Poem for Thursday

My Country In An Ancient Map
By Eugenio Montejo
Translated from the Spanish by Kirk Nesset

The cartographer's lines never lied, tracing
his dream for us. Certainly many
river channels were fabled, and our mountains
don't stretch such to the south, nor does
the sea brush against them, though it tries
with its hopeful outlines. The size of the islands
is something else in the swell of his colors.
And yet the innocent glow of astonished eyes
was always precise under the brilliance of palms.
So what if the Orinoco extends like desire
farther north, or if this cape is misplaced,
with its face of a woman seeming almost to speak?
They never lied: here stood Manoa
at the end of the rainbow that rose from Dorado,
and farther off, from a paradise whose infinite
innocence made all its vessels' journeys worthwhile.
What other truth might we extract?
The maps were graceful love letters,
sailors' tattoos, unstained pages that tell us
life is eternal only on this lip of the Atlantic.

--------

The middle level of my house is back to roughly its usual level of disaster, meaning: the dining room table is being used as a desk by four people and there's piles of stuff on the coffee table, though the videos/DVDs have been picked through and resorted and lots of videotapes will not be returning to the shelves (I'm not getting rid of the crappy homemade DS9 and Mission: Impossible tapes until I can afford the DVDs and I'm not getting rid of Heartbeat ever since it doesn't look like that will ever be on DVD).

Otherwise I don't have a lot to say...got moving early because the painters were supposed to return at 9, then they called and said they weren't coming till 12, so I worked on the living room until they came and finished sealing and painting the basement and finishing up the bathroom tiles. I think they're done...I hope they're done, other than the inspection which I hope will indicate that everything we can't see is fixed in a satisfactory way! We're down to two baseball trophies (one a league championship) and three soccer trophies on display in the living room, which looks reasonable. *g*


Autumn at Gambrill State Park.


Though it was a clear day down the mountain, there were clouds gathered over High Knob.


There is evergreen as well as deciduous color at the top of the mountain.


Here is the back of the teahouse at the top.


And here is a paper wasps' nest.


And what a range of color!



Watched Bionic Woman because the kids had finished their homework and wanted to put it on, though am pretty apathetic...I still find Michelle Ryan appealing but her range limited and I still want to see her finding out what she can do for herself, not for her ex or father figures or latest attraction. Didn't watch any of the CMAs because I'm so annoyed they pre-empted Pushing Daisies, though with the WGA strike I guess this is a good thing because the show can be on a week longer. I read that Tim Kring said they may end Heroes' season early even if the strike ends more quickly than anticipated so they can retool and fix things, which would be good. It sounds like the studio heads have been real jerks in trying to manipulate the negotiations and I don't think the writers should make concessions but I'm glad I have so many DVDs I haven't watched yet!