Poem for Wednesday and Washingtonian Lake

Standing Deer
By Jane Hirshfield

As the house of a person
in age sometimes grows cluttered
with what is
too loved or too heavy to part with,
the heart may grow cluttered.
And still the house will be emptied,
and still the heart.

As the thoughts of a person
in age sometimes grow sparer,
like a great cleanness come into a room,
the soul may grow sparer;
one sparrow song carves it completely.
And still the room is full,
and still the heart.

Empty and filled,
like the curling half-light of morning,
in which everything is still possible and so why not.

Filled and empty,
like the curling half-light of evening,
in which everything now is finished and so why not.

Beloved, what can be, what was,
will be taken from us.
I have disappointed.
I am sorry. I knew no better.

A root seeks water.
Tenderness only breaks open the earth.
This morning, out the window,
the deer stood like a blessing, then vanished.

-------- 

Kay and I used to meet for lunch about once a month and always for our birthdays, back before the pandemic, but the last time we did, Tara Thai in Washingtonian was still open. Her birthday is at the end of the week, so we made plans to meet at Silver Diner, but their outside tables were closed for renovations, so we walked around the lake and wound up at True Food Kitchen, where I had excellent butternut squash pizza and the ancient grains bowl and the food was great. We walked around to the Halloween store (even the paddleboats were decorated for the season) and she brought me earrings, a belated birthday present! 

 

I spent the late afternoon sorting some CD-ROMs and DVDs that got left out of the main collection while watching the Mariners blow a big lead, then we took a walk in the magnificent weather while the ham and cheese pie we had for dinner was cooking. My Voyager group, unfortunately, had reached "Unforgettable" -- an episode I despised the only time I watched it -- and while I had remembered how much I hated it, I had forgotten how terrible the writing was (Beltran claims he likes this one, but he looks like he's sleepwalking). Afterward we caught up on the season premieres of Kung Fu and Lego Masters around more baseball.