Poem for Tuesday and South Mountain Cows

The Two Trees
By William Butler Yeats

Beloved, gaze in thine own heart,
The holy tree is growing there;
From joy the holy branches start,
And all the trembling flowers they bear.
The changing colours of its fruit
Have dowered the stars with merry light;
The surety of its hidden root
Has planted quiet in the night;
The shaking of its leafy head
Has given the waves their melody,
And made my lips and music wed,
Murmuring a wizard song for thee.
There the Loves a circle go,
The flaming circle of our days,
Gyring, spiring to and fro
In those great ignorant leafy ways;
Remembering all that shaken hair
And how the wingèd sandals dart,
Thine eyes grow full of tender care:
Beloved, gaze in thine own heart.

Gaze no more in the bitter glass
The demons, with their subtle guile,
Lift up before us when they pass,
Or only gaze a little while;
For there a fatal image grows
That the stormy night receives,
Roots half hidden under snows,
Broken boughs and blackened leaves.
For all things turn to barrenness
In the dim glass the demons hold,
The glass of outer weariness,
Made when God slept in times of old.
There, through the broken branches, go
The ravens of unresting thought;
Flying, crying, to and fro,
Cruel claw and hungry throat,
Or else they stand and sniff the wind,
And shake their ragged wings; alas!
Thy tender eyes grow all unkind:
Gaze no more in the bitter glass.. 

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I had four chores to get done on Monday and I finished two and two halves -- holiday exchange finished for now, scanning of documents done, photo uploads partially done, laundry would have been complete except for a cat incident that required doing an extra load. So that occupied my time while it was chilly and drizzly, then we took a walk when it was warmer and smelled like fall, which was lovely. 

Kristen and I are watching The Rings of Power together and started tonight, so we had a quick dinner before that, and afterward we watched the new Doctor Who, which I forgot was on this week and ran into a small spoiler on Twitter that made me immediately want to watch, though there were so many other gifts in that episode that I heartily recommend it! Cows at South Mountain Creamery: