By H.D.
I saw the first pear
as it fell—
the honey-seeking, golden-banded,
the yellow swarm
was not more fleet than I,
(spare us from loveliness)
and I fell prostrate
crying:
you have flayed us
with your blossoms,
spare us the beauty
of fruit-trees.
The honey-seeking
paused not,
the air thundered their song,
and I alone was prostrate.
O rough-hewn
god of the orchard,
I bring you an offering—
do you, alone unbeautiful,
son of the god,
spare us from loveliness:
these fallen hazel-nuts,
stripped late of their green sheaths,
grapes, red-purple,
their berries
dripping with wine,
pomegranates already broken,
and shrunken figs
and quinces untouched,
I bring you as offering.
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The Year of the Water Dragon began here on a cold, rainy Monday where we alternated sleet and heavy patches of fog. We had to take Daniel back to College Park, so Paul came home after his morning phone conferences and we all packed up Daniel and helped him carry his stuff up the four flights of stairs to his dorm room, just minutes after his roommate arrived back as well. I was sad but we'll see him again in a couple of weeks for my niece's Bat Mitzvah and then again a month after that for my mother's birthday, so it's not like he's gone for half a year, at least.
Adam had wanted to go ice skating in the afternoon with his girlfriend, but due to the weather we persuaded them to postpone and picked up the girlfriend to bring her over here (she made me a duct tape purse that is awesome!). We all watched Castle in the Sky together -- well, some of us were working on computers at the same time while others were snuggling and eating popcorn -- and had sweet and sour tofu for dinner in honor of the Chinese New Year. Then we caught up on the last three episodes of this season's Merlin, which I enjoyed enormously (and no one is going to convince me that a canon het couple is ruining the show, I'm quite fond of pretty much everyone with everyone on Merlin).
Since the Lunar New Year festivals at our local libraries and malls are next weekend, I have no actual celebratory pictures for the day. Instead here is my Superpoke penguin celebrating in various Asian settings, since this will be the last Lunar New Year before Google shuts down the game:
Imperial Palace
Superpopo Sushi Shop
Shangri La Temple
Moonlit Japanese Tea Room
Japanese Hot Springs
Inside at Chinese New Year
Lovely Moon Garden
Chinese New Year
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