Words: Dickinson

I think the hemlock likes to stand

Upon a marge of snow;

It suits his own austerity,

And satisfies an awe

That men must slake in wilderness,

Or in the desert, cloy, --

An instinct for the hoar, the bald,

Lapland's necessity.

The hemlock's nature thrives on cold;

The gnash of northern winds

Is sweetest nurturment to him,

His best Norwegian wines.

To satin races he is nought;

But children on the Don

Beneath his tabernacles play,

And Dnieper wrestlers run.

Emily Dickinson

Complete Poems (1924)

Photo by Neacia Pacheco

Words: First bites

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food."

George Bernard Shaw

Words: Spring

April is the crudest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land,

mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.

T.S. Eliot

Words: It sometimes happens...

It sometimes happens, even in the best families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.

Elinor Goulding Smith

Words: Frosty morning

Day after day, throughout the winter,

We hardened ourselves to live by bluest reason

In a world of wind and frost...

Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)

Words: I Know What Love Is

A guest submission, from Judi Liebaert, who liked all the apple-themed posts from this fall... lovely poem. Thanks Judi!

I Know What Love Is

Tucked in the corner of my front porch,
Hidden from the cool wind,
Drinking in the autumn sun,
Becca sits as close as she can get,
Eating her apple.

Her small mouth opens wide around the rosy flesh.
Her nose wrinkles with the effort of biting.
She knows I am watching and says,
"I love you, Mom."

How can I possibly want more
Than a warm porch in the autumn sun
And sweet, rosy-skinned apples
To share with Becca?

By Judi Liebaert
From: If We'd Wanted Quiet We Would Have Raised Goldfish - Poems for Parents. Meadowbrook Press, Distributed by Simon & Schuster, New York, 1994.

We have a new baby

We now have a little boy (Nikolas Herbert Rubin) in addition to our 3 year old daughter (Annabelle Cathleen)! He was born November 15, shortly after midnight, and weighed in at 8lbs 6oz.

So yes, life is beautiful, but it's also exhausting!