The flutter-song swells, a hundred robins’ voices needed to create the glowing sky feast—
watermelon, strawberries, peaches— the moon takes a delicate nibble before she hums herself to sleep,
the feathery melodies from before-time drift through the air, rose-tinted and sweet.
There’s a break in the January 6 Committee Hearings, so I’m posting this quickly. I wrote this on Tuesday for the solstice–it was a beautiful morning– and I shared it with @TopTweetTuesday. I’m sharing it now for dVerse Open Link Night.
A brush with green, Earth-spirits, forest soul beckons absorb the magic, it vanishes quickly as orange sherbet sky melts into the blue expanse
Early Morning Magic–she appeared and then disappeared
2. Lies bait the hook they swallow eagerly as they swim to shore, emerging with myopic eyes fins turned to fists, grasping at shadows.
3. Statement of the day, or afterthought? Dust off your father’s memory, what if you saw your parents as children? Love rekindled. Turn the page, again.
4. Dreams of motors and motion– helicopters, airplanes, buses, trains. Something insidious you fear, but wait there’s a twist–a cat purrs in your ear, a snore from the pillow beside you.
5. Light transported, prismed colors soar and sing, celestial harmonies, secrets we’re born knowing, but forget even stars die, I breathe their sparkle, hear their song.
As the crow flies
I generated another set of words, different from Jane’s set yesterday, and used them to write a cadralor.
After heat, storms, and humidity, this weekend we got some cool, dry, sunny weather. The January 6 Committee Hearings continue, and their revelations are even more awful than I thought they would be. However, nature has brought magic in the form of deer, eagles, and some beautiful days. We went to Auburn Road Winery for a pre-Father’s Day celebration. I baked my husband his favorite cookies for Father’s Day and gave him a pillow to replace one I ruined.
Merril’s Movie, Theater, TV Club: We watched Petite Maman, a new movie by French director Céline Sciamma. (Her highly acclaimed Portrait of a Lady on Fire has been in my queue for ages, so I will need to watch it soon.) There’s not much of a story, but it’s a sweet, tender film—just what I needed to see. The title is a clue. I really liked it.
We saw another strange version of The Cherry Orchard, this one called The Orchard. We saw the virtual version. I really loved Mikhail Baryshnikov as Chekhov and Firs. Madame Ranevskaya was also excellent. I liked the virtual opening and closing, and the acting was good, but if I didn’t know the story, I probably would have been lost. Was the robotic arm/camera symbolic? Were there allusions to the current invasion of Ukraine? Perhaps. Here’s one review.
We finished the current episodes of Stranger Things (two more episodes drop on July 1). We both have enjoyed this new season. We started the latest Star Trek, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. It’s a prequel to the original Star Trek, and it follows Capt. Pike and his crew, including intern Uhura.
Sometimes it takes an earthquake to turn the world upside down, other times, a chain of ragged men, wed to false nostalgia– the obedient true believers and the deranged crack the engines of progress, flatten tires, apply the brakes
till the cracks widen and inequality grows, it is simple arithmetic,
the slippery slope of beneficial deals, the ahistorical fiction fed to a leader and his brethren, unfulfilled dreams—
there is no utopia.
In the aftermath, the masks slip the enchantment vanishes, the prince is a cockeyed monster, not dashing, the wishes are merely that— the men are still ragged, still waiting, their countries shattered
I’m honored to have two poems included in this anthology edited by Gabriela Marie Milton and published by Ingrid Wilson, Experiments in Fiction. There will be a launch party tomorrow. Details here.
Witch: “Careful the tale you tell. That is the spell. Children will listen.” Finale, Into the Woods, Stephen Sondheim
Like beanstalks, lies sprout overnight rising high enough to support giants, as the world withers below
a field of moon-daisies grows, with seeds cast like spells to reflect light,
the glimmer-truth of stars, birdsong carried and bee-buzzed
child-seen before they learn. Careful, they listen.
A quadrille for dVerse. The prompt word is spell. My head is full of lies and stories. Some of the same . . . I watched the January 6 Committee hearings today—more revelations about the former president’s lies. We saw Into the Woods at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia on Saturday. Coincidentally. Bernadette Peters sang “Children Will Listen” last night at the Tony Awards in a segment honoring the late Stephen Sondheim.
The attempt was not furtive, not noiseless, it was abusive, shameless a deafening crash— we’re crashing. . .crashed
over the precipice, past nervous titters, and anxious alarms into the volcano,
we wait for a line, a beaming up and out. There—a bird an owl, her cry resonates—look–
each cloud indents the sky, like a paragraph on a page, now watch the blue more words float into view:
less mothering from a tiny red rose there is life and death and magic in the woods
Morning Rain
for if in rain, pale petals fall and time cries with tapping beats against the glass, stop, listen, hear the drumming, hear the violin sighs
of life aches– the raw is still there but pink-petaled spring whispers under a sweetened lemon sun,
failure, collapse, frightening– and boundless—once upon a time, the stars sang a secret. . . I wish.
June, Red Bank Battlefield
This is a poem created from the Random Words I generated yesterday and some of the Oracle’s words from Saturday. I’m getting this up early so I can do some work before the next round of January 6 Committee Hearings begin this morning at 10:00 AM Eastern Time.
We listened to the first televised hearing on Thursday night on the radio as we were driving home from a beautiful night with dear friends at William Heritage Winery, and then watched it on TV after we got home. It was horrifying and stunning to watch. It’s beyond doubt that the former president instigated an attempted insurrection. Unfortunately, it’s gone beyond him now and growing.
