Haymaking
The living quality of
the man’s mind
stands out
and its covert assertions
for art, art, art!
painting
that the Renaissance
tried to absorb
but
it remained a wheat field
over which the
wind played
men with scythes tumbling
the wheat in
rows
the gleaners already busy
it was his own—
magpies
the patient horses no one
could take that
from him
– William Carlos Williams
http://www.aromaticcoffees.co.uk
14th September – On This Day In History
Born:
1849 Ivan Pavlov (psychology pioneer – Pavlov’s Dog)
Died:
1982 Grace Kelly (actress and Princess of Monaco)
On This Day:
1968 News and current affairs program “60 Minutes” is first broadcast
Have a good Monday, 14th September
The Turtle
Not because of his eyes,
the eyes of a bird,
but because he is beaked,
birdlike, to do an injury,
has the turtle attracted you.
He is your only pet.
When we are together
you talk of nothing else
ascribing all sorts
of murderous motives
to his least action.
You ask me
to write a poem,
should I have a poem to write,
about a turtle.
The turtle lives in the mud
but is not mud-like,
you can tell it by his eyes
which are clear.
When he shall escape
his present confinement
he will stride about the world
destroying all
with his sharp beak.
Whatever opposes him
in the streets of the city
shall go down.
Cars will be overturned.
And upon his back
shall ride,
to his conquests,
my Lord,
you!
You shall be master!
In the beginning
there was a great tortoise
who supported the world.
Upon him
All ultimately
rests.
Without him
nothing will stand.
He is all wise
and can outrun the hare.
In the night
his eyes carry him
to unknown places.
He is your friend.
– William Carlos Williams
http://www.aromaticcoffees.co.uk
13th September – On This Day In History
Born:
1944 Peter Cetera (musician)
Died:
1996 Tupac Shakur (rapper)
On This Day:
1979 Venda is granted independence by South Africa (although only South Africa recognises Venda as an independent country)
Have a good Sunday, 13th September
Canal Bank Walk
Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me, that I do
The will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,
Grow with nature again as before I grew.
The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third
Party to the couple kissing on an old seat,
And a bird gathering materials for the nest for the Word
Eloquently new and abandoned to its delirious beat.
O unworn world enrapture me, encapture me in a web
Of fabulous grass and eternal voices by a beech,
Feed the gaping need of my senses, give me ad lib
To pray unselfconsciously with overflowing speech
For this soul needs to be honoured with a new dress woven
From green and blue things and arguments that cannot be proven.
– Patrick Kavanagh
http://www.aromaticcoffees.co.uk
12th September – On This Day In History
Born:
1881 Richard Gatling (inventor of the first machine gun)
Died:
1977 Steve Biko (black South African leader and activist)
On This Day:
1609 Henry Hudson discovers the Hudson River
Have a good Saturday, 12th September
A Star
Beauty was that
Far vanished flame,
Call it a star
Wanting better name.
And gaze and gaze
Vaguely until
Nothing is left
Save a grey ghost-hill.
Here wait I
On the world’s rim
Stretching out hands
To Seraphim.
– Patrick Kavanagh
http://www.aromaticcoffees.co.uk
11th September – On This Day In History
Born:
1971 Johnny Vegas (British comedian)
Died:
1971 Nikita Krushev (Soviet premier)
On This Day:
2001 Major terrorist attack on the USA – involving hijacked aircraft. Nearly 3000 people are killed
Have a good Friday, 11 September
My Father Played The Melodeon
My father played the melodeon
Outside at our gate,
There were stars in the morning east
And they danced to his music.
Across the world bogs his melodeon called
To Lennons and Callans
As I pulled on my trousers in a hurry
I knew some strange thing had happened.
Outside in the cow-house my mother
Made the music of milking,
The light of the stable-lamp was a star
And the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle.
A water-hen screeched in the bog,
Mass-going feet
Crunched the wafer-ice on the polt-holes –
Somebody wistfully twisted a bellow’s wheel.
My child-poet picked out the letters
On Time’s black stone,
In silver the wonder of a Christmas townland
The winking glitter of a frosty dawn.
Cassiopea was over
Cassidy’s hanging hill.
I looked and three whin bushes rode acoss
The horizon – the Three Wise Kings.
My father played the melodeon,
My mother milked the cows
And I had a prayer like a white rose pinned
On the Virgin Mary’s blouse.
– Patrick Kavanagh
http://www.aromaticcoffees.co.uk
10th September – On This Day In History
Born:
1929 Arnold Palmer (golf legend)
Died:
1991 Jack Crawford (Australian tennis player)
On This Day:
1967 Gibraltar votes overwhelmingly in favour of staying part of Britain
Have a good Thursday, 10th September
aromaticcoffees 