The Snow Man

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

-Wallace Stevens

Lately, I'm feeling very unanchored and far away from the world.

So now for a total change of subject and tone: I tried Fage yogurt for the first time this morning. Supposedly, this is the best yogurt ever made, etc., etc., according to the Whole Foods crowd. It did taste pretty good, but it also made the back of my throat burn - I don't think yogurt is supposed to do that. I suppose I do not recommend.

I do recommend, however, The Stolen Child and Our Lady of the Forest (which no one else seems to like), because I've been on a binge of reading fiction that should be on Oprah's Book Club. To atone, I'm now reading The Birth of the Modern and How To Read a Poem, so expect lots of poems in the days ahead.