October 18, 2004

• MONDAY BOOK
  Still not ready to return to reviewing Grace and Grit, so instead here’s a poem from an ancient little book that was in my parents’ house when I grew up and now lives on my shelves. Riley-Child Rhymes with Hoosier Pictures by James Whitcomb Riley was published first in 1890 and this particular edition of mine in 1905. I spent many a happy time listening to my father read my personal favorite, The Bear Story, which is too long to print here, and others including this one which is good for Halloween. When was the last time you read a poem aloud to a child?

  The Nine Little Goblins

  THEY all climbed up on a high board-fence—
      Nine little Goblins, with green-glass eyes—
  Nine little Goblins that had no sense,
      And couldn’t tell coppers from cold mince pies;
          And they all climbed up on the fence, and sat—
          And I asked them what they were staring at.
  And the first one said, as he scratched his head
      With a queer little arm that reached out of his ear
  And rasped its claws in his hair so red—
      ”This is what this little arm is fer!”
          And he scratched and stared, and the next one said,
          ”How on earth do you scratch your head ?”
  And he laughed like the screech of a rusty hinge—
      Laughed and laughed till his face grew black;
  And when he clicked, with a final twinge
      Of his stifling laughter, he thumped his back
          With a fist that grew on the end of his tail
          Till the breath came back to his lips so pale.
  And the third little Goblin leered round at me—
      And there were no lids on his eyes at all—
  And he clucked one eye, and he says, says he,
      ”What is the style of your socks this fall ?”
          And he clapped his heels—and I sighed to see
          That he had hands where his feet should be.
  Then a bald-faced Goblin, gray and grim,
      Bowed his head, and I saw him slip
  His eyebrows off, as I looked at him,
      And paste them over his upper lip;
          And then he moaned in remorseful pain—
          ”Would—Ah, would I’d me brows again!”
  And then the whole of the Goblin band
      Rocked on the fence-top to and fro,
  And clung, in a long row, hand in hand,
      Singing the songs that they used to know—
          Singing the songs that their grandsires sung
          In the goo-goo days of the Goblin-tongue.
  And ever they kept their green-glass eyes
      Fixed on me with a stony stare—
  Till my own grew glazed with a dread surmise,
      And my hat whooped up on my lifted hair,
          And I felt the heart in my breast snap to
          As you’ve heard the lid of a snuff-box do.
  And they sang “You’re asleep! There is no board-fence,
      And never a Goblin with green-glass eyes!—
  “Tis only a vision the mind invents
      After a supper of cold mince-pies,—
  And you’re doomed to dream this way,” they said,—
  “And you sha’n't wake up till you’re clean plum dead!”
  

  ---

  Deep Thought: If you’re in a war, instead of throwing a hand grenade at some guys, throw one of those little baby-type pumpkins. Maybe it’ll make everyone think of how crazy war is, and while they’re thinking, you can throw a real grenade.
  Today I am grateful for: Monday Yoga class
  Guess the Movie: “I’ll be all around in the dark – I’ll be everywhere. Wherever you can look – wherever there’s a fight, so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. I’ll be there in the way guys yell when they’re mad. I’ll be there in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry and they know supper’s ready, and when people are eatin’ the stuff they raise and livin’ in the houses they built – I’ll be there, too” Answer: Grapes of Wrath, 1940. Winner: merrow_mistral
  Polls Today: Kerry 253/Bush 247. EVP: “Kerry is continuing to get a lift from the third debate. He has now overcome Bush’s 5% lead in Wisconsin and moved a hair ahead there, 48% to 47% according to a Rasmussen poll conducted Oct. 14. Kerry is now once again leading in the electoral college, but neither candidate has the required 270 electoral votes because Florida, Iowa, and New Hampshire are exactly tied.”
  End of Day:9:08 pm
  + = Two hours of great exercise this morning.
  - = My furnace is making a weird ticking noise since the yearly tune-up guy was here.

  • 8:51 am
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