Poem for Sunday

To My Dear and Loving Husband
By Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more then whole Mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee, give recompence.
Thy love is such I can no way repay,
The heavens reward thee manifold I pray.
Then while we live, in love lets so persever,
That when we live no more, we may live ever.

--------

From Poet's Choice in The Washington Post Book World, a ooem by an American 17th century writer from before the existence of the United States. "Bradstreet...achieves emotional force with the simple means of parallelism," writes Robert Pinsky. "Without spectacular language, the poem attains the conviction of a polished, heartfelt plainness."

When Daniel got home from volunteering at Hebrew school, we had lunch and went to Meadowside Nature Center, where instead of hiking all the way along the nearly dried-up creek, we turned toward Muncaster Mill and the covered bridge and cabins elsewhere in the park. It was bizarre to see so much of the creek bed -- I know that we're having a drought, but it's even more dramatically obvious at Rock Creek than at Great Falls. We visited the animals in the nature center and the raptors outside too.


The Valieant Bridge over Rock Creek, named for a local teacher whose friends funded the construction after her death and whose students built the bridge.


However, there is almost no water for the bridge to go over.


What water remains in the creek looks like this...shallow and choked with plants.


There are still some pretty berries and shiny leaves, but it's going to be a quick brown fall, I fear, not like last autumn where we had gorgeous color for weeks.


This praying mantis seems to be weathering the drought. But if you click on the tag and look at previous Meadowside photos, you'll see how atypical this dryness is.


This turtle lives inside the nature center and is therefore doing quite well, water-wise.


And here is a pine snake, also in the nature center.



After we left Meadowside, we went to get haircuts -- barely a trim for me and Adam, quite a bit of cutting for and Daniel who keep their hair considerably shorter -- and stopped at Whole Foods to get stuff for dinner and next week. (I love all the free samples on the weekend...we got chips and dip, cheese, sauteed salmon, even a nibble of pumpkin pie.) Evening TV viewing has of course been the Rex Sox, after watching LSU blow their perfect record and leave the rankings in disarray.