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I Know

For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth;

—Job 19:25

 

Yesterday, I opened up the Bible Gateway website to see what the verse of the day was in hopes that it would give me some inspiration for today’s post. The verse was Job 19:25. When I read, “For I know that my Redeemer lives,” I thought of the song we used to sing in church, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives.” I always liked this song. When I was the song leader, it would often be my closing hymn, and we’d just sing the first verse and the chorus. 

 

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

By Fred A. Fillmore

🎶🎶🎶

 

I know (I know) that my Redeemer lives,

and ever prays (and ever prays) for me;

I know (I know) eternal life He gives,

from sin and sorrow free.

🎶🎶🎶

 

Chorus

I know, I know that my Redeemer lives,

I know, I know eternal life He gives;

I know, I know that my Redeemer lives.

🎶🎶🎶

He wills (He wills) that I should holy be,

in word, in tho’t

(in word, in tho’t) and deed;

Then I (then I) His holy face may see,

when from this earth-life freed.

 🎶🎶🎶

I know (I know) that unto sinful men

His saving grace

(His saving grace) is nigh;

I know (I know) that He will come again

to take me home on high.

🎶🎶🎶

I know (I know) that over yonder stands

a place prepared

(a place prepared) for me;

A home, (a home,) a house not made with hands,

most wonderful to see.

 🎶🎶🎶

Seeing Job 19:25, I wondered about the context of the verse that was the inspiration for this song. The verse ends in a semicolon, so there was more to it. So, let us put this verse into context. Job is an interesting character in the Bible. Often when we consider Job, we emphasize his suffering but remained certain of the Lord he served and the relationship he shared with Him. Job 19:25 seems to tell us how Job survived during this horrific trial in life. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth.” His knowledge of the Lord should serve as a reminder to every believer, bringing hope even in the midst of our greatest trials.

 

In context, the verse is part of a lament that everyone Job knows has turned against him. He says in Job 19:25-27:

For I know that my Redeemer lives,
And He shall stand at last on the earth;
And after my skin is destroyed, this I know,
That in my flesh I shall see God,

Whom I shall see for myself,
And my eyes shall behold, and not another. 

Job had a personal relationship with God. He walked with the Lord; he honored and served Him daily. Job had lost much that pertained to this physical life, but he had not lost his relationship with God. As I’ve studied this passage, I have come to a realization that not only did Job know the Redeemer, the Redeemer knew him. Job knew one thing for certain—his Redeemer lived. His hope was not in an idol made of men’s hands, one which had no power. He did not worship a monument that lacked the ability to see, hear, or move in his situation. Job knew he served God, and God was aware of his situation.

 

When suffering and pain come our way, we can rest in the fact our Redeemer lives! He is alive and well today, able to provide for every need we face. Job knew the Redeemer would come. “For I know that my Redeemer lives, And He shall stand at last on the earth.” This reveals the perspective Job had in his trials. Life had been difficult; he had suffered and lost much, yet his hope and faith were to the time when the Lord would come in righteousness, restoring what was lost and bringing peace. Job revealed the assurance he had in the Lord.

 

This is the cornerstone upon which our faith in Christ is built - Redemption, Reconciliation, Restoration, and Resurrection. Job suffered much, and yet his faith was not destroyed. In the midst of his pain, he was comforted by knowing his Redeemer lived. We can also take comfort in knowing that our Redeemer lives. He is looking out for us. He will get us through any trials in life. Even if, unlike Job, our faith wavers, God will be there for us.

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Moment of Zen: Hiking

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Hairy ⬆️ or smooth ⬇️ ?

Looking Forward

I am looking forward to having next week off. I’m working today but am using up some of my vacation days next week. I’m not sure what I will do next week. I have a few errands to run, but with rain on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, I doubt I’ll do much of anything but stay dry. 

I would like to do some hiking if the weather is good the rest of the week and possibly see some sites around this area that I haven’t ever gotten around to seeing. Fort Ticonderoga is about two hours away, and I’d like to do that. I’ve never been before and I’ve always been fascinated with forts. 

