Ordinary Life

We are planning a road trip to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center with our visitors today. With a nod towards  "Over the river and through the woods..." here is a poem from my Poetry Foundation app list. WHAT YOU HAVE TO GET OVER Dick Allen  Stumps. Railroad tracks. Early sicknesses, the blue one, especially. Your first love rounding a corner, that snowy minefield. Whether you step lightly or heavily, you have to get over to that tree line a hundred yards in the distance before evening falls, letting no one see you wend your way, that wonderful, old-fashioned word, wend , meaning “to proceed, to journey, to travel from one place to another,” as from bed to breakfast, breakfast to imbecile work. You have to get over your resentments, the sun in the morning and the moon at night, all those shadows of yourself you left behind on odd little tables. Tote that barge! Lift that bale! You have to cross that river, jump that hedge, surmount that slogan, crawl over this ego or that eros,...

Today I have family coming to town. My aunt DuhDuh (her real name is Karen but we haven't called her that in years) a cousin who doubles as a childhood friend and her two daughters who also double as childhood friends for Riley Wren. While today's poem is entitled Granny, my own Granny cannot visit me this side of eternity.  DuhDuh is her daughter though and most worthy to carry her spirit with her ere she goes.  It should be noted that Granny was known as a storyteller... the very best kind who make stories come alive, endure, and get passed down along with all the other family heirlooms. GRANNY   James Whitcomb Riley    Granny’s come to our house,     And ho! my lawzy-daisy! All the childern round the place     Is ist a-runnin’ crazy! Fetched a cake fer little Jake,     And fetched a pie fer Nanny, And fetched a pear fer all the pack     That runs to kiss their Granny! Lucy Ellen’s in her lap,  ...

This week Savannah Music Festival continues. This evening the boys and I go to see The Time Jumpers @ The Lucas .  I love to go downtown . I don't love driving or trying to find parking downtown, but once I'm there, I'm always glad I came. And sometimes, once I'm safely parked, I can hear Eva Gabor in my mind, exclaiming " Darlin' I love you but give me Park Avenue! " WOOLWORTH'S   Mark Irwin for Gerald Stern Everything stands wondrously multicolored and at attention in the always Christmas air. What scent lingers unrecognizably between that popcorn, grilled cheese sandwiches, malted milkballs, and parakeets? Maybe you came here in winter to buy your daughter a hamster and were detained by the bin of Multicolored Thongs , four pair for a dollar. Maybe you came here to buy some envelopes, the light blue par avion ones with airplanes, but caught yourself, lost, daydreaming, saying it’s too late over the glassy diorama of cakes and pies. Maybe you came h...

 A Two-fer Tuesday. THIS IS JUST TO SAY   William Carlos Williams I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold THIS IS JUST TO SAY   Erica-Lynn Gambino   For William Carlos Williams I have just asked you to get out of my apartment even though you never thought I would Forgive me you were driving me insane

A poem from an old quote journal for Monday.  While the Puritan in me raises an eye at the lines about allowing our body to love what it loves, ("There must be restraint! Boundaries! Decency! " she murmurs beneath her bonnet "What if someone reads this and then tries to marry their cow? That's going to be on you, you know." She sadly shakes her covered head at my careless destruction of civilization) the rest of me knows that I have needed permission to love the simplest of things - or to admit that I do at least. And so, as I share this poem that could be used to justify any number of bad decisions, I wish to remind you that "Allowing yourself to love something" is not the same as "Laying claim to something you love." WILD GEESE Mary Oliver You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees for a hundred miles through the desert repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about desp...

A poem from an old quote journal for Sunday. TELL ALL THE TRUTH Emily Dickinson Tell all the truth but tell it slant, Success in circuit lies, Too bright for our infirm delight The truth's superb surprise; As lightning to the children eased With explanation kind, The truth must dazzle gradually Or every man be blind.

If I did have to choose only one poem to call a favorite, Forgetfulness by Billy Collins would be one of the top ten at least. Yes, I know that's bad math but it's common knowledge that the poetry kids aren't as keen on Math class as they are Language Arts.  I have memory issues - short term, long term and those that refuse to drown.  Not many months ago, I picked up a book by Anne Tyler and got half way through before realizing that I had read it years before. It's the first half of the book, when everything seemed new, that is the most troubling to me. And so, this poem speaks to my own eventuality perhaps. It also reminds me of my GrandPaw and his long goodbye .  You have three choices for this poem: You can listen to it as you watch an animated illustration, you may choose to have Bill Murray read it to you or you may opt to read it quietly to yourself. (1.) (2.) (3.) Forgetfulness By Collins, Billy The name of the author is the first to go followed obediently ...

Rather than daily hijacking the comments section of my pal Whit 's posts, I'm going to attempt to remember how to blog consecutively for days and days - maybe even a whole week!- on my own dusty old blog so that I, too may participate in the festivity of Poetry Month. Aside from the occasional odd nursery rhyme or humorous limerick, my poetry appreciation as a youth can best be summed up thusly: I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one.   I can tell you anyhow,   I'd rather see one than be one.     Though I would sometimes find myself speaking lyrically,   or stuck in a verbal rhyming loop, I didn't realize back then that one  could enjoy poetry as much as I now do (doop?).   I never thought I would read the stuff on purpose, much less have an app  or two on my phone. Like a good sandwich or holy matrimony, enjoyment came down to finding those built of quality ingredients. Magnetic poetry helped, too. As did...

Last night, I accompanied Fisher to volunteer as a buddy at Night To Shine- an event to serve and celebrate the special needs community. We were at the Christ Church location in Jax. Oh, what a night. If you can name an emotion, it was available somewhere on the premises. Of the many impressions the night made on me, these are the thoughts still lingering in the afternoon aftermath of the following day . *UPDATE- It has taken an extra day and a half to edit and upload this post properly.   >>Fisher<<   This past year, Fisher and I discussed that he has a soft place in his heart for the special needs community. When two of his particular heroes (Brant Hansen & Tim Tebow )  both promoted Night To Shine, it seemed providential to participate. I hope that the desire to love and serve others is a quality that continues to snowball downhill into his life.   >>Valor<< These are real men. Manly men. Valiant leaders who love and serve others...

A well endowed house save a few essentials... I woke up in Madame Blueberry 's house (in a tree and everything.) My mother-in-law is a woman who has just about everything...two and three of some things...but yesterday morning, she had no coffee pods. Lots of tea [which I love] but not a drop of the kick-in-the-pants-in-a-cup that I needed to get me up and get me thinking this particular morning. And my father-in-law Charlie runs a proud "gourmet" kitchen... he even went to a Johnson & Wales Camp once upon a time.  Imagine my surprise when I  discovered the man has no French press,  no grinder.  And that's what made the bag of whole coffee beans ironic. Or was it that they were the only coffee to be found in all the house?  Either way. I am here to tell you that I was undeterred. I am also here to tell you that determination alone does not the cup of coffee make. You need many other elements. I found the closest thing to a grinder and made. . . well, .....