January 25, 2013

Foggy again . . . thick fog in patches, mostly by the water.  It seems that we're destined to have fog for a few more mornings at least.  But this afternoon is lovely, warm and springy, blue and bright and breezy!  I wish all the people north of us who are having such terrible cold and ice could have some of this lovely weather.  I'm not sure how they survive such cold!  I hear temperatures like 6 degrees, or zero, and think there are few things in the world that would be worse for me.  I kind of agree with the Vikings that hell must be a very cold place!  Again, I am glad to live where I do.  Today if it gets up to 81 we will set a new record and last time I checked it was 78, at around noon, so . . . we just might get to it! 

Sometimes you just want a poem to say something you have thought of before in words you hadn't thought of, so it is with this poem.  Charles Bukowski often put things in a way that makes you think of bold-faced type, that what he wants to share means a lot to him and he wants to be sure you are taking it all in! 

the laughing heart 

your life is your life.

don’t let it be clubbed into dank
submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the
darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you
changes.
know them, take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death
in life,
sometimes.
and the more often you
learn to do it,
the more light there will
be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have
it.
you are marvelous.
the gods wait to delight
in
you. 

Charles Bukowski 

I like that this poem does not promise a lot of light, but any light beats the darkness, and that the more often you beat death in life, the more light there will be.   There is such light today that it's hard to imagine it was so dark and foggy this morning.  There is a saying here, "If you don't like the weather, just hang around awhile, it'll change."  And it's true, very few places have weather that can be so different so often.  The sky is always changing, and it gives you the feeling that anything can happen, just like this poem.  This life is your life, and every day darkness can be defeated, maybe not forever, but long enough for you to see what the sky offers, to wait it out for a different kind of weather.  At the moment, I am watching a noisy blue jay bounce around the bare branches calling out in his little crow voice.  I don't know what he is saying but I like to think its a salute to this lovely spring day in what should be the dead of winter!