big tree in australia

 

"Norman" by Mary Larson

This is a better picture of Norman. We have certainly enjoyed him.

Poetry Saturday--Czeslaw Milosz

AND YET THE BOOKS

And yet the books will be there on the shelves, separate beings,
That appeared once, still wet
As shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn,
And, touched, coddled, began to live
In spite of fires on the horizon, castles blown up,
Tribes on the march, planets in motion.
"We are," they said, even as their pages
Were being torn out, or a buzzing flame
Licked away their letters.  So much more durable
Than we are, whose frail warmth
Cools down with memory, disperses, perishes.
I imaging the earth when I am no more:
Nothing happens, no loss, it's still a strange pageant,
Women's dresses, dewy lilacs, a song in the valley.
Yet the books will be there on the shelves, well born,
Derived from people, but also from radiance, heights.

Berkeley, 1986

Nostalgia

I have been corresponding with old old friends, high school classmates.  One friend is on a quest with the "angle of death" down in South Texas.  He's been reading Don Miguel Ruis and Ekhart Tolle.  I don't have permission to post his adventures here but they reminded me of the Porcine Canticles by the poet David Lee from the early 80s so I sent him a couple of poetry books.  Another old classmate found me on Facebook and wrote me about his globe trotting adventures and the sad tale and his regrets of a failed marriage.

I've also heard the sad news of the illness and death of my junior high and high school algebra teacher, Bob Boatright.  I sent him flowers before he died and I'd just completed my PhD so I told him about it in the card.  Like my success is his success.  Who knows how much the teachers remember about old students?  I sure remember him.  He was scary strict and I never did my homework for that class (3 years worth) but managed to pass the quizzes. I think he took pity on my miserable life.  My life was hard in those days.  He'd say "Trigg, if you'd just do your homework...."   Somehow when I got to college I just "knew" algebra and did well in my math and science classes, so I must have learned something.  Here is a youtube of Bob in a fiddle medley.  If you watch long enough you can see him and his chubby cheeks as he fiddles.  I think I would have liked this guy if I'd known him in real life.  As it was, I just felt bad about not doing my homework for those years.

I've also heard from a college friend.  I don't know what has gotten into me but I've been looking my old self up and trying to remember who I was.  Most strange, I'm not that different now, if anything more myself.  And our class song, Freebird still applies.

Hurray for the Class of '76.   We were all that and more!

Nostalgia--HS class song--Freebird