America is hard to see.
Less partial witnesses than he*
In book on book have testified
They could not see it from outside—
Or inside either for that matter.
We know the literary chatter._____________________
~ Robert Frost
*Christopher Columbus. The entire poem, America Is Hard To See, is here.
27 comments:
I have to stop drinking those lemon-lime slushes in one gulp.
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though
A rodent has pushed me near my breaking point.
He's been there a few weeks. Above the ceiling at the far corner of a vaulted living room. Directly above my TV.
I can't get to him from the attic because of the vaulting. I can't get into the roof from outside. i can't find his access point.
But tonight, I'm trying to watch a football game - preseason, but still football - and he's been chewing on the wood frame of the attic since I sat down here at 8:00. Continuously.
Moreover, he disrespects me. I pound on the wall, I yell, I scream, I bang on the ceiling with a broomstick - he gnaws on without pause. He does not fear me.
I hate him. Someway, I will make him pay.
I can't open PDF URLs.
Rabel, is there a fireplace/chimney anywhere near the erosion point?
Lem: try this: link
Old fashioned spring mousetrap, peanut butter, he will come down, he will die. Trust me.
Fireplace nearby, but it seems pretty solid.
It's almost certainly a squirrel. They are innumerable in the back yard. Only one housebreaker.
Check the flashing around it on the roof very carefully for a possible entry point. The chimney passes through the roof/ceiling seal in multiple places, inside and out.
Squirrel? Never mind. You're screwed.
Call the police non emergency number, or, maybe the fire department.
Read in full, that's a fairly odd poem. How about this anticlimactic verse referring to Columbus's discovery of the New World?
But all he did was spread the room
Of our enacting out the doom
Of being in each other's way,
And so put off the weary day
When we should have to put our mind
On how to crowd but still be kind.
It's a trap!
Lem: So I hear tell you have sumthin' to do with the running of this here place. By my reckonin' there's been no open thread since Thursdy.
I wanted to pass a message along to Mr. phx but there don't seem no spot to do so.
I'll mark that for a future "Frost Bite", Creeley.
I'm looking into that.
Lem: Is that short for Lemuel?
Here's the ending of long, favorite W.S. Merwin poem where he begs his Spirit, a wolf demigod, to guide him:
I have hidden at wrong times for wrong reasons.
I have been brought to bay. More than once.
Another time, if I need it,
Create a little wind like a cold finger between my shoulders, then
Let my nails pour out a torrent of aces like a grain from a threshing machine;
Let fatigue, weather, habitation, the old bones, finally,
Be nothing to me,
Let all lights but yours be nothing to me.
Let the memory of tongues not unnerve me so that I stumble or quake.
But lead me at times beside the still waters;
There when I crouch to drink let me catch a glimpse of your image
Before it is obscured with my own.
Preserve my eyes, which are irreplaceable.
Preserve my heart, veins, bones,
Against the slow death building in them like hornets until the place is entirely theirs.
Preserve my tongue and I will bless you again and again.
Let my ignorance and my failings
Remain far behind me like tracks made in a wet season,
At the end of which I have vanished,
So that those who track me for their own twisted ends
May be rewarded only with ignorance and failings.
But let me leave my cry stretched out behind me like a road
On which I have followed you.
And sustain me for my time in the desert
On what is essential to me.
--W.S. Merwin, "Lemuel's Blessing"
Rabel ... if it is a squirrel, you might want to check the "vents" for your roof, and/or house areas, because they are easy access points for squirrels. We had to put fairly heavy mesh screening over the ones in our house.
We had a squirrel who moved in...in the kitchen vent system and lived there happily raising a family, noisily, until the next spring when I could be sure he and she were out for a stroll and covered that and all other vents, passive or fan driven, as well. You could say they drove our dogs nuts, who in turn barked their asses off driving us nuts. Squirrels do "nuts" very well...
Next to them are raccoons and groundhogs....both are happy to move in and take over, mocking you every single hour of everuy day.
Did I mention we live in a densely populated urban city environment? These little shits still find us....only occasionally does one get eaten by one of the dogs.
And poetry? I am telling you, this guy is Heisenberg!
Icepick?
He thinks I'm that TV guy on "Breaking Bad."
It's pretty obvious, Walt. Watch your back, dude.
Chickster:
I like 'A Brook in the City' by Mr. Frost.
Thanks Cody. That one is a keeper and I will get back to it because I have my own story to muddle with its perfection. Maybe not today or tomorrow but I'll get that one involved.
Good fences, make good neighbors.
AND
Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.
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