Also, there’s a little Star Trek museum/experience there. In August they will have their Star Trek convention which will include the gorgeous Ed Speleers this year, along with Jonathan Frakes, who has just gotten better with age, Brent Spiner, and John de Lancie. I’ve never gone but have always wanted to.

One last thing, the pic above is of the Harris twins, Finn and Jack. Below is Jack on his own who posted this pic on Instagram with the caption, “Posting this because I think my butt looks great….” I’d have to agree!

P.S. In case you’re wondering, the migraine I’ve had for the past three weeks seems to be a bit better today. It seemed to ease off yesterday, and it has stayed minor this morning. 🤞​ I hope it continues and I can enjoy my week off.

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Carrying On

While I woke up with a migraine again this morning and still feel like crap, I need to go to work today. Sometimes, I have little choice but to just carry on, migraine or not. I learned many years ago that I couldn’t let my migraines completely control my life. At times, I just have to work through the pain. I’m just ready for this week to be over. Today and tomorrow, then I have four days off.

For now, I’m about to take a long hot shower and get ready for work. Sometimes, a good shower helps. The heat from the water is usually at least a little soothing for my migraines. 

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Migraine Day

I’ve had a lot of migraine days lately. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I see my neurologist again soon. I suffered through yesterday at work with a migraine, but I’ll be staying home today.

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In Public

In Public

By John Wieners - 1934-2002

 

Promise you wont forget

each time we met

we kept our clothes on

despite obvious intentions

to take them off,

seldom kissed or even slept,

talked to spend desire,

worn exhausted from regret.

 

Continue our relationship apart

under surveillance, torture, persecuted

confinement’s theft; no must or sudden blows

when embodied spirits mingled

despite fall’s knock

we rode the great divide

of falsehood, hunger and last year

 

About the Poem

 

Reading this poem, I think we all know what John Wieners is talking about: gay sex in public. When the poem was written in 1968, Wieners had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals. In the 1960s, homosexuality was still illegal and considered a mental illness. Wieners was institutionalized again in 1969, and at least once more in 1972. Massachusetts law justified involuntary hospitalization for those who conducted themselves “in a manner which clearly violates the established laws, ordinances, conventions, or morals of the community.” Gay men became a scapegoat for mental health experimentation. The torture and persecution he alludes to in the poem included insulin coma therapy, electroshock treatment, and the experimental use of barbiturates and sedatives. 

 

Living with his parents in Massachusetts in the later 1960s, Wieners had no access to private property where he could engage in sex. His only recourse was to have sex in public places and try not to get caught. In Michael Rumaker’s memoir of his time in San Francisco with a literary crowd which included Wieners, he makes clear the dangers in 1958–1959:

…the Morals Squad was everywhere, and the entrapment of gay males in the streets, the parks, and in numerous public places was a constant fear and common occurrence. Often the most handsome, hung, desirable-looking cops were used for the plainclothes operations. I often wondered who did the selecting. 

While the above passage is about San Francisco, life for gay men was not much different in New York City or Boston in the late 1960s.

 

About the Poet

 

John Wieners was born on January 6, 1934, in Milton, Massachusetts. After graduating from Boston College in 1954, Wieners heard Charles Olson give a reading at the Charles Street Meeting House in Boston. Inspired by Olson’s work, Wieners spent a year at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, where he studied with Olson, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan.

 

After the closing of Black Mountain College in 1956, Wieners briefly returned to Boston and founded the small magazine Measure (published from 1957–62) before relocating to San Francisco in 1958. It was there that he published his first book, The Hotel Wentley Poems (Auerhahn Press, 1958). The book became known for its frankness, as it openly addressed homosexuality and drug use, subjects Wieners became known for writing about in his later works as well.

 

Wieners, who worked at City Lights and became acquainted with poets as diverse as Allen Ginsberg and Frank O’Hara, lived on the periphery of several movements from the 1950s—the Beat Generation, the Black Mountain School, the New York School, and the San Francisco Renaissance—and would be granted cult status in the poetry community.

