Poem for Tuesday

The Spring
By Ellen Bryant Voigt

Beneath the fabric of leaves,
sycamore, beech, black oak,
in the slow residual movement
of the pool;
           in the current
braiding over the wedged branch,
and pouring from the ledge,
urgent, lyric,
                 the source
marshalls every motion
to the geometric plunder of rock —
arranging a socket of water,
a cold estate
where the muscle winds
in the deep remission of light
before
     its blunt release,
the rush,
the white enamel dipper

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Doesn't feel much like spring here, even though we're past the mid-point of April...I want to go back to sunny Cardiff! There was power off all over the area on Monday following rains and flooding Sunday and then several trees down overnight in high winds...a huge tree across the road in my neighborhood, though we didn't lose power overnight but my parents had none for 18 hours or so. Our power was off for several hours from late morning until late afternoon. Fortunately I had no electronics running when it went out, as I was out to lunch with eating Mexican food, who brought me naked Daniel Radcliffe an Equus program and goodies from London.

We decided to go see The Namesake, which was wonderful...Kal Penn (whom I most recently saw in a totally inane role in Epic Movie) as the titular character, and the wonderful Tabu as his mother and the gorgeous gorgeous Zuleikha Robinson from Rome as his wife. I love Mira Nair -- have only seen Mississippi Masala, Monsoon Wedding and Vanity Fair from among her films, I really need to rent Salaam Bombay -- and the family journey in this one, the enjoying new freedoms vs. maintaining one's cultural background dilemma was played out beautifully across two generations. The female characters are very well written, even the relatively unsympathetic ones. Highly recommended.


Lovely Aberdyfi sits on Cardigan Bay at the bottom of the hills.


The land here seems to turn slowly to sea.


The sand is not quite as fine as the American side of the Atlantic yet it has crabs which look very much the same, which the local kids catch and race.


And the residents are justifiably proud of how pretty it all is.


The morning view out the window of the farm B&B where we stayed.


Despite being less than half a mile from the sea, Tyddyn Rhys Farm also had chickens and the ubiquitous sheep.

Have been watching the news all evening in a state of shock. What a nightmare for everyone at Virginia Tech and everyone who knows anyone there -- hope everyone connected here is safe and sound as well as your loved ones.