Happy Halloween!

Halloween origins are in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain is a celebration of the ending of Summer. It was celebrated on the Full Moon nearest Nov 1st. The word Halloween is a shortened version of All Hallows' Eve, based on the celebration of All Saints (or Hallows) Day on the following day.

It was believed by the Celts that the origin of a day was in the night, therefore the holiday begins at sunset of the previous day. This is also why Samhain was celebrated as the beginning of the New Year - the beginning is in the darkness as decay leads to new growth. The exact meaning of the word "Samhain" is uncertain, but may mean "Summer's End". In modern Gaelic it is the word for November. In later times it was adopted by the Church as All Saints' and All Souls' Days respectively.

This was a time to assess supplies and prepare winter stores. It is considered the third and final harvest of the season. The first is the grain harvest, usually around August. The second is the harvest of fruits such as apples and berries. The third harvest of Halloween is the blood harvest. Livestock that is too weak to survive Winter is slaughtered at this time. I've also heard that this is also when wild animals are hunted as well. Also, the cattle are moved from higher to lower pastures.

The Celts believed that at the festival of Samhain the dead are able to come back and visit with the living. This is a liminal time when normal boundaries do not apply. All sorts of odd and uncanny things can happen, as an examination of Celtic myth shows. The seasonal complement to Samhain, which also possesses these liminal qualities is Beltane (celebrated around May 1st). But Beltane is a celebration of growth and outward expansion as the light waxes and the Earth greens (at least in Northern Europe - May can be pretty parched in California) whereas Samhain celebrates the waning of light and dissolution and decay.

The Dia de los Muertos in Mexico is based on these European beliefs with influence also from indigenous cultures, which had their own cult of the dead. In some parts of modern Spain and Portugal similar cemetery visits are made as in Mexico. This holiday is a syncretization of both European and Mesoamerican customs honoring the dead.

I strongly encourage our readers to honor their ancestors on this day! Leave a Jack-o-Lantern in the window to guide them to your hearth and prepare traditional foods to welcome them home.

Note: Thanks to Jill for this educational and insightful post. None of you really thought it was me did you?

National Candy Corn Day

Today, October 30th, is National Candy Corn Day. Did you know that candy corn has been around for more than 100 years? Check out the link for some fascinating facts about candy corn!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Poetry Day

The Doorway

I wanted to stay as I was
still as the world is never still,
not in midsummer but the moment before
the first flower forms, the moment
nothing is as yet past--

not midsummer, the intoxicant,
but late spring, the grass not yet
high at the edge of the garden, the early tulips
beginning to open--

like a child hovering in a doorway, watching the others,
the ones who go first,
a tense cluster of limbs, alert to
the failures of others, the public falterings

with a child's fierce confidence of imminent power
preparing to defeat
these weaknesses, to succumb
to nothing, the time directly

prior to flowering, the epoch of mastery

before the appearance of the gift,
before possession.

Louise Gluck

7 things

People post these meme things on their blogs with different things to do. One I read recently was to post 7 random things about yourself. Since I'm bored (and putting off doing math homework!) I thought I'd give this a try. Now you have to realize that not all blog readers are related to the post author so they don't know a lot about the person. That's why I thought this was kind of challenging - I'm going to try and come up with 7 things that, hopefully, none of you know about me. Then, and you all had to see this coming, I'd like OTHER PEOPLE TO POST. Note that when you type in all caps it is considered yelling. Yes, I was definitely yelling. POST!!! See how easy I'm making it - I've given you a topic. Post 7 random things about yourself. Here's my list:

1. I think my arms are too hairy & I once shaved the hair off them. It looked really weird.
2. Most every time I go into a bank I'm afraid they are going to be robbed while I'm inside.
3. I wanted to have six children.
4. When I was in high school I wanted to be a doctor.
5. At the grocery store when they print out a bunch of coupons I usually leave them in the basket because it annoys me that they gave them to me.
6. I have some kind of pen obsession - I'm always buying different kinds & I probably have a couple of hundred pens around my house.
7. The last night I was in England last year I was awake in the middle of the night & was getting dressed to leave. Not leave to come home but leave the b&b and go off to London to stay. I actually started writing the note I was going to leave for my fellow travelers. I still regret that I didn't do it.
   

