Month: April 2007

  • Fine Art Friday - Giotto

    Crucifix by Giotto

  • Rise and Sing

    Easter
    Wings

     
    Lord, who createdst
    man in wealth and store,
    Though foolishly he
    lost the same,
    Decaying more and
    more
    Till he
    became
    Most
    poor:
    With
    Thee
    O let me
    rise
    As larks,
    harmoniously,
    And sing this day
    Thy victories:
    Then shall the fall
    further the flight in me.


    My tender age in
    sorrow did begin:
    And still with
    sicknesses and shame
    Thou did’st so
    punish sin,
    That I
    became
    Most
    thin.
    With
    thee
    Let me
    combine
    And feel thy
    victory:
    For, if I imp my
    wing on thine,
    Affliction shall
    advance the flight in me.

    ~ George Herbert

  • Wednesday Words

    Gavin the Great (my 2 year old grandson) loves Pooh.
    His dad and mum are reading
    The House at Pooh Corner     by A.A. Milne to him. 

    This week the newest addition to his word-hoard is:

                       Pooh eats hon  ney.

    Since he prefixes every sentence with a string of staccato "no" s
    in the sense of wait-wait-wait, it comes out like this:

     No, no, no, no-no (pause) POOH (pause)  EATS (pause ) HONEY.

    I declare, it is as much fun to watch him learn to talk
    as it was to watch him learn to walk.

    Here are some new-to-me words I've come across this week.  Check out Seasonal Soundings' fabulous Wednesday Word entry.

    nugatory               trifling, insignificant
    scutage                 a tax paid in lieu of military service in feudal times
    tendentious            having or showing a definite tendency or bias
    acedia                   spiritual torpor and apathy; ennui
    metempsychosis     transmigration of the soul
    contumacious         stubbornly perverse or rebellious

    As I wrote yesterday, I'm loving
    Old English poetry and its word pictures.
    Do you notice the space in the middle?
    It's called a caesura, which means
    a pause in a line of verse. These lines
    are from St. Andrew's Voyage to Mermedonia.

    Sage of counsel     he began to speak       
    Wise of wit     he unlocked his word-hoard

    Your turn....do you have a word, new or not that delights you?
    Please, unlock your word-hoard in the comments!

  • Awarding a Burden of Woe

    I am held captive, wrapped in the beautiful robe of Old English poetry. 

    This morning I read Doer's Lament.  Doer ("the brave one") is a court-singer who has been replaced by a new minstrel. He rehearses historic adversities and ends each stanza with the refrain

    That evil ended.    So also may this!

    Here is one section:

      He who knows sorrow,     despoiled of joys,
    Sits heavy of mood;    to his heart it seemeth
    His measure of misery     meeteth no end.
    Yet well may he think     how oft in this world
    The wise Lord varies     His ways to men,
    Granting wealth and honor     to many an eorl,
    To others awarding     a burden of woe.

    Do you like riddles?  Here is one for you entitled Book-Moth.  It foreshadows Hamlet's humor.

    A moth ate a word.     To me it seemed
    A marvelous thing     when I learned the wonder
    That a worm had swallowed,     in darkness stolen,
    The song of a man,     his glorious sayings,
    A great man's strength;     and the thieving guest
    Was no whit the wiser     for the words it ate.

  • Warrior of Joy

    Well, it's April.  The word comes from the Latin aperire "to open".  It's when buds and blossoms open.  Sometimes hearts open to love in this lovely month. 

    April is also designated as Poetry Month.  Although I don't intend to post a poem every day, I had to share this one which just makes me giggle.  Doesn't it just capture the euphoria of fresh love?  Can't you see this "changed man" singing, striding, laughing, pulling weeds?

    The Changed Man
    by Robert Phillips

    If you were to hear me imitating Pavarotti
    in
    the shower every morning, you'd know
    how much you have changed my
    life.

    If you were to see me stride across the park,
    waving to
    strangers, then you would know
    I am a changed man—like
    Scrooge

    awakened from his bad dreams feeling feather-
    light,
    angel-happy, laughing the father
    of a long line of bright laughs—

    "It
    is still not too late to change my life!"
    It is changed. Me, who felt
    short-changed.
    Because of you I no longer hate my body.

    Because of you
    I buy new clothes.
    Because of you I'm a warrior of joy.
    Because of you and
    me. Drop by

    this Saturday morning and discover me
    fiercely pulling
    weeds gladly, dedicated
    as a born-again gardener.

    Drop by on
    Sunday—I'll Turtlewax
    your sky-blue sports car, no sweat. I'll greet

    enemies with a handshake, forgive debtors

    with a papal largesse. It's
    all because
    of you. Because of you and me,
    I've become one changed man.