Poem for Sunday and Museums by Candlelight

Song Book
By Naomi Shihab Nye

Tiny keyboard bearing the massive reverie of the past—
press one button, we’re carried away on a country road,
marching with saints, leaving the Red River Valley...
here is every holiday you hated, every hard time,
each steamy summer wish. You closed your eyes
in the wooden stairwell, leaning your head against the wall,
knowing a bigger world loomed. It’s still out there,
and it’s tucked in this keyboard too,
now we are an organ, now we are an oboe,
now we are young or ancient,
now we are smelling wallpaper in the house
our grandfather sold with every cabinet,
table and doily included,
but we are still adrift, floating,
thrum-full of longing layers of sound.

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We spent most of Saturday with Daniel, Adam, Paul's parents, and Christine on the Frederick Museums by Candlelight tour, starting in Brunswick, where because Clair and Cinda were running late, we made ornaments at Past & Present Antiques. Then we all met for lunch and visited local museums and farms!


Paul, Clair, Cinda, and Daniel outside of Beans in the Belfry...


...and Adam and Christine inside the converted church which is now an excellent restaurant (I had quiche).


Family photo taken by Christine in the Brunswick Heritage Museum...


...and Daniel, Adam, and Christine by the miniature railroad model of historic Brunswick, including the building in which the photo was taken.


Adam practicing the oath of office for Mayor of Brunswick. We met the real one downstairs where she was volunteering in the museum.


Me at South Mountain Creamery being greeted by one of the calves. We also greeted the cows who produce the milk that got made into the awesome ice cream we had there.


Adam, Christine, and in the distance some of the sheep who produce the wool that gets spun into the yarn at Kiparoo Farm, where this photo was taken.

Adam and Christine needed to get back to the University of Maryland to get ready for finals next week, so we dropped them off, then took Daniel to the Blaze Pizza in College Park for dinner before dropping him off too. We got home in time for The Graham Norton Show and Martin Freeman on SNL!