A walk in the park

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T h u m b s   U p ?   O r   D o w n ?

Green-Wood Cemetery

Brooklyn, New York

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At lunchtime I bought a huge orange
The size of it made us all laugh.
I peeled it and shared it with Robert and Dave --
They got quarters and I had a half.
And that orange it made me so happy,
As ordinary things often do
Just lately. The shopping. A walk in the park
This is peace and contentment. It’s new.
The rest of the day was quite easy.
I did all my jobs on my list
And enjoyed them and had some time over.
I love you. I’m glad I exist.

= Wendy Cope =

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Happy Monday

So far beyond regret

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W h e e l   L i f e

South Carolina State Fair

Columbia

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When Keats, at last beyond the curtain
of love’s distraction, lay dying in his room
on the Piazza di Spagna, the melody of the Bernini
Fountain “filling him like flowers,”
he held his breath like a coin, looked out
into the moonlight and thought he saw snow.
He did not suppose it was fever or the body’s
weakness turning the mind. He thought, “England!”
and there he was, secretly, for the rest
of his improvidently short life: up to his neck
in sleigh bells and the impossibly English cries
of street vendors, perfect
and affectionate as his soul.
For days the snow and statuary sang him so far
beyond regret that if now you walk rancorless
and alone there, in the piazza, the white shadow
of his last words to Severn, “Don’t be frightened,”
may enter you.

= Christopher Howell =

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Happy Friday

Drifting like colored mist

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I t   W i l l   B e   A l l   W h i t e

Rose Hill Cemetery

Macon, Georgia

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The first lily of June opens its red mouth.
All over the sand road where we walk
multiflora rose climbs trees cascading
white or pink blossoms, simple, intense
the scene drifting like colored mist.

The arrowhead is spreading its creamy
clumps of flower and the blackberries
are blooming in the thickets. Season of
joy for the bee. The green will never
again be so green, so purely and lushly

new, grass lifting its wheaty seedheads
into the wind. Rich fresh wine
of June, we stagger into you smeared
with pollen, overcome as the turtle
laying her eggs in roadside sand.

= Marge Piercy =

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Happy Thursday

So no excuses now

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S h e l t e r i n g   I n   P l a c e

Eastern Cemetery

Louisville, Kentucky

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april is a dog's dream
the soft grass is growing
the sweet breeze is blowing
the air all full of singing feels just right
so no excuses now
we're going to the park
to chase and charge and chew
and I will make you see
what spring is all about

= Marilyn Singer =

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Happy Wednesday :: Happy April