Is it a window
if no one looks out
and no one looks in?
What’s it about?
It’s ever so pretty,
an unblinking eye,
watching the birds
and years flying by.
Maybe that’s all,
enough just to be
a fanciful brooch
on limestone lady.
More thanks to photographer S.W. Berg.
The gnarly muffin,
oven art:
happy stomach,
happy heart.
Each lump a wink
of what’s within,
promise of sugar
on the chin.
I read of COVID projects.
One of mine is the pursuit of the
perfect
gluten-free
blueberry muffin.
A worthy quest, don’t you think, dear reader?
With careful smear of clouds
does artist render
sky
to temper crash of cobalt
against my restive
eye.
More thanks to photographer S.W. Berg.
The pond as artist
nonpareil
transience its medium
mystery its spell.
There’s magic in a daydream;
it conjures up a wish
and makes it seem achieved
though it’s only real-ish.
I dream I’m leaning in
as far as I am able
amid the light and color
with my elbows on the table.
I add some blue-leg’d roosters
who don’t need social distance
and people without masks,
and I summon up resistance.
More thanks to photographer S.W. Berg
and to this bright cafe in pre-COVID Dusseldorf.
Family update, dear reader: my son is not worse and this is good!
Happiness eludes
like so much airy dust,
but I can capture mine
contemplating proper crust.
With crackly definition
it tells you what’s inside;
before your tooth can crunch
your eye is satisfied.
Kudos to the bakers
who know how to finesse
the yeasty bubbling goo
into happiness.
More thanks to photographer S.W. Berg
for this tribute to happy things
and to la Madeleine, for baking them.
And thanks to blogger Susan Rushton
for yesterday’s heads-up about Happiness Day today.
This is not to make light of our worries,
dear reader,
but sometimes we need to add a little sugar
when the yeast won’t froth.
I love graphite;
I love to draw.
Nature’s pencil
fills me with awe.
I am undecided, dear reader. Is this late winter snow a sign that Nature is cruel or kind? Indiana is at its worst now: gloppy, cold, colorless, dark. We are starved for light and color. We want watercolor but Nature gives us graphite, and, darn it, it’s beautiful.
White insists
that every crook
splintered furl
bashful nook
shriveled curl
be seen.
You are right, dear reader: you have seen this little sighing bird before. In my last post.
He has been with me in a singular way. Allow me to take you back to the late 1940s, when I was in kindergarten and my mother was lobbying the highly-respected (read: tyrannical) piano teacher in our area, who didn’t take students before they could read. I was not consulted.
Mom won. I couldn’t read but I started lessons, and I spent the next several years in tearful plea to be allowed to quit. I hated my lessons and I hated practicing. Mom said I could quit after ten years. I remember the moment because one remembers when one’s blood runs cold.
At that ten-year mark everything changed because I had my first Liszt étude: Gnomenreigen. It was the beginning of my suspicion that Liszt had fifteen fingers. Two years later, my next Liszt étude: Un Sospiro, The Sigh. I played it well. Not brilliantly, but well.
I had two dreams as a pianist: to play the original Rhapsody in Blue and to play La Campanella, The Bells, another Liszt étude. I never accomplished the first. I could only approximate the second. Alas.
But I think about the eloquence of those études. A sigh. The bells. They are there in those magical acrobatics. And I marvel at the transcendent power of a grey image, a D flat, and, yes, a tyrannical piano teacher.
My new year’s wish for you
is handsomely portrayed
upon this rosy wall
in sprightly accolade:
may dancing pigs attend you,
adventures fill your cup,
may loved ones sit beside you
wherever you sip and sup,
may your plates be heaped with kindness,
your spirit taste no hurt,
may laughter season your days,
may there always be dessert.
.
Wishing you a very happy new year, dear reader,
with muse and chocolate ever near.
Thank you for all encouragement and enlightenment in 2019!
And special new year’s thanks also
to photographer S.W. Berg for this splendid wall!
