Poem for Saturday

The Summer Day
By Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down--
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

--------

For . Also swiped from her.

My day started bright and early with working from home so I could drive him to get a new driver's license. I had a coupon for ten free prints at Target that had to be used today, so I uploaded those just before we left, since the MVA is right near Target and I figured we could pick them up quickly on the way back, which we did. Then Paul went to work and I wrote a review of "We'll Always Have Paris" (and giggled to note that the interview with Rod Roddenberry that I wrote up on Wednesday had attracted a great many comments, all along the lines of "Who the heck does he think he is?").

The sixth grade had a welcome picnic scheduled for tonight, but because it was raining, it got moved indoors to the school gym. It was a bit chaotic -- twenty degrees warmer inside than out, with a deejay blasting music so loudly that it was hard to have a conversation, though I did manage to chat a bit with Adam's social studies teacher -- but the kids got lots of indoor run-around time and appeared to be having fun, and there was pizza. Came home and watched Doctor Who's "Blink" which I absolutely loved; it felt a bit like a Tom Baker episode but with much better visuals and guest actors (I've loved Carey Mulligan from Bleak House and Pride and Prejudice) and the angels were completely creepy! Also watched Flash Gordon because Adam was watching it -- this week it had bird-men so it was bound to be a hit with him!










: But in your dreams whatever they be
1. Do you like looking at stars? Oh my, yes.
2. Who do you say "I love you" to? My husband, my kids, various other relatives, very good friends, Tarzan.
3. Did you say "good night!" to anyone last night? Both my kids, both my cats, and my husband.
4. When is the last time you felt blue? On Rosh Hashanah when I thought someone had stolen my husband's wallet in synagogue.
5. Tell us one of your dreams: I was sure I had posted this here already but can't find it, so since everyone reading this already knows I am nuts:

I have gone back to college and Tracey is my roommate again, but we are living on the artsy side of campus at the University of Chicago and between all the theater classes I am taking and the nightly film series, I never see her. Jason Isaacs is one of my theater professors, in dark leather with a beard, and even though every female student has a crush on him and he is involved in some kind of campus political organization that makes him seem genuinely dangerous to me -- something that might be affiliated with terrorists -- he seems interested in me, maybe because we're both Jewish, and I don't know whether to be flattered or run away from this. Alan Rickman is teaching there too, and doesn't have as many adoring students because he's more aloof, but he seems much more sincerely interested in me, or at least more like someone whose interest I could keep because unlike Jason it doesn't seem to be dependent on my potential career success, which is flattering but also puts a lot of pressure on me to succeed. One day Alan gives me a ride in the cart on the back of his horse even though I have to scoot right up against him. Another day we are looking at an outdoor wall display and talking about going to a Finnish festival together so he can play the Stradivarius there. When I tell him I didn't know he played the violin (even though I did know, because I have looked up everything about him), he says, oh, yes, I'm fairly good for an amateur and I would love to play that Stradivarius. I tell him I would love to hear him and ask whether there is anything he can't do or he hasn't got. He says "children." Then he seems to realize my question is a pick-up line, because he takes me into the faculty bathroom which has private hot tubs. Another professor is in there but Alan strongly implies that he should leave and goes to "get something" which I assume to be birth control despite the comment about children. I both want him and really like him and am contemplating telling him that he doesn't need birth control, we'll see what happens, which I know is completely insane even though in this dream I am aware that I am not married and don't have children. I also think about how marrying Alan would mean giving up any chance at Jason who is younger and for whatever reason seems entirely serious about helping me professionally, whereas I know that Alan would always take care of me (and a baby) but I don't think I'll ever be his partner enough for him to really love me. I try to text Tracey to tell her about this and ask her what I should do before Alan comes back, but the other professor has returned and is distracting me, asking me questions about my relationship with Alan and whether I suspect Jason is up to something, and I can't find Tracey -- or indeed my own dorm telephone number -- in my phone's address directory.

: Sick of it
1. What was the most sick that you've ever been? I had bronchitis with a touch of pneumonia in tenth grade that kept me out of school for more than a week.
2. What disease are you afraid of getting? All diseases! Every time I read about one I feel the symptoms!
3. Are you a big baby when it comes to taking medicine/shots for your illnesses? I used to be a big baby about shots but now I am always convinced I am going to die, so I take them with fewer complaints. Like, when my gerbil bit me and I thought I was going to get tetanus and die.
4. Is going to the doctor really THAT bad? Not if I have something treatable and she can give me antibiotics!
5. Would you have the flu twice a month if you were paid $1,000 for having it? I wouldn't have the flu once a year if I was paid $1,000 a month for having it!

: What five events or storylines do you want to see happen (or wish had happened) in canon?
1. Kira should have been allowed, if not to off Dukat herself, then at least to help Sisko do it. She earned that. (DS9)
2. The werewolves deserved a heck of a lot more attention, development and chance at redemption than they got. (HP)
3. I want a definitive answer to the question of whether Ares was Xena's father! (XWP)
4. Aragorn saved Faramir in the Houses of Healing. Faramir passed Aragorn the rod of office of the Steward and Aragorn gave it back to him. This is how Gondor came to have a Steward and a King in the books. How the hell did it happen in the movie? Yes, I am still bitter about this. (LOTR)
5. A conclusion to the story of Sydney, Joseph and Nora Bloom. Any conclusion, really. (VR5)