Hospital

by Marianne Bouruch

It seem so--

I don't know.  It seems

as if the end of the world

has never happened in here.

No smoke, no

dizzy flaring except

those candles you can light

in the chapel for a quarter.

They last maybe an hour

before burning out.

                                   And in this room

where we wait, I see

them pass, the surgical folk--

nurses, doctors, the guy who hangs up

the blood drop--ready for lunch,

their scrubs still starched into wrinkles,

a cheerful green or pale blue,

and the end of a joke, something

about a man who though he could be--

what?   I lose it

in their brief laughter.

Today is my 26th birthday.

I went to the coast, again, on Monday.  The above picture is my attempt to show just how gosh darn excited I was to be there.  I think my excitement was captured pretty well.

So, birthdays.  Am I the only one who finds having a birthday slightly stressful?  There is all this pressure from other people who ask you incessantly just what you want for your birthday, how you want to celebrate, if you want a party. I don't handle this well.  Honestly I don't want a huge fuss made, thank you.  All I really want to do is have dinner with my parents.  This might make me a lame 26 year old, but there it is.

Here's a song I love! I've been humming it for about a week now. And it's as old as I am! Yay!  Oh, Billy Joel how I love your music.

Sonnets From the Portuguese 43:

How Do I Love Thee?

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's 

Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints,--I love the with the breath,

Smiles, tears, or all my life!--and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Friendship After Love

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

After the fierce midsummer all ablaze

   Has burned itself to ashes, and expires

   In the intensity of its own fires,

There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days

Crowned with the calms of peace, but sad with haze.

   So after love has led us, till he tires

   Of his own throes, and torments, and desires,

Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze,

He beckons us to follow, and across

   Cool verdant vales we wander free from care.

   Is it a touch of frost lies in the air?

Why are we haunted with a sense of loss?

We do not wish the pain back, or the heat;

And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete.

After Love

Maxine Kumin

Afterwards, the compromise.

Bodies resume their boundaries.

These legs, for instance, mine.

Your arms you take back in.

Spoons of our fingers, lips

admit their ownership.

The bedding yawns, a door

blows aimlessly ajar

and overhead, a plane

singsongs, coming down.

Nothing is changed, except

there was a moment when

the wolf, the mongering wolf

who stands outside the self

lay lightly down, and slept.

and then I found $20!!!!

Go visit http://loveyoubut.com/ .

I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ

Walt Whitman

I heard you solemn-sweet pipes of the organ as last Sunday

     morn I pass'd the church,

Winds of autumn, as I walk'd the woods at dusk I heard your

     long-stretch'd sighs up above so mournful,

I heard the perfect Italian tenor singing at the opera, I heard

     the soprano in the midst of the quartet singing;

Heart of my love! you too I heard murmuring low through

    one of the wrists around my head,

Heard the pulse of you when all was still ringing little bells

    last night under my ear.

Slumdog Millionaire

Go see Slumdog Millionaire.  You won't be disappointed.  I promise you.  I really do.

I saw in on Friday night and am still caught up in the emotion of the film.  The New York Times called it "one of the most upbeat stories about living in hell imaginable."  So true. I was so overwhelmed with every emotion imaginable after seeing the film I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, or to simply do both.  

Amazing film.  Amazing.