Poem for Thursday and Gathland Sights

This Book
By George Alfred Townsend, a.k.a. Gath

This book I wrote at 28
and thought it only light and flip
And did not know, till now, too late,
our best is in apprenticeship
That while we learn, we so enjoy,
as, when we're learned, we never can:
The feats of Hercules, the boy,
he never matched when he was man.

-------- 

I had a quiet Wednesday morning trying to get stuff done, then I talked to all three of my good high school friends at lunchtime, which is always my favorite lunch hour. By the time we were off Google Meet, the clouds had gone and we had a gorgeous sunny late afternoon, so we took a walk and had Indian food for dinner. 

I had to watch The Masked Singer again (YES I DID) because it was Muppet week, then we Skyped with the kids to try to figure out Thanksgiving schedules. Afterward, we watched this week's Andor, which has gotten better and better, and the Thor: Love and Thunder extras, which are very fun. Scenes from Gathland last weekend: 

Greetings from Fredericksburg

We had an early lunch Saturday so we could drive to Falmouth to meet Katherine, her parents, and Adam and Katherine's dog at a park complex near the historic district. We walked around John Lee Pratt and Saint Clair Brooks Parks so Pepper could get some exercise and we could all converse, then we walked over to Chatham Manor, the 1770s Georgian manor with spectacular views of the Rappahannock River, site of a slave rebellion, used as a Union hospital during the march to Richmond and now part of Fredericksburg's national military park. 

 

We came home for dinner -- pumpkin ravioli and sausage -- then Adam had plans to watch movies with his high school friends group, though since they can't get together, they watch on Netflix, and since it was Adam's turn to pick the film, he picked The Death of Stalin because they hadn't seen it and we suspected they would like it. So we watched with Adam and overheard some of the discussion, which was very amusing. Then I watched the first episode of Bridgerton, which is the delightful crack Katherine and everyone else told us it was! 

 

Greetings from the Shenandoah Valley

After having brunch here, I spent most of a lovely cool Saturday with Paul and Cheryl in the Shenandoah Valley, where we went to the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley to see the Maxfield Parrish and Albrecht Durer exhibits, both of which were excellent, though I confess I enjoyed the former a great deal more with the exception of the William Blake prints in the latter. We also visited the Terry Ward exhibit and the miniature houses.

There was a lot of construction going on around the gardens, so we thought we might go to Skyline Drive to see the tree color there, but there were reports of traffic backed up for many miles at the entrance to Shenandoah National Park, so instead we decided to do something equally tasteful and scenic, and went to Dinosaur Land in White Post (on Stonewall Jackson Highway, which might explain all the Confederate souvenirs in the gift shop).

We came back as the sun was going down, ordered pizza, and watched Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, which is excellent; I thought I knew a lot about her life as an inventor, but I learned a lot more, and it's very well filmed. After Cheryl went home, we watched the end of several football games (none of which ended the way I wanted) before Saturday Night Live. Here are photos including dinosaurs, prints, and me and Paul enacting Distracted Boyfriend:

Poem for Sunday and Afternoon in Pennsylvania

Archipelagic
By R.A. Villanueva

Not vinegar. Not acid. Not
sugarcane pressed to mortar by
fist, but salt: salt, the home taste; salt,
the tide; salt, the blood. Not Holy

Ghost, but a saint of coral come
to life in the night crossing a
field of brambles and thorns, the camps
of pirates beat back to the bay

with hornets. Not Santo Niño.
And not a belt of storms, but this:
girls singing, an avocado
in each open palm, courting doves;

a moth drawn to the light of our
room you take to be your father.

--------

"What to say when someone asks where home is...when you were born a hemisphere away, but have inherited its faiths and myths, its capacity for awe?" Villanueva asked Poets.org. "You give yourself permission to feel at home in your blood; you try to invent a new language for your answer."

Paul's brother Jon was visiting Clair and Cinda in Hanover, so we drove up there in the morning and spent the day with them, having lunch at Lu Hibachi Buffet and watching baseball while catching up on various family members. It was nice and relaxing and good to see him, and on the way home we stopped at the Gettysburg Cavalry Field which is on the way to the highway, as well as many horse farms.











In the evening, we watched The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 while eating sandwiches since we were too full from lunch to eat much more. I don't think it's as powerful as its prequel -- Coin is more interesting when she's more a person and less a type, and Gale is more likeable as a character than a plot device -- but I will always appreciate Effie's and Haymitch's story arcs and I will always love Katniss!

Poem for Sunday, Spider-Man 3, Great Falls Encampment

Heredity
By Louis De Paor

There's no denying
the blood that goes through me
from my mother's side,
leaving one snarled tooth
in the roof of my mouth,
an itching-post in the field
of my thoughts, an ogham stone
that shouts me down
with its unintelligible alphabet.

I put my swollen thumb
under the tooth of knowledge,
and the stone speaks up
from the underworld of my thoughts:
You were always a black sheep
like all belonging to you,
hard words like grains of sand
in the corner of an eyelid
shut tight as an oyster.

When a blade of light
prises it open,
there's a tooth askew
in my son's mouth.
It shines like a pearl
in his perfectly crooked smile.

