I Know the Feeling

The Lonely Shoe Lying on the Road

by Muriel Spark

All the Poems of Muriel Spark) --

One sad shoe that someone has probably flung
out of a car or truck. Why only one?

This happens on an average one year
in four. But always throughout my 
life, my travels, I see it like 
a memorandum. Something I have 
forgotten to remember,

            that there are always 
mysteries in life. That shoes
do not always go in pairs, any more
than we do. That one fits;
the other, not. That children can 
thoughtlessly and in a merry fashion
chuck out someone's shoe, split up
someone's life.

            But usually that shoe that I 
see is a man's, old, worn, the sole
parted from the upper.
Then why did the owner keep the other,
keep it to himself? Was he
afraid (as I so often am with 
inanimate objects) to hurt it's feelings?
That one shoe in the road invokes 
my awe and my sad pity. 

"The Lonely Shoe Lying on the Road" by Muriel Spark, from All The Poems of Muriel Spark. © New Directions, 2004. 

Wherever you are is called Here

Lost 
 
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
 
~ David Wagoner ~

Night Owl

Raccoon crosses road

7 am tail dragging

why out so late, you?

Morning Run

Just round and orange

early orb shines with few hints

of last nights tempest.

Attachment v. Love

We confuse attachment with love. Attachment is concerned with my needs, my happiness, while love is an unselfish attitude, concerned with the needs and happiness of others.... A relationship free of unrealistic grasping is free of disappointment, conflict, jealousy, and other problems, and is fertile ground for the growth of love and wisdom. - Kathleen McDonald, "How to Meditate"

For Snoopy

Thunder bursts on land.

Neighbors Japanese lanterns

dancing "nevermind".

Cool Poem for Today

Farewell to Teaching

by George Johnston

The Essential George Johnston) --

Knowing what I now know
would I have consented
to be born? Next question.
When it comes time to go
will I go forlorn or
contented? Ask again.
Anything in between
should be easier. O
K, what made up my mind
to come to Carleton? Work.
My kind of work was not
easy to come by, I
came by it at Carleton;
it was simple as that
and lucky, plain lucky.
I cannot account for luck
but I can be grateful.
What was my kind of work?
Presumably teaching,
whatever that may be.
Teaching is a kind of
learning, much like loving,
mutual goings-on,
both doing each to each;
mutual forbearance;
life itself, you might say.
Whatever teaching is
did I enjoy it? Yes.
Am I glad to leave it?
Even of life itself
enough is enough. Good-
bye Dow's Lake, goodbye Tower,
essays, papers, exams,
you I can bear to leave.
Bur how shall I improve
the swiftly-dimming hour?
I shall deteriorate
amid bucolic dreams
and gather in my fate;
there's lots worse ways than that.

Goodbye good friends. Alas,
some goodbyes are like death;
they bring the heart to earth
and teach it how to die.
Earth, here we come again,
we're going our to grass.
Think of us now and then,
we'll think of you. Goodbye. 

For Kit

Dreaming of a BLT.

Next things next

Second post new blog

Overwhelmed and wondering 

Not all surprised.

First Timer

Bare foot first blog from Carol's easy comfy chair.