By Amy Lowell
Some men there are who find in nature all
Their inspiration, hers the sympathy
Which spurs them on to any great endeavor,
To them the fields and woods are closest friends,
And they hold dear communion with the hills;
The voice of waters soothes them with its fall,
And the great winds bring healing in their sound.
To them a city is a prison house
Where pent up human forces labour and strive,
Where beauty dwells not, driven forth by man;
But where in winter they must live until
Summer gives back the spaces of the hills.
To me it is not so. I love the earth
And all the gifts of her so lavish hand:
Sunshine and flowers, rivers and rushing winds,
Thick branches swaying in a winter storm,
And moonlight playing in a boat's wide wake;
But more than these, and much, ah, how much more,
I love the very human heart of man.
Above me spreads the hot, blue mid-day sky,
Far down the hillside lies the sleeping lake
Lazily reflecting back the sun,
And scarcely ruffled by the little breeze
Which wanders idly through the nodding ferns.
The blue crest of the distant mountain, tops
The green crest of the hill on which I sit;
And it is summer, glorious, deep-toned summer,
The very crown of nature's changing year
When all her surging life is at its full.
To me alone it is a time of pause,
A void and silent space between two worlds,
When inspiration lags, and feeling sleeps,
Gathering strength for efforts yet to come.
For life alone is creator of life,
And closest contact with the human world
Is like a lantern shining in the night
To light me to a knowledge of myself.
I love the vivid life of winter months
In constant intercourse with human minds,
When every new experience is gain
And on all sides we feel the great world's heart;
The pulse and throb of life which makes us men!
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I had a lot of work to do on Friday and had endless interruptions, which should not have been distracting as they were but it seemed like the phone did not stop ringing and people kept knocking at the door. Adam left the house before I was even out of bed to go run with the cross country team at the park; I now suspect that our local park has a particularly virulent strain of bees (or I suppose yellow jackets since they seem to live in rotting wood) because Adam and most of the team got stung not far from where I got stung a couple of weeks ago. My father is very allergic to bee and yellow jacket stings so I am very grateful neither of us seems to have inherited that. By the time I picked him up, he was fine.
Eventually I did finish my review of the animated Star Trek episode "Bem", though I didn't finish any other articles. But speaking of Star Trek -- Torchwood spoiler -- I was so excited to see Nana Visitor on Starz! I knew her the moment she started talking before we could see her face! And I liked the backstory with Jack's lover, though I figured that would all end in tears -- I always figured that with Ianto and everyone else, and I'm still thinking Gwen's family is not going to end up intact, so of course I won't get attached to Nana's character, but how awesome to see her in that franchise.
We had dinner with my parents, where my father put on the Redskins-Colts game (which the Redskins surprisingly won) though when we came home we watched a bit of the Ravens-Chiefs game (which the Ravens also won) before Torchwood. Now we are watching the delayed Nationals-Phillies game, which was interrupted by the rain that blew through this area, largely missing my neighborhood this time but causing flooding nearby. Here are some photos of fun at the county fair in the carnival and exhibitor areas instead of the animals:
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