A Little Poetry
So, what else have we been doing lately to entertain ourselves, you ask? The other evening we went to hear Billy Collins read some of his poetry at the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts in nearby Santa Rosa. Collins is a professor of English at Lehman College, City University of New York. If you’re familiar with his poetry, you know that he has a great sense of humor that always shows in his writing. It was a fun evening. If you’re not familiar with his work, here’s a sample. It’s entitled,
“Fishing on the Susquehanna in July”
I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.
Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--
a painting of a woman on the wall,
a bowl of tangerines on the table--
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,
rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.
But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia
when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend
under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandanna
sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.
That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.
Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,
even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.
Still Walking
Dickie and I still take our daily walks, I with my trusty camera hanging around my neck. Occasionally, it comes in handy, as when this robin posed for me on a neighborhood fencepost:
I had my camera with me, too, on a recent visit to Shollenberger Park in Petaluma. We only discovered this wonderful park recently, but, now that we’ve seen it, we intend to become regular visitors. The bird-life there is wonderful. Here’s a blackbird I managed to get a shot at a couple weeks ago:
What’s every bit as much fun are the waterbirds. Since visiting this park, we’ve become acquainted with the northern shoveler, a duck with a broad bill that he shovels through the water. Here’s what it looks like:
Another bird we’ve found there recently is the black-necked stilt. I haven’t managed to get too close, but my 400mm lens provided me with this shot:
Still another bird that haunts the swamps there is the red-tailed hawk. I’ve managed to get several shots of him so far. Here’s one of the best:
He posed for me on a fencepost, too, one day. This is how it looked:
Dickie and I also made a trip up the coast recently to visit a resort area called Sea Ranch, just south of the little village of Gualala. Going out we traveled over the mountains form Lake Sonoma westward, but, coming back, we drove down Route #1 along the water. That’s when I saw this fellow sitting on a telephone wire, surveying the brush. If I’m not mistaken, it’s a kestrel:
So, like most of you, I suppose, we’re waiting patiently for spring. It’s definitely on the way around here. We now have jonquils blooming at the entrance to our house. Come see us!
