"Why I Wake Early"

6:58

I just bought a book of poems with the title WHY I WAKE EARLY by Mary Oliver,  for obvious reasons.  She, along with Phillip Larkin, Sharon Olds, and Stephen Dunn are three of my favorite poets.  Here is Oliver's opening poem, perfect for each morning here at the lake.

Why I Wake Early
by Mary Oliver

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and crotchety–

best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light–
good morning, good morning, good morning.

Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

I have been up since 6:30, to a layered sky of gray clouds, no colors, just shades of gray on sky and lake.  I better get used to its beauty, that of an almost winter sky.  Temperatures are falling as the highs will be in the 40's, perhaps some drizzle this morning, rain in the afternoon, a good day to stay in and watch football if I enjoyed it.  I need a good afternoon movie! Or maybe we can go for a walk in between rain showers.

Yesterday we seemed to run out of things to do outside, a good thing I guess but we never did get outside until late in the day, a bad thing.  No kayaking, walks, just sitting around inside, doing some planning for our trip, beginning to get the house and our things ready for when we head West.  There is not a lot to do to be honest, just making sure the house is perfect for our return.  It's always a pleasure to return from a trip to a neat house.

Mid afternoon, however, we drove to Lakewood, where Evie got her hair trimmed and I went to Ryder's Cup, to read and enjoy a cup of coffee.  I picked her up just before 4:00 and we went to the Lakewood Cinema to see Tom Hanks in the Steven Spielberg directed Bridge of Spies.  As usual, there were probably ten to twelve people in the theater, all older than us or so it seemed.  The movie got below average reviews from us, perhaps even lower from Evie.  It was a classic, traditional movie, like some thing from the 1960's with the uncompromising American hero, Tom Hanks, clashing with the barbaric Russians, the East Germans as well as the pragmatic CIA.  For Evie the film lacked tension, interest in character.  They were all flat.   For me, the film lacked nuance, too much just plain good and evil, nothing in between.  Hanks reminded me of John Wayne in The Green Berets, the good, quiet American, in conflict with the evil, out to right a wrong.  Sorry, Ron, we are just a couple of Debbie Downers.

Afterwards, we drove to the newest restaurant in the area, A Taste Of India, which just opened.  It was fairly crowded, the staff looked hassled, so we just took home a couple of take home menus, vowing to come back at a quiet time or just eat take out.  We then ordered a pizza from Coppola's in Bemus Point, picked it up and brought it home to enjoy in the comfort of our TV room.  It sounded good to relax at home, with a salad, pizza, and Pepsi, and watch some TV.  We could not find much of interest, so we ended up watching some of the saved late night shows, our go to TV when there's not much worth watching.  It's amazing  to think there are five fun, often interesting, always funny late night shows: The Daily Show, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and James Corden.  Any one of them is worth watching and quite a difference from the old days when all that was on was, at first, Steve Allen in the 1950's, then Jack Paar in the early1960's, and finally Johnny Carson from the late 1960's to the 1990's.  I was happy to go upstairs early to read THE PRODIGAL SON, an early Joseph Kanon novel.