Cosmic Egg (Carrie Elkin)

When last we left our SheRa, we were going to Sunday brunch at Nancy's, which of course was absolutely lovely.  By that time, we were a Party o' 15 or so, much more intimate such that we could all engage in one conversation, vs. many little side-talks.  Nice.  One topic of the day was reconciliations, and we heard about one in progress, and another that had happened years ago, at Eric's urging, actually.  The ripple effect continues.

When we left, some people headed to the airport, and others on the road home, and Chico and I headed back to the condo and, as promised, Linda with us.  She and I went out to dinner at E's favorite restaurant (which I discovered after I read Crying in H Mart), and we both had veggie bibimbap, which Linda very much enjoyed, and then we went to bed early.

Monday was very low-key, and we spent many hours on the balcony, talking and crying, and enjoying the cooler-than-usual temps.  We had the great pleasure of picking Colin up from Kindergarten about 2:45, whereupon he ran around and played soccer with his usual group of friends, shaking their sillies out for another hour, then segueing to Sarah's.

The plan that evening was to recreate our Joni Jam experience at The Gorge in Washington State, and the first order of business was making Wachos (which we had the night of the concert) for dinner.  They were even better the second time around!  I had thought we'd have to piece together individual YouTube videos, figuring out the chronology but darned if we didn't find the full concert, start-to-finish and, because Sarah was tired, we watched about 1/3 of it there and the remainder when we got back to my place.  So very amazing to see it again.  Yep, we were "a fallen constellation" indeed... 🌠

Tuesday found us with a To Do List, the main one being to head to the Hope Garden, whereupon we would plant some Blood Lily bulbs that Linda had brought from her yard, in Eric's memory.  We found the perfect spot in the Perennial Garden, and I will provide an unassuming plaque or marker to designate the spot as sacred ground.

Then on to Parlour Vegan (I remembered I still had a giftcard from Nancy for my August birthday!), and we purchased a variety of empanadas, a "pepperoni" pesto pasta salad for dinner, and a few cupcakes (yum to them all... 😋)

Before indulging, though, Linda helped me transplant all the greenery in what I *thought* was an artificial arrangement basket into window boxes and pots for my catwalk and balcony.  We also planted the remaining blood lily bulbs into pots for me and Chico... Sarah... and Rob. 

Linda left for airport at 5 this morning, and Chico and I walked her downstairs to her car.  We all cried.  Today has been Stay-In-My-Nightgown-All-Day Day.  Well-deserved.  Sad.  Tired.  

P.S.  As I stated above, I was on the balcony for hours Monday morning, I went inside for a few minutes and, when I came back outside, what song do you think was playing on the soundsystem down by the pool?  Three Little Birds... 🐦🐦🐦 I hollered for Linda to come out and listen, to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.  Yet another visitation.  Hi, E... 💖

SONG:  Cosmic Egg by Carrie Elkin

BOOK:  One Thousand Days and One Cup of Tea: A Clinical Psychologist's Experience of Grief by Vanessa Moore

POEM:  A Bowl of Hydrangeas by James Crews

I stand at the sun-struck window

for several minutes longer than I wish,

until I see how the hydrangeas seem

to absorb the light and give it back,

even when cut from the living plant

on which they first came into bloom.

We are like this too in our grief—

separated from loved ones, stunned

and confused, yet glowing with some

new kinship to all things, including

this cluster of pink and white flowers

I reach out and touch, rubbing petals

between my fingers to remember

I have a body, I am still so alive.

QUOTE(S):  ““If happiness is a skill, then sadness is, too. Perhaps through all those years at school, or perhaps through other terrors, we are taught to ignore sadness, to stuff it down into our satchels and pretend it isn’t there. As adults, we often have to learn to hear the clarity of its call. That is wintering. It is the active acceptance of sadness. It is the practice of allowing ourselves to feel it as a need. It is the courage to stare down the worst parts of our experience and to commit to healing them the best we can. Wintering is a moment of intuition, our true needs felt keenly as a knife.” ~ Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

“We have a tendency to think in terms of doing and not in terms of being. We think that when we are not doing anything, we are wasting our time. But that is not true. Our time is first of all for us to be. To be what? To be alive, to be peaceful, to be joyful, to be loving. And that is what the world needs most.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Cosmic Egg (Carrie Elkin)

Hey, Peeps!  I hope all is well.  If you have the time/energy/inclination, pop in below and offer up a comment (25-words-or-less or a lengthy treatise) on how you are doing... 💞

It's been quiet, here on the blog and in my real life... and I realized I not only don't mind, but I am actually loving it.  I shared a meme with someone the other day that said:  "People who say 'go big or go home' seriously underestimate my willingness to go home.  Like, it's literally my only goal."  Or, in my case, it's *stay* home.  The pandemic was the catalyst for me to channel my inner hermit, and I am feeling no desire to emerge from my cocoon, even now that it's safe to do so.  I have never feared alone time; rather, I actually relish it, probably going back to the days of when the children were small, my husband was traveling, I read the last bedtime story, shared the last sips of water, tucked everyone in, and then... silence.  Aaahhh!

I'm still ordering my groceries via Amazon (Whole Foods) and Instacart (Sprouts and Costco; continuing to boycott Publix!), Target is still the only store I have physically stepped foot in, still no live music opportunities (other than Dave's house concert a month or so ago).  I'm still scheduling catch-up phone calls once or twice a week with various friends (although this last week got away from me).  Inspired by the article on The Value of Letter Writing (below), I will toe-dip back into the world of actual penned correspondence soon... 😍

I did venture forth into the medical world last week to have a routine colonoscopy (it had been 11 years since my last one); there were not only *no* polyps, but my colon was declared "spic 'n span", and she said she'd see me in ten years (thankyoujesus).

I am not making as much progress as I'd like on my To Do (Ta Dah!) List, but I have been reading so many wonderful books (Brandi Carlile's memoir!), viewing some great British crime drama (thanks, Judi!), and cooking up so many delish dishes (the best curry I've ever put in my mouth!).

I was sad to hear that singer, songwriter, slide guitarist Ellen McIlwaine died a few weeks ago.  I discovered her in college (early-70s) and, in addition to her original work, was completely enamored with her cover of Blind Faith’s “Can’t Find My Way Home”.  Wow!

The pandemic has changed me in many ways and, for the record, I like "The New Me":  speaking up/pushing back more... a lower tolerance for things/people that don't bring me joy... feeling a greater need to live in/embrace the moment (probably spurred by the tragic collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside)... trusting my intuition of self-worth and self-confidence... the continued pursuit of brain challenges (NYT mini-crossword puzzle and Spelling Bee, Jeopardy, reading like a motherf*cker)... taking much better care of myself physically, emotionally, and spiritually... all adding up to more awareness/mindfulness in every aspect of my life.

N(ow)R(eading):  A long-distance friend and I began our own Party-of-Two book club a few months ago, taking turns choosing monthly selections.  My pick for July/our third is The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, which was recently declared the 2021 Pulitzer Prize Winner in Fiction.

It is indeed Feel Good Friday and, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day/weekend/week.  Enjoy! 

~ 50 Reasons to Love Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’:  The singer-songwriter questioned everything on her fourth album. Twenty-five musicians speak about the LP’s enduring power on its 50th anniversary.

~ LeVar Burton’s Quest to Succeed Alex Trebek:  If the right person catches the right project at the right time, the culture will always hold that person close. Do it three times, as LeVar Burton has done, and our relationship becomes something even deeper. 

~ If You Give a Mom a Cookie:  If you give a mom a cookie, she’ll ask whether you remembered to turn the oven off after you baked it.

~ Oliver Burkeman's last column: the eight secrets to a (fairly) fulfilled life:  After more than a decade of writing life-changing advice, I know when to move on. Here’s what else I learned


~ The Value of Letter Writing:  There are so many different kinds of letters that I’ve written and received over the years. I remember running to the mailbox as a child and as a teenager, glancing quickly through the stack to find my name, immediately turning the envelope to identify the sender—a girlfriend, boyfriend, crush, or my twelve-years-older brother who often lived elsewhere—and then running to a quiet place where I could read and re-read my letter in private. 

SONG:  Cosmic Egg by Carrie Elkin (Cosmic Egg symbolism, dreamwork, and meanings)

BOOK:  Hatching the Cosmic Egg by Michael J Dorer, Andrew Kutt (Composer), Beth Wilson (Illustrator)

POEM:  Born. Living. Will. Die. by Camonghne Felix

          for my favorite auntie, Jeanette

Sometimes I think I’m never going to write a poem again

and then there’s a full moon.

