Poem for Friday and Aquarium Birds

From The Shore 

By Carl Sandburg 

A lone gray bird,

Dim-dipping, far-flying,

Alone in the shadows and grandeur's and tumults

Of night and the sea

And the stars and storms.

Out over the darkness it wavers and hovers,

Out into the gloom it swings and batters,

Out into the wind and the rain and the vast,

Out into the pit of a great black world,

Where fogs are at battle, sky-driven, sea-blown,

Love of mist and rapture of flight,

Glories of chance and hazards of death

On its eager and palpitant wings.

Out into the deep of the great dark world,

Beyond the long borders where foam and drift

Of the sundering waves are lost and gone

On the tides that plunge and rear and crumble.

-------- 

The last day of February here felt like spring, though it's supposed to get cold again by Monday. So I spent as much of it outdoors as possible, enjoying the birds I could see from the deck (mallards, mergansers, red-winged birds, hummingbirds, a heron high in a tree), and seeing more ducks, some geese, and a pair of eagles at the beach at Idylwood, where I also did three Pokemon raids for the Road to Unova event. 

We watched some spring training Seattle Mariners baseball, had vegan spare ribs for dinner, and saw the two-part stressful and sad House season four finale before The Way Home's penultimate episode for the season, in which, as so often in soap operas, people make dumb decisions in the name of protecting other people. Here are some of the residents in the Pier 60 open-air Birds and Shores exhibit at the Seattle Aquarium:

Poem for Thursday and Marymoor Herons

Herons in Winter in the Frozen Marsh 

By Mary Oliver 

All winter

two blue herons

hunkered in the frozen marsh,

like two columns of blue smoke.

What they ate

I can’t imagine,

unless it was the small laces

of snow that settled

in the ruckus of the cattails,

or the glazed windows of ice

under the tired

pitchforks of their feet—

so the answer is

they ate nothing,

and nothing good could come of that.

They were mired in nature, and starving.

Still, every morning

they shrugged the rime from their shoulders,

and all day they

stood to attention

in the stubbled desolation.

I was filled with admiration,

sympathy,

and, of course, empathy.

It called for a miracle.

Finally the marsh softened,

and their wings cranked open

revealing the old blue light,

so that I thought: how could this possibly be

the blunt, dark finish?

First one, then the other, vanished

into the ditches and upheavals.

All spring, I watched the rising blue-green grass,

above its gleaming and substantial shadows,

toss in the breeze,

like wings.

-------- 

Thursday was just as beautiful as Wednesday and 65 degrees. Paul had minor dental surgery in the morning, so I went over with him, though I spent the actual appointment time wandering into stores while he was having his mouth poked and tried on some shoes and bought a $20 dress. There were two pairs of eagles in the trees behind Safeway quarreling about who got to sit on which branch, which was fun to watch. The neighborhood eagles were out, too, when we walked to the park in the gorgeous weather in the afternoon. 

We ate leftover pizza for dinner, watched the Maryland women beat the Hoosiers, I chatted with my Thursday night group after a very pretty twilight over the lake. Then we watched this week's Ghosts -- the goofy Alexander Hamilton episode, which I was expecting to be more clever -- and Animal Control, which was also goofy but no one on that show is Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin. Now we're watching the House with the Hasidic bride and House's rabid jealousy of Amber. From last weekend, the herons nesting at Marymoor:

Poem for Wednesday and Pike Place Market

I Have Always Known 

By Ariwara no Narihira 

Translated by Kenneth Rexroth 

I have always known 

that at last I would 

take this road, but yesterday 

I did not know that it would be today. 

-------- 

Someone set this poem into a stone in the concrete at First and Pike Streets in Pike Place Market.

Wednesday was a beautiful day with periods of sunshine, nearly 60 degrees. I chatted with all three of my high school friends in the morning, did a bit of work around lunch, and watched a couple of episodes of She-Hulk with Kristen in the afternoon before we walked to the sunny park full of happy waterfowl. 

Paul made Greek chick'n and potatoes for dinner. I was sad about Michelle Trachtenberg, so we watched Ice Princess, which I always enjoy. Now we're watching the House episode with Jeremy Renner as a musician. Here are some more photos from Pike Place Market last weekend, the food stalls and the crafts:

Poem for Tuesday and The Alabaster Owl

I Do Not Collect Owls 

By Dorothy Pope 

Asking for trouble, I suppose,

to put the first one, oddly given

by a dinner guest,

on a complex set of shelves

like noughts and crosses

but with thirty-six partitions,

this a gift from someone else.

Subsequently, friends

have been filling up these squares

with owls: candidates of wood

and china, leather, felt and glass,

of alabaster, even silver.

There are twenty-seven owls now

in this assembled parliament

although, as I keep trying to say,

I do not, never have collected owls.

-------- 

We had a bit of rain early Tuesday, but the weather is supposed to improve steadily this week and reach 60 degrees, so although it was a chilly afternoon when we took an early walk, the views were lovely though the eagles were heard but not seen. I needed to walk early because my Voyager group -- whose name is changing as of tomorrow -- had reached "Endgame" a.k.a. the terrible horrible finale episode, and invited a bunch of our friends from back when it originally aired to watch with us, which made it very fun to watch though still not good. We only booed through the Chakotay/Seven scenes. 

