I just got back from hiking a small part of the Appalachian Trail, and Lo, my whole life is close to turning upside down.  I definitely have some thoughts from the trip I want to share with you, but they will have to wait until other matters get sorted out.  In the meantime, here is a piece of doggerel I composed on my final day, when the dehydration had really taken its toll…

A spring day in early May
The morning sky was pale,
Two groups of campers came to hike
The Appalachian Trail.

One group were time-worn veterans,
Strong and tough with age;
They’d climbed these hills for many a year,
They were old and hard and sage.

The other group was young and strong,
As taut as well-bound rope;
With anything that came their way
They knew that they could cope.

They both set out from upper Georgia
North towards Tennessee,
They only wanted to hike a bit
And enjoy the scenery… Read the rest of this entry »

The following is a poem attributed to one of the greatest Irish heroes, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, said to have been composed by him shortly after gaining the gift of poetry from the salmon of wisdom.

May-day, season surpassing!
Splendid is color then.
Blackbirds sing a full lay,
if there be a slender shaft of day.

The dust-colored cuckoo calls aloud:
Welcome, splendid summer!
The bitterness of bad weather is past,
the boughs of the wood are a thicket.

Summer cuts the river down,
the swift herd of horses seeks the pool,
the long hair of the heather is outspread,
the soft white bog-down grows.

Panic startles the heart of the deer,
the smooth sea runs apace-
season when ocean sinks asleep-
blossom covers the world. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a month since the Spring Equinox, and now at last in Massachusetts we’re getting some truly springlike weather — yesterday was the first day we could go outside without coats or sweaters. I spent the day with my hands in the earth, digging and weeding out a garden plot behind our apartment that lay fallow all last year, while the kids rode their bicycles and tricycles and asked to see more worms and pleaded for a chance to use my spade.

The fact that I haven’t written about our equinox ritual before now gives you some indication of how busy we’ve been this spring. I think for many of us, it has been a difficult time — many of my friends have been ill, overwhelmed with work or too many responsibilities, or stricken with tragedy of one kind or another. Still, a few days ago my cousin and his wife were blessed with twins, and the sun continues to rise earlier and earlier each morning on schedule… So not all is lost. Read the rest of this entry »