By W.S. Merwin
When it happens you are not there
oh you beyond numbers
beyond recollection
passed on from breath to breath
given again
from day to day from age
to age
charged with knowledge
knowing nothing
indifferent elders
indispensable and sleepless
keepers of our names
before ever we came
to be called by them
you that were
formed to begin with
you that were cried out
you that were spoken
to begin with
to say what could not be said
ancient precious
and helpless ones
say it
September 17, 2001
--------
I've posted that poem before but Merwin wrote it, obviously, a few days after 9/11 and it bears repeating.
It was a dark, rainy Friday, which seemed only appropriate to the date. And it wasn't a very happy day -- we learned of the death of the second/third grade teacher of both my kids, a beloved teacher for over 30 years at their elementary school (she died two days ago but the school only released the information this morning). And if Pennsylvania doesn't get its act together and pass a budget, the Free Library of Philadelphia -- whose Walnut Street West branch I used while a student at Penn, as well as the Parkway Central Library -- is slated to close on October 2, which I find terribly depressing. Plus a couple of friends had meh days too, including a potential lunch date.
On the plus side, Discovery landed safely, Michael Jordan was inducted into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame, and Johnny Depp announced that he will appear in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie...hey, we take our consolations where we find them. Adam decided to try the viola this year -- there are about 50 violins in his school orchestra and only 10 violas, so the teacher has been pleading with some of the kids to play viola, whose sound I actually prefer -- and the teacher suggested that we have his violin restrung with viola strings so he can try it with the heavier viola bow, so I took him to the music store to get the new strings, after which we had dinner with my parents and watched some Due South. And here's my review of "The Masterpiece Society" for TrekToday.
The Friday Five: Vacation
1. Will or did you go on vacation this summer? We did.
2. Where will/did you go? New Orleans via Charleston and Atlanta, and later Kitty Hawk.
3. What do you like about the place? Oceans and rivers, plus the Southern cities, especially New Orleans, have so much history and culture.
4. What don't you like about the place? Some days it was very, very hot.
5. Where do you want to go next summer? Ideally, Cornwall. Realistically, Bar Harbor in between looking at New England colleges.
Fannish 5: Name the five unlikeliest (but successful) canon friendships.
1. Aubrey & Maturin, Master and Commander +20 more.
2. Kira & Damar, Deep Space Nine.
3. Legolas & Gimli, The Lord of the Rings.
4. The Doctor & Jack Harkness, Doctor Who and Torchwood.
5. Spock & McCoy Star Trek.
Two dogs unhappy at being relegated to the grass below the porch at The Captain's Table in Solomons.
This is how the marina and porch look from inside the restaurant.
This fossilized whale skull was discovered after Hurricane Isabel slammed into Calvert Cliffs, exposing it and the prehistoric shells found with it.
The skull is now in the Calvert Marine Museum, where this girl got a lesson in cleaning fossils.
Maryland's timeline in fossils -- Solomons is an area particularly rich in marine life since it was all underwater for centuries, then erosion exposed many of the remaining teeth and bones near the Chesapeake Bay.
Also at the museum, a British swivel cannon sunk during the War of 1812, plus a painting and model of the Baltimore clipper Rossie from the same era.
The dreaded snakehead fish, which can grow to 40 inches, has invaded Maryland's waters after someone released the Asian native in a Maryland stream.
And one of the rays in the skate and ray tank near the entrance to the museum.
Have a wonderful birthday, Dementordelta! *smooches*
No comments:
Post a Comment