Paul made lasagna while I was watching, which we ate afterward. Then we watched some fourth season House, which I'm finding strange; I don't really love any of the candidates, not even Olivia Wilde or Kal Penn, I hate the way Anne Dudek gets treated for aggressiveness and intelligence that everyone values in men, and I miss seeing Jennifer Morrison and Jesse Spencer more regularly, but I'm also really uncomfortable with the Hunger Games scenario in which doctors get eliminated but it's patients who suffer. People asked to see The Alabaster Owl, the magical decor store in Pike Place Market:

Poem for Monday and Afternoon Rainbow

Winter Rainbow 

By John Clare 

Thou Winter, thou art keen, intensely keen;

Thy cutting frowns experience bids me know,

For in thy weather days and days I've been,

As grinning north-winds horribly did blow,

And pepper'd round my head their hail and snow:

Throughout thy reign 'tis mine each year to prove thee;

And, spite of every storm I've beetled in,

With all thy insults, Winter, I do love thee,

Thou half enchantress, like to pictur'd Sin!

Though many frowns thy sparing smiles deform,

Yet when thy sunbeam shrinketh from its shroud,

And thy bright rainbow gilds the purple storm,

I look entranced on thy painted cloud:

And what wild eye with nature's beauties charm'd,

That hang enraptur'd o'er each 'witching spell,

Can see thee, Winter, then, and not be warm'd

To breathe thy praise, and say, "I love thee well!"

-------- 

Monday morning was rainy and I had laundry, cat vomit, and other chores to deal with before we went out to get bagels for lunch and the rest of the week. So I had an excellent cheese pretzel bagel for lunch, did some computer work, and the rain slowed to a drizzle just in time for us to walk to the park. We saw a faint rainbow while on the beach, then came home to a full spectacular double rainbow stretching from Marymoor Park in the north to Sammamish Landing Park across the lake. I didn't even notice until the rainbow was fading that one of the raccoons was back sleeping in the tree, from which it crept down as the rain returned. 

 

We ate leftover chili and watched the Watson episode we missed last night in the very crowded 9 p.m. Sunday hour, which was pretty good performance-wise but I'm not finding the character development all that convincing, especially since we watched House afterwards while waiting for Paradise to drop. Wow, that was a great episode -- I alternately wanted to put President Bradford in charge immediately, then to kill him, then to put him in the White House immediately again, and I think Xavier has been unfair to him about Teri's fate, and all my theories about what happened to him are apparently incorrect. I want him on next season!

Greetings from Rainy Cities

We had rain again on Sunday, so we had a quiet day watching some spring training baseball on TV, talking to both kids and my parents at various times on Google Meet, and doing some shopping. We went to Crossroads Bellevue in the pouring rain, walked in the mall, listened to the Bonnie Birch Trio (accordion and tuba!), and stopped at Party City's going out of business sale, where, if there is one near you, you can find lots of costume bits and party items at a huge discount. 

Sunday's a busy TV night. We saw the end of the SAG Awards, then White Lotus when it aired on the east coast (wow the wrongness; I'm here to see Carrie Coon trash her friends and Jason Isaacs' children commit incest), so we could watch Suits L.A. in its time slot (I enjoyed the setup but it has a long way to go to get my longterm interest; will have to catch up later on Watson and Mayfair Witches). Sunday shopping, a Valentine present from Mom, and the Cirque de Soleil tent at Marymoor:

Greetings from the Seattle Aquarium

It rained a lot on Saturday -- an atmospheric river, in fact -- so we figured our plans had better be mostly indoors. So we went to the aquarium to see the new Ocean Pavilion, though of course we also visited the Pier 59 building with the touch tanks and local marine life, and the Pier 60 building with the undersea dome, marine mammals, and seabirds. The new building is very open and bright, with a massive reef, a mangrove lagoon, and a hatchery and animal hospital. Since we were right across the street, we also went to Pike Place Market, where we looked at the crafts and bought local chocolate-covered cherries. 

 

We also visited the Alabaster Owl, the wizard-themed shop in a side alley with fun clothing and home decor. On the way home, we stopped at Safeway, where in addition to cat food, we bought soup and crusty bread to go with our Beecher's cheese for dinner. After dinner, we watched Flow, the wonderful animated movie with no dialogue about a cat who survives a tsunami flood with help from other animals; it's both a global warming story and a fable about cooperation, and sweet and funny too. We also caught up on last night's The Way Home, in which Colton gets to be problematic in multiple eras, which makes him more interesting.

Poem for Friday and Raccoons Out Back

The Old Racoon 

By David Wagoner 

Along the ledge and the fence-rail past the holly

Silently, easy-mindedly moving

Through scarlet-and-gold dawn under green branches

Into the garden, the old racoon, trespassing

Calmly (with one indifferent glance at the window), 

On his hindlegs rises against the birdbath,

A starling in his mouth. He washes it gently,

His ringtail brushing slowly among roses.

-------- 

Paul went out early for a routine physical, meaning that cats were very concerned and out of sorts and had to come sit on me earlier than I'd intended to wake up yet I couldn't get anything done. When eventually they permitted me to move around, I discovered that my post here yesterday, in which I limited the full extent of my rage to pointing out that there were lying murderers in Hamas, had cost me a friend of over 20 years. Now that I know what an antisemitic piece of shit she is, I won't miss her in the least, but it will never not be upsetting to discover that there are people who hate Jews so much, they'll unfriend us over stating something that is undeniable truth no matter where you stand on the war. 

So I'm still not in a great mood, though I had a relaxed day with routine chores and some more pleasant online conversations with old friends. We had raccoons in the tree right behind our deck in the afternoon who were a lot of fun to watch as they got irritated when the rain began and nudged each other down from the tree, which we saw both from inside and outside when we went to walk by the lake. Our evening has involved watching The Gorge, which was a better movie before we actually saw what was in the gorge but had enjoyable performances by Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, and a wasted Sigourney Weaver, and now we're watching Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, which has only had one scene I found moving or believable.