Poem for Thursday

Song of Myself LII
By Walt Whitman

The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains
        of my gab and my loitering.

I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

The last scud of day holds back for me,
It flings my likeness after the rest and true as any on the shadow'd wilds,
It coaxes me to the vapor and the dusk.

I depart as air, I shake my white locks at the runaway sun,
I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,
If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.

You will hardly know who I am or what I mean,
But I shall be good health to you nevertheless,
And filter and fibre your blood.

Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged,
Missing me one place search another,
I stop somewhere waiting for you.

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Have just spent a lovely hour with while she was en route to the airport to see Equus and The Dumb Waiter and and would be screamingly jealous if I were not going to London myself in a week! Did some more shopping in that regard, though still have not found power converters in stock anyplace inexpensive (may have to punt and go to an actual travel store, meh). Finally have everything I need to pack everything I must carry on my person in the one carry-on that Heathrow allows...I think. Excited!

Spent nearly all day -- 9 to 5 -- with no working cable and for a brief period had no working home phone either, which makes me nervous. Apparently the power company was digging up cables and someone disrupted something and Comcast wasn't allowed to repair the cable until Pepco was done fiddling with whatever they were fiddling with. At least we didn't lose power as well! I had lunch with , awesome hummus, and wandered into the craft-type stores in the area, which seemed to me to be a lovely way to spend the vernal equinox (which may technically have occurred before midnight, but this weekend I am celebrating Ostara with , and a couple of others, so I figure I can celebrate all week). Plus I saw this:


A red-shouldered hawk was in the tree in front of my house when I walked out to go to lunch. I immediately walked back inside to get the big camera.


Unfortunately sitting still on the branch was not what it had in mind...


...it took off almost immediately, heading toward nearby Cabin John Park.


The photos of the bird in flight did make it much easier to identify later.

In other news, I discovered that if you lick the color-changing blue powder from a Lik-m-aid Fun Dip out of the bottom of the package with your finger, you will have a green fingernail for two days, which is pretty embarrassing to have to explain to people when they stare at you like you have some disease. I watched the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End trailer, which made me squee in just about every way, and discovered that The Tudors is on Showtime On Demand even though it doesn't air until April 1 and I thought we were going to miss the first two episodes while we were away! I only half-watched because younger son had violin and I had to write a boring article about Trek XI and a really cool article about Bryan Fuller's new pilot, Pushing Daisies, whose cast includes Anna Friel, Kristin Chenoweth, and Swoosie Kurtz.

Anyway, from what I saw of The Tudors, it's beautifully filmed and decently acted but the screenplay isn't as strong as HBO's Elizabeth I, though it's reasonably engaging -- the king suitably temperamental and egotistical, though I keep seeing Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and not Henry VIII. Thomas More is very charming -- no self-flagellation, just serious religious humanism, and Sam Neill's Wolsey is a more sympathetic character than Wolsey usually is in such films (whereas Thomas Boleyn a shameless social climber who'd whore his own daughters to advance the family). But I am ashamed to admit that I found both the king and queen of France hotter than any of the British nobility. Can't wait to see more!

Have checked the cat food, looks like the cans are old enough not to be affected by the recall and the dry food isn't on the list. Scary stuff.