Anxiously awaiting the blooming of our Amaryllis bulb. Maybe in the next few days???
Amaryllis Blooming
Cold in Minnesota
A poem by Stephen Dunn
In Minnesota the serious cold arrived
like no cold I’d previously experienced,
an in-your-face honesty to it, a clarity
that always took me by surprise.
On blizzard nights with wires down
or in the dead-battery dawn
the cold made good neighbors of us all,
made us moral because we might need
something moral in return, no hitchhiker
left on the road, not even some frozen
strange-looking stranger turned away
from our door. After a spell of it,
I remember, zero would feel warm—
people out for walks, jackets open,
ice fishermen in the glory
of their shacks moved to Nordic song.
The cold took over our lives,
lived in every conversation, as compelling
as local dirt or local sport.
If bitten by it, stranded somewhere,
a person would want
to lie right down in it and sleep.
Come February, some of us needed
to scream, hurt ourselves, divorce.
Once, on Route 23, thirty below,
my Maverick seized up, and a man
with a blanket and a candy bar, a man
for all weather, stopped and drove me home.
It was no big thing to him, the savior.
Just two men, he said, in the same cold
Blue Boat Home
Blue Boat Home – by Peter Mayer
Though below me, I feel no motion Standing on these mountains and plains Far away from the rolling ocean Still my dryland heart can say I’ve been sailing all my life now Never harbor or port have I known The wide Universe is the ocean I travel And the Earth is my Blue Boat Home. Sun, my sail and moon, my rudder As I ply the starry sea Leaning over the edge in wonder Casting questions into the deep Drifting here with my ship’s companions All we kindred pilgrim souls Making our way by the lights of the heavens In our beautiful Blue Boat Home. I give thanks to the waves upholding me Hail the great winds urging me on Greet the infinite sea before me Sing the sky my sailor’s song I was born upon the fathoms Never harbor or port have I known The wide universe is the ocean I travel And the Earth is my Blue Boat Home.Please visit Peter’s website from the link I provided above. He’s a great singer/songwriter, worthy anyone’s time.