 

In 1960, Wieners returned to the East Coast, and for the next few years he spent time in both Boston and New York City, where he shared an apartment with Beat poet Herbert Huncke and managed and acted in the production of three of his plays at the Judson Poets Theater. At the invitation of Olson, then the Chair of Poetics at SUNY Buffalo, Wieners enrolled in the school’s graduate program before eventually returning to Boston.

 

In the 1970s, Wieners continued to write, despite periods of institutionalization. Throughout his life, Wieners was in and out of institutions due to his drug abuse. His 1969 collection, Asylum Poems (Angel Hair Books), was written while he was in an institution. Wieners lived and wrote in Boston’s Beacon Hill for over thirty years, until his death on March 1, 2002.

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Monday Morning

I really just want to go back to bed. I woke this morning with a migraine. I had to get up and feed Isabella, but I slept about an hour later than I usually do. Thankfully, I am working from home today, so while I can’t really go back to bed (I do have some work to actually do), but I can at least enjoy the comfort of home.

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The Wonders of Nature

“For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth into singing before you, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”

—Isaiah 55:12 

What a wonderful image, especially as I sit here in the midst of the Green Mountains! I can almost hear the mountains singing to me. As it continues to warm up, I hope to do some hiking in those hills and let the beauty of nature sing to me. Maybe it’s just me, but I am reminded of  Julie Andrew's voice when I read Isaiah 55:12. We probably all know the opening song to The Sound of Music:

The hills are alive 

With the sound of music 

With songs they have sung 

For a thousand years 

The hills fill my heart 

With the sound of music 

Spring is here, and the grass is turning green again. There is a renewal in the air. Whether it is the soft white stillness of newly fallen snow, the colors of the autumn leaves, or the bright sunshine of summer, each season has its beauty. Ecclesiastes 3:1 tells us, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:28-29 to “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” 

 

Psalm 8:3-4 reminds us about God’s creation of this beautiful universe, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” The Bible says that natural beauty is a gift from God. He created everything in the universe, and His handiwork is perfect. When we look at nature, we can see the remnants of His power and glory. Psalm 19:1 tells us, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the expanse of heaven shows His handiwork.” This means that even the stars and planets are declaring how amazing our Creator is! Nature truly is a remarkable thing. In Ecclesiastes 3:11, we are told, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.” This suggests that when we see things like sunsets or waterfalls, we are getting a glimpse of something much bigger than ourselves.

 

There are many ways that Christians can cultivate the worship of God through nature. One way is to spend time outside in nature, soaking in the wonder of creation and letting it fill us with praise for our Creator. Another way is to find ways to connect what we see in nature with our faith journey, using it as a lens through which to see God more clearly. Additionally, we can use nature as a tool for teaching others about who God is and how much He loves us. Ultimately, whenever we interact with nature, we have an opportunity to draw closer to God and worship Him more fully.

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Moment of Zen: Beaches

It’s been a years since I’ve been to the beach. 

By the way, all of the images are of Ed Speleers, who was most recently a major character on Star Trek: Picard’s final season (below). The season was great, and Speleers is always nice to look at. You might remember him from Downton Abbey. On that show, his character wasn’t the most likable, but just like he did Barrows, you couldn’t help but notice how good looking he is.

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Friday

Today couldn’t come soon enough. This week has been better than last week, mainly because I didn’t have a terrible migraine all week, just last night. I’m just ready for the weekend so I can just relax.

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Be Kind

I had to work late last night to cover an event. Usually, even though I’m not part of the event, if it’s a dinner, the caterers always bring me whatever they are serving that night. However, last night was just a reception that did not include a meal, so I did not get fed. So, on my way home, I went through the drive-thru at McDonald’s. It’s not something I do often, but it was quick and easy for last night. I placed my order and paid for it, then I was sitting in line to pull up to the pick-up window. However, the guy in the truck in front of me started yelling at the poor teenager in the drive-thru. From what I could hear, he didn’t get something he ordered. I have no idea why he was so upset, but it was no reason to take it out on the kid in the drive-thru, especially when the drivers kids were in the truck with him. First, you should set an example for your kids, and second, the guy in the drive-thru was just a kid. Don’t take it out on him. So, for 15-20 minutes, I sat in the drive-thru line at McDonald’s waiting for my cheeseburger while some guy acted a fool in the truck in front of me. Eventually, they must have satisfied him (it looked like they gave him his money back) because he finally drove off. 

