Little Reviews: Poem for Friday and Assorted Entertainment

The Otter
By Seamus Heaney

When you plunged
The light of Tuscany wavered
And swung through the pool
From top to bottom.

I loved your wet head and smashing crawl,
Your fine swimmer's back and shoulders
Surfacing and surfacing again
This year and every year since.

I sat dry-throated on the warm stones.
You were beyond me.
The mellowed clarities, the grape-deep air
Thinned and disappointed.

Thank God for the slow loadening,
When I hold you now
We are close and deep
As the atmosphere on water.

My two hands are plumbed water.
You are my palpable, lithe
Otter of memory
In the pool of the moment,

Turning to swim on your back,
Each silent, thigh-shaking kick
Re-tilting the light,
Heaving the cool at your neck.

And suddenly you're out,
Back again, intent as ever,
Heavy and frisky in your freshened pelt,
Printing the stones.

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Another Heaney poem, this one from the 1981 book Field Work.

I got to spend the morning with Gblvr! Vera Bradley was having another giveaway and gift-with-purchase event at Tiara (which also provides bagels, cheese, muffins, coffee, etc.) from 6 a.m. till noon, so we met there at 10:30 and shopped...well, actually I was virtuous (mostly because they didn't have the Julia bag in Night & Day so I'll hold out till they get it in), but I did get a free ID case in Twirly Birds Pink, and Gblvr got awesome stuff. Since we were in that shopping center, of course we also went to Ulta where I may have put on far too much glittery turquoise eyeshadow, and to the toy store and Hallmark and As Kindred Spirits, and to Lebanese Taverna for lunch -- I brought home leftover hummus, babaganoush, and pita bread for Adam and Paul, who worked from home in the afternoon because we had a crazy evening schedule.

Crazy evening schedule: after younger son got home and my mother stopped by to bring older son a list of potential birthday dinners since he did not respond to repeated e-mails, we had an early dinner (sadly nothing exciting for Sukkot since we were rushing, just ravioli) without older son who was at robotics. Then Paul went to Daniel's high school for Back to School Night while I waited for Daniel, made sure he got his ravioli, and took Adam plus two of his friends to their high school's activity fair, where Adam apparently played chess with the chess club, joined the photography club, and visited various other student groups. When he got home, we watched &@%#$ My Dad Says (Shatner entertaining, the rest mediocre but I'd have watched it just to piss off the PTC), then Nikita, which continues to have lots of awesome women in less-than-worthy storylines. Comedy Central then reran the wonderful new Futurama where Hermes saves Bender, so not a bad TV night.