Sacramento Poetry

My planned outing for today is going to be a long one so I probably won't post anything until later this evening. In the meantime I thought I'd share some poems about Sacramento that I found. When I went to the McClatchy Library last week I found a book called The Sacramento Anthology: One Hundred Poems, edited by Dennis Schmitz & Viola Weinberg. There are a number of poems in it that I liked - here are three of them. And now I'd better get to bed so I'm rested enough for my next adventure!

Senryu for Sacramento
by Allegra Jostad Silberstein

not so long ago
Tower Bridge rose above all
as we crossed over

now giants stride here
pyramids, rectangles, curves
intone a new dream

spring sunlight shimmers
through trees etching horizons
almond blossoms fall

city of old trees
city of new skyscrapers
birthing her poets



A Colder Season
(McKinley Park, circa 1966)
by Joyce Odam

When we have walked on soggy leaves
in the wilderness-park
of our strange city, passing very slowly
underneath the rain-
heavy trees where winter hung dripping,
we have come far

We have come through the almost barren
rose garden, admiring the last few roses
of a mild November, and have gone around the
heated young boys who were playing a game of
desperate football in the filtering
sunshine, as clumsy as wind-up toys
in the slippery grass.

And we went to the edge of the pond
where the willows made deep reflections
in the shallow water, to watch the
winter-wrapped children feed yesterday's
bread to the silver geese and the rainbow-
headed ducks, and the seagull with
the drowning wing. And we stood silent
in that unbelievable clamor.

We came with nothing to offer but
our eyes, seeing, and to bring
the indoors of our minds out of the
domestic woe of a colder season.
We came to thaw in the cold, our hands
gloved from touch, but holding.
When we have come through such
desperate distance as that frozen hour,
we have come far.




Hardpan
by Gary Thompson

Six inches

below this city is another world

protected by hardpan.

The trees here live on the surface.

Only a few brave houses

have basements; their owners store

half their memories

in another, deeper life.


At least here the earth

is solid. People born in this city

are very sure of themselves.


We could not dig up our dead if we wanted.

Sutter's Fort

Today I walked to Sutter's Fort! I had planned to do this last week and ended up putting it off. Today turned out to be a good day to go though. There were a bunch of school groups and they were having demonstrations of making butter, candle making, etc. and I got to watch (and hear!) the cannon being fired. It was a little crowded because there were so many kids but it's nice to see kids excited about history so I didn't mind.

I had a very nice, though tiring, walk and saw lots of cool stuff. Across the street from Sutter's Fort is the Pioneer Congregational Church which has a labyrinth in their courtyard. Their website says it is open to anyone so later on I'm going to go back and walk it. I've always wanted to do that. Lots of beautiful trees & leaves of course and some really neat houses.


Sign outside. I guess that was obvious!



Entrance to Fort.


Inside view of yard area.


Looking over the top of the fort you remember it isn't 1849.


This house was across the street from Sutter's Fort. I thought it was really neat looking.


I think this is a Japanese Maple?? Jill??


Labyrinth in church courtyard.


Buttermaking!


View from side of fort.


Kitchen.


Um, I forget what this building was! It's inside the fort yard.


Cannon's aimed at downtown Sacramento.


Demonstration area.


The kids that went down here said this was a spooky room. I guess you have to be about 10 to get the spookiness because I missed it!


Blacksmith shop.

Reading about Sacramento

Just one picture and a short post today! I wasn't going to take any on my walk because I think I'm getting carried away with leaves and tree pictures. This was so pretty I couldn't resist though - fortunately I had brought my iphone with me!

I wanted to read about Sacramento history and I found a book at the library that I started reading last night, Sacramento Indomitable City by Steven M. Avella. It's a short overview but seems pretty interesting. I'm in the gold rush era right now which I already knew quite a bit about so right now I'm just refreshing my memory. Once out of the gold rush though I'm pretty ignorant so I should be learning something tonight!

Land Park

I went to Land Park today for my walk. I'd driven past it the other day and thought it would be a nice place to walk around. So I drove over today, parked and started wandering around hoping to find some nice views. I definitely did! I found a very cool garden - the WPA Rock Garden. I didn't know what most of the plants in it were so I'm going to have to return with my gardening expert at some point! It looks like there are a lot of native California plants - I only know this because they look like the ones my daughter has grown (she's the garden expert!). It's a lovely, smallish garden but it's full of flowers, trees and little meandering paths and is very peaceful inside. I walked around, took bunches of pictures and sat on a little bench and enjoyed the peace and quiet for awhile.

Leaves & Trees

On today's walk I decided to take pictures of leaves & trees. I'm just fascinated with how pretty all the different trees look and I love the leaves all over. The first picture is the most important one because it's the tree in front of my apartment building!

Musical Monday

Start your day with Nat King Cole!

Crocker Art Museum

Today's outing was to the Crocker Art Museum. This is one of my favorite museums. They have a wonderful permanent collection of California art. I visited my favorite pictures: So Fleet the Works & She Will Come Tomorrow by Edwin Deakin. Their current exhibition is Treasures, Curiosities, and Secrets: The Crockers and the Gilded Age. It was interesting - it includes beautiful gowns, furniture, pictures and some gorgeous jewelry.




Outside of museum.



Side view.


Another side view.


The museum is expanding and this shows the new addition.



Front showing connection to new addition.


New addition.



Trees in the parking lot- I love the trees in Sacramento!


Tower Bridge from the parking lot.