I’ve worked in the service industry before in both restaurants and retail stores. I had my fair share of irate customers, including one who threw a sandwich at me because it had onions on it even though he’d asked for onions. He claimed his girlfriend was allergic to onions.  Anyway, there is no reason to be upset with the people who are serving you. Okay, sometimes there are incompetent people, but at least let them try to fox their mistake without acting like an asshole. You may be having a bad day, but you also don’t know what is happening in that persons life. It’s not that hard to be kind to other people, even when that’s the last thing you want to do.

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Imagine

Imagine waking up to him standing in the doorway to your bedroom. Oh the things I’d do… instead, I had Isabella trying to wake me to feed her.

Anyway, I really didn’t have anything to say today, and I saw this picture and had the above thought. 

Happy Hump Day, Everyone!

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Alone

Alone

By Maya Angelou - 1928-2014

 

Lying, thinking

Last night

How to find my soul a home

Where water is not thirsty

And bread loaf is not stone

I came up with one thing

And I don’t believe I’m wrong

That nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

There are some millionaires

With money they can’t use

Their wives run round like banshees

Their children sing the blues

They’ve got expensive doctors

To cure their hearts of stone.

But nobody

No, nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

Now if you listen closely

I'll tell you what I know

Storm clouds are gathering

The wind is gonna blow

The race of man is suffering

And I can hear the moan,

'Cause nobody,

But nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

Alone, all alone

Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone.

 

About the Poet

 

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She was an author, poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She was best known for her seven autobiographical books: Mom & Me & Mom (Random House, 2013); Letter to My Daughter (Random House, 2008); All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes (Random House, 1986); The Heart of a Woman (Random House, 1981); Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas (Random House, 1976); Gather Together in My Name (Random House, 1974); and I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Random House, 1969), which was nominated for the National Book Award.

 

Among her volumes of poetry are A Brave and Startling Truth (Random House, 1995); The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (Random House, 1994); Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now (Random House, 1993); I Shall Not Be Moved (Random House, 1990); Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (Random House, 1983); Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (Random House, 1975); and Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (Random House, 1971), which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

 

In 1959, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. From 1961 to 1962 she was associate editor of The Arab Observer in Cairo, Egypt, the only English-language news weekly in the Middle East, and from 1964 to 1966 she was feature editor of the African Review in Accra, Ghana. She returned to the United States in 1974 and was appointed by Gerald Ford to the Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year. She accepted a lifetime appointment in 1982 as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In 1993, Angelou wrote and delivered a poem, "On The Pulse of the Morning," at the inauguration for President Bill Clinton at his request. In 2000, she received the National Medal of Arts, and in 2010 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.

 

The first black woman director in Hollywood, Angelou wrote, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television. In 1971, she wrote the original screenplay and musical score for the film Georgia, Georgia, and was both author and executive producer of a five-part television miniseries "Three Way Choice." She also wrote and produced several prize-winning documentaries, including "Afro-Americans in the Arts," a PBS special for which she received the Golden Eagle Award. Angelou was twice nominated for a Tony award for acting: once for her Broadway debut in Look Away (1973), and again for her performance in Roots (1977).

 

Angelou died on May 28, 2014, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she had served as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University since 1982. She was eighty-six.

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I Hate Mondays

In the comic strip Garfield, he is known to say, “I hate Mondays.” I agree completely with the fat yellow tabby. I also like lasagna. While for me, Mondays mean returning to work after the weekend, I’ve never really understood why Garfield hated Mondays. He’s a cat, after all. He is going to spend the day eating and sleeping. Maybe, Garfield really hated Mondays because Jon had to return to work, and he missed Jon when he was gone. Garfield’s cartoonist actually gave a reason for why Garfield hated Mondays:

“Garfield does not have a job, Garfield does not go to school and every day is the same. Nevertheless every Monday is just a reminder that his life is the same old, same old cycling again and for some reason even though his life is pretty much the same every day on Mondays specifically, awful things tend to happen to him physically.”

