Poem for Monday

Two

men in Arab robes
and hush puppy shoes
outside a pet shop
pass two others I
take or mistake for
addicts and there goes
one handsome in
the chinless wonder way
and of a dark descent
who stops and looks at
a street sign, turns,
hesitates and goes off
like the actor one often
feels: "Frowns,
looks at watch, goes
off" and in the sky
cloud words melt
and all run together.

By James Schuyler

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"Schuyler can emphasize his casual-feeling, disarmingly candid voice -- that in the end is not merely chatty but noticing and thinking all the time, observant as well as expressive," writes Robert Pinsky in Poet's Choice in Sunday's Washington Post Book World. "Rather than leading with colors and textures, 'Two' foregrounds the social or psychological: peculiarities of clothing and what the poet may 'take or mistake' about other people. Here the phrase 'cloud words' makes explicit a cloudiness in the nature of language that the first poem implies with its almost parodic or faux-naif use of monosyllabic names for colors, its wondering about the name of a bush, then naming it, 'I guess.' The nature of words is to gesture imperfectly, yet memorably, toward reality. That imperfection makes the compensating grace of these poems more meaningful."

Not a terribly thrilling Sunday...Adam had Hebrew school till noon and Daniel had robotics and a physics review session till 3 p.m., so we mostly did family-related stuff. Took Adam to Michaels to get a board for his science fair display, stopped at Petco to get cat litter and the food store to get bread, came home and urged both kids to study for midterms next week while watching the Chargers pull out a lovely victory over the Colts and the Giants defeat my least favorite NFL team, Dallas, so that was all good. Thing Two has requested that I post some corrections to my art museum quiz from yesterday. In Question 2, the one with the circle sculptures, one of the title options should be "Odysseus' Test for the Suitors" (because, Adam explained, they had to shoot arrows through a series of rings -- this is a really awesome title and I bet the artist wishes he had thought of that). In Question 3, one of the options for why people are in line should be "Waiting to buy a PS4 because it's warmer in the art gallery than outside Best Buy." Also a good answer.


The sun setting behind the National Mall -- the National Museum of the American Indian, Air & Space Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Arts & Industries Building, Smithsonian Castle and Washington Monument.


The sun setting behind the National Museum of the American Indian.


The Capitol Building from the gardens in front of the Botanic Garden...


...across an icy fountain...


...and going to the birds. Er, that is, behind a flock of seagulls.


A closer view of the Air & Space and Hirshhorn Museums.


The Washington Monument and tower of the Smithsonian Castle at twilight.

We all watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which I enjoyed but it's way to soon to guess whether it'll be interesting for an entire series (two women hopelessly devoted to saving the guy who's the savior of the world), then watched PBS's broadcast of Persuasion, which we had watched last March while we were staying in a cottage not far from Bath -- lovely nostalgia and I wish I was there again! I glanced at the Golden Globes list long enough to ascertain that Johnny Depp and Glenn Close won while Jason Isaacs and William Shatner did not, have not significantly changed what I want to see based on the awards. The news seems to have little interest in covering Bush's trip to the Middle East when they can cover OMG BRITNEY instead, which may be just as well, really.