Thursday, September 12, 2013

A thing of beauty


I liked the heat. I am sorry to see it go.

You could feel it last night, the evening growing restless, the branches blowing. We went outside for the reason that you go outside in the neighborhood where we live: we heard a car crash. It was just a fender bender on the corner. Meanwhile the winds blew in and lightning began flashing.

Howard said, "That is the last of the warm air blowing out."

However. Sometimes summer comes back and stays a while! The fall I met Leonard Pennario it was summer almost into November. It was very warm! I remember that.

At least yesterday I did not waste the day. I wore a Hawaiian shirt to work. A most wonderful thing to do as the summer is flying!

I went for a steamy walk downtown.

In the evening I worked on the book for two hours and later I memorized a bit of John Keats.

A thing of beauty is a joy forever. 
Its loveliness increases. It will never
Fall into nothingness, but will still keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

How is that for an accomplishment? It is the beginning of "Endymion." I could write it out without looking it up. It is good to write out the words of the great masters because then perhaps you can internalize it. That was why Beethoven wrote out some of Mozart's quartets.

The Keats was on the Celestial Seasonings box and I was waiting for the water to heat for my Sleepytime tea. I am addicted to Sleepytime tea, with that sleepy bear. I am going to keep rehearsing those lines so I have them in my head. You never know when you will need them!

And I will always remember how I learned it on this sultry and torpid evening, with lightning flashing and thunder rumbling.

It will be a souvenir!

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