Ok, let's hear from the rest of you. It can't be any worse than my weird stuff!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Monday Post

I don't know if our Monday poster will be posting so I thought I'd update you all on their supposed location. I say supposed because according to instamapper they are in Ushuaia and the satellite picture looks like they are sitting in a fancy restaurant drinking champagne. According to their itinerary they are in a tent cabin in a forest near Puerto Natales. Ushuaia is in Argentina. Puerto Natales is in Chile. I personally do not see how they can be in both places but. . . I definitely know that of the two I'd much prefer the fancy restaurant and champagne! A tent cabin in a forest does not sound appealing to me!

I was looking at pictures online of some of the places where they are traveling and the scenery looks spectacular. When they return & Stephen gets his pictures posted, I'd encourage everyone to look at them. I imagine they are going to be amazing.

That's it for the Monday travel update!

Robin, the lonely (left to do all the work alone) blog mistress

To Our South American Voyagers

Look for the pudu in the Magellanic Subpolar Forests! Take pictures of the glaciers before they melt!

Jill (not rmt)

Silent (not so much) Sunday

Ok, I'm impressed.

x=2y-3
3x+y=5

I can solve the above linear equations by graphing and substitution!! I think I'm finally getting it. Hopefully you are all as impressed as I am!

I took my 1st midterm last week (there are 2, don't ask me why, I think it is a little excessive) and got 88% on it. At first I was kind of disappointed because I really wanted to do better and I studied a lot. But actually that is pretty good. I made two "dumb" mistakes that if I'd caught would have given me 93%. I expect one or two perceptive readers will note that #2 on the test was one of my dumb mistakes. On another one I just blanked out. There were only 2 people left in the class when I finished - oh well. On the other hand, out of 29 students, 13 scored 0-70%, 13 scored 70-90% and 3 were 90-100%. So in comparison with the rest of the class I did pretty good. Mind you (I like saying that), these are mostly young kids who have been studying this stuff in high school. I'm an old, senile person and I don't think that I've ever learned this. Of course since I'm senile I wouldn't remember!

I'm a little apprehensive because I looked ahead in the book and things look bad but I'm not going to worry about it now. If I think, I panic. While I was taking my test I kept getting upset and had to keep talking to myself to calm myself down. I don't think I did it out loud but I'm not sure. When I read this problem, I didn't panic though: Find three consecutive numbers whose sum is 27. I did it without any problem. I almost giggled when I finished because I was so pleased with myself.

I did good - pretty cool, huh? Ok, I have to go study some more now!

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. ~Anais Nin


Robin, the lonely (but better at math) blog mistress

Open the Door

This is a short movie called A Knock at the Door. It's really cool. Be sure & turn your sound on, the music is nice.

LOTR

I was watching The Two Towers the other night. For those of you shaking your head in confusion, that is the 2nd movie in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you are still confused, don't talk to me. Anyway I was thinking - everyone should watch this! Ideally you would all read the books but if you don't, at least watch the movies. Here, to tempt you, is a short video with some scenes from the movies.

November 23rd

November 23rd is coming up fast. I'm sure you all wonder why I'm telling you this. There is a reason. An important reason that readers of this blog should be aware of and concerned about. I'm not going to tell you though. Feel free to guess. If anyone guesses before I eventually share the significance, they'll receive a special prize. Although if you figure out why that date is significant, you may be able to figure out what the prize will be and decide not to post anything! Did I confuse anyone with that last sentence? I think I confused myself.

