Thoughts from Crow Cottage (My Main Blog.)

crowbelle's Diaryland Diary

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Listen To The Mockingbird

LISTEN TO THE MOCKINGBIRD

"Patch Work"

- by Thom Gunn

�The bird book says, common,conspicuous.

This time of year all day

The mockingbird

Sweeps at a moderate height

Above the densely flowering

Suburban plots of May,

The characteristic shine

Of white patch cutting through the curved ash-gray

That bars each wing;

Or it appears to us

Perched on the post that ends a washing-line

To sing there, as in flight,

A repertoire of songs that it has heard

- From other birds, and others of its kind �

Which it has recombined

And made its own, especially one

With a few separate plangent notes begun

Then linking trills as a long confident run

Toward the immediate distance,

Repeated all day through

In the sexual longings of the spring

(Which also are derivative)

And almost mounting to

Fulfilment, thus to give

Such muscular vigour to a note so strong,

Fulfilment that does not destroy

The original, still-unspent

Longings that led it where it went

But links them in a bird�s inhuman joy

Lifted upon the wing

Of that patched body, that insistence

Which fills the gardens up with headlong song.�

- From "The Man with Night Sweats" - 1992

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First of all, I want to thank John Bailey for introducing me to Thom Gunn: Thanks John!

I like reading poetry, some, but had never heard of him before John spoke of Gunn�s recent death, and of his sadness about it. I found a book, �Thom Gunn [Collected Poems]" on-line and it arrived recently. It is a lovely, small but thick (almost 500 pages) book with a great selection of Gunn�s poetry. The dust jacket says �In his [Collected Poems] Thom Gunn has assembled all the work he considers worthy from throughout his remarkable career.�

Not having ever read his work before, I am only now dipping my toes into the waters of his words, and yes, John, he is interesting.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The poem above, about the mockingbird, hit close to my heart.

As in many hundreds, thousands, even millions of neighborhoods all over the world, our little neighborhood has its own resident mockingbird.

Spring isn�t spring until we hear his persistent and seemingly non-stop songs � poached from all of the other birds in the air and trees � he livens up a quiet day here.

It is thrilling to hear him when he first starts in with his songs. He has arrived at Crow Cottage recently, and I am looking forward to many days of his repertoire. However, there always comes a point in his search for a mate when, one by one, all of our friends and neighbors are lying awake on a warm spring night, with the windows open, unable to sleep � while Mr. Mockingbird goes the whole night through singing his songs, looking for the perfect Mrs. Mockingbird.

�All right already!� I will hear some faint voice utter, from behind a darkened window� �Go to sleep for pete�s sake!�

We annually endure several nights of this non-stop oratorio from Mr. M-bird � and I have to admit that I am one who frets about not getting enough sleep in order to be fresh the following morning for my work. But still, I do look forward to these times in the spring.

And it wouldn�t be Spring, without that yattering, chattering, singing fool � the mockingbird!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It�s been a while since I�ve done a journal entry. And I�m not sure how long it may be before I do another one. However, this time, what I�ve done is type out the entry on my computer � something new for me.

I normally use my WebTV (or MSNTV) unit for my personal internet work, such as emails, journals, and browsing. I make and edit all my web pages and journals from WebTV, but using it is a bit slower and more tedious than simply opening up a file, typing out what I want to say, editing as I go, and just saving it on the computer. Maybe this is the way I should go from now on. I feel more at home using the computer keyboard anyway, since my entire working life is spent sitting here typing at lightning speed (I wish!) as a medical transcriptionist.

OK. For now, I�ll try it this way.

My apologies to all of you on my �notify list� for not writing more often, but to be honest, I lead a life that is pretty uninteresting, for the most part, and trying to find a topic you might all enjoy is challenging.

Although who am I to say if you will enjoy my topics or not?

What is boring to me, might be thrilling to you!

Or not!

Whatever � I�ll make an attempt to do better.

To those of you who write a regular daily journal, and seem to fill up the page each and every day (or so) with intelligent, funny, sometimes sad, but always interesting chatter, I commend you. I am not a writer, nor will I ever profess to be one, though I have written some small things in my life, even to the point of being a �published poet�!

Yes! You heard right!

Can you believe that?

I wrote some poety back before Paul and I were married � I was at the end of my 10 years of single-dom (well, �divorce-dom is more like it). I was intellectually and emotionally torn about where my life was going. I swore I never wanted to re-marry, after the first marriage failed so miserably. My guard was down, and I was enjoying the little things in life, like getting up at the crack of dawn, dressing for work, and driving over to Marblehead (5 miles away) to Fort Sewall � to sit on the bench overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, with my camera sometimes, but always with a notebook and pen, and watching the sunrise on good days, the fog on foggy days, or the rain on rainy days. Every day was so different there, but always thrilling.

I�d write poetry about what I was seeing in the harbour, about my deep feelings for that spot on the bench where I had come for so many years in my life to sit and reflect on things.

Anyway, to make a long story short, my ex-husband owned and published �Marblehead Magazine�, and when he read my poems, he published them on his �Poetry Page� in the magazine. Unfortunately, that magazine is now an on-line publication, but the original, physical glossy-paged Marblehead Magazines were very well done, and my poems, The Fort, and Fog, appeared in two issues.

So that was it.

Not really any big deal, but published, nevertheless!

Better stop now. I�m probably wearing out my welcome by this point in time!

Have a grand Monday, if that's at all possible. And if not, my condolences to you, and prayers that the week will improve for you!

Cheers,

~Bex~

10:05 am - 17 May 2004

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