Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost; green thrives; the crops don't fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.
A people sometimes will step back from war;
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough, that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.
Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss, sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.
Poetry helps in time of stress
Say not the Struggle nought Availeth
Say not the struggle nought availeth,
The labour and the wounds are vain,
The enemy faints not, nor faileth,
And as things have been they remain.
If hopes were dupes, fears may be liars;
It may be, in yon smoke concealed,
Your comrades chase e'en now the fliers,
And, but for you, possess the field.
For while the tired waves, vainly breaking
Seem here no painful inch to gain,
Far back through creeks and inlets making,
Comes silent, flooding in, the main.
And not by eastern windows only,
When daylight comes, comes in the light,
In front the sun climbs slow, how slowly,
But westward, look, the land is bright.
Cranes On The Move
First week of March. South winds, warmer temperatures, melting snow, thawing ponds and lakes. I first heard the cranes’ haunting cry (here in southern Wisconsin) on March 5 when the land was still locked in winter. But by March 8, hundreds were streaming overhead, all morning long. Some will settle here, more will continue north across Wisconsin and into Minnesota and Canada.
How many cranes can you count in this photo?
Winter Mystery?
What is this? Who was here? What happened? (Possible answers on Ecological Empathy page.
