator. Would love to see her and Woods go head to head. Smallville was a rerun too, wasn't it? I completely forgot to check at 8 but I had it in my head that it was going to be!


Tian Tian, Mei Xiang and Tai Shan have a rebuilt enclosure in the new Asia Trail at the National Zoo, too.


Tian Tian seemed to think he was having a rough day. *g*


Mei Xiang and her cub unfortunately were behind some part of a tree the whole time we were there.


And I did a really crappy job focusing in the right place.


Tai Shan was looking kind of lazy, anyway -- no tree-climbing this afternoon.


Mom had to come poke him awake.


But Mei Xiang's top priority was checking to see whether there was new food yet.

Watched the incredibly painfully awful "Mark of Gideon" because I have to review it, no idea what to say besides "makes 'Spock's Brain' look like quality sci-fi'"! Expecting to have totally crappy Friday. Saturday we're supposed to meet my in-laws in Baltimore and we're supposed to have dinner with my parents Friday and I am so not in the mood for relatives. Ah well, at least I have Doctor Who as an excuse for getting home early.