--------

We got up reasonably early for a Saturday because we knew it was supposed to be miserably hot, then very stormy later in the day, so after breakfast and some morning chores, we went to Great Falls to hike and see if there were goslings there. We didn't anticipate how many people would be around since we didn't realize it was one of the weekends when the 20th Maine Regiment was reenacting a Civil War encampment, so we only saw a few goslings, but we saw many herons in the river and canal, some turtles, some frogs, even a snake!



















I dragged Paul to a Latias raid on the way home (caught on both accounts, so it was worth it), we stopped at Au Bon Pain to get baguettes and chocolate croissants, then we came home for lunch. In the afternoon we ran out to Giant to get cat food ahead of the thunderstorm. After dinner we watched Spider-Man 3 with Cheryl -- I had remembered that one as being pretty bad but Adam assured me there were good memes from it. And Daniel, who never cared about driving, finally took and passed his driving test!

Poem for Saturday and Civil War Memorial

Obituary
By E. Morris

Died, at Fort Pickens, Florida, Sergeant James W. Davis, son of Rev. Henderson Davis, on July 19, 1864.  Sergeant Davis was 26 years old, and was a member of Co. B, 25th Regiment U.S.C.T.

The loved of many hearts is gone,
   The light of many eyes;
His race on earth at last is run--
   His home’s beyond the skies.

No wife was near him when he died,
   No friendly voice to cheer;
He fell the country’s greatest pride--
   A noble volunteer.

’Twas hard for one so young and good;
   But God had willed it so:
He fell, as every soldier should--
   His face turned to the foe.

Short, truly, was his suffering-time;
   How wondrous his reward!
His soul has gone to dwell above,
   To stand before the Lord.

--------

My Friday was almost all boring necessary tasks, but most of the important stuff got done. And I got to fold laundry while watching Thor: Tales of Asgard, which was free on Vudu so I figured I'd see what it was and ended up thoroughly enjoying (the Valkyries! the dark elf mentor! Loki practicing magic!).

We had dinner with my parents, figured out Mother's Day plans, then came home to watch Blindspot, which I am very relieved has been renewed for next year, and Agents of SHIELD, which has been great this season so I'm hoping for good news there. Then we saw the Nationals win, and the Orioles won earlier, so yay!

From the night we saw Rick Astley at the Lincoln Theatre downtown in Shaw, here are photos of Spirit of Freedom -- the African-American Civil War memorial just above the U Street/Cardozo Metro station, including the names of the 200,000+ African-American soldiers -- and the entrance to the African American Civil War Museum:

Poem for Monday, Boonesborough Days, The Orville

On Summer
By George Moses Horton

Esteville begins to burn;
    The auburn fields of harvest rise;
The torrid flames again return,
    And thunders roll along the skies.

Perspiring Cancer lifts his head,
    And roars terrific from on high;
Whose voice the timid creatures dread;
    From which they strive with awe to fly.

The night-hawk ventures from his cell,
    And starts his note in evening air;
He feels the heat his bosom swell,
    Which drives away the gloom of fear.

Thou noisy insect, start thy drum;
    Rise lamp-like bugs to light the train;
And bid sweet Philomela come,
    And sound in front the nightly strain.

The bee begins her ceaseless hum,
    And doth with sweet exertions rise;
And with delight she stores her comb,
    And well her rising stock supplies.

Let sportive children well beware,
    While sprightly frisking o’er the green;
And carefully avoid the snare,
    Which lurks beneath the smiling scene.

The mistress bird assumes her nest,
    And broods in silence on the tree,
Her note to cease, her wings at rest,
    She patient waits her young to see.

--------

We spent Sunday in the area around South Mountain in spectacular early fall weather. Our first stop was the Boonesborough Days festival in Boonsboro, where we saw rescued raptors, historic cars, Civil War artifacts, a forge, a University of Maryland agriculture school information booth, a portable gristmill, amateur astronomers, a horse and buggy, lots of locally made food, and crafts including glassworks, furniture, pottery, doll clothing, ironworks, candles, ceramics, jewelry, chain maille, paintings, photo art, seasonal decorations, and more. After the festival, we went to South Mountain Creamery, where we got to pet calves and visit chickens and cows before getting cheese and ice cream in the store. We missed all of the Ravens' shutout victory over the Bengals and the Nationals clinching their division for the postseason, but both ended so well that we didn't mind.

















We ate a late dinner while watching the first episode of The Orville, which I liked rather better than most of its reviewers, though I may have been in a forgiving mood because I'm so mad at CBS about Discovery. So I enjoyed the wannabe Data with the similar voice, the wannabe Jem'Hadar villains, all the women -- I always love Penny Johnson Jerald, I'm very glad to see Adrianne Palicki on something other than Agents of SHIELD though they need to write her character better -- it is no worse than "Broken Bow" and I liked it better than "Encounter at Farpoint" the first time I watched TNG, so I will certainly watch again next week. It's no "Emissary" or "Caretaker"...but, when I was rolling my eyes, it was because of McFarlane's brand of humor included to lure his usual fans, not because of serious sci-fi stupidity. Afterward we watched this season's final, sad Endeavour, on which I must admit my favorite moment was Roger Allam's Thursday saying, "I am the law!"