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

I Hang My Head and Cry

As some of you may know and I believe I've mentioned in the past, I've been a Johnny Cash fan for many years. On Monday I had a message from my niece, Amanda, saying she had been to a concert the night before and they played a song in tribute to Johnny Cash. She only remembered one line and wanted to know if I could tell her what song it was. I picked up the phone to call her confident that I would have no problem. The line she remembered was I hang my head and cry. We talked for, I don't know, 3-4 minutes but I was stuck on Long Black Veil trying to remember the lines to that because that was the first thing that came to mind. Hanging up in despair and shame, I thought to myself, what song would be played in tribute to Johnny Cash? First thought, of course, was I Walk the Line. My second thought (which in my defense, once I started thinking only took about 15-20 seconds) was Folsom Prison Blues. Yep, second stanza, last line!

When I was just a baby,
My Mama told me, "Son,
Always be a good boy,
Don't ever play with guns,"
But I shot a man in Reno,
Just to watch him die,
When I hear that whistle blowin',
I hang my head and cry.

I called her back right away and said Folsom Prison Blues. She laughed and said she knew, she had looked online. So I learned a couple of things from this: I'm old and forgetful, however, I get there eventually. Also, I'm not as fast as Google. Actually I already knew that though. It struck me later that the line she remembered was appropriate given my poor memory!

Anyway just because I like to put videos in, here we have Johnny Cash singing Folsom Prison Blues:




Robin, the lonely (forgetful) blog mistress

Flying Around Bueno Aires

Greetings from BA (Buenos Aires). We have been here less than 48 hours so far, and we are having a fabulous time. We have eaten some good food, talked to some interesting people, and seen some beautiful sights. The only negative thing that has happened so far, is that from time to time we inexplicably go flying through the air, as if pulled by some invisible string. Strange. On Wednesday we head off to Ushuaia and the end of the world. I will try to write more then.

Monday Poster

Our Monday poster has flown off to the wilds of South America. He is doing some thing (technology is beyond me) where his iphone is tracking their movements via gps and posting it online at instamapper.com. Personally I think the whole thing is a fake but since I have nothing else for Monday I thought I'd update you on the whereabouts of he & Kiko. I know - you are thinking, Why do we care? Well it's a post, what can I say.

Right now, which is 7:00am in California - it shows them between Palo Blanco and Abasto in Argentina. I can't get it to focus on much detail so that is as close as I could get. Anyway I'm thinking this is not as interesting as I'd hoped but there you have it.

The really interesting thing is that when I look at the map there is a line coming out of the circle showing their location. I can move that line/circle with my mouse. So here is my question: when I move the line do they move? I mean were they sitting in a restaurant somwhere and all of a sudden were flying through the air to another location? Think seriously about that question.

They won't be returning until Nov. 6 so I'll post future updates on their location. The world is indeed a much smaller place then it was in 1558. (That is when Elizabeth Tudor became queen of England. It really has no relevance, I just thought I'd throw it in.)

Update: Jill told me to look at the satellite view. When I did that it showed them driving down the highway. I could see 4 little hands waving - I think it was them. Well maybe there is more to this modern technology than I thought!

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Silent Sunday

Family Friday

Well I thought I'd try and get back to my posting schedule. Today is Family Friday but I really have very little to report. No one tells me anything. Anyway, here are the very few items I know about.

Last week was the wedding party for Jill & John. I think that everyone had a good time. I thought it was a nice party although there was too much cake left over.

Jill & John are returning sometime today from their exciting trip to Soledad. They've been gone all week. I have to say it is much quieter without them. Pippin & Mellifera have been kind of sad though. They keep looking around waiting for them to walk in the door.

Stephen & Kiko leave tomorrow for their exciting trip to the end of the world. Patagonia to be exact. Plus some other places that I don't know about. They don't seem very well organized at this point. Now that may be an insult to Kiko as I'm just basing this on Stephen.

Robin has no exciting trips to anywhere planned. She's considering doing something about that.

