Poems for a Tuesday

For some reason I've had a lot of poems on my mind today. A few from Shel but a couple of others too.  About a year ago I listened to someone in a park recite a wickedly long poem and it made me wish people still thought about poetry the same way they used to. My dad recites poems at the weirdest times and my Gram did too.  In fact, when I mentioned the story of the guy last year, my dad asked what poem it was and began reciting it almost verbatim.  Bjet is also notorious for this.  I love that.

As a kid, I kept quotes and soliloquies taped to my bathroom mirror and I would practice them while I got ready for the day (and much to my parents' chagrin, watched movies ad nauseum to memorize all the lines). Here are the ones floating around in my head today.  Hope you like them! :)

Listen ~ by Shel Silverstein

Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the wonts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me...Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.

IF by Rudyard Kipling (Michael Caine does a reading of this that I adore)

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

Now and Then

A new day, a new season, a new present.  Today is an absolutely gorgeous first day of Fall.  I started the day with a delivery from darlingest Lindsey which basically leveled up my week.  Thanks, love!!!  You are a super star!  Hopefully we can frolic in London sometime before February.  In your honor I listened to my mix tape/cd/mp3 and it was awesome.  Definitely a boost in my life!

This morning I woke up early to get ready for my family's arrival.  Now I remember the reality of "a messy bed a messy head."  With all the busy-ness (yeah, you try to spell that without it coming out as business) the last couple of weeks, I've slowly grown a sleeping parter made of books and bras.  Winston and Puppy have felt a little jealous and neglected.  Now they have all the space in the world though and boy does it feel lovely both physically and mentally.

While I was cleaning I realized it has been a year since my mom has been to London.  I started thinking of how things have changed in that time so I thought maybe I would share with you as well.  Here is a mini tour of my house and my plants then and now.  note: I'll add a photo once I put up the previously mentioned present :)

Sigh

And I thought this September might be different.

For almost every year I can remember, I've gotten really down and felt just a little bit out of control of my life in September for some reason.  I don't get it.  Some years unbelievably dramatic and scary things have happened; other years it has just slowly built over the month and worn me completely down.  I've gotta snap out of it!  I have stuff to do and I need to sort out what I am doing with my life.  A year and a half of not knowing where I'm going or what I am doing has finally gotten to me, I think.  And yet, somehow, the idea of wandering aimlessly with no purpose or destination seems like the best solution for my melancholy.  How fixing something with itself works I do not know.  Maybe it's just the thought of going with the flow rather than trying to purposefully direct my life myself that seems appealing.  Letting go has always led to good (if not wonderful) things before but it is really freaking me out this time.  It seems like there is more on the line for some reason.  But I think that feeling might be bollocks.  There is no more to be gained or lost now than there ever has been before.

I had to make a big decision today that resulted in tears.  Then I got news that resulted in tears.  Now, to avoid sitting at home and guaranteeing tears, I am going to go be around people and try to convince myself they aren't threatening to come.

September is an incredible month!  Why can't we figure out how to get along?  We could do so many fun things together.  We could enjoy the crisp autumn evenings and the beginning of hot chocolate season with some lovely, cuddly movie nights.  We could play in the leaves.  We could make stew and read books.  We like the same things!  Come on, September!  Let's sort this out!  

Mornin'

8:15 am

Thoughts on today so far...

• Where do people who don't wear bras keep their phone and keys on their morning run? 
• Early morning park parkour is like being a kid again.  I like being a kid again. 
• I remember now why I had callouses on my hands as a kid.  
• Making breakfast with Peter Sagal and Carl Kasell is something I could deal with every day for the rest of my life. 

Cheers!

In the 27 years I was lucky enough to spend with her, Mary Lina Albano Poulson played a large part in shaping me into the person I am.  I truly believe the world would be a kinder place if everyone could have met her, even just for one evening.  Those of you who were lucky enough to know her will agree she was one-of-a-kind

Today would have been her 95th birthday.  I set out this evening with no idea how to celebrate the occasion.  Darling Kristen, however, gave me the perfect idea for a start.  Books.  I found myself wandering through Foyles, not sure what I would find that she would have liked.  In the end, I managed to find two: