I really do believe that poetry and music can soothe and heal. Do a little Quarantine Dance:)
Ellespeth
There’s Hope
My husband’s younger brother (aged 74) committed suicide the other day. There seems no end to the pain and the trauma this pandemic has brought.
Ellespeth
Hard Times Come Again No More
Author: Stephen Foster
Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor
There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears
Oh hard times, come again no more
It’s the song, the sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh hard times, come again no more
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay
There are frail forms fainting at the door
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times, come again no more
It’s the song, the sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh hard times, come again no more
There’s a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away
With a worn heart whose better days are o’er
Though her voice would be merry, it’s sighing all the day
Oh hard times, come again no more
It’s the song, the sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh hard times, come again no more
It’s a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave
It’s a wail that is heard upon the shore
It’s a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times, come again no more
It’s the song, the sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh hard times, come again no more
Ring Out, Wild Bells (Tennyson)
“Ring Out, Wild Bells”
(1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
So …
This Is What You Get When…
1. You can’t breathe because of smoke from the wildfires and
2. You’re housebound 5 months because of the pandemic and
2. Your brothers are looking Hurricane Laura in the eye and
3. You have a president who doesn’t believe in climate change or medical experts and
4. You text your sister, in Mississippi, asking what’s up with your brothers and
5. She replies:
6. So you assume all is well.
Ellespeth ♥
At What Expense Victorious
At What Expense Victorious
Sometimes
opposites are true
like when you say
you don’t think you can take anymore
and then
Surprise!
you do
in spades.
Ellespeth
The Pineapple Dilemma – A Poem
Santa Clara County, CA (day 114 of mostly stay at home)
The Pineapple Dilemma
That
mysterious masked stranger
six feet ahead of me
in the grocery check out line
has those blue puppy dog eyes
some women
like me
could fall for
and
I’d start a conversation with him
except for the pineapple
flown in from Hawaii
prominently displayed in his basket.
Ordinarily
the perfect time
for a discussion on carbon footprints.
Luckily
his girlfriend appears
saving me from yet another lock-down decision.
Ellespeth
Free Association’s Path – A Poem
We do not need a president ripping open already raw healing wounds and leading us to one side or the other. Well I don’t know about you but I sure as hell don’t need it.
Right now
I just want a Sugar Daddy
to tell me
there, there Baby
everything’s gonna be alright
and I wanna be lost
in some space and time
where I still believed
that could ever be true.
Ellespeth
When Selfies Were Rocket Science
We are working on our photo album. This one, of my husband and his big brother, should win a prize.
Circa 1950: How To Take A Selfie
1) Wait for Mom to go to the grocery
2) Have brother help you take down the bathroom medicine cabinet mirror
3) Bring that down to the back yard and prop it up
4) Get the camera
5) Lay on the ground. Face the mirror. Take your picture.
Ellespeth ♥
2020
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” – George Orwell 1984
Ellespeth
Just Do It Dammit
Santa Clara County, CA -Three Months Crazy – but healthy
When I was 13 my parents asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday. Jimmy Durante was going to have a dinner show at the The Roosevelt Hotel. I adored this guy. Every time I saw him on TV I smiled. So…I told them I wanted to see his show. And…they took me. And…he came to the table and had a piece of my birthday cake. I was beyond happy!
Ellespeth ♥