 I did not want to wake up this morning, nor do I want to go to work. Alas, I am awake, typing this post, and having my breakfast. I will watch a little of the news, then take a shower, get ready for work, and head out the door. Ugh! I hate Mondays.

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Be Confident in Yourself

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

- Hebrews 10:35-36

No person is one-dimensional. One way to look at it is that there are three views of every individual: the view that God has of us, the opinions that others hold concerning us, and the perception we have of ourselves. Each of these is quite important.

 

First, how does God see us? First Samuel 16:7 tells us that, “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” In 1 Kings 8:39, Solomon tells us that God “alone know the hearts of all the sons of men.” Hannah, the mother of Samuel, acknowledged in the prayer she offers in 1 Samuel 2:3, “For the Lord is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.” Similarly, in John 2:25, Jesus affirmed that “He knew what was in man.”

 

If you consider Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dorian is an exceptionally beautiful man, and an artist becomes infatuated by his beauty. Dorian begins to believe in a hedonistic worldview that beauty and sensual fulfillment are the only things worth pursuing in the life of others, and he expresses the desire to sell his soul to ensure that the picture, rather than he, will age and fade. It is through the portrait that Dorian can see the ugly results of his self-indulgent actions. The figure in the painting grows older and uglier as time goes by. Similarly, if some of the world’s “beautiful people” were turned inside out and revealed as God sees them, they might appear as grotesque as the painting of Dorian Gray.

 

It is not our outward looks that God judges us by, but our inner hearts. 

 

Second, how do others see us? The view others have of us is only relatively accurate. People may hold an opinion of us that is greatly exaggerated. Those who are in the public eye are idealized at times, even when they have done nothing to deserve it or have told people what they want to hear in order to get their approval. On the other hand, people who have the utmost character are sometimes slandered unjustly. Jesus did not deserve the hateful reproaches that were heaped upon him by the self-righteous religious leaders of the time. The apostle Paul lived as a Pharisee and participated in the persecution of early disciples of Jesus and suffered character assassinations for his actions before he became a believer in Christ. Then, he faced persecution from the Romans for being a follower of Jesus.

 

Sometimes, we don’t give a person a second chance because of how we have perceived them in the past, and sometimes, others don’t give us the second chance we deserve because of things in our past.

 

Finally, how do we see ourselves? We constantly appraise our own lives, and our perceptions of ourselves can become distorted. Our self-perception may be grossly inflated. Either we see ourselves as better than we are, or we do not have the self-esteem to have confidence in ourselves. That is why we are cautioned not to think more highly of ourselves than we should. Romans 12:3 tells us that a person should “not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Romans 11:20 warns us “not [to] be haughty,” and Romans 12:16 tells us not to “be wise in your own opinion,” but instead we should “associate with the humble.” Therefore, we can’t overvalue our self-worth if it is unwarranted.

 

It is important, though, that we have a healthy view of ourselves. In Matthew 22:39, Jesus commands us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” While this is the Golden Rule we should all live by, it also implies we need a concept of self-esteem to treat others in a way that we and all humans deserve. Sadly, we often harbor a low appreciation of ourselves—so much so that it hinders our effective service to God and torments our lives with much unhappiness. Self-confidence and self-esteem can make us better Christians because if we deserve that self-confidence and self-esteem, then we know we are serving God in the best ways we can.

 

My new favorite quote is by a fellow Alabamian, Zora Neale Hurston. She said, "Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me." We should live our lives in a way that we know we are worthy of God’s love, no matter what others may think of us.

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Moment of Zen: Selfies

I’m pretty awful at taking selfies, but some guys have it down to an art form.

