Cradle to Coffin on Arbor Day

Thanks to Barbara Tilley & Spiritual Ecology
A Holiday Folktale For the Kids

Previous Arbor Day Posts
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2019
2020
2021

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The Sprouting Grass Moon ~ April 26th

Flora & Fauna

New Fortnightly: Earth - Proud

New Book Blog: Flat Stanley [& Darby!]

Post Vaccine, Open & Gather

OPEN ~ DOOR ~ BOOKS ~ MIND ~ HEART

At my first COVID vaccine, as soon as the nurse said, "Relax," I tensely grabbed the arms of the chair and hunched forward -- my nervous way of relaxing. She touched my shoulder lightly and said, "No, no, no. You don't have to lean toward me. I am bringing the shot to you." Deep breath . . .

What a good bed-side manner -- right? -- both humorous and wise! I have taken this as my new mantra whenever I feel myself over - compensating and tensing up: "No, no, no. I'm bringing the shot to you." Deep breath . . .

As it turns out, shot #1 was nearly painless; and likewise shot #2. Deep breath . . .

What's next? To gather or not to gather? To hug, shake hands, maybe even one day go without masks to Walmart (or not)? Deep breath . . .

OPEN ARMS

Gathering With My Sibs
At Our Airbnb

AND JUST FOR FUN

As my friend Katy says:
I don't even know ONE person without issues! Haha!

Once & Future Posts

night & day

All Felled

gather
open
lattes
spiced coffee
whiskey
scenic views
autumnal ~ flora
leftovers

Previous ~ OPEN ~ Signs

Earth Laughs In Flowers

HAPPY EARTH DAY!
"Earth laughs in flowers . . ."

Such an unusual poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson
and so perfect for Earth Day.
Perhaps you've always thought, as I have,
that Earth is laughing with us; but, no!
According to Emerson, Earth is laughing at us!
Read on . . .

HAMATREYA

Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint,
Possessed the land which rendered to their toil
Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood.
Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm,
Saying, “’Tis mine, my children’s and my name’s.
How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees!
How graceful climb those shadows on my hill!
I fancy these pure waters and the flags
Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize;
And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.”

Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:
And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough.
Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet
Clear of the grave.
They added ridge to valley, brook to pond,
And sighed for all that bounded their domain;
“This suits me for a pasture; that’s my park;
We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge,
And misty lowland, where to go for peat.
The land is well, —lies fairly to the south.
’Tis good, when you have crossed the sea and back,
To find the sitfast acres where you left them.”

Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds
Him to his land, a lump of mould the more.
Hear what the Earth say:—

EARTH-SONG
“Mine and yours;
Mine, not yours.
Earth endures;
Stars abide—
Shine down in the old sea;
Old are the shores;
But where are old men?
I who have seen much,
Such have I never seen.

“The lawyer’s deed
Ran sure,
In tail,
To them and to their heirs
Who shall succeed,
Without fail,
Forevermore.

“Here is the land,
Shaggy with wood,
With its old valley,
Mound and flood.
But the heritors?—
Fled like the flood's foam.
The lawyer and the laws,
And the kingdom,
Clean swept herefrom.

“They called me theirs,
Who so controlled me;
Yet every one
Wished to stay, and is gone,
How am I theirs,
If they cannot hold me,
But I hold them?”

When I heard the Earth-song
I was no longer brave;
My avarice cooled

Like lust in the chill of the grave.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)
American essayist, poet, transcendentalist

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Previous Earth Day Posts
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
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Previous Daffodil Posts

The Quotidian Skin of Daily Life

Alleyway Art ~ Lafayette, Indiana

Every now and then, I come across such an excellent reminder of why, twelve years ago, I chose to name this blog "The Quotidian Kit" [see quotes, right - hand column -> -> ->]. Most recently, I was struck by a series of observations during my reading of 101 Jewish Poems for the Third Millennium. In the "Foreword," the editors comment at great length on "the mundane details that constitute a single life":

"Like so many of the best contemporary poems, a number of works included here awaken us to a sanctity or beauty that pulses beneath the quotidian skin of daily life . . . the idiosyncractic struggles and delights of ordinary people . . .

. . . profound meaning resides not in a moment of transcendence but in the un - romanticized rigors of daily life. . . .

. . . For so many contemporary poets mine for meaning in the mundane -- in the small particulars -- when we might expect them to cast their gaze on larger transcendent truths. Contemporary poets are not fooled by the seeming absence of light in the everday. They uncover and call our attention to the lower realm's inherent luminescence. . . .

. . . the best place to find the Infinite is in the finite, and the best place to find the universal is in the particular." (xi - xiii, emphasis added)

Larger Context ~ "Your Face Here"
Quotidian ~ Life

Original "Woman in Gold" ~ completed 1907
by Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918)

RE Lafayette Murals,
see also:

My blog
Mae's blog
Tin Can Telephone
Wabash

The Ordinary Daily Presentations

Same Quotidian Windowsill, Same Vase!

As Mary Oliver says,
"the ordinary . . . daily presentations":

*************

Mindful

Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for —
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world —
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant —
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these —
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?

[emphasis added]

*************

Mary Oliver, Qu Yuan and more
on my current post:
"Mindful"

@The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
A literary blog of connection & coincidence;
custom & ceremony

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Another vase of daffodils from Katie;
little green Easter basket from Beata!
~ special effects ~

Divine Your Heart

Vintage Easter Tokens ~ Treasures From Sir Igor
And a little card which I picked up at
a Missouri antiques store way back in 1976!

Sadly, we have lost so many friends this year,
though somewhat surprisingly, none to coronavirus.
This poem seems the perfect "in memoriam" for all
whose absence we carry in our hearts this Easter Season:

Farewell to a Friend

Farewell, dear friend, sweet friend, farewell:
Oh, how I'll miss your cheery smile!
When days were dark and skies were gray,
You kept me smiling all the while.

Just like a lovely hot-house rose,
Unblighted by a winter's day,
You shed a perfume rich and rare,
On all who chance to pass your way.

A rose, of earth and heaven born,
So human yet divine your heart;
To know you is to love you, dear,
Oh, how I'll miss you when apart!

With a heart and soul in sympathy,
Reluctantly I bid adieu,
To all your love and tenderness:
Farewell, sweet friend -- farewell to you!

~ from A Soul's Appeal: And Other Poems
~ by the Actress Convert Irene West

I could not find the dates of her life,
but here is the poet's portrait ca 1917

***************

"Paradise to me is knowledge,
the answers to all the questions you think of
and all the questions you never think of in life." ~ 1981
~ Anne Bancroft (1931 - 2005) ~

~ Rest in Peace ~
Spencer (2/16)
Dave K. (6/6)
Mary Beth (6/15)
Morgan B. (6/15)
Bob M. (7/13)
Dan R. (8/7)
Big Mike (10/11)
Ev M. (10/19)
Nancy E. (11/8)
Brian D. (11/10)
Dee T. (12/12)
Ruth D.

♥♥ . . . and so goes out the year . . . ♥♥

Leta K. (1/21/2021)
John R. (1/26)
Trudy H. (7/2)
Steve B. (8/28)
Lisa R. (10/31)
Rosanne McC. (11/9)
Judy W. (12/28)

♥♥ . . . and so goes out the year . . . ♥♥

Tony DC. (1/14/2022)
Patti B. (1/22)
Evette M.Y. (3/13)
Michele T. (4/13)
Wanda C.
Jay M. (11/17)

♥♥ . . . and so goes out the year . . . ♥♥

Margaret S. (2/18/2023)
Julian
Joe U. (3/10)
Kostyantyn S. (3/19)
George McC. (8/17)

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

"Grieve not,
Nor speak of me with tears,
But laugh and talk of me
as if I were beside you there. . . .
I loved you so -- Twas heaven here with you!"

~ Isla Paschal Richardson ~

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

"Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion."
~ Dylan Thomas ~

Brother Sun Sister Moon

Good Morning Sun!

A Diamond of a Morning

Morning Song

A diamond of a morning
Waked me an hour too soon;
Dawn had taken in the stars
And left the faint white moon.

O white moon, you are lonely,
It is the same with me,
But we have the world to roam over,
Only the lonely are free.
Good Night Moon!

Where Moonlight Burned

Moonlight

It will not hurt me when I am old,
A running tide where moonlight burned
Will not sting me like silver snakes;
The years will make me sad and cold,
It is the happy heart that breaks.

The heart asks more than life can give,
When that is learned, then all is learned;
The waves break fold on jewelled fold,
But beauty itself is fugitive,
It will not hurt me when I am old.

It Takes A Village!

I Saw A Planet Shine

Dusk

I saw above a sea of hills
A solitary planet shine,
And there was no one, near or far,
To keep the world from being mine.”

~~ All Three Poems by Sara Teasdale (1884 - 1933) ~~

Prodigal

The Return of Prodigal Son ~ 2009
by Iszchan Nazarian (b. 1946)

Such a great, beseeching visual of this parable!

*************

These paintings and more
on my current post:
"Running to Meet You"

@The Fortnightly Kitti Carriker
A literary blog of connection & coincidence;
custom & ceremony

*************

A tender, more conventional rendition:

The Prodigal's Return ~ 1920s
by Ambrose Dudley (1867 - 1951)

*************

Additional New Testament thoughts
for the Easter Season:

" . . . for force is not of God."

from the Epistle to Diognetus (ca. 130 - 150 AD)
translated by F. Bland Tucker, 1895 - 1984

*************

"There is not a single incident in which Jesus or His Apostles
ever murdered, banished, burned, or imprisoned anyone."

from The Alphabet Versus the Goddess:
The Conflict Between Word and Image
by Leonard Shlain, 1937 – 2009
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See Previous Conversation

Eggs-xactly!

For this year's Easter eggs,
Sam decided to go with red, white & blue,
in honor of the Philadelphia 76ers!
Trust the Process!

The Definitive History of 'Trust the Process'

And for Easter Monday: Happy Dyngus Day!
Time to eat up all the hard - boiled eggs!

The Rites of Spring, aka L'Aurora
by Salvador Dalì, 1904-1989

Silver Owl & Pussycat

"The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat . . ."

~ Edward Lear ~

Thanks to Nancy & Tina for this silver pair!
If you're searching for a little literary levity on April Fools Day, check out these writers who see a whimsical humor in the passing seasons and merging months:

1. Nonsense poetry by Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)

2. Absurdist drama by Eugène Ionesco (1909 – 1994)

"February instead of February;
April-May instead of April-May"
#3. Spare verse by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

" Dear March . . . That April"

. . . "A little Madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King..."

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So, have a little fun
on April Fools Day!

Thanks Gene & Gerry!

Thanks Boo!
"That Aprille with his shoures soote"

Thanks to my friend Ellen
for sharing this one!