Homage

WORD FROM KELLY (Colorado) ... The hummingbirds are back in full force at the feeder. And the sugar snap peas are already eight inches up their trellis. I’d consulted a few books on Square Foot Gardening and Container Vegetables and planted: baseball-sized cantaloupes, hybrid trellising zucchini, sugar snap peas, bush cucumber and bush tomoato plants - all within a 2x6 foot patch of dirt and two large planters. Mingled in with the veggies are a few herbs (basil, chives and savory) and apricot-colored pansies, white alyssum, blue lobelia, red geranium and pink phlox. During summer, my patio becomes my "living room."

-S&G-

I CAN REALLY understand that ... and what an active living room it must seem ... like there’s a party going on!

-S&G-

WORDS OF WISDOM (courtesy of RUTH, Florida/Ohio) ... "I believe ... that just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other. And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do love each other."

-S&G-

FRUSTRATION ... is trying to find your glasses without your glasses - courtesy of TIL (Illinois)

-S&G-

THOUGHT FOR TODAY (courtesy of HELEN, Florida) ... "I would be unstoppable ... if I could just get started."

-S&G-

BOOK NOOK - KELLY (Colorado) recently reported that she had started reading The Artist and the Mathematician: The story of Nicolas Bourbaki, the Genius Mathematician Who Never Existed, by Amir D. Aczel. "The first 50 pages or so are slow going," she says, "but once it picks up it’s a very interesting little book!"

Me? I’m working my way through a Dover Thrift Editions copy of William Shakespeare, Complete Sonnets ... should’ve said I’m plodding, for it’s pretty slow going for me ... but I figured I’d put if off long enough ... and took the plunge.

-S&G-

DELAYED (I was going to say "in the mail" ... but I can’t put the blame there ... and that’s all I’m going to say on that ... OK, I lost it ... then found it again) ... report from LOREE (Kansas) ... "You are right ... the days are speeding faster than the cars ... a mile west of me on the highway. I can hear them, but fortunately can’t see them. A year or so ago, the Highway Department overhauled the center lanes that divide the racers ... so that when they pass a law-abiding citizen ... or, by way of inattention, drift over the center line ... there is this terrible noise, along with a feeling of vibration ... as a sort of warning for the drivr to wake up and smell the roses!"

-S&G-

TODAY’S QUOTE ... courtesy of WALT (Ohio): "My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be. Also, my short-term memory’s not as sharp as it used to be."

-S&G-

TODAY’S POEM: Usually, selection of a poem to go with a particular installment of S&G is ... well, mostly just luck of the draw. I do lean, generally, toward lighter subjects. That, after all, is what S&G is largely all about.

This week, though, because of a glance at the calendar ... Whew! The year is really whooshing along! ... my thoughts turned to Memorial Day ... in an earlier time (yes, I really remember this from my childhood) it was called, locally, at least, "Decoration Day."

We lived next to the cemetery ... normally a rather tranquil place of hillsides and bluffs ... but on "Decoration Day" aswarm with activity.

People would see Grandma’s peonies (she ... and they ... called them pe-OH-nies) lining the driveway ... and several would stop to inquire about buying some ... for a few pennies, probably ... to place on the graves.

I have a poem about those "pe-OH-nies" ... but today’s poem is about returning to that place ... to stand on that hillside beside the graves ...

HOMAGE

I stand in the silence
beside the graves
on the slope of that hill
where the acorns fall
like spent minutes.

I stand, thinking
of those who helped me,
gave me that gentle push
in the small of my back,
sent me off toward places
they had never been,
would never be, sent me
off toward becoming
what I am, what I may
yet become.

I stand there thanking
them for their love.

(received a First Place Award in a ByLine contest; published in Brave Hearts, Fall 2007)
　
-S&G-

COMMENT? Feel free ... below, if you like.

Or if you prefer e-mail, that's fine, too ... especially for more detailed observations, to

rbrimm@peoplepc.com... and it helps if you put "Squiggles" or "S&G" ... something like that ... in the subject line (just remember, no religion or politics ... please!)

-S&G-

UNTIL NEXT TIME ... take care ... see ya!

-S&G-
© 2009