Merri’s Movie, TV, Theater Club: We finished the new season of the Danish political drama, Borgen, which was a lesson on how power corrupts. This season returned after nine years. It is an excellent series, which I highly recommend. We stated watching the new season of Stranger Things. It’s a lot of fun so far. Both shows are on Netflix. I didn’t watch either trailer because I don’t want to know anything in advance.
I get emails from Focus Features, and so I was able to see a free virtual screening of the new Downton Abbey movie, Downton Abbey: A New Era. It was a bit predictable, but it was Downton Abbey—well-acted, beautiful filmed—and if you like the show, you’ll enjoy the movie. I did.
On Saturday afternoon, we saw Into the Woods at the Arden Theatre in Philadelphia. We walked around in a light rain first. It was a very enjoyable production, the audience around three sides of a bare bones stage with an excellent orchestra raised behind them. It was a show of imagination and storytelling—no special costumes, just a few props like crowns, red cape, golden shoes, Rapunzel’s braid, etc. Several cast members played multiple roles, including playing Snowy White the Cow, the hen that laid golden eggs, and the Giants’ harp. The Baker’s vocals were the standout for me, but all the actors sang beautifully. We both enjoyed this production very much.
Washington Square Park, A rainy afternoon in JuneRoof Garden
Are phasers set to stun or kill? The world paused or extinguished. Servers have crashed, your light is off– Can you count on the stars?
Listen for them in the frantic fluff of fiddle-sky, as a voice sings in the forest, you want what she wants, the symphony of the universe.
What if black ship-winds pound through time, through sleep, through me— then part? What if the humming moon sails out over the sea? This is the interface,
the path of the sublime where the sky breathes blue soul-breaths and the earth murmurs with soft leaf rustle while rivers sigh as dawn blushes– the secret of harmony not gone.
My poem from the Oracle. I thought she was going to give me another cadralor because the images were all over the place, but when I came back to this after my walk, it all came together.
I am behind of reading posts and comments–just several busy days and a test assignment due. I will catch up. 😊
Peder Severin Krøyer, Summer Evening at Skagen. The Artist’s Wife and Dog by the Shore
Vanishing Point
In summer’s late twilight, violet waves tumble with mystery, the clouds are shapeshifters, now ships, now galloping horses dipping their heads to graze.
This is the place where wishes dangle and we are hooked– lungs for gills, legs for voice– no way to go back, promises polished like sea glass shatter on the rocks.
Five years. We still gaze at the horizon, still listen for his voice, don’t we, Boy? A tail wag of hope before we turn, leaving our footprints. Blink, and they’re gone, too.
A poem for my summer ekphrastic prompt on dVerse. I’ve posted several works of art to choose from. Join us!
Do the stars remember their songs before they vanish into black? Perhaps, not voiceless, they are infusions pulsing light through a dark heart,
Early Morning Sun over the Delaware River
a broken heart—again– scabs picked from patched veins the once aberrant and taboo ooze– but we detach, too tired to clear clouded eyes.
Instead, we strew hope and prayers like seeds cast into a field without thought or preparation, waiting for flowers to bloom, and turn their heads to the sun.
I think of stone soup—each adding. . .something, some celery perhaps? Would it satisfy? Hinder the hate? Like Mother Trees, could we connect, share and nourish?
Fresh Summer Produce–Cooking, Trying to Heal
But there’s another storm, the caliginous sky, a rolling dark sea encroaches, a fast and furious tide, a flash, and gone—a recess for the scent of petrichor and honeysuckle to play,
throwing a blanket over me, filling my senses, and I hold the moment close, perfect seconds pass—loved ones, sunshine, wine, and cats, the pre-dawn choir– Was that gunshot? A shiver down my spine.
Egrets/Heron –a bit of early morning magic chanced upon
Yet I celebrate the brilliant blush, the wild blue, the bird-voiced morning, and if I embrace the ghosts the laugh that travels through an unopened window— reflections on the glass, I know the future does not skirt the past.
A beautiful window on Pine Street, Philadelphia. Reflections, Past, Present, Future.
I generated a random word list yesterday, and I used some of the words in my musings today. I also used a couple stanzas that I cut from my Oracle poem on Saturday.
We had our second booster shots on Tuesday. Tuesday night I couldn’t sleep, and all-day Wednesday I felt tired, but not sleepy—just heavy and off. It suddenly lifted Wednesday night. We had severe weather alerts on Thursday, but we managed to get in a little bit over an hour at the first Vino and Vibes of the summer at William Heritage Winery. Saturday and Sunday were simply gorgeous, perfect days, as far as the weather. There was another mass shooting. This time in Philadelphia, on South Street, an area full of people enjoying a beautiful Saturday night. I know the area. But on Sunday, we went into the city to see a play at the Wilma Theater, Fairview.It’s a play that’s difficult to describe. It begins like a sitcom and turns into something else. As the director, James Ijames writes, it is “ a sitcom that trips on a wrinkle in the rug and tumbles into the uncanny, the sublime, and the truth. .. Jackie’s play asks us all to imagine together what it means to choose a different path. To practice empathy.”
We walked through Philadelphia’s Pride Celebration, and at Tria, we got great seats for a drum show.
Pride Celebration, Philadelphia–from our table at Tria Cafe. Love is Love Is Love.🌈
Just before 4 AM today I heard something—it sounded like gunshots. I didn’t imagine it because the sound woke my cat, too. (Not my husband.) People set off fire crackers, but at that time?
Merril’s TV Club: We watched the new season of Undone. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the first season. Time travel, mental illness—it’s totally unique. We started the new season of the Danish series Borgen, an excellent political drama. This is a return to the series after many years. The first woman prime minister is now the foreign secretary, and the plot concerns the discovery of huge amounts of oil in Greenland. Greenland is still under Danish control, so there is a conflict over climate and environmental concerns and the autonomy and prosperity of the people in Greenland.
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