I have always loved the poetry of Robert Frost. I think it started when I had to memorize his little poem “Fire and Ice” when I was in 4th grade. My teacher, Miss Conley, made us memorize poems and introduced us to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Robert Louis Stevenson, Robert Frost, and other poets, a gift I bless her for giving me. I have a cherished volume of Frost’s poems and last week, after a few years of neglect, it called to me and I took it down to read. I cannot read straight through a book of poetry. It has to be digested in small portions, just a few poems before bedtime or in a quiet moment during the day. It takes me weeks, even months to read a book of poems. When I read this poem last week it seemed to fit the times and my mood and now I share it with you.
My November Guest
My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walked the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted gray
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.
November can be a bit gloomy, but it is a beautiful gloom filled with bits and snatches of loveliness – the rare visit of an evening grosbeak at the feeder, the bright fruit on a wild apple tree growing along the road, the intricate frost patterns on the back porch windows on a cold morning. There are still even a few surprises out in the garden. I took a walk around the yard one afternoon last week and found the little violas we call Johnny-jump-ups blooming in several places. They are the last flowers to still be blooming in the fall and the first to bloom when the snow melts in the early spring. I think they even bloom while buried under the snow. I was happy to see them. Flowers in November are a pleasant thing.
My November Guest
My Sorrow, when she's here with me,
Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
She walked the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She's glad the birds are gone away,
She's glad her simple worsted gray
Is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate, deserted trees,
The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
And vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
And they are better for her praise.
November can be a bit gloomy, but it is a beautiful gloom filled with bits and snatches of loveliness – the rare visit of an evening grosbeak at the feeder, the bright fruit on a wild apple tree growing along the road, the intricate frost patterns on the back porch windows on a cold morning. There are still even a few surprises out in the garden. I took a walk around the yard one afternoon last week and found the little violas we call Johnny-jump-ups blooming in several places. They are the last flowers to still be blooming in the fall and the first to bloom when the snow melts in the early spring. I think they even bloom while buried under the snow. I was happy to see them. Flowers in November are a pleasant thing.
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| An evening grosbeak at the feeder this morning. |
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| Wild apples on the roadside. |
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| November violas in my yard. |
And just when I thought I was done with the garden for the year . . . On Tuesday fruit trees that I’d ordered back in August arrived. I’d almost forgotten about them. I’ve never planted fruit trees in the fall, I’ve always planted them in the early spring. But Stark Bros., one of the places I order trees from, was having a fall sale and they claimed that fall was the perfect time to plant. The trees, they said, have just gone dormant and instead of being dug up and sitting in a warehouse packed in sawdust all winter, why not let them spend the winter in the place they will be planted. It sounded reasonable to me, so I placed an order. I ordered three apples – Golden Delicious, Ben Davis, and Orleans – to fill empty spots where trees had died. I also got a persimmon tree – Yates American. I learned to love persimmons when I was in Japan and have always wanted to grow them. This one is supposed to be hardy in this zone. We’ll see. The trees looked great when they arrived and I planted them as soon as I got home from school. It rained on them their first day in my orchard and I take that as a good sign. I hope they thrive and start giving us beautiful apples and persimmons in about five years.
Tuesday was Election Day. We couldn’t vote until after I was home from school and Stacey and Hannah got home from work. I could tell from the number of cars in the parking lot at the fire hall I pass on the way to and from school (that’s not where we vote) that the turnout was pretty high. Later that evening when we got to the All Saints Church parish house where we vote, the parking lot was full. We were the 187th, 188th, and 189th people to vote in our precinct – not bad for our little rural area. When we got home from voting, we decided to go to the movies and only checked the progress of the election once just before we went to bed that night. Wednesday morning we were surprised to see the results. Then on Wednesday evening, we were dismayed to see the violence and rioting that erupted and is still going on in some places. It also concerns me that I hear increasing reports in the media of people who are calling for an end to the Electoral College. To hear them talk, they think we live in a democracy and that the popular vote should be the only consideration. We do not live in a democracy. We live in a republic and there is a big difference. If you read the history of the founding of our nation you will understand that the Founding Fathers stated clearly that they did not want a democracy. They knew that democracies do not last long. They knew what they were doing when they established a republic and, as part of its design, created the Electoral College. It prevents the big cities and the most populous states from overpowering the rural areas and less populated states. It provides a way to balance power. If it were not for the Electoral College, a handful of big cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia – would control the entire country. I don’t think most people understand how the Electoral College works. Maybe they don’t teach this in school anymore. So there’s my civics lesson for today.
On Saturday, Stacey and I attended the Annual Christmas Craft Fair in Genesee. We set up our table in the new fire hall. In addition to our barn quilts, we also had a display of the dolls and doll dresses that Miriam makes (she sells them in her Etsy store at Jenny Wren Dolls) and the wooden pizza slides that Geoffrey makes. A lot of people stopped to look. We didn’t sell anything, but people took our cards. That’s how it usually works. It’s all about exposure.
Tuesday was Election Day. We couldn’t vote until after I was home from school and Stacey and Hannah got home from work. I could tell from the number of cars in the parking lot at the fire hall I pass on the way to and from school (that’s not where we vote) that the turnout was pretty high. Later that evening when we got to the All Saints Church parish house where we vote, the parking lot was full. We were the 187th, 188th, and 189th people to vote in our precinct – not bad for our little rural area. When we got home from voting, we decided to go to the movies and only checked the progress of the election once just before we went to bed that night. Wednesday morning we were surprised to see the results. Then on Wednesday evening, we were dismayed to see the violence and rioting that erupted and is still going on in some places. It also concerns me that I hear increasing reports in the media of people who are calling for an end to the Electoral College. To hear them talk, they think we live in a democracy and that the popular vote should be the only consideration. We do not live in a democracy. We live in a republic and there is a big difference. If you read the history of the founding of our nation you will understand that the Founding Fathers stated clearly that they did not want a democracy. They knew that democracies do not last long. They knew what they were doing when they established a republic and, as part of its design, created the Electoral College. It prevents the big cities and the most populous states from overpowering the rural areas and less populated states. It provides a way to balance power. If it were not for the Electoral College, a handful of big cities – New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia – would control the entire country. I don’t think most people understand how the Electoral College works. Maybe they don’t teach this in school anymore. So there’s my civics lesson for today.
On Saturday, Stacey and I attended the Annual Christmas Craft Fair in Genesee. We set up our table in the new fire hall. In addition to our barn quilts, we also had a display of the dolls and doll dresses that Miriam makes (she sells them in her Etsy store at Jenny Wren Dolls) and the wooden pizza slides that Geoffrey makes. A lot of people stopped to look. We didn’t sell anything, but people took our cards. That’s how it usually works. It’s all about exposure.
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| Stacey at our table at the craft fair. |
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| Miriam's dolls and Geoffrey's pizza slide. |
It’s a beautiful late fall day today – sunny, but not warm. We’re home from church. Dinner is cooking. I will go down to the barn in a few minutes to do the chores. I can see the chickens gathered at the back fence awaiting my arrival. And so it goes out here in the quiet village of Gold.
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| Winterberries by the river on the way home from church. |
