“now as the river dissolves in sea / so neptune has claimed another soul / and so with gods and men”

[larryhammer]

For Poetry Monday, another Clive James:


Japanese Maple, Clive James

Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:

Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see
So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls
On that small tree
And saturates your brick back garden walls,
So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls?

Ever more lavish as the dusk descends
This glistening illuminates the air.
It never ends.
Whenever the rain comes it will be there,
Beyond my time, but now I take my share.

My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that.That will end the game
For me, though life continues all the same:

Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes,
A final flood of colours will live on
As my mind dies,
Burned by my vision of a world that shone
So brightly at the last, and then was gone.


---L.

Subject quote from Firth Of Fifth, Genesis.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I know this one and like it a lot!

[larryhammer]

I got it from you!

[mount_oregano]

Lovely! Thank you.

[larryhammer]

De nada.

[galeni]

Apropos. Thank you.

I have one of those trees in my yard, that turns scarlet in the fall.

[larryhammer]

Our neighbor, growing up, had two, nicely symmetric in the front yard.

:waves: How are you doing?

[galeni]

Fairly well. Working at home thanks to Slack etc. Very busy organizing information for students and emailing them. Otherwise fairly good. How are you all doing?

[larryhammer]

Still, a bit more desperately, looking for work. Settling into a homeschooling routine. (The school won’t have their distance learning up for another two weeks.)

[galeni]

Best wishes on the job hunt. It's not easy at the best of times and this isn't that.

I keep seeing on Twitter people reminding all of us that these are not normal times and having our emotions seesawing is entirely normal, and we shouldn't expect "normal" reactions from ourselves or others. And now I better understand my history teacher in high school who hid in his dad's car when they were driving around during the Depression, because he had clothes and food and his dad had a job and a house. I have a (very busy) job and and house and savings and can isolate easily at will, and I feel vaguely guilty. But fortune falls where it will and we just get to cope as best we can, good or bad. But I still feel uncomfortable about it.

I've started collecting fountain pens lately -- used one through college and loved it but a coworker got me interested again (along with having more time) and I've been watching videos and collecting too much ink (such gorgeous blues and reds and browns and even blacks vary a lot). I am nowhere near trying Spencerian writing, just regular Palmer mostly, but it's fun. A couple are flexible nibs, but my favourites so far are all by Pilot out of Japan.

I follow Beth Meacham on FaceBook so I watch your sunsets and weather. Somedays I miss the desert and palm trees, but here we have fresh snow on the hills and great views and the ocean and lots and lots of humidity, which I prefer.

Best wishes and best of luck!

Caryn

[larryhammer]

Thanks.

[thawrecka]

This was my favourite of the poems I studied at uni. It's so lovely.

[larryhammer]

It is. I regret not having met it until this year.