Mellifera has started an exercise program. This is because Stephen told her she was fat. Her program consists of running around chasing a non-existent bug. She's stuck with it for 2 days now. I'm impressed.

On November 6th, Robin will be attending an IRS audit. I'd suggest sending her items for the Family Friday post prior to that date. You also may want to send money. This would be to ensure that when she panics over questions they are asking that it isn't your name that pops out of her mouth.

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

National Feral Cat Day

Today is National Feral Cat Day. National Feral Cat Day was launched in 2001 by Alley Cat Allies, the national advocate for feral and stray cats. Alley Cat Allies is the foremost authority on a program called Trap‐Neuter‐Return, a humane method of care that improves the lives of outdoor cats. According to Becky Robinson, the President of Alley Cat Allies, “More cats are killed in our nation’s animal control pounds and shelters than die from any other documented cause.”

Millions of unwanted kittens are born every year. The easiest way to avoid this is to ensure that cats are spayed or neutered. This is especially important for the millions of feral cats in the country. Check out Alley Cat Allies and support National Feral Cat Day!

I gave my cats a lecture on how lucky they are to have a loving home and not be a feral cat wandering around alone. They appeared unimpressed.

Blog Action Day 2008

Today is Blog Action Day. The purpose of this annual event is to focus blog discussions on a particular topic. This year's topic is poverty. I've been thinking all day what I could write about and still haven't come up with a "great" idea. Since this is a personal/family blog I thought I'd just give you some of my random thoughts on the topic. So here goes.

I've been what I consider poor. I've been unemployed and had very little money. What I haven't been is without options. I've never literally not known where my next meal would come from. Actually I don't think I've ever missed a meal except by choice. I'm a middle-class white American and I take a lot of things for granted. The right to a place to live, an education, health care, food - these are all things I don't consider a gift, but a right. However, there are millions of people in the world for whom these things would be a gift. I think that is obscene. One of the definitions of obscene is "abhorrent to morality or virtue." That people are forced to sleep on the ground with no food and no place to receive health care is abhorrent.

Unfortunately there isn't an easy solution. Millions of people writing blog posts about poverty is nice. It focuses attention for a day on an important topic. But for so many of us, especially those able to write & read blog posts, it's only an abstraction. Tomorrow we'll go back to our lives and forget there are people starving every minute. Hopefully some of us won't. Hopefully a few more people will contribute money or time to help change things. That isn't going to change the facts very much. People will still starve to death. I think there is something fundamentally wrong with a society that condones that.

And we are, by our inaction, condoning it. Karl Marx said, Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. We are philosophizing in our blog posts. The point, however, is change. Perhaps a world-wide discussion can begin a process that will lead to some real change. There are thousands, probably millions, of things in this world that need changing. I think poverty should be at the top of the list.

Update - not really relevant to anything: I have 229 blogs in my Google Reader. I was disappointed at how few had a Blog Action Day post. I didn't count but a guess I'd say about 10.

We Can't Agree on Anything

Well I don't know how many of you saw this, it received very little coverage in the American press. I saw this on the BBC website today. Apparently the world's major whaling nations (Norway and Japan) were close to an agreement with environmental groups that would have ultimately led to a significant decrease in whaling. At the last minute, however, Australia tried to insert much stronger language that had the effect of killing the deal. At issue is whether whales compete with humans for fish. That is, whether whales should be "culled" (read killed for profit) so as to prevent them from competing with coastal nations fishing income.

