By Kenneth Slessor
These are the floating berries of the night,
They drop their harvest in dark alleys down,
Softly far down on groves of Venus, or on a little town
Forgotten at the world's edge—and O, their light
Unlocks all closed things, eyes and mouths, and drifts
Quietly over kisses in a golden rain,
Drowning their flight, till suddenly the Cyprian lifts
Her small, white face to the moon, then hides again.
They are the warm candles of beauty, hung in blessing on high,
Poised like bright comrades on boughs of night above:
They are the link-boys of Queen Venus, running out of the sky,
Spilling their friendly radiance on all her ways of love.
Should the girl's eyes be lit with swimming fire,
O do not kiss it away, it is a star, a star!'
So cried the passionate poet to his great, romantic guitar.
But I was beating off the stars, gazing, not rhyming.
I saw the bottomless, black cups of space
Between their clusters, and the planets climbing
Dizzily in sick airs, and desired to hide my face.
But I could not escape those tunnels of nothingness,
The cracks in the spinning Cross, nor hold my brain
From rushing for ever down that terrible lane,
Infinity's trap-door, eternal and merciless.
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Daniel is fully moved out of his apartment in College Park and has turned in his keys! That was our big activity for the afternoon, after having lunch with Paul who worked from home so he could come; we had to make sure the place was clean enough to pass inspection. We retrieved Adam, who usually carpools home with Christine, and all went to IKEA together to look for furniture for Daniel's new apartment in Seattle, then had dinner in their restaurant now that there are vegetarian meatballs and vegan carrot ginger soup!
We did not buy any furniture, but made lists so the big items can be ordered online and delivered in Seattle. When we got home, Daniel had tracked down a copy of Star Wars Demastered, the color-corrected HD version restored to the scenes as they appeared when the film was first released in theaters, not as Episode IV, minus Jabba and plus Han shooting first, etc. I haven't watched the movie without interruption in many years and it was really awesome; as much as I love Han, I forgot how much smarter Leia is. From April, Mount Vernon lambs:
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