wednesday poetry break

As one near & dear often says, “there are times for kicking it old school.”

Tonight, I thought I’d bring back an “old school” poem… remember William Wordsworth. You know, the old dead white guy poet from English 101. I love him… I think sometimes after college we throw away those guys with our used textbooks. This poem brings me to Bicentennial Gardens, lying next to my weeping willow as the creek meanders by on a summer afternoon or maybe to Pearson’s Falls in Saluda, NC — one of the most sensory places on earth.

The Daffodils by William Wordsworth
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed–and gazed–but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

where does it take you?

Kickin’ It Music: Moondance (Van Morrison); La Vie en Rose (Edith Piaf); King of the Road (Roger Miller or Rufus Wainwright); Hey Good Lookin‘ (Hank Williams); High Hopes (Frank Sinatra); Shepard Boy (Louis Prima & Keely Smith); Sentimental Journey (Renee Olstead); Whale of a Tale (Kirk Douglas — from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea — I know); Heat of the Moment (Asia); Lips Like Sugar (Echo and the Bunnymen); Walk Like an Egyptian (the Bangles); My Blue Heaven (Coleman Hawkins); Debussy’s Clair de Lune (the 5 Browns); Tainted Love (the Pussycat Dolls version is truly cool); and Tangled Up in Blue (Bob Dylan). Oh, and if old school can be stretched to someone you knew in school — take the time to check out No Love for Me (Last Stone Cast) — pretty awesome Jon and company!

I have a simple philosophy. Fill what’s empty. Empty what’s full. Scratch where it itches. –> Alice Roosevelt Longworth

Take care,
Aly