Welcome to where I am, where my kitchen's always messy, a pot's (or a poet) always about to boil over, a dog is always begging to be fed. Drafts of poems on the counter. Windows filled with leaves. Wind. Clouds moving over the mountains. If you like poetry, books, and music--especially dog howls when a siren unwinds down the hill-- you'll like it here.


MY NEW AUTHOR'S SITE, KATHRYNSTRIPLINGBYER.COM, THAT I MYSELF SET UP THROUGH WEEBLY.COM, IS NOW UP. I HAD FUN CREATING THIS SITE AND WOULD RECOMMEND WEEBLY.COM TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A WEBSITE. I INVITE YOU TO VISIT MY NEW SITE TO KEEP UP WITH EVENTS RELATED TO MY NEW BOOK.


MY NC POET LAUREATE BLOG, MY LAUREATE'S LASSO, WILL REMAIN UP AS AN ARCHIVE OF NC POETS, GRADES K-INFINITY! I INVITE YOU TO VISIT WHEN YOU FEEL THE NEED TO READ SOME GOOD POEMS.

VISIT MY NEW BLOG, MOUNTAIN WOMAN, WHERE YOU WILL FIND UPDATES ON WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MY KITCHEN, IN THE ENVIRONMENT, IN MY IMAGINATION, IN MY GARDEN, AND AMONG MY MOUNTAIN WOMEN FRIENDS.




Tuesday, March 17, 2009

GRAY



I felt gray all day yesterday, and when I walked out in late afternoon, the world around me looked as gray as a Thomas Hardy poem, "Neutral Tones," specifically. The phrase "as though chidden of God," kept running through my head.

Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). Wessex Poems and Other Verses. 1898.

8. Neutral Tones


WE stood by a pond that winter day,
And the sun was white, as though chidden of God,
And a few leaves lay on the starving sod,
—They had fallen from an ash, and were gray.

Your eyes on me were as eyes that rove
Over tedious riddles solved years ago;
And some words played between us to and fro—
On which lost the more by our love.

The smile on your mouth was the deadest thing
Alive enough to have strength to die;
And a grin of bitterness swept thereby
Like an ominous bird a-wing….

Since then, keen lessons that love deceives,
And wrings with wrong, have shaped to me
Your face, and the God-curst sun, and a tree,
And a pond edged with grayish leaves.

1867.



Today is Saint Patrick's Day, though, and everything is supposed to be green. So I made my gray scenes green, through the magic of digital technology. (You might need to put on your shades for these!)





Tomorrow I'll go looking for natural green and begin to feel "like a natural woman," again.

2 comments:

DeadMule said...

The first green one is kind of fun, but the second is, "whoa!" The sun is kind of trying today in W-S.

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

The sun is out, here! Hooray. Too much green? Oh, surely not? Especially REAL green, not the computerized kind.
Maybe next time I'll turn the trees blue.