I miss being in love but I miss

myself most when I’m gone.

In the salty wet air of my ancestry

my auntie peels a mango with her teeth

and I’m no longer

writing political poems; because there are

mangoes and my favorite memory is still alive.

I’m digging for meaning but haunted by purpose

and it’s an insufficient approach.

What’s the margin of loss on words not spent today?

I’m getting older. I’m buying smaller images to travel light.

I wake up, I light up, I tidy, and it’s all over now.

  

[Camonghne Felix:  “This poem is an ode to my auntie, who is the freest person I know. In her garden in Antigua, she grows mangoes, which represent the sweetness of life and the serenity of self-sufficiency.”]

QUOTE:  "If life's journey be endless, where is its goal? The answer is, it is everywhere. We are in a palace which has no end, but which we have reached. By exploring it and extending our relationship with it we are ever making it more and more our own. The infant is born in the same universe where lives the adult of ripe mind. But its position is not like a schoolboy who has yet to learn his alphabet, finding himself in a college class. The infant has it own joy of life because the world is not a mere road, but a home, of which it will have more and more as it grows up in wisdom. With our road that gain is at every step, for it is the road and the home in one; it leads us on yet gives us shelter." ~ Rabindranath Tagore

N***** Lover (Grant Peeples)

[thanks to MegHS for always keeping me apprised of Mrs. Mallard and family's (Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack and Quack) connection to the political climate... 💗 ]


I have no doubt you all were devastated... devastated, I tell you... that I did not offer up my usual Wednesday post yesterday...  ;-)  "Where is she?  Is she okay?  What else is going on to cause this blip in her like-clockwork M-W-F blog schedule?!?"  Ha ha ha ha ha!  I actually already had something planned, and ready on Tuesday afternoon to hit Publish on Wednesday morning, when Tuesday night found me logged into Grant Peeples' (a gravel-voiced, singer-songwriter/poet/provocateur in the best possible way, who I was lucky to present four times at our UU church Labyrinth Cafe concert series) Clay Tablets, a monthly online streaming show:  "art, music, poetry, guests, prose, viewer mail, video, photography, philosophy"...  :-)

The guest interview was with Carrie Elkin (via Grant's cell phone); May was Steve Poltz.  It was a wonderful hour of cheer as well as thoughtfulness...  and I loved the chat aspect, with many music-loving friends in attendance:  BrianW, RobbyG, BeckyA, Sparky, LouiseB, AmiliaS, even Carrie's mom Donna.  I was so inspired by Grant's song and shared poem (below) that I completely recalibrated my offering, which took a bit more time and effort.  Also invited Nancy on a short road trip for a patio visit with Reba, bringing her romaine and raisin bread (hmmm, title for a song or memoir?).  Then stopped at Parlour Vegan on my way home to pick up a previously-placed order of tamales, empanadas... and guava pastellitos for my husband.  Home by 3 p.m.  Out of steam, tired, done.  Leftover Sicilian Supper for dinner, finished my book (Shrill by Lindy West), then capped off the evening with two episodes of The Durrells in Corfu.  I've gotten very attached to this family and their various escapades of life on a Greek Island, and will be sad when I get to the end of Season 4... 😢

And that's why I was a day late in posting!


SONG: Nigger Lover by Grant Peeples (lyrics below)

“You're a nigger lover and I don't like your looks
Just you wait till the school bell rings
I'm gonna whip your little nigger loving ass
Can't wait to smash your stupid face in
I hate your guts, nigger lover”

Yea, that's what they called me
on the playground at school. But that was a lotta
years ago, and those kids have all grown up and
they don't use those words any more
– hardly
No, these days they use other words
They say other things, thing like

“You're a liberal socialist, a Communist activist
And you're gonna see in the next election
We're gonna snatch our country back for real Americans
We'll be proud again, stand tall again
Gonna put an end to all you bleeding heart liberals”

Yea, that's what they say NOW days
That's what you hear
But they haven't changed, and I know they still mean:

“You're a nigger lover and I don't like your look
Just you wait till the school bell rings
I'm gonna whip your little nigger loving ass
Can't wait to smash your stupid face in
I hate your guts, nigger lover”

I hate your guts...”

