Poem for Sunday and Montgomery Potters

The Pots Criticize the Potter
By Omar Khayyám
Translated by Edward Fitzgerald

As, under cover of departing day,
Slunk hunger-stricken Ramazan away,
  Once more within the Potter's house alone
I stood, surrounded by the shapes of clay.

Shapes of all sorts and sizes, great and small,
That stood along the floor and by the wall;
  And some loquacious vessels were, and some
Listened, perhaps, but never talked at all.

Said one among them: "Surely not in vain
My substance of the common earth was ta'en,
  And to this figure molded to be broke,
Or trampled back to shapeless earth again!"

Then said a second: "Ne'er a peevish boy
Would break the bowl from which he drank in joy;
  And He that with His hand the vessel made,
Will surely not in after-wrath destroy."

After a momentary silence spake
Some vessel of a more ungainly make:
  "They sneer at me for leaning all awry;
What! did the hand, then, of the Potter shake?"

Whereat some one of the loquacious lot—
I think a Sufi pipkin—waking hot:
  "All this of Pot and Potter! Tell me, then,
Who is the Potter, pray, and who the Pot?"

"Why," said another, "some there are who tell
Of One who threatens he will toss to hell
  The luckless Pots he marr'd in making! Pish!
He's a good fellow, and 'twill all be well!"

--------

Watching SNL and Leslie Jones is making me laugh so I will keep this short. We had Seattle weather on Saturday -- chilly, drizzle, very dark -- so we mostly did indoor things, though we avoided all major shopping areas because we heard about the Bath & Body Works candle sale lines. Instead we went to the fabulous Montgomery Potters winter show, where there are lots of gorgeous handmade items that in most cases are very reasonably priced:

















We did stop at Giant (and Starbucks, because I was waiting for a raid for Pokemon community day, though my stupid Starbucks card would not work). After dinner we watched Outlaw King, which was reasonably engrossing, had lovely settings and Chris Pine was fine, but also had a huge amount of very vivid violence, then we watched the rest of the Big 10 championship which was quite enjoyable until it became obvious that Ohio State was going to win!