Poem for Sunday

Covering the Land
By Paul Verlaine
Translated by Norman R. Shapiro

Covering the land—
Dismal, endless plain—
Blurring the terrain,
Snow haze gleams like sand.

Bronze the sky, with no
Glimmering of light:
Is the moon to grow
Dim, and die tonight?

In the woods, close by,
Billows the fog, cloaks
Gray the cloud-like oaks
Floating on the sky.

Bronze the sky, with no
Glimmering of light:
Is the moon to grow
Dim, and die tonight?

Scrawny wolves, and you,
Wheezing ravens, when
Winds blow sharp, what then?
What? What can you do?

Covering the land—
Dismal, endless plain—
Blurring the terrain,
Snow haze gleams like sand.

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I will be so glad in the morning when the longest night of the year is past. I spent this afternoon being alternately too cold and too hot. Son had a choir concert that he told us was at the Borders in Silver Spring, which we assumed meant inside the Borders, since we've seen concerts there before, like Ocean Orchestra the night of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince release party. But no: the concert was outside in the town center for over an hour! We sent younger son to the nearby Starbuck's to drink hot chocolate while we danced around inappropriately to carols to keep warm. Then we went into the nearby mall with the Burlington Coat Factory because Paul had broken the zipper on his jacket, and it was insanely warm inside and I was walking around carrying coats!


The chamber choir performed on the seasonal stage between the Borders and DSW in downtown Silver Spring on this very chilly, gray Saturday afternoon.


Even the dogs listening were cold!


Since we've had no real snow, the penguin-and-tree display was set amidst fake snow.


The kids were good sports about being so cold that they could hardly stand still.


The town center was decorated for the season, but the elevator is always colorful...


...as are the tile-mosaic stairs.


The nearby City Place Mall has a Kwanzaa display...


...as well as trains, trees, and Santa.

We watched none of the EagleBank Bowl at RFK Stadium in DC (I hear that Wake Forest beat Navy) and only the end of the Pioneer Bowl (where Arizona beat BYU, yay), and though we didn't see the game, I am delighted that the Ravens beat the Cowboys. We put on Love, Actually because it was on Oxygen and for some reason we don't have that on DVD -- wait, I know, it's because Alan Rickman plays a loathsome jerk -- and completely forgot that Crusoe was on, woe! Does anyone know of anyplace online where those episodes can be found?

I was distracted because people from my elementary school have been uploading class photos on Facebook, so tonight I uploaded mine, and there was a flurry of tagging and snickering and notes about how we looked back then. One curious thing I've found about Facebook is that people I knew when I was very young are far more likely to friend me, even if we weren't friendly at all in high school, then people with whom I was moderately friendly in high school and college. It's nice talking to these people whom I've known for literally my entire life.