L'aura del Campo

The Bright. Ridvan (Paradise)

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The Bright

         [on my birthday]

You wake me with your sunshine
minutes after I have stumbled out of bed still groggy,
eager to hear your laughter, your voice confirm
that this year of nightmares has passed
while worlds still rotate around that orb
that envies you your brightness.
And all day long
I envision you
anchoring me to realities
that only the loss of all-that-is
could open doors to what-can-be.
I am jealous of your certainty,
your calm demeanor,
glad that choices I made years ago
have brought us closer
than the thousand miles between us. Still,
on bright clear days
when Kansan warmth caresses skin and soul,
I'd trade it all for ice and snow,
for three more minutes of your laughter
sweeping my gloom away.

Kåre Enga

[164.41]

Elizabeth Bishop wrote a poem, "The Bight" [on my birthday], but where she draws from a landscape, I draw from other experiences.

L'aura del campo

Eve of Ridvan: 12 Jalal 164 (20 April) 78 degrees

'é a lua, é a lua, na quintana dos mortos'
♣ Federico García Lorca ♣

Paradise

The evening of April 20th begins a twelve day holy festival for the Baha'is called Ridvan (Paradise). It includes three Holy Days that commemorate the last visits between Bahá’u’lláh and his followers in a garden in Baghdad in 1863, before his banishment to Istanbul (Constantinople), Edirne (Adrianople) [both in present day Turkey] and finally to Akka (Achor) across the bay from Mount Carmel and present day Haifa, Israel. In many ways it commemorates the beginning of the Baha'i Faith as promised by The Bab.

It is celebrated around the world wherever Baha'is have the right to congregate. It is the day that communities elect their members for the spiritual councils that guide them.

WRITING AND REVIEWING

Well, I just wrote the above [41] for this entry, but I have been working on ideas, especially for poems that follow the meter of hymns. Looking at the tunes SHERBROOK (5.5.5.11) and HYFRYDOL (8.7.8.7 D)

My plugging is working! Still needing reviews: "Palette of Pastels" , "Spear" , and "Flight of the unwanted son" .

These are in the folder "Room 222 - New Poems" ; they pay 222 gps per review.

Me, my friends and my family

Thursday: My sister called me. My mother called me. Almost makes me feel like I'm part of a family!

Kevin e-mailed me stating that his "dad had an eye transplant. Better known as a cornea transplant. Now he can tell even more cornea jokes. " . Kev's humor comes out of Illinois or Iowa (they are both corn country ), even though he was born in Odessa, Texas and survives in California or rather ... Cupertino survives him.

I sent "Wheat Penny" by e-mail to my friend Gary while I was talking to him Thursday morning. Son Caleb is 9 months but not walking yet; this will not last for long though ... Gare is a Sabres fan, but then his whole town is hockey crazy.

Had meatloaf and angel food cake for lunch Thursday. The angel food cake brings back good memories of this same date years ago. (It is hard to harbor anger towards your nemesis when they offer you angel food cake; better to let it go on all accounts)

Friday: having the day I wanted to have Thursday. I was stressing Thursday because I'd misplaced my notebook and couldn't search for it for 8 hours. Around 8 pm I gave up, got a free Irish-Cream latte at Aimee's and tried to read. By 10 pm I was able to look for my notebook and immediately found it on the edge of the bathtub. Unfortunately, I have also misplaced my library card and some other important items, but I'm not stressing about things I can replace if I can't find them.

Daily Scripture

The Valley of Contentment. In this Valley he feeleth the winds of divine contentment blowing from the plane of the spirit. He burneth away the veils of want, and with inward and outward eye, perceiveth within and without all things ... From sorrow he turneth to bliss, from anguish to joy. His grief and mourning yield to delight and rapture.

— Bahá’u’lláh

Excerpt from The Seven Valleys. link: http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/b/SVFV/svfv-5.html

WATT'S GNU!

Sabres won. Defeated New York Islanders 4-3 to win their playoff series 4-1. This might not seem like much, but Buffalo has been denied 4 times in the National Football Leagues' Superbowl and twice in the Stanley Cup finals (lost to Dallas in '99 and Philadelphia in '75). Hockey is very big and the locals feel that this year it could happen. Nobody's feeling the pain tonight.

IMAGES and RAMBLINGS

Hmmmm. Does sunshine and warmth count? I've been looking at the frost bit foliage. It is very slowly coming back.

Tonight: moon over Venus (last night reversed); the county courthouse tower's clock, arms set at 10:15; setting the microwave timer to read 1:80; cheese ravioli; brown sugar and oatmeal; warm outside, warmer inside; 3 beaks opening when I peer into the robin's nest.

The weather has been sunny, warm and pleasant. Didn't see a cloud on Thursday. Enjoyed reading on Friday. Saturday is supposed to be more of the same.

READING

I was engrossed by Witches Bane by Susan Wittig Albert. I'm getting used to her writing style: not too heavy in the China Bayles series. The complete poems of Elizabeth Bishop. I read "The Bight" that has the note [on my birthday]. She was born on February 8th in 1911. More info on dear Ms. Bishop:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bishop

BLOGVILLE AND THE WDC COMMUNITY

Got an email from partyof5dj, so I'm anxiously waiting for a blog entry.

Went to visit Scottiegazelle 's off site LDS blog. She's a very good writer. She also just had a daughter, so I sent her an email begging for a blog entry here about that. She responded : "The quick 'n dirty version is, my beautiful Candice Marie (aka Candy/Candi, haven't figured that one out yet, LOL) was born on the 9th, 8 lbs 14.5 oz, 20 inches long, and after the fastest delivery I have ever had - I pushed exactly twice and out she came." So everyone can send her an email of congratulations on #4.

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 Kåre Enga
~ until everything was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go.
~ Elizabeth Bishop,
The Fish