~ words and music, copyright Grant Peeples - LeftNeck Music - SESAC

BOOK:  How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi

POEM:  by Haroon Rashid

We fell asleep in one world, and woke up in another.
Suddenly Disney is out of magic,
Paris is no longer romantic,
New York doesn’t stand up anymore,
the Chinese wall is no longer a fortress, and Mecca is empty.
Hugs & kisses suddenly become weapons, and not visiting parents friends
becomes an act of love.
Suddenly you realise that power, beauty & money are worthless, and can’t
get you the oxygen you’re fighting for.
The world continues its life and it is beautiful. It only puts humans in
cages. I think it’s sending us a message:
“You are not necessary. The air, earth, water and sky without you are fine.
When you come back, remember that you are my guests. Not my masters."

QUOTE:  “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” ~ James Baldwin

Embroidery Stars (Carrie Elkin)

Well, the best part of Feel Good Friday (today!) is that the condo complex pools reopened this past Monday, and I enjoyed it thoroughly yesterday afternoon, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m., swimming/exercising in the water, sunning, reading.  I was the only one down there for the first hour, then my husband joined me, then another couple came, and sat at the opposite end of the patio. It had been a month, and I will never take the privilege for granted again.  Delightful!  Limitations (completely understood) are:

Pool decks and pools are to be used only by Hollybrook residents. The number of people allowed in the pool at one time must be 50 percent of normal capacity, which comes to 12 residents allowed on the pool deck at any time; only 6 residents in the swimming pool at any time. Everyone at the pools, unless they are residents of the same household, must follow the CDC's 6-foot social distancing requirement. 

Swimming sessions at each pool are: 
9 a.m. - noon
1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
5 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Every hour in between will be used to sanitize pool furniture and equipment.


So, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten your day/weekend/week.  Enjoy your weekend!  According to my Weatherbug app, we are in for seven straight days of rain, starting Saturday, so I will head down to the pool again later today...  :-)


~ Another livestreamed concert with Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin:  Saturday (tomorrow!), May 9th at 2 p.m. CDT (that's 8 p.m. in the UK). Mark your calendars and come join in the festivities. The first one we did was a really lovely gathering of our community, and it felt really good to "be" with everyone in this way. Let's do it again!


~ View From My Window:  Facebook group offers 'window views' for millions during COVID-19.  While a global pandemic forces most of us to stay at home, the Facebook group View from My Window allows millions of its members to virtually travel the world. (SusanP sent the link to NancyW, who told me about it.  Thanks, friends!)


~ Mattel launches action figure line to honor and support coronavirus frontline workers:  Toy maker Mattel is “playing it forward” to coronavirus frontline workers with a new line of action figures and Little People Community Champions.  The #ThankYouHeroes collection features 16 action figures including nurses, doctors, emergency medical technicians and delivery drivers, the release said. The five-piece Little People set includes a nurse, doctor, EMT, delivery driver and grocery store worker.


~ Special occasion in quarantine? This party truck has a ‘drive-by happiness experience’:  Zombie Ice has created “A Drive By Bday Experience.”  “Bummed because your plans were put on hold by the lockdown!?” reads the ad on its Facebook page. “We can bring back a bit of joy to your day and make it safe for everyone!”  The $45 experience includes six shaved ices, a video with pictures clients send of the child; festive snow shooting from the professionally sanitized truck for the partygoers to play in. There’s even a boomerang photo booth. Touch-free, of course.


~ COVID-19 forces 5 South Florida LGBTQ pride festivals to create a ‘Virtual Pride’ event:  In 2019, hundreds of thousands of celebrants packed five LGBTQ pride celebrations from Lake Worth Beach to Calle Ocho.  This year, though, the coronavirus struck just before South Florida’s pride season got underway — forcing cancellation or postponement of four major festivals, including the region’s two biggest in Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale.  In a moment of camaraderie that has surprised the organizers themselves of the five nonprofit pride festivals, they have formed a collective that will present an online “Virtual Pride” festival Saturday and Sunday. 