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Hot Guy

We have all experienced this: you are going about your day, and then you see him, a man so gorgeous that he makes you weak in the knees. It's usually in the most unexpected places (and sometimes expected places, but I'm talking about a regular guy, not a model, go-go boy, etc., that you expect to be hot). For me, he is often a waiter or a barista. Sometimes, it's the UPS guy (where does UPS find these hot guys anyway? And they all seem hot. Did anyone ever see the TikTok videos from Front Porch Ninja? He's deleted all his videos, but damn, he was hot! I've gotten sort of off-topic.). I have a weakness for guys in the service industry. I always have.

In my case, it was when I walked into a Subway restaurant a few days ago. I didn't see him at first; a young lady was waiting on the woman in front of me. Then, he came out from the back and asked for my order. He was tall and slender with short-cropped hair. He had a tattoo peeking out from his short-sleeved shirt. Then, he turned around, and there it was a beautiful round butt. His pants weren't even tight, but you could tell it was a glorious ass. The whole package was perfection, but when he smiled, I got weak in the knees. 

When I say this guy was good-looking, he looked a lot like the guy in the picture above. He wasn't some twink who was cute and just fun to look at, but a man probably in his late twenties or early thirties, tall and with a face and body that could have been carved from a Rennaisance sculpture. I've got a feeling I might be eating Subway sandwiches more often.

The sad thing about these kinds of situations is that you know he's unattainable, most likely because he's straight, but that does not stop the fantasies in your head and all the dirty things you'd like to do with him. Ok, maybe I was just horny and sex-deprived, but whenever I see a guy like this, unexpectedly and oh-so-handsome, it just brightens my day.

Have a great Friday and a lovely weekend, everyone.

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Continued Migraine

I had a much different post in mind for today, but my migraine that started Tuesday has continued. Yesterday was particularly rough as I tried to work and just bear with it. I made it half a day. Although I have a ton of meetings, I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it in today at all. This has just been a particularly bad one.

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Sparkly Lights

It began early yesterday morning with sparkly lights, a.k.a. an aura. For those who may not know, migraines are sometimes preceded by an aura, a visual disturbance of some kind. Auras come in various forms. When I have one, it is small twinkly lights around the edge of my vision. Luckily, I am not one of those who completely lose parts of their vision during an aura because it happened yesterday while I was driving. Typically, it lasts for only a few seconds. I know a terrible migraine is coming when it lasts longer. It never lasts very long, but 30 seconds is enough to see that it's going to be a rough day or two. This one certainly was. About an hour or so later, the migraine started. By lunchtime, the smallest amount of light was excruciating. I closed my eyes and slept most of the afternoon. Did sleeping help? No, not really. It may have made me feel better for a little bit, but the migraine would not go away. I don't even want to eat when they're bad like this. I went to bed for good last night a little after 9 pm. I had tried to stay up because too much sleep can worsen the migraine, but staying up wasn't going to happen. I slept until Isabella woke me this morning. The migraine is still there. Maybe it is not as bad as yesterday. I need to be awake a little before I can really tell. If this was a normal week at work, I'd call in sick, but I need to be in my office today. I have things that need to get done. However, if it worsens in the next hour or so, I'll have to decide whether to go in or not. Maybe I can stand a few hours and then come back home. We'll see.

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O Small Sad Ecstasy of Love

O Small Sad Ecstasy of Love

By Anne Carson

 

I like being with you all night with closed eyes. 

What luck—here you are

coming

along the stars!

I did a road trip

all over my mind and heart 

and

there you were

kneeling by the roadside 

with your little toolkit 

fixing something.

 

Give me a world, you have taken the world I was.

 

 

About This Poem

 

“I have not much to say. It’s one of my more self-evident works, and I don’t like covering things with a lot of exegesis. Although I do enjoy using the word exegesis. Thank you and goodnight.”—Anne Carson

 

About This Poet

 

Anne Carson is the author of several poetry collections, including Float(Alfred A. Knopf, 2016) and Antigonick (New Directions, 2015). She currently teaches in New York University’s creative writing program.