herstory. poetry. recipes. rants.
It’s the middle of summer & my brain is mush in this muggy weather. I really hate summer. I’m a winter person. I like the cold & the dark … what can I say.
So I forgot about Saturday Caturday. Last night, Radar was waking me up just about every hour on the hour … do you think he was trying to tell me that I forgot to post another cute picture of him?
All that work tired him out. Here he is, this morning, on the dining room table.
photograph © polly macdavid
Historically, travellers were influencing the courts of Europe and introducing sonnet poetry to England, France, and Spain. At the same time in the south west of England traders were also introducing hybrid poetry influenced by Arab traders who plied their trade along the Mediterranean and the shores of Cornwall resulting in a fusion of the poetic forms. The Cornish sonnets are an example of that fusion.
Cornish Sonnet 1
Structure: Two sestets and a couplet
Meter: Loose Meter
Schema: Abacbc Dedfef AD
Example
Adagio by Ryter Roethicle
Sadness filters through me
Sitting listening and I feel
Somehow you are where I should be
Again I am not there with you
Yet everything about is real
Tell me please, what are we to do?
What is our final destiny?
Shall Fate alone be in control?
The music is an entity
But just like life it has a twist
Crescendo then a…
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Great music, great message.
The New Great Depression is shifting into high gear. It’s obvious what needs to be done: the government should give households $2000 or so a month to help them survive the economic impact of the pandemic. It’s equally obvious that Senate Republicans will not go along with such a plan. The spirit of Herbert Hoover is alive in the land. Freedom, man.
This depressing news has inspired a new subset for this feature: songs of economic hardship.
We begin with a song from my favorite Ray Charles album, The Genius Sings The Blues. He also wrote this song:
Eric Clapton covered the Charles classic in 1989. Here’s a live version from the late great teevee show Night Music with host David Sanborn on sax:
Stephen Foster wrote Hard Times Come Again No More in 1854. Here are three 21st Century versions. I suspect you’ve heard of these artists.
Finally…
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When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
William Butler Yeats
This is a 5×7 gift card that one of my best friends gave me way back in 1976. I was going through one of my depressions & she wrote words of support, telling me to “hang in there” & to “never give up”.
I have always had this card in a prominent spot over my desk. It’s not always easy to keep going but it’s good to have a constant reminder that “Persistence And Determination Alone Are Omnipotent”.
This particular card was produced by a company called S & R Creations; I have no idea if they are still in business. I do know that this particular print was quite popular. Another good friend of mine had it as a wall-sized poster.
Just today … within the last half-hour … I found out that Calvin Coolidge is the person who said these words that I have lived by since I was sixteen years old. It’s certainly true that you learn something new every single day!
So … my fellow writers … hang in there. Never give up.
It’s been a long hot week here in Buffalo & we’re all happy that the weather finally broke & it’s cooling off. Before the storm came, I was out on my back porch, putting away my porch furniture so it didn’t get all wet, & moving the plants out of the way of the wind.
Radar, of course, was upset that I didn’t include him. Here he is, in the window, watching me & complaining about being left out:
photograph © polly macdavid
Senator Tammy Duckworth is a national hero & a patriot. Tucker Carlson is a coward & a fool. Anyone who watches FOX news is an idiot. Full stop.
The ignominious Fox personality, Tucker Carlson, is known for his hateful rhetoric. The most recent target of his foul mouth is Senator Tammy Duckworth, a wheelchair bound Purple Heart veteran who lost both legs in the Iraqi War. For further information on this, please see Keith’s post on the subject. Today, in the New York Times, Senator Duckworth responds in an OpEd that I think is well worth sharing.
A little over 240 years ago, two of my ancestors put on the uniform of George Washington’s Continental Army and marched into battle, willing to die if it meant bringing their fledgling nation inches closer to independence. Centuries later, in 1992, I followed in their footsteps and joined the Army.
Even knowing how my tour in Iraq would turn out, even knowing that I’d lose both my legs in a battlefield just north of Baghdad in late 2004, I would…
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DAMN STRAIGHT
If you fought in a war for this country, and perhaps was even wounded in combat, have you asked yourself, “have I done enough?” And have you? Have you done enough in the eyes of Tucker?
Tucker Carlson doesn’t believe you have done enough. At least, not if you disagree with Tucker. Even if you lost both legs in combat, you have not earned the right to voice an opinion that’s different from Tucker’s. To people who threaten Tucker’s white privilege, he says, “We have to fight to preserve our nation & heritage.”
Fight? Tucker? Sure. Tucker has never been in combat or even in the military, but he does understand what it’s like to fight to win because he was on “Dancing with the Stars,” thankfully because he didn’t lose both legs in combat. He knows what it’s like to fight because he’s currently in court fighting to win…
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from John Fea’s blog “The Way To Improvement Leads Home”
About What Happened in Gettysburg on July 4, 2020
I would have reblogged, but was unable to.
Link here ~~~> https://thewayofimprovement.com/2020/07/05/what-happened-in-gettysburg-this-weekend/
Good advice!
silverapplequeen 