SONG:  Embroidery Stars by Carrie Elkin

BOOK:  Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Ola Rosling

POEM:  Around Us by Marvin Bell

We need some pines to assuage the darkness
when it blankets the mind,
we need a silvery stream that banks as smoothly
as a plane's wing, and a worn bed of
needles to pad the rumble that fills the mind,
and a blur or two of a wild thing
that sees and is not seen. We need these things
between appointments, after work,
and, if we keep them, then someone someday
lying down after a walk
and supper, with the fire hole wet down,
the whole night sky set a particular
time, without numbers or hours, will cause
a little sound of thanks--a zipper or a snap--
to close round the moment and the thought
of whatever good we did.

QUOTE:  "To live is so startling, it leaves little time for anything else." ~ Emily Dickinson

New Mexico (Carrie Elkin)

[ I ordered a Carrie Elkin T-shirt during her and Danny Schmidt's live Facebook concert Saturday before last.  It arrived only a week later, wrapped in this beautiful painting.  Thanks times a bazillion, Maizy Rae...  💚 ]

It's Feel Good Friday.  Zippity!  Five items below of beauty, interest, and humor.  As Carrie sings in the blog title song, "I can hear the heartbeat in everything around me".  I hope you can, too...  :-)


~ One Bright Thing:  Need a little lift? Amid the bleakness, 18 New York Times writers shared moments that lightened their mood (be sure to scroll past the jump to read them all.)

~ QuaranToons:  Broadway.com illustrator Tug Rice has been thinking up what our favorite Broadway characters are doing while theaters are closed and they're at home social distancing.

~ Coconut Macaroons, Two Easy Ways:  I am not a baker, so I am shouting this recipe from the virtual rooftops.  (I used JustEgg to veganize it, and added cinnamon and a splash of vanilla.  Easy-peasy, and so yum!)

~ ElizaLive!  Songs of Comfort and Consolation, Friday April 17th, live from Eliza's Living Room via Facebook @ 5:30 pm Central.  
From Eliza:  Dear Friends, it has been disappointing to not be able to tour my new record  “2020”  when it was designed to motivate and inspire during a critical election year. But the Coronavirus puts things in a whole other perspective. And while I remain focused on making sure we can and will be able to vote come November, I also want to perform music for my friends as a way of reaching out and staying connected in a more communal way. We need to stay sane, grounded and hopeful, aware of each other and our vulnerabilities as well as our strengths... Someday we will gather in person again and we will speak of this time in our lives as the challenging and deepening process it has been. I look forward to that with all my heart. 

~ Help Luna Star Cafe Survive the Coronavirus
When Luna Star Cafe is closed there isn't any trade.
No one’s sitting at the bar, no music’s being made.
No one’s drinking any beer or ordering from ‘the board’.
No one’s tipping Monica who’s much loved and adored.
No one’s there with any cash, no one’s there at all,
Now Alexis’s cafe bank account is seriously small!
So send in your donations.  Help Luna Star Café!
If you live in another state, send something anyway!
Imagine you drank a beer or two and paid the cover charge.
 Imagine you ate a pasta dish served on that plate so large. 
It’s easy to thank Alexis with applause and words of praise  
Now let's thank her with with donations till the VIRUS goes away!


SONG:  New Mexico by Carrie Elkin

BOOK:  Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul by Melody Beattie

POEM:  Heart by Maggie Smith

A child of, say, six knows you’re not the shape
she’s learned to make by drawing half along a fold,
cutting, then opening. Where do you open?
Where do you carry your dead? There’s no locket
for that—hinged, hanging on a chain that greens
your throat. And the dead inside you, don’t you
hear them breathing? You must have a hole
they can press their gray lips to. If you open—
when you open—will we find them folded inside?
In what shape? I mean what cut shape is made
whole by opening? I mean besides the heart.

QUOTE:  "A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened." ~ Albert Camus

Kiss Me Now (Danny Schmidt)

Another musical PSA!  My history with Danny Schmidt is deep and wide.  Rather than recap, here is the link to multiple blog posts which describe how I was introduced to his music, presented him in two house concerts, showcased him a handful of times at my Labyrinth Cafe concert series, engaged in long and deep conversations, both in-person and via e-mail.  Of course, through Danny I fell in love with Carrie as well, equally talented and dear.  I was honored and grateful to be invited to their wedding in October 2014, and I joked that I "f*cked up their numbers" by actually attending (you know, those out-of-town friends and family who you never expect to really come).  Oh, what a celebration of JOY and LOVE!

