Poem for Friday and Poplar Spring Animals

The Writer
By Richard Wilbur

In her room at the prow of the house
Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,
My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing
From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys
Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff
Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:
I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,
As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.
A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,
And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor
Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling
Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;
How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;
And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,
We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature
Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove
To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,
For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits
Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,
Beating a smooth course for the right window
And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.

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My Thursday was pretty uneventful. Hubby worked from home, son went to lunch and shopping with my mother and taught himself to juggle before going out to dinner with friends. I got a bunch of stuff done, including folding laundry while watching the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender because I've forgotten too much of the first season to watch the second without a rewatch.

It was a five-bunny day, including one on the lawn of the house next door, and gorgeous weather -- it has dropped into the 60s now! We had caramel and lemongrass tofu for dinner and watched the Ravens play football for a while -- I am not ready for fall so this was somewhat depressing, though they won by a lot -- plus the DS9 episode I need to review. Some pictures from Poplar Spring's open house: