Friday Miscellany

It's been a weird week - very busy at work, a meeting with my honors' advisor which actually went very well, and a mini-spending spree. I took out the plastic and went on Amazon. Today my purchases arrived - more music. I now have Belafonte at Carnegie Hall (1959) which has what I think is the best ever recording of Danny Boy. And just to further confirm that I'm an aging hippie, the rest of the music purchase was the 4 CD set of the Woodstock 25th anniversary collection. (Peace and love, baby)

I was going to tell you all a little about the fundamental theorem of arithmetic, but I've decided to save it for later this weekend when the psychology stuff begins to drive me around the bend. Instead I have for you more of my favorite poetry.

In my junior and senior years of high school, I had an English teacher who (probably inadvertently) taught me to learn about the things I love and do it with passion. He loved poetry. He'd act out a poem as he recited and get incredibly excited. One day he got a little carried away. He had one of those old wooden office chairs that twirled around and was on wheels. In a fit of excitement, he threw himself into the chair, pushed off from the desk, and flew across the room, through the open door, and slammed across the hall almost taking out the principal. In the spring, he read e.e. cummings' poem "in Just-" and jumped in imaginary mud puddles.

So, to celebrate the arrival of spring (finally), here is the poem I most associate with spring.

in Just-

in Just-spring
when the world is mud-
luscious the
little lame baloonman


whistles far and wee


and
eddyandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring


when the world is puddle-wonderful


the queer
old
baloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing


from hop-scotch and jump-rope and


it's
spring
and
the
goat-footed


baloonMan whistles
far
and
wee

e.e. cummings

taggy taggy: poetry, misc life woes