Received the following e-newsletter from Danny a few days ago.  I love his, and Carrie's, music so much that I'm thinking seriously of restoring my deactivated Facebook account (well, only for the few hours or so the concert is happening...  :-)  Join me?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Y'all --

I don't need to tell you these are challenging and extraordinary times. I sincerely hope that you are each safe and healthy, and feeling well-supported emotionally. Carrie and I are doing our best to keep Maizy happy and engaged while on house arrest. It's a hard concept for a three year old . . . but good practice for future groundings.

We're also doing our best to reschedule our cancelled tours as quickly as possible, given the uncertain timetable of the return to normalcy. Meanwhile, we're using what free time we have to write new songs and remain productive.

Carrie and I are playing an online concert this Saturday, live from our living room. We're really disappointed that our springtime travels have all been curtailed . . . so this is our way of trying to connect with those of you who we'll miss . . . and our way of trying to stay musicially (and humanly) connected with the rest of our extended and isolated community.

Here's the details:

Saturday, April 4th 2020
Danny Schmidt + Carrie Elkin: The Sequestered Together Concert
Streaming on Facebook Live starting at 2:00pm CDT
(That's 8pm in the UK, and 9pm in Europe.)

You can watch from this link:
https://www.facebook.com/dannyschmidtmusic/live

We really hope to see you all online this Saturday. And we really REALLY hope that you are staying healthy and maintaining your stability through this ordeal. Many of you I know personally. Many of you I only know through our musical connection. But ANY of you, if you're feeling like you need an extra somebody to talk with right now, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'll do whatever I can to lend an ear and a hand to anyone in need.

All the best —
Danny

P.S.  The song I chose is written by Danny Schmidt, and was his onstage proposal to Carrie at South by Southwest.   The video was shot at the GreenHouse concert a couple days after Danny proposed to Carrie at their SXSW showcase in 2013.  It includes a funny telling of the story of how the proposal went down, and then a performance of the sweet song that Danny wrote for Carrie to ask her to marry him.  Enjoy this special moment!


SONG:  Kiss Me Now by Danny Schmidt

BOOK:  Daisy-Head Mayzie by Dr. Seuss

POEM:  To Jane: The Invitation by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Best and brightest, come away!
Fairer far than this fair Day,
Which, like thee to those in sorrow,
Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow
To the rough Year just awake
In its cradle on the brake.
The Brightest hour of unborn Spring,
Through the winter wandering,
Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn
To hoar February born.
Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth,
It kissed the forehead of the Earth,
And smiled upon the silent sea,
And bade the frozen streams be free,
And waked to music all their fountains,
And breathed upon the frozen mountains,
And like a prophetess of May
Strewed flowers upon the barren way,
Making the wintry world appear
Like one on whom thou smilest, dear.
Away, away, from men and towns,
To the wild wood and the downs—
To the silent wilderness
Where the soul need not repress
Its music lest it should not find
An echo in another’s mind.
While the touch of Nature’s art
Harmonizes heart to heart.
I leave this notice on my door
For each accustomed visitor:—
“I am gone into the fields
To take what this sweet hour yields;—
Reflection, you may come tomorrow,
Sit by the fireside with Sorrow.—
You with the unpaid bill, Despair,—
You, tiresome verse-reciter, Care,—
I will pay you in the grave,—
Death will listen to your stave.
Expectation too, be off!
Today is for itself enough;
Hope, in pity mock not Woe
With smiles, nor follow where I go;
Long having lived on thy sweet food,
At length I find one moment’s good
After long pain—with all your love,
This you never told me of.”

Radiant Sister of the Day,
Awake! arise! And come away!
To the wild woods and the plains,
And the pools where winter rains
Image all their roof of leaves,
Where the pine its garland weaves
Of sapless green, and ivy dun
Round stems that never kiss the sun:
Where the lawns and pastures be,
And the sandhills of the sea:—
Where the melting hoar-frost wets
The daisy-star that never sets,
And wind-flowers, and violets,
Which yet join not scent to hue,
Crown the pale year weak and new;
When the night is left behind
In the deep east, dun and blind,
And the blue noon is over us,
And the multitudinous
Billows murmur at our feet,
Where the earth and ocean meet,
And all things seem only one
In the universal sun.

QUOTE:  "And what is romance? Usually, a nice little tale where you have everything as you like it, where rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite your nose, and it's always daisy-time." ~ D. H. Lawrence