praising grace

Last night we were talking about Mother's Day. Dad got out a picture of his Mum, my Grandma, Grace to her friends, and spoke a little of his deep affection for her.

On Gifts For Grace
by Bernadette Mayer

I saw a great teapot
I wanted to get you this stupendous
100% cotton royal blue and black checked shirt,
There was a red and black striped one too
Then I saw these boots at a place called Chuckles
They laced up to about two inches above your ankles
All leather and in red, black or purple
It was hard to have no money today
I won't even speak about the possible flowers and kinds of lingerie
All linen and silk with not-yet-perfumed laces
Brilliant enough for any of the Graces
Full of luxury, grace notes, prosperousness and charm
But I can only praise you with this poem—
Its being is the same as the meaning of your name.

happy birthday evangeline part one

this poem is for evangeline because she loves the sea and she brings us shells and stones and little woodland trinkets.

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles, and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles: and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

by e. e. cummings

happy birthday mum

Happy Birthday to you
Thanks for all that you do
You look after us well
And make a great stew

Just in case there is still any doubt, I am NOT a poet but once, for an online course I was facilitating, I wrote a note poem about my Mum.

Sometimes when we came home from school--when we were much older than we are in the picture below of course--my Mum would be out. She would leave us a note to tell us where she was. My mother always wrote very short notes. Usually they were just 2 lines. Something like:

Bank Street.
        Mum.

Here is my poem:

Travelling Mum

Bank Street Mum
Market Mum
Downtown Mum
Art Centre Mum

So many Mums?

But a Mum who always
comes home to become

Kitchen Mum
Garden Mum
Front Porch Mum
Laundry Room Mum

and Bedroom Mum
tucking us in before sleep.

See the poem on the course page here.

the perigee and the full moon

Girls and boys come out to play,
The moon doth shine as bright as day;
Leave your supper, and leave your sleep,
And come to your playmates in the street;
Come with a whoop, come with a call,
Come with a good will, or come not at all;
Up the ladder and down the wall,
A halfpenny loaf will serve us all.

Big moon rising...

The full moon that rises Friday evening will be the biggest and brightest in the sky in 15 years, say astronomers.

That's because the moon will be closer to the Earth than usual. The moon travels around the Earth in an elliptical orbit, meaning it has moments where it is relatively close, (its perigee) and moments when it is farther away, (its apogee).

But it's a relatively rare occurrence when the moon reaches its perigee during a full moon, as it will Friday night. It hasn't happened since 1993.

The moon will be about 356,567 kilometres from the Earth on Friday night, about 30,000 km closer than normal.

As a result, the U.S. space agency NASA said it will appear about 14 per cent larger and 30 per cent brighter than it normally does. The effect will be particularly pronounced as it rises and sets, due to an optical illusion that makes the moon appear larger as it nears the horizon.

The moon's close proximity will also produce stronger than usual tides.

CBC News, Friday, December 12, 2008 | 1:32 PM ET

for guy