Why do we need to have International Whaling Commissions to decide on something like this. Whales are among the most amazing and intelligent animals on the planet, and a group of nations (and thereby millions if not billions of people) believe that it is the prudent thing to do to kill them if they might be causing some nations somewhere (like Japan and Norway) to lose a few bucks each year on fishing. I find such incredible short-sightedness beyond comprehension. I've taken a look at the economic profiles of both countries (I'm sure there are other culprits, but these two are the biggest and the loudest), and neither one looks to be in danger of going the route of Iceland any time soon. Is it really worth killing thousands of these magnificent creatures each year for any kind of economic gain? If you had a neighbor that made a living off of catching and selling sparrows, would he (yeah, I'm pretty sure it'd be a guy) be justified in killing your cat to protect his economic well being? What if your neighbor made a living by digging up worms and selling them to fisherwomen? Would it be okay for him to shoot all the birds in the neighborhood to make sure that the early ones don't get those worms before him? No offense to bird or cat lovers, but the unquestioned intelligence of a whale would seem to place them slightly above either of those other two, no?

That's all I have to say. For those of you just about to sit down to a whale meat sandwich, shame on you.

Silent Sunday

Cat's Eye Nebula

Your Tax Dollars At Work

I was confused as to whether she was running for office or preaching.

Poetry Wednesday

W.H. Auden (1907-1973) was born in England and in later life became a US citizen. (I don't know why - I'd do it the other way around.) Critics have praised his technical virtuosity and ability to write poems in nearly every imaginable verse form. His work incorporated popular culture and current events. His poetry frequently recounts, a journey or quest. In 1948, he won a Pulitzer Prize for The Age of Anxiety.

Here are 2 poems by Auden. The first, In Memory of W.B. Yeats, is the 2nd part of a fairly long poem - it is the part I like best so I decided to post it. If you want to read the entire poem, click on the title.


In Memory of W.B. Yeats

II.
You were silly like us; your gift survived it all:
The parish of rich women, physical decay,
Yourself. Mad Ireland hurt you into poetry.
Now Ireland has her madness and her weather still,
For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper, flows on south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.



Epitaph on a Tyrant

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

Just A Thought

Well I don't know what happened to our Monday blogger. He appears to be MIA so I thought I'd give you something to think about. This is from WebProNews - you can click on their name to read the whole story:

Reports have surfaced that Bankaholic.com, a WordPress blog run by Johns Wu (alone) is selling for $15 million to BankRate. That's quite a deal for Wu, I'd say. According to paidcontent.org, Wu gets $12.4 million up front, with another $2.5 million possible earnout over the next 12 months.

So here is what I'm thinking - If this one guy working all alone can sell his blog for $15 million just think how much we could get if you all were contributing!! Start posting and I'll start looking for someone who wants to buy the blog. When I find a good deal - minimum $15 million - I'll send everyone their share. Note: Individual shares will be proportionate based on how often you've contributed posts. Believe me, my math may not be great but when it comes to dividing up $15 million I'm pretty sure I'll count my posts accurately!

Robin, the lonely (soon to be wealthy) blog mistress

Silent Sunday #2

Found here.

Silent Sunday

This was my favorite display at the recent Chihuly Exhibit at the DeYoung Museum. I went twice to see the exhibit and could happily have gone a couple more times. I find it fascinating.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

I was updating my list of actions taken on healthcare bills this week. The Governor has been busy vetoing or signing quite a few bills (thereby making more work for me in updating my list) and I thought I'd share a few with you.

SB 349: Vetoed by Governor. Would have required health plans and health insurers to provide paper copies of medical bills at no charge to the patient. My monthly health insurance is nearly $400 - for that they can't provide a free copy?

SB 1221: Vetoed by Governor. Would have required hospitals seeking financing through the state Health Facilities Financing Authority to demonstrate that they provide a benefit to the community. I'm not sure about this but it seems to make sense that they should be able to show they'll benefit the community.

