A Poetic Evening

I took Ernie to the park this evening after work. It was warm, but the breeze made it perfectly comfortable for a hike along the short one-mile trail, followed by relaxing in the grass, listening to birds and watching butterflies. I couldn’t help but hum Silent Noon, Vaughan Williams’ lush setting of Rossetti’s perfectly appropriate poetry:

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass,
The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:
Your eyes smile peace.
The pasture gleams and glooms
'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.
All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,
Are golden kingcup fields with silver edge
Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn hedge.
'Tis visible silence, still as the hourglass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly
Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:
So this winged hour is dropt to us from above.
Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,
This close-companioned inarticulate hour
When twofold silence was the song of love.

Okay, enough sappiness.

On a completely unrelated note, I had a meeting today, during which I found out that my trip to Kenya has been postponed indefinitely. However, I may have the opportunity to go to Heidelberg, Germany in a few months. Wunderbar! Then, I heard from a co-worker that Glory Days AND Bonefish Grill will be opening restaurants in the Frederick Shopping Center this fall. Pinch me!