more words and blossoms and peaches and and peach-like sentiments to share with you. this is to remind you of those certain days, and to wish you an abundance of them.
xo
-s

From Blossoms

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.



Poem: "From Blossoms," by Li-Young Lee, from Rose (Boa Editions).

today, robbie would have been 28, and abe turned 12 today. those two would have DEFINITELY gotten along. :)
i always look for a cosmic prezzie from her on these days. i think abe might be one of them.

here is the writer's almanac po-eem for yesterday. again, i thought it was exceedingly appropriate.
(don't worry, i will write up a big-fat-sam's-birthday-adventures rant before the week is done! LOTS of good stuff to tell!)


A Physics

When you get down to it, Earth
has our own great ranges
of feeling-Rocky, Smoky, Blue-
and a heart that can melt stones.

The still pools fill with sky,
as if aloof, and we have eyes
for all of this-and more, for Earth's
reminding moon. We too are ruled

by such attractions-spun and swaddled,
rocked and lent a light. We run
our clocks on wheels, our trains
on time. But all the while we want

to love each other endlessly-not only for
a hundred years, not only six feet up and down.
We want the suns and moons of silver
in ourselves, not only counted coins in a cup. The whole

idea of love was not to fall. And neither was
the whole idea of God. We put him well
above ourselves, because we meant,
in time, to measure up.



Poem: "A Physics," by Heather McHugh, from Hinge and Sign: Poems, 1968-1993 (Wesleyan University Press).

for this rant, we can go on a little virtual trip together. this is one of my birthday wishes, to go here some day. wander through these lovely galleries with me.
mm, yak-butter tea.
love,
-sam

(here are some of my very very favorites, btw. :)
the great a'tuin!
http://www.visitmongolia.com/images/n_04.jpg
this one is called "lovers on horses". aren't they lovely?
la!
welcoming
young priest

hi, all. i am going to be gone for a couple of days, so i wanted to leave a few rants for you. i posted one for today, the 18th, one for the 19th, (see next post) and i'll post one here for the 20th. i should be back in the land of the living after that. :) take care, all. when next i see you i'll be thirty-FIVE.

This is from a beautiful book lent to me by a beautiful person. The book was printed in 1894, a small olive-green clothbound book with gold accents, in perfect shape. It is called "The Oliver Wendell Holmes Year Book". It is truly a thing of beauty.
This excerpt is his choice for August 20th. I am stunned at it's aptness.

"I come under your windows, some fine morning, and I play you one of my adagio movements, and some of you say, -- This is good, -- play us so always. But, dear friends, if I did not change the stop sometimes, the machine would wear out in one part and rust in another. How easily this or that tune flows! -- you say, -- there must be no end of just such melodies in him. -- I will open the poor machine for you one moment, and you shall look. -- Ah! Every note marks where a spur of steel has been driven in. It is easy to grind out the song, but to plant these bristling points which make it was the painful task of time."

from "The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table"

well, i had my kayak lesson today!
sallie and i went to lake summit, in tuxedo. we had two slim boats, and i took lu. i tied her up on the beach, but as soon as i left shore she went bonkers*, so we had to come back. one option was to tie her up at the truck, but i suspected that wouldn't work, so i got into my boat, and sallie and i VERRRYYY patiently coaxed luna in with me. it's a small cockpit, and we were cosy, but once she got situated (butt between my thighs, paws out on the boat), she was just as fine as dandelion wine. we zoomed out over the lake like a waterbug**. luna sat still and straight. at first she was a little afraid, but then she realized that this was just another kind of flying! she began to realx, and when i turned the boat, the pressure of my knees caused her to automatically lean like a good motorcycle buddy. :) we discovered a HUGE flock of ducks and geese, and needless to say, she was very interested in that! she was still very calm and good though. she watched everything with that great, incomparable doggie interest...
I CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT MY CRAZY DOG INTO A KAYAK AND ONTO THE WATER!!!!!!!!! YAY, US!!!
some of you know that i spent some time a couple of summers ago trying to get her used to boating. i FINALLY managed to get her onto a paddle boat, but even that was a chore. i'd decided that my goal was to get her into a canoe, but i thought it was a bit of a pipe dream, and then the chance never came, until today.
so, MY second time EVER in a kayak, lulabelle's first - and we just flat rock !@#$% socks! :) :) :) i was - am - SO proud!
sallie lent me the two boats and pfd's, showed me how to load the boats on my truck and tie them up good (joe, you'd be proud - she bragged on my knots! :) and on wednesday, lu, myself and boy are heading out into the wide wide world for a day on the water.
(thank you, ms. sallie. you are a dear and a blessing.)

in other news - HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY OLDEST BEST FRIEND AND HER BABY BOY! i love you both, and hope you enjoy your lobster this year - as always.

in other other news, i started my birth-days-off quite nicely. i worked at the 'flour yestiddy, made some more con $$$, we did a great day, broke the record for lunches served, and yet had a relaxed, fun, easy peasy day. luna came with and abe got paid again to sit her. niiiiice. she had a veggie burger for lunch, i had eggs inna frame. mm.) i worked with stewart a little on mandy's belated b'day prezzie, and then took off to finish some other werk. however, the night took an odd, but pleasant turn and i ended up staying up and outside all night - didn't go to sleep until 6 a.m. (or so) - and woke to dawn and birds in my yard. me, my dog, a blankie, a friend, a can of off, and more weird conversation than you even want to know about.
to weird boy - who is not my type and ugly - thanks. it was nice to not worry, and nice to wake warm.

have good days off, all.
much love, i will see you soon.
-s

*remind me to tell y'all a similar story that happened on the day of my dad's burial...
**ok, maybe an elderly, lame, confused one, but STILL

you all know of my love for peaches. mm, in pie, and in drinkies... their shape, color, smell and bee-blowsy, heavy summer ripeness, mmm... despite all obvious appearances, they're even kind of the main character of loki's little acre. i also love words, and especially play with words. for those of you who don't know, gerard manley hopkins* is my main man, poet-wise, and word-sound-play was his forte...
this guy is pretty damned good, too. i wanted to share this with you, in lieu of a juice-drippy, smell-sticky, sweet summer-shared bite,
mmm -

Peaches

A mouthful of language to swallow:
stretches of beach, sweet clinches,
breaches in walls, pleached branches;
britches hauled over haunches;
hunched leeches, wrenched teachers.
What English can do: ransack
the warmth that chuckles beneath
fuzzed surfaces, smooth velvet
richness, plashy juices.
I beseech you, peach,
clench me into the sweetness
of your reaches.

- Peter Davison
(this came from writer's almanac today. it had a typo innit, and i fixed it. i did NOT write mr. keillor and tell him so, though. that would be rude. :)

love,
your own peachy
-'pie

*do look him up, and read my favorite "pied beauty"