SB 1440: Vetoed by Governor. Would require 85% of premiums and fees received by health insurers and health plans to be spent on treatment and patient benefits. I have no idea what percentage is currently spent so I looked for more info on this one. According to the President of the California Academy of Family Physicians (they sponsored the bill so there may be a slight bias here):

Current state law requires only that no more than 15% of such fees be spent on administrative costs such as marketing and executives' salaries. Health plans interpret this law to mean that profits can be taken from the remaining 85% of funds. SB 1440 would have specified that the full 85% of health plans' income from enrollees be dedicated to their care; profits would have to be found elsewhere. A recent survey by the California Medical Association showed that an additional $1 billion would be available each year for patient care if the 12 health plans in California that reported spending below the 85% mark were to meet the higher target.

SB 1441: Approved by Governor. This bill will create a Substance Abuse Coordination Committee in the Department of Consumer Affairs. The committee would be charged with overseeing substance abuse treatment for doctors, nurses, dentists and other health care professionals licensed by the state. Just on principle I'm opposed to creating new departments. Aside from that, however, I'm somewhat concerned that there is so much substance abuse among licensed healthcare professionals that someone feels there is a need for a department to oversee them.

AB 54: Vetoed by Governor. This one was vetoed in August. It would require group health plans to include acupuncture as a covered benefit. I don't have feelings one way or another on this. I had acupuncture once and it hurt so I don't care if my insurance covers it or not, but again, nearly $400/month - for that they should pay for needles to be stuck in me!

This is just a sampling of bills I found interesting. Hopefully you will too!


Robin, the lonely blog mistress

What's Wrong With This Picture?

The first one to tell me wins - nothing!

Family Friday

Well no one has sent me any family news so I'm stuck telling you the little bit that I know.

Jill & John's party is still scheduled for Saturday, October 11th at noon. Some of you have expressed confusion over what exactly the party is about. Darned if I know. Just kidding. They had hoped to get married at City Hall prior to the party but are waiting for divorce papers to be received. Officially John is divorced now but for some reason government entities want you to be able to actually produce paper as proof. So this is a pre-wedding celebration I guess. Jill wanted to do it at this time of year and didn't want to change the date to wait for something like official papers.

Jennifer & Talia are devotees of a reality show called Drama Island. I haven't seen it but it sounds rather racy to me. I'm kind of suspicious.

Amanda started Beauty College about 3 weeks ago and is doing well and enjoying it. While I'm sure this is good for her future employability, the most important thing is now I have someone to cut my hair!

After watching the VP debate last night, Pippin has come down solidly on the side of Obama-Biden. Mellifera is wavering thinking that the McCain-Palin ticket may offer her more freedom to pursue her cat dreams.

Robin (oh, that's me), started her 2nd! math class last week. She is very excited. Not really, actually she is rather apprehensive. Once she (hopefully) passes this class, she'll be able to take a "real" math class that counts for credit & she'll have a BA degree! It isn't clear that this will provide tangible benefits, but it will look good on her resume when her current client fires her for personal blogging on work time.

Ok, that's about all the family news I can conjure up out of my little brain. It would be very helpful if people send me little bits of information that I can then elaborate on and turn into a fascinating post for next week. I think I've been reading Jill's blog too much - I'm starting to sound like her.

Robin, the lonely blog mistress

Mystery Thursday

So how many of you knew what I meant by Mystery Thursday? Oh, I forgot, no one is reading. Ah well. What I'm going to do is talk about mystery stories on Thursday. There are many reasons I could elaborate on as to why I am doing this, however there is only one real reason - I'm indulging myself. I like to read mysteries, I like to talk about them and the few people who read this blog are a captive audience!

Where to start? I'm been reading mysteries since I was, I don't know, 11-12 years old? I'm not really sure. Of course, I read Nancy Drew but I liked Trixie Belden best. My second favorite was the Donna Parker series. A couple of years ago I bought all the Donna Parker books (7) on ebay! Not as much but I also read & liked, The Dana Girls and Cherry Ames. I have somewhat eclectic tastes in reading so I also read Mickey Spillane and Perry Mason as I was growing up.

I'm not quite sure what direction I want to take with these posts & it is getting late so I think I'll start by talking about mystery genres. A few categories are (in no particular order):

• Cozy - generally a bloodless, neat murder, Agatha Christie is the best example.
  
