Poem for Thursday and Alexandria Waterfront

To a Waterfowl
By William Cullen Bryant

Whither, 'midst falling dew,
While glow the heavens with the last steps of day,
Far, through their rosy depths, dost thou pursue
Thy solitary way?

Vainly the fowler’s eye
Might mark thy distant flight, to do thee wrong,
As, darkly seen against the crimson sky,
Thy figure floats along.

Seek’st thou the plashy brink
Of weedy lake, or marge of river wide,
Or where the rocking billows rise and sink
On the chaféd ocean side?

There is a Power, whose care
Teaches thy way along that pathless coast,—
The desert and illimitable air
Lone wandering, but not lost.

All day thy wings have fanned,
At that far height, the cold thin atmosphere;
Yet stoop not, weary, to the welcome land,
Though the dark night is near.

And soon that toil shall end,
Soon shalt thou find a summer home, and rest,
And scream among thy fellows; reeds shall bend,
Soon, o’er thy sheltered nest.

Thou’rt gone, the abyss of heaven
Hath swallowed up thy form, yet, on my heart
Deeply hath sunk the lesson thou hast given,
And shall not soon depart.

He, who, from zone to zone,
Guides through the boundless sky thy certain flight,
In the long way that I must trace alone,
Will lead my steps aright.

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Wednesday was cold but sunny, which made me so happy! I did all my work in the morning so I could go meet friends in the mall at Starbucks (where I ran into my dad on the way, having lunch with a friend in the food court), after which we went to the park for raiding and walking in the sunshine! I even saw snowdrops! My cat-sitter neighbor, Rose, came over for a while before dinner, since I had New York souvenirs for her and she had treats for the feline members of my family.

We had pasta with "meat"balls for dinner, then watched The Masked Singer, which keeps getting more fun since everyone who's left can actually sing and most can dance (Hailee Steinfeld is definitely the Lion), followed by Full Frontal and some South Park. Here are some photos from Alexandria's waterfront of winter water fowl that we saw there, including seagulls, ducks, coots, geese, and pigeons, plus glass artist Diane Lietzau's fantastic studio view from the Torpedo Factory: