Threescore and Ten Again*

Magnolia Blossoms & Panama Bag in Washington, DC,
Spring Break 2004
Thanks to my friend Elizabeth who shared with me her file of musical settings for a variety of poems, primarily 19th and 20th Century, and primarily about trees (e.g., "The Three Trees") -- a musical and literary theme so perfect for April, with all the flowering trees bursting forth, and Earth Day and Arbor Day soon approaching.

I particularly enjoyed selections by Emily Dickinson / Aaron Copeland, Robert Frost / Randall Thompson, and "Loveliest of Trees" by A. E. Houseman / John Duke.

More good news about this poem -- you can find these blossoms not only on the "woodland ride" but also along the city streets; not only when twenty years won't come again and you're left with a mere fifty or so springs, but also when the numbers are reversed. So, don't despair! The above photo, for example, was taken twelve springs ago! So many blooms we've seen since then!

Even if "of your threescore years and ten, fifty (or sixty!) will not come again," that still leaves you with ten or twenty springs (if you're lucky -- even more if you're luckier!) to go about the woodlands or the urban gardens and "see the cherry hung with snow."

In our case, that "snow" could be a metaphor for cherry blossoms, or it could be the real thing -- yes, even in April (right, Cate?!). Either way, get out and enjoy that walk . . . time's a - wastin'!

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

A. E. Houseman (1859 - 1936)

Climbing the "Snowy" Hills of Seattle

* See also last week's post:
Threescore and Ten
"The days of our years are threescore years and ten;
and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years,
yet is their strength labour and sorrow;
for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."
~ Psalm 90:10 (KJV) ~

Reality Check: "ALL of us will still die."

A Pie For Your Thoughts

Thanks someecards! ~ So many funny choices!
Pie Poem #16

"...the God who shows me unfailing love." Ps. 59:17

Before the hello I was almost without yearning,
yearning for what never was.
Leaving family, so no family, leaving husband, so no
husband, leaving babies, so no babies.

I watch my Gaura plant, pink flowers on long green stems.
two others killed in these harsh winters but this one,
oh this one is taller then I am, strong, swaying, blooming on and on,
It ignored the ninety-eight inches of
snow this year. With mercy,
I kill the aphids on it by
squeezing them to death.

And you,
You have all those things.
It's not for me to ask what do you cherish.
because I already know family and time.
Now I yearn. My Buddha says no yearning.

I look at old poems and I see
drunken illusion more then once.
Excused myself for love.
drop everything love
know nothing love
The Buddha within is not the
Laughing Buddha
sitting in my kitchen window,
watching and waiting for my blueberry pie, or
joy, my peace, my yearning less ness.

The Buddha in the living room says
yearn no more. Is there a weeping Buddha?
No. Effexior stopped the Buddha from any weeping.
He says make a pie to give away.
Give.
Yearning will go.

~ Cate DeLong

Gaura: "Siskiyou Pink"

Further Thoughts From Cate's Nature JournalOut this morning looking at my garden and my neighbor informed me that the bunnies have been eating geranium leaves. We have more bunnies this year because the red tailed hawk moved. He was huge and sometimes when I spotted him watching me (really watching something else) and I got a close up I was amazed of his innate power and how beautiful he was. Saw a Golden Eagle three years ago here also on his way to CVNP (Cuyahoga Valley National Park). That blew me away. There are so many places around here to see wildlife, woods, waterfalls. I can walk to a huge gorge forest with rock caves edging the Cuyahoga River. I can walk to one of the best local yarn stores in the country. I can walk to the donut shop (never have, really) or the library or the river center or the Natatorium and swim. It's pretty perfect: Perfectville. Only us city kids would call it that. And you know how I love the snow.

Grilled corn from my past life, yes, but I've forgotten about it. I don't grill just for me but I think of the Thermidor huge grill we had in my last kitchen. A flick of the grill, a flick of that big fan and grill city. We had a grill vent on the side of the house that was restaurant size. Make grilled corn chowder next time, but use half and half, don't skimp.

Just now I put together a set of storage shelves on wheels that I've been staring at for weeks getting ready to do it. Not at all as hard as I thought it would be --what is? Now finished, and found out why a Philips screwdriver tip is magnetized. Cool. I bought a set of screw drivers last year because I was tired of not having the correct driver.

Back to work. No pie. Making a peach crisp.

P.S.
"We must have a pie.
Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie."
~ David Mamet ~

See also
"Kiss Pie!" & "Do I Dare To Eat A Peach?"

Nightfall: Bronze Goddess

Nightfall: Half Life
Bronze Sculpture by Richard MacDonald
Contemporary figurative artist (b 1946)
We grow accustomed to the Dark -
When light is put away -
As when the Neighbor holds the Lamp
To witness her Goodbye -

A Moment - We uncertain step
For newness of the night -
Then - fit our Vision to the Dark -
And meet the Road - erect -

And so of larger - Darknesses -
Those Evenings of the Brain -
When not a Moon disclose a sign -
Or Star - come out - within -

The Bravest - grope a little -
And sometimes hit a Tree
Directly in the Forehead -
But as they learn to see -

Either the Darkness alters -
Or something in the sight
Adjusts itself to Midnight -
And Life steps almost straight.

Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)
Reclusive, prolific American poet

Megan and I, posing with our favorites

I've been lucky enough to see this beautiful moon goddess twice recently, once with my friend Megan at the Dawson Cole Gallery in Laguna Beach (thanks Kayla Federline) and again at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with my husband Gerry. See how she is standing on the crescent moon? And the way she balances both the full moon and the dark moon in her two hands?

I'm reminded of one of my favorite typos ever -- the time when I accidentally began a note to my dear friend and pen pal Cate with "He Cate" instead of "Hey Cate." But on second thought, I decided that, instead of an error, it must have been a Freudian slip in reference to "Hecate, the Goddess of the Dark of the Moon".

Goodbye Sandal Weather

OUR SUMMER TEVAS
My friend Cate said: "Gorgeous, gorgeous! Your dusty rose is soooo nice and I love Karen's blue plus both of your matching toenail polish! Ah poor Ben - he's just a guy. Tell him from me he has nice feet." Funny Cate! If you follow those rules about no white after Labor Day, and so forth, then I guess it's good-bye to sandals for awhile. Sad!

Cate has some amazing sandals, and she also teaches workshops in Lace & Cable Chart Reading: "Learn how to translate charts into pattern writing and create a chart using knitters' graph charting paper. We’ll cover all the terminology, symbols and directions – what’s the 'do nothing' stitch? Do I read left to right, or right to left?" See? It really is another language! As a non-knitter, I'd be lost in translation, but maybe I could learn.

If you would like to see lots of beautiful natural fibers, design concepts, and finished products, take a look at Cate's cool knitting & nature blog:
yarnoverfalls.blogspot.com

"Knit your hearts
with an unslipping knot."

-- Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra

CATE'S CAT MIMI (LITTLE SISTER TO TWYLA)

BFF: MIMI & BEAUBEAU

MY CAT BEAUMONT (LITTLE SISTER TO PINE)