• Historical
  
• Police Procedurals
  
• Hardboiled - Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe style
  
• Locked Room/Puzzle
• Legal
  
• Romantic Suspense
• Bibliomysteries
• Academic
• Medical
• Amateur Sleuth

I think the categories are pretty self-explanatory. I could go on listing categories & break these down into sub-categories but I think you get the idea that there are a lot of different mysteries. I've read in various places that people tend to stick one or two types. I don't know if that is true for most people but it definitely isn't for me! I can't even say that I have a favorite category - it would probably be whatever I'm currently reading. I'm sure my many astute readers are now asking themselves, who is her favorite author? Kind of, sort of a hard question and at the same time easy. There are so many authors I enjoy that it is difficult to narrow them down. However, if I truly had to choose one, it would be easy - P.D. James.

Anyway I started this post last night but for various, highly important, reasons didn't get it finished. So instead of talking more about mysteries I'm going to let this serve as a short introduction to the subject and will expound in detail upon either one of mystery genres or an author next week - whichever suits my fancy!!

Robin, the lonely (and mysterious) blog mistress

Reading Levels

Okay, so I saw the banner on the right side about "This blog's reading level: Genius" and just had to investigate. Apparently we have some pretty literate and erudite writers on this blog. So I thought I'd check the reading level of my blog that nobody wants to read because it's too difficult to understand what I'm writing. Guess what the reading level was...junior high school. That's right, there is not one of you out there who reads this blog that should have any trouble reading mine.

Very Cute!

These are just so cute I had to post them! Unrelated to the adorable pictures of Pippin - I was looking at the statistics for our blog readership. I have a blog that I'm no longer posting to - it is getting more hits than this one! Which leads me to wonder why I'm writing this post . . . anyway, encourage your friends, neighbors, strangers, to read the Texeira Life blog!

Robin, the very lonely blog mistress!

Poetry Day

Kay Ryan was recently appointed the 16th Poet Laureate of the United States. The official title is Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. The Librarian of Congress, in consultation with poetry critics and the current Poet Laureate and former appointees, chooses the Poet Laureate for a one-year term which runs from October-May. During their term, the Poet Laureate seeks to increase public awareness of poetry.

Ryan was born in 1945 in San Jose, CA, and grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and the Mojave Desert. She currently lives in Marin County and teaches at College of Marin in Kentfield. Her books of poetry include, Elephant Rocks, Say Uncle and The Niagara River.

Kay Ryan on poetry: "Poems are transmissions from the depths of whoever wrote them to the depths of the reader. To a greater extent than with any other kind of reading, the reader of a poem is making that poem, is inhabiting those words in the most personal sort of way. That doesn’t mean that you read a poem and make it whatever you want it to be, but that it’s operating so deeply in you, that it is the most special kind of reading."

Which means that while I liked these three poems because they spoke strongly to me, they may leave you cold. But I hope not.


A Cat/A Future

A cat can draw
the blinds
behind her eyes
whenever she
decides. Nothing
alters in the stare
itself but she's
not there. Likewise
a future can occlude:
still sitting there,
doing nothing rude.

Things Shouldn't Be So Hard

A life should leave
deep tracks:
ruts where she
went out and back
to get the mail
or move the hose
around the yard;
where she used to
stand before the sink,
a worn-out place;
beneath her hand
the china knobs
rubbed down to
white pastilles;
the switch she
used to feel for
in the dark
almost erased.
Her things should
keep her marks.
The passage
of a life should show;
it should abrade.
And when life stops,
a certain space—
however small —
should be left scarred
by the grand and
damaging parade.
Things shouldn't
be so hard.

Say Uncle
Every day
you say,
Just one
more try.
Then another
irrecoverable
day slips by.
You will
say ankle,
you will
say knuckle;
why won't
you why
won't you
say uncle?