Farewell to 2010...

and a hearty welcome to 2011 - I am more than ready for a new year to start. Have a great feeling about this one! Let this photo of a Grand Central Station light serve as the Times Square ball as I toast in the new year. Happy New Year one and all!

fly through the air with the greatest of ease

only to land CLUNK on the ground. At a doctor's office of all things, falling down the stairs. Been a long time since I fell like that - about six steps and into the hallway (I must be jet-propelled). So odd. Laying on the floor of a medical building's basement thinking, gee whiz, I just fell down the stairs. I am actually fine except for a sore wrist and hand and a sideways view of the world. Thank goodness for a coat that is like wearing a giant sleeping bag. And thanks to the lovely man who came to my aid and the lovely nurses whose first response was "would you like some tea?". My kind of medical attention :)

Freezing. Seriously. Brrrrrrr.

The wind since yesterday whipping about the house does not give one that cozy in the snow feeling but instead makes one feel edgy, waiting. For what? Don't know. A tree to fall? The lines to freeze and crack sending darkness and stealing the heat? This is not the peth peth peth pristine snow that warms the heart and I will be glad when it settles down. Meanwhile in our not well insulated and forget about these outdated windows, etc. I am freezing. Someone send me a fireplace and a pot-bellied stove and a heated small barn for the homeless cat who is too feral to be caught that we saw dragging down the street in the snow earlier. Stay warm somehow, cat. Stay up somehow, wires. Stay rooted please, trees. Stay safe all of you out there tonight.

Sunday Quote

If the grass is greener on the other side, water your grass.

- tee shirt slogan

Have yourself a merry little Christmas

the sky was a saucer

on which the night balanced and the moon was a small chip of porcelain, above my pillow, above my sleep.

Eve of Winter Solstice

Goodbye Autumn, hello Winter.

Sunday Quote

"At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows."

- William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost

Can we please hold off Christmas?

At least until I am feeling well again? Otherwise I would like a large cup of tea with lemon and honey, wrapped, as well as a box of softy tissues (the kind with lotion in them) with a giant bow. Thank you.

Horses for Hire and homes for gnomes...

...or fairies. In my crafty days I would have been constructing these little magical tree trunk home charmers in a New York minute. Found at the Westport, Ct Anthropologie - and while I tend to like all those stores, the Westport store is Mecca, whoever designs that store has the best eye for detail, whimsy, and inspiration. Salad and divine cream of Mushroom soup at the Firehouse Deli added to the fun day a weekend or so ago. Across from the FD, in the parking lot men from Allegra Farm (they gave me their card and mentioned they were available for hire for special events and so forth- note the nifty website) were setting up a covered wagon of sorts - and the horses had a furry rugged very appealing look to them - the men said the horses were Norwegian...here's a little info on them.

Poem for the first true cold

Be Music, Night


Be music, night,
That her sleep may go
Where angels have their pale tall choirs

Be a hand, sea,
That her dreams may watch
Thy guidesman touching the green flesh of the world

Be a voice, sky,
That her beauties may be counted
And the stars will tilt their quiet faces
Into the mirror of her loveliness

Be a road, earth,
That her walking may take thee
Where the towns of heaven lift their breathing spires

O be a world and a throne, God,
That her living may find its weather
And the souls of ancient bells in a child's book
Shall lead her into Thy wondrous house

- Kenneth Patchen

Sunday Quote

The snow is silently falling like memories unspoken
The past is fading away as time is forever lost
You can trust me to keep the wish till you come home
Our dreams blow in, loves unknown
I lie in the arms of winters ever after,
I lie in your arms in a winters dream...

- Hayley Westenra, Winter's Dream

Billy Collins and Mom and The Lanyard

A friend sent me this link, a poem I have heard Billy Collins read both in person and in a little all-about-Billy type documentary I recently borrowed from the library. He seems to be a lovely, decent man and he is a wonderful poet. He has been our Poet Laureate for those who don't necessarily follow these things - and in that time created this site, Poetry 180. I love him because he is the poet of life - how we muddle through, how profound things come alongside the morning paper and a cup of coffee.
Poets or wannabe poets who want to make sure everyone understands how startingly original and profound they are, are fond of bashing him at times for not being a poet of depth or talent because he writes poetry that even the common folk can understand (and we all know the common folk know nothing about the depth and beauty of life) Sigh.
I am sure he is ruined by their comments as he considers his Poet Laureate-ness, regards his shelf of well received books, but no, that would be petty and he seems to be a lovely, decent man, (I, on the other hand would be doing just that - take that, you sulky MFAers, I would say, but then I am not talking about my petty leanings at the moment).
Here is The Lanyard, a poem that like many of his poems makes you laugh at the wit even as the significance of the poem moves you to the edge of tears. Perhaps you have to be older to really love his poetry, arriving at that place he seems to have gotten to earlier, where all the tender joys and woes of life converge and you know so much more, are so much more patient, compassionate, wise...and have really bad knees.

Sunday Quote

"You darkness, that I come from,
I love you more than all the fires
that fence in the world,
for the fire makes
a circle of light for everyone,
and then no one outside learns of you.

But the darkness pulls in everything;
shapes and fires, animals and myself,
how easily it gathers them!—
powers and people—
and it is possible a great energy
is moving near me.
I have faith in nights."

- Rainer Maria Rilke, On Darkness

If they celebrated Christmas...

Passed by this gate to a small cemetery on my home for lunch and fell so in love with the image that I brought a camera back with me - I had to park half a block away and walk up (and was slightly late back) and dodge a few cars, but this old wreath across the iron gates so reminded me of a book I love, Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book. If the ghosts celebrate the holiday, surely this would be their wreath.

From the shoebox

End of November photo, a cold dusk down the street when out with the dog. Now first day of December and it is just pouring, sheets of water, getting soaked during errands on a day off. Tossing paper scraps - some good stuff. This site for the over fifty set, Good50.com was created by a 16 year old Maryland girl for her grandfather - a search with larger font and search box. Two great books to consider as a Christmas gift - the Poets Laureates book which has poetry from all the Poet Laureates of the USA (the Poetry Society of America recently had their centenniel celebration and this was being touted), and of course the book I am awaiting in the mail to receive, Dogs Singing, which I will shamelessly continue to recommend since it's a wonderful collection, it benefits dog charities, and I have three poems in it :)
Still time to make someone a cute toy - interlibrary-loaned myself this book and found it charming. Our libraries do not own this book - the title alone has great appeal for a mermaid type like me, however I have not seen it but it sounds great and it is by the fabulous Claire Murray of rughooking fame. Plus the site this is linked to looks like fun for sea-lovers. and lastly - if you have one of those new shiny fridges that look great but magnets don't stick to it - you can play with this fake fridge and make up cool stuff with the poetry magnets. Enjoy! Happy Chanukah to everyone.