spiritus mundi

Time for a new blog title. "a blog of my very own" was really a reaction to April's lack of posts. Who needs your blog...I have a blog of my very own. Now she's blogging again; this suits me better, too. In context:

The Second Coming
William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

bird of paradise

A world away from the rain of Seattle...

public service announcement

I've added a new link in my link list over there ====>

Check out Sandi's urban space blog. Her photos are quite stunning.

totem

wcw

This Is Just to Say
by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

superbowl

Ok, I am not a big football fan. I loved playing when I was a kid, but have never been a big fan of the modern technical game. The players seem to inch the ball along the field for gains rather than throwing the long bombs of yesteryear. However, Seattle just made it to its first Superbowl and I am admittedly feeling some hometown pride. The whole city seems to be behind the team, football fans or not. I am not sure it justifies the millions that were spent on the new stadium, but a win would put a collective smile on the local faces. I don't have a TV (going on two years now), but I will probably have to find a way to watch the game in any case. Go 'Hawks!

day 27

Sounds like a prison sentence? Well, we are on our 27th consecutive day of rain. While it hasn't begun raining yet today, I will probably not have to print a retraction. It is so interesting to see how Seattlites react to the rain. Most of us go without an umbrella at least half the time, especially when walking busy downtown sidewalks. We can drive in the rain. Most of us don't complain about it much, but those of us who do complain, complain a lot. It doesn't really create a stir in me. I don't mind the rain, but just appreciate sunshine all the more when it finally arrives. I wouldn't give up our beautiful greenery, snow-covered mountains, and plentiful rivers, lakes, streams, water-filled potholes... .

This morning I read in the Seattle Times that our governor declared a state of emergency due to the heavy rainfall. Now that made me laugh. A lot. Apparently many roads and railroad lines have washed out, but still...it seems rather extreme.

I would love it if we were able to get to 40 days and nights of rain. If that happens, I may just build myself an ark and float away. Don't worry, I'll send a postcard.

give a hoot

Every year during May I drive to Spokane to run Bloomsday. It's a 12K race that obliterates my knee for a few weeks. But that's not important just now. One year while driving back home with an ice pack on my knee, I saw a snowy owl sitting on the side of the road. It was enjoying the shade of a guard rail on an overpass. I have never forgotten that owl. It was a moment full of mystery and magic. I was surprised to see that owl, though later discovered that it is not uncommon for the snowy owl to fly through Washington on its migratory route.

I love owls. And ever since seeing that little owl on interstate 90, I love them even more. I discovered the other day that Seattle has an Owl Walk and you know I am going to have to go on it. I have no idea what kind of people one encounters on an owl walk, but I'm bound to find out. I am sure it will be pouring rain and my flashlight batteries will probably fail. If I see an owl, however, it will be worthwhile.

tickets

My aunt and I saw Brokeback Mountain at the Harvard Exit last week. I gave the man in the booth a twenty and in return received two cash register receipts. Where were the tickets? I slowly realized that the receipts were the tickets. No little cardboard scraps, no stubs...just receipts. The Harvard Exit is no modern fancy shmancy theatre. It is an old fashioned theatre, complete with its own ghost (so go the stories). This was not the place for a receipt in place of a ticket stub.

I have been saving tickets from movies, plays, sporting events, operas, concerts, fancy elevator rides – most tickets I receive – most of my adult life. I have a box in which I place these tickets and enjoy sifting through them, playing remember when. I hope it's not a trend.