The Eve Of St. Agnes

Today, January 20, is the eve of St. Agnes. That’s the important occurrence today; forget about anything else, (except MLK, of course).
The Eve Of St. Agnes is also the amazing, 42 stanza poem by John Keats that deserves an annual reading. A tale of star-crossed lovers…but with a happy ending. Perhaps the most luxuriant use of words and images in all of English literature.
”St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was! 
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold; 
       The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass, 
     And silent was the flock in woolly fold…”

Some Of Everything…

…including an eight-by-twenty inch plate of 3/16 aluminum to be fashioned into the fin keel of the model schooner under construction. Talking about the old, immense, builder’s supply in Palmyra known as Pal Steel. Even the manager admits that he has no idea what’s in the store, but knows he has it.

The aluminum plate is visible at the top of this photo

Working To Stay Ignorant

As in the NYT article The Man who Knew Too Little, I continue to work on my news/politics blockade. After all, what’s the point of stewing in all the depressing national and international news when you can do nothing about it? Better, I think, to think of other things and to do what little you can, where you can.

Along with poetry, model boat building provides plenty of food for thought: what materials, tools, techniques, procedures, and sequences are needed, and what’s the plan for when mistakes are made? In other words, what are you going to do next and how are you going to do it, and how do you recover when you do it wrong?

Just thinking about all this leaves little room for any negative crap.

Five Million Years…

…during which time the basic design (the morphology) of tree squirrels has remained unchanged. That’s because the design works so well that there is no need for evolution to change it.
Squirrels have ankles that rotate 180 degrees, allowing them to climb downward. Their tails provide both shade and cooling as well as insulation and protection from cold. And although they fall more often than we think, they always flip right side up, assume a glide posture, usually land softly, and are almost never injured.
And that ain’t the half of it.

Poetical

Breakfast out at…

Very unfancy but very good food.

Because of the insistence of several (or fewer) fans of poetry, I have revised my introductory List of Poems. This list is supposed to be a guide for the normal person, a person who might be developing an interest. It is not intended to be a definitive list of great poetry, and there is no doubt that many great poems (especially those revered by English majors) are not included. It is intended to help incomers find a path through the weeds. The list is just a list of titles, not links, so anyone interested in reading all this great stuff will have to turn to books or search online and download.

And I think that to transfuse emotion—not to transmit thought but to set up in the reader's sense a vibration corresponding to what was felt by the writer—is the peculiar function of poetry. 
A. E. HOUSMAN

When we read Kipling we can usually say,
"That is just how I feel." Of course there is nothing "wrong" with that, but, when we read a great poet, we say, "I never realized before what I felt. From now on, thanks to this poem, I shall feel differently."
W. H. AUDEN

Blog Restructured

With the new year I’m switching this blog from once a day to whenever appropriate.
Over the past 14 or more years more than 5,000 daily posts have been put up.
Having to do a daily blog, with both text and at least one photo, is fun but challenging: it makes you pay attention and think about things, but it can be stressful, especially when the sun is sinking and there’s no photo in the can.

I will probably continue my habitual pattern of daily posts, but then, I might wait until I have a good shot or something to say—so please don’t expect a post daily. I think this new regimen might even allow me to do a little more longer-form writing, though I am determined to avoid becoming anything like an “influencer.” Thanks.