"I am an English Major"

"Yes, I am an English Major.

No, I am not going to teach.
No, I don't want to edit your paper.
No, I don't know what that word means.
And, no, I can't spell that word either."

My friend came up with that the other day and I thought it was rather applicable.
She has the exact same major, emphasis and minor as I do, so we have a lot of common interests. Our major is obviously English. Our emphasis is creative writing. Our minor is Marriage and Family Studies. We both wish to become writers on the side of having a family or whatever career we may possibly be interested in (at the moment that is nothing).
But I loved what she wrote. I didn't end up majoring in English because I want to become a teacher, love grammar, know how to spell or define words. I ended up majoring in English because I love literature. The End. There wasn't any other reason.
Though I can come up with rationals and justification. Such as, if I wanted to go on to graduate school, majoring in English is a helpful. Majoring in it also makes you seem smart.
Now, I'm not saying that either of us is not smart, nor am I saying that we don't love the English language and wouldn't mind teaching. It's just those aren't our goals.
But, in any case, I love my major.
Just don't ask me to spell anything.

Four Important Relationships

General Conference is coming up again. I love General Conference. But as I was reviewing the October 2010 General Conference I rediscovered Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf's talk entitled "Of Things That Matter Most." It's wonderful and has come wonderful insights and recommendations, as all General Conference talks do.

There are Four Relationships that should be strengthened in our lives:

1. With our God
2. With our families
3. With our fellowman
4. With ourselves

Why should be worry about these relationships in the first place?

Relationship with our God

"We are His spirit children. He is our Father. He desires our happiness. As we seek Him, as we learn of His Son, Jesus Christ, as we open our hearts to the influence of the Holy Spirit, our lives become more stable and secure. We experience greater peace, joy, and fulfillment as we give our best to live according to God’s eternal plan and keep His commandments."

We should get to know our literal Father in Heaven. He loves us. He wants the best for us. With Him in our lives, we can have a deeper joy and peace even as trials and hardships abound in our lives. We need to keep the Eternal perspective in mind. This mortal experience is not it. There is more.

Relationship with our Families

"Since 'no other success can compensate for failure' here, we must place high priority on our families. We build deep and loving family relationships by doing simple things together, like family dinner and family home evening and by just having fun together. In family relationships love is really spelled t-i-m-e, time. Taking time for each other is the key for harmony at home. We talk with, rather than about, each other. We learn from each other, and we appreciate our differences as well as our commonalities. We establish a divine bond with each other as we approach God together through family prayer, gospel study, and Sunday worship."

The family is divine and made to be Eternal. We want to go to Heaven with those we love. Eternal families seals a family together so that it is not "until death do we part." But since it is that way, or made to be that way, we want to make sure that we are the type of person those you love will want to be with forever.

Relationship with our Fellowman

"We build this relationship one person at a time—by being sensitive to the needs of others, serving them, and giving of our time and talents."

Friendship is a wonderful gift. Others can help you through difficult times and you can help others. You can create a stronger bond with your neighbor, past friends, or total strangers by becoming their friend first.

Relationship with Ourselves

"It may seem odd to think of having a relationship with ourselves, but we do. Some people can’t get along with themselves. They criticize and belittle themselves all day long until they begin to hate themselves. May I suggest that you reduce the rush and take a little extra time to get to know yourself better. Walk in nature, watch a sunrise, enjoy God’s creations, ponder the truths of the restored gospel, and find out what they mean for you personally. Learn to see yourself as Heavenly Father sees you—as His precious daughter or son with divine potential."

Sometimes we need to realize that, yes, we make mistakes, but we can correct them. We are divine beings. We, you and I, are literal Children of God. How wonderful is that? We need to learn ourselves better so we can continue to realize our Divine Potential.

