Poem for Thursday

Term
By W. S. Merwin

At the last minute a word is waiting
not heard that way before and not to be
repeated or ever be remembered
one that always had been a household word
used in speaking of the ordinary
everyday recurrences of living
not newly chosen or long considered
or a matter for comment afterward
who would ever have thought it was the one
saying itself from the beginning through
all its uses and circumstances to
utter at last that meaning of its own
for which it had long been the only word
though it seems now that any word would do

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Every time I looked at the news today, I felt sick. The Supreme Court butted into our reproductive rights and put women's lives and health at risk. NBC had a much clearer portrait of the Virginia Tech murderer in his own words and images. My older son's school was briefly on lockdown because a teacher had found a list of student names in a notebook labeled "Hit List" -- the student was quickly detained and the situation hopefully resolved, but not before the principal had sent out an e-mail informing parents of what was going on. It's exhausting to be this stressed out, and gives me a headache.

Fortunately decided that we needed to celebrate the Birthday of the Davids (Hewlett and Tennant) and came over to share Chicken Out with ice cream and The Lake House, the latter because I have a secret thing for Keanu Reeves she has a secret thing for Sandra Bullock it was filmed in Chicago and made me nostalgic for living there, a block from the shore of Lake Michigan in Hyde Park. She also brought her laptop and SGA vids and now I have "Grace Kelly" stuck in my head. So it was a very nice afternoon when I wasn't looking at my own computer screen.

I did write about Abrams confirming Kirk's presence in Star Trek XI and Colm Meaney talking about A Moon for the Misbegotten, which ironically enough my son's violin teacher was talking about as well, having read conflicting reviews in The New Yorker and The New York Times. I really like my son's violin teacher as everything but my son's violin teacher: she's the only person I know in the neighborhood with whom I can discuss Eugene O'Neill, Gustav Dore, the environmental policies (or lack thereof) of the Bush administration and the county's arts funding, but she tends to be scattered during lessons, stopping to yell things to her kids or to be conversational, and my son really needs someone who will keep him focused. Sigh. They have a recital at a church next weekend and a rehearsal this weekend.


This is one of my son's adopted Humboldt penguin Arkwright's week-old chicks at the Dudley Zoo.


The mommy penguin was not at all happy about having her nest box opened and her baby lifted out, however.


King penguins courting in pairs at Birdland in Bourton-on-the-Water.


We were close enough to see the water beading on their feathers while they swam.


An African penguin waddles down the rocks to the water at the Bristol Zoo.


A macaroni penguin at Living Coasts in Torquay.


And a pair of Gentoo penguins, seen from the tunnels underneath the water.

Have just learned that Kristin says "one of the main four [Smallville] castmembers — Tom Welling, Michael Rosenbaum, Allison Mack or Kristin Kreuk — will be killed off before the season ends...it is someone who is most definitely a fan favorite. And I think you're gonna freak." Am desperately hoping of the four that it's Lana (I think it's a pretty darned safe bet that it's not Clark). While I assume they could kill Lex in such a way that they could bring him back later as Completely Evil Lex, I doubt I'd bother to watch if they did, and there's no denying that Chloe's the most expendable canon-wise but is she "most definitely a fan favorite" the way Lex is? Ugh. Well, it was fun for awhile but as I learned from Voyager, X-Files and so many other shows, let them go before they become intolerable.

And have just heard on the news that the last two weeks in January were warmer than the past two weeks have been in the DC area. Weird spring.