The day was not as rainy as expected, and I walked over to Trader Joe's to replenish my beer supply and pick up a couple other items. There are some things there that aren't outrageously expensive. I picked up a can of grated Parmesan and Romano cheese to put on my spaghetti tonight, and it was pretty good. I also bought a package of their store brand taco seasoning mix, which I might try later this week.
Other than that it was an uneventful day, as most of them are anymore. I looked at rescued cat photos on the Internet and drank an extra bottle of beer with dinner. Now I'm ready to go read something in lieu of seeing English people murdering one another on television. Last time I was in the Goodwill store they had a couple of Harry Potter books on the shelf, so I bought them. The first was not among them, so I'm starting with the second. The stories are familiar to me since one of the cable channels I used to get ran the series of movies a couple of times last summer.
I can't recall if I've ever posted any of Mary Oliver's poems here. She died a few days ago, so if I haven't posted any it's about time I did.
Sunday Verse
In Blackwater Woods
by Mary Oliver
Look, the trees
are turning
their own bodies
into pillars
of light,
are giving off the rich
fragrance of cinnamon
and fulfillment,
the long tapers
of cattails
are bursting and floating away over
the blue shoulders
of the ponds,
and every pond,
no matter what its
name is, is
nameless now.
Every year
everything
I have ever learned
in my lifetime
leads back to this: the fires
and the black river of loss
whose other side
is salvation,
whose meaning
none of us will ever know.
To live in this world
you must be able
to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
