Perfect Poem

With my latest cycle of work-sleep-work-sleep-work, this Maya Stein poem really "speaks" to me! I hope you'll feel the same!

always, at the end of every day

It comes to this: the fall to bed. Despite Herculean hopes to repair
the broken furniture, to birth works of unassailable beauty,
despite a heart with its tongue out, panting for love, or the hawk stare
we train on our most extravagant intentions. Despite the toothy
rigor of the bad habits we can’t break, and the soul-trials of discipline
which repeatedly establish our guilt. Despite these wayward exiles from joy,
we fall to a set of pillows, cotton sheets, a mattress, and make a cocoon
of our bodies. We won’t admit it, but we’re designed for rest, too, a buoy
to save us from the rough seas we insist on weathering. Look how little
it takes for that kind of surrender. How easy we can be, how gentle.

VARIATION ON THE WORD SLEEP

I would like to watch you sleeping,


which may not happen.


I would like to watch you,


sleeping. I would like to sleep


with you, to enter


your sleep as its smooth dark wave


slides over my head


~~~~~~~





and walk with you through that lucent


wavering forest of bluegreen leaves


with its watery sun & three moons


towards the cave where you must descend,


towards your worst fear


~~~~~~~~





I would like to give you the silver


branch, the small white flower, the one


word that will protect you


from the grief at the center


of your dream, from the grief


at the center I would like to follow


you up the long stairway


again & become


the boat that would row you back


carefully, a flame


in two cupped hands


to where your body lies


beside me, and as you enter


it as easily as breathing in


~~~~~~~~





I would like to be the air


that inhabits you for a moment


only. I would like to be that unnoticed


& that necessary.

~~ Margaret Atwood



She's a world renowned author, but, I expect, even better at poetry. If you dig around, you'll find more.

Some Days Are Too Long

It's been one of those running around weeks. Lots of things doing, helping Andrea get ready for a February move to Louisville, including two long-weekend trips she took last week and this weekend to find a townhouse with Christian.

Saw

• "Avatar" (IMAX 3D); thoughts: simply awe-inspiring,
• "It's Complicated"; thoughts: Charming and a perfect girlfriend movie, and
• "The Young Victoria"; thoughts: a visual treat, with a couple of really great performances.

I haven't been to the movies for quite some time. It was great!

Worked long hours all week.

Yesterday, though, I experienced poor work management planning. Started out the day with my two hour volunteer shift at the Moffitt Cancer Center Surgical Waiting Room. Very busy. Very rewarding. Into the office for 8 hours, running between two of our three sites in Tampa, both to deal with employee issues. Then I had my first 3 hour shift as a tax preparer at Liberty. Luckily, I only sat in on one return, since I was tired and needed a good review of system/procedures without having to have a return myself. The owners there are extraordinary; it was wonderful and rewarding to see the client, a young military specialist who spent 2/3 of the year in Iraq... with his wife and 3 children, and to see them get a 5 figure tax refund. One of the little known benefits the military gets is that they don't have to pay Federal Income Tax on combat pay. But, having left home at 5:15 a.m. and not getting back from work until 9:55 p.m. was a little too much for this senior bod to handle.

So I am very tired today and still can't believe I slept until 9. I'm doing a hang at home in robe day. But I do have a few errands to run, so clothes will be a necessity.

Let me take this opportunity to give a shout-out to some heroes of the week for me:

Let's hear it for the

82nd Airborne!

What a wonderful, brave group of young men doing so much good for the people of Haiti.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2010/0121/At-Haiti-golf-course-82nd-Airborne-runs-a-refugee-camp