Something Serendipitous

SOMETHING SERENDIPITOUS

I never met the gentleman above, but I felt I knew him slightly through Granny Smith's Blog.

http://phyllisophy.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-07-06T10:02:00-07:00&max-results=7

When Otto died 'Granny' wrote about her husband, and she included a poem he once wrote. I asked permission to read the poem to my poetry group here in Australia. She, generously, gave permission and told me that I would be reading his verses on the very day of his memorial!

Here is a quote from 'Granny's' current blog:

"I  would like to read one of Otto’s poems to you. Coincidentally, just yesterday, long after I had decided on this poem, a blogger friend in Australia e-mailed me for permission to use it in her literary group."

And here is the poem:

Stonehenge

The sun orb at its noon zenith

approaching midsummer

casts my shrunken shadow around my feet.

It stretches out like a snake emerging

from his hole

then races east and south

as the sun swings low and north

until at sunset my shadow is infinitely long.

It sleeps fitfully

then jumps to life in the early midsummer morn.

Stonehenge points to the sun's

most northern emergence.

We mark each high point with such monuments:

greatest weight lifted

farthest discus thrown

largest pumpkin grown

valedictorian

highest flood

largest tree.

We mark the onset of anxiety

that the sun will desert us quickly -

shorter days, longer noon shadows,

cooler nights, threat of winter.

We are anxious about the ebb,

the coming cold, slipping skills,

a loved one leaving.

What enchantment can keep this warmth with me?

Otto Smith