February 5, 2005
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SATURDAY POEM I ADMIRE
(See sidebar for others)When I Heard the Learned Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer,
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,
and measure them,
When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with
much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,
Till rising and gliding out I wander’d off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.Walt Whitman, 1819-92 (One of my all-time favorite poems.)
Deep Thought: “I think a good novel would be where a bunch of men on a ship are looking for a whale. They look and look, but you know what? They never find him. And you know why they never find him? It doesn’t say. The book leaves it up to you, the reader, to decide. Then, at the very end, there’s a page that you can lick and it tastes like Kool-Aid.”
Today I am grateful for: Fingernails
Guess the Movie: “I’d always wanted to be a writer, but there’s a big difference between writing a magazine article and writing a book. I know I wrote a magazine article. Everything I ever wanted to know about serial killers fit nicely on those four pages. The article got me a book deal with a little cash up front, but between the rent and the convertible the advance was gone. I owed a book and I was stuck. What little I knew about seial killers I learned in a university library. The only thing I knew for certain was that people didn’t kill each other in libraries.” Answer: Kalifornia, 1993.
Winner: thenarrator.
Senate OKs Gonzales as Attorney General
Democrats Register Significant Protest with 35 No Votes
by Zachary Coile
WASHINGTON — The Senate confirmed Alberto Gonzales as the nation’s first Latino attorney general Thursday, but Democrats registered a significant protest vote over his role as White House counsel in developing a widely condemned administration policy on the use of torture. (Rest of article here.)
End of Day: 8:47 pm
+ = Made it through two basketball games, a play, and a potluck and survived.
– = Too tired to think.
Comments (10)
Ah Whitman. and this one magnificent.
The Deep Thought today is just right. and, I’m scratching my head, but perhaps Kalifornia?
That is a great poem with a great message. One of the people on my team at the office is a distant relative of Whitman.
Kalifornia yes! Amazing you got that one, so obscure.
Awesome poem…reminds me of the long-winded blow hards who know everything about everything but experience none of it. Hey that’s not me, I tell ya it’s not me.
So…I guess science is evocative and poetry provocative….And, certainly, this is a provocative poem! So rare that I get to experience the grandeur of the starlit night sky…too many artificial lights. I feel cheated!
There’s a lotta Walt Whitman that I don’t care for. I can’t make it through “I sing the body electric” I can’t finish that one about Lincoln and lilacs, either. I feel like I’m reading some kind of alien code.
Wonderful poem. And, by the way, I’ve found my path. I went back with the dogs and found where the path picked up across the bridge. It’s the perfect distance and I’ll be able to walk it when I’m old and feeble. There’s no mud to contend with and the leash laws won’t be an issue, although I bring one and leash up the puppy when I see anyone.
That’s the first time I have read Whitman… I like that one!
Bye mom, “see” you when you get back!