“Mail Cart” in Computationally.Intractable’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.

These lines came from a poem quoted in The Royal Mail: Its Curiosities and Romance and attributed to James Beaton c. 1840.
Something I want to write upon, to scare away each vapour—
The ” Penny Postage” shall I try ? Why, yes, I’ll write on paper.
Thy great [...]

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Jon and I are going to New Orleans for the Super Bowl this weekend Well, never mind.  Apparently the worst snow storm ever is coming to DC and ALL the flights to anywhere have been canceled for the entire weekend.  We’ll be watching the game in our apt.  Thankfully, we stocked up on snacks before [...]

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It’s a new year and I’m feeling a bit sentimental about DC.  So, this week for “poetry Friday” lets take a walking tour of DC’s poetry history.  The Poetry Foundation put together an audio tour you can download (complete with maps and photos).  If the weather turns nice I’m planning to make the walk.  But [...]

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“Day 344/365- Seasonal Help” via Tony Case’s Flickr Stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.
The Druids Thought the Mistletoe
Nicholas Gordon
The Druids thought the mistletoe
Would stop the meanest witches,
Cure the most severe disease,
Keep cradles safe from switches.
Enemies laid down their arms
Beneath its pungent spell.
For one whole day they could not fight,
Though hatred fire the will.
In later centuries it [...]

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Better late than never…

Dirge Without Music
by Edna St. Vincent Millay
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.  Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they [...]

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Perhaps the World Ends Here
by Joy Harjo
The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.
The gifts of earth are brought and prepared, set on the table. So it has been since creation, and it will go on.
We chase chickens or dogs away from it. Babies teethe at the corners. [...]

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Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
Robert Bly
It is a cold and snowy night. The main street is deserted.
The only things moving are swirls of snow.
As I lift the mailbox door, I feel its cold iron.
There is a privacy I love in this snowy night.
Driving around, I will waste more time.
from Silence in the [...]

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Remembering Mountain Men
William Stafford
I put my foot in cold water
and hold it there: early mornings
they had to wade through broken ice
to find the traps in the deep channel
with their hands, drag up the chains and
the drowned beaver. The slow current
of the life below tugs at me all day.
When I dream at night, they save a [...]

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Photo by my very talented partner in the
64 Shades of Wax project, Ariel Mieling.
Colors passing through us
by Marge Piercy
Purple as tulips in May, mauve
into lush velvet, purple
as the stain blackberries leave
on the lips, on the hands,
the purple of ripe grapes
sunlit and warm as flesh.
Every day I will give you a color,
like a new flower in [...]

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“August 09” from Megan Westerby’s Flickr stream.
Licensed via the Creative Commons.
The Illiterate
by William Meredith
Touching your goodness, I am like a man
Who turns a letter over in his hand
And you might think this was because the hand
Was unfamiliar but, truth is, the man
Has never had a letter from anyone;
And now he is both afraid of what [...]

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