Oreos

Finding the perfect birthday present is one of the most difficult things to do. Honestly. You'd think that even when you are good friends with a person you would know what to get them. But, somehow, you have no idea.
So I ended up just buying my friend Oreos.
Thus, I associated Oreos as a I-had-no-idea-what-else-to-get-you-but-here-are-some-Oreos gift. But she really liked it. Surprise to me. There was then another birthday soon after, and again, I had no idea what to get her. So I ended up just buying Oreos.
Surprise again! She loved them!
I would have never guessed.
My boyfriend, seeing that I was just kinda disappointed in myself for not coming up with anything else, told me that Oreos are, in fact, an excellent gift.
After a few more birthdays in which I gave Oreos, and seeing how much they enjoyed them, I began to believe him. So I thought about it myself and came to the conclusion that if I were to receive Oreos for my birthday, it'd be perfect. :)

Oreos are wonderful!
You can just eat them with milk, make an Oreo shake, an Oreo pie, "mud pudding", Oreo pizza, Oreo cheesecake, Oreo ice cream, etc. There is sooo much that can be done with Oreos.

I've decided that Oreos are going to be my signature birthday gift. So if you have a birthday coming up and you are nearby, be warned, you'll be getting Oreos.

It's a Wonderful Life

Today I had an epiphany on how wonderful my life really is.

I only have a few things I worry about in life. I worry about school, my future family, building friendships and bettering my habits. That's it. I don't worry about "getting caught" with anything. I don't worry about hiding anything. I don't worry about death. I don't worry about a lot.

I have total peace of mind.

Yes, of course I'm not perfect. I need to do better in my health, education, building strong relationships and daily prayer and scripture study. I need to do better in so many areas of my life that there is no possible way I can list them all. I'm not perfect.

I've realized that I am not perfect and I can't do it on my own, but that when I rely on the Lord to help me when I've done all I can, anything is possible.

Thus, I am at peace even as life has it's ups and downs. I'm not alone. If I have done everything I can, I will not fall be destroyed in any way, because the Lord is there. The Atonement is real. My testimony of it is strong. I will not waver from it. It's such a comfort as life moves on and you see all the trials and hardships. But with the Eternal perspective that the Plan of Salvation gives, I can stand firm through them.

I have a wonderful life.

Derby Racing

FHE today was pretty fantastical. Though, I must admit it normally is. However, today is our second to last day of FHE together. It's a sad realization. We've had some great times. Today we raced our Pinewood Derby Car that we made.
We had begun making it last week. Though none of us knew how to make one. See, even though the guys had made one in cub scouts, well, apparently their fathers made it, so they didn't really know how. And we girls had never made one in our lives.
Miraculously though we made one.
And it turned out fabulously:

We ended up coming in 6th out of 12 different cars. We also ended up winning the "Heaviest Lifter" award. Which wasn't quite what we were aiming for (1st, 2nd, 3rd, slowest, OR most likely to be found in a movie). But oh well. It was a lot of fun. To make and to experience.
I love my FHE family and I'm going to be sad when the semester is over and people leave, go home, move, graduate or are in some way no longer in my FHE group. But I'd like to think that they've become some of my really close friends. And I'm grateful for that. :)

Celebrating Birthdays

I love Birthdays. A lot. This has only been a relatively recent discovery. I like what Lewis Carroll has to say about it:

There are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents . . . and only one for birthday presents, you know.

Birthdays are special days only celebrated once a year. I didn't really understand what they actually could mean until this year. Birthdays are a day that we celebrate the life of a person. We show them how grateful we are that they are in our lives, because they make it so much better. We celebrate their entrance into mortality. We can do meaningful things on this day just to say, "I'm glad you were born."

Birthdays create an opportunity to reconnect with those people you haven't stayed in constant contact with. They are also days to build the friendship between people. Birthdays are a day where you can relearn everything about a person. Where you think of them and truly pray for the best succeeding years and great quality of life for this person.

However, in the celebration of a birthday, we must not forget that there are three hundred and sixty-four days when we can show this person that we are grateful for their presence in your life; that there are three hundred and sixty-fours days to build and strengthen relationships. Everyday, every time you come into contact with someone, they should leave your presence knowing that you really are grateful for the opportunity to know them in mortality. Birthdays are just extra special.

Holidays

Today is St. Patrick's Day. Normally, in my family we use food coloring and make everything green: milk, eggs, waffles, pancakes, etc. It's awesome. When I was really young and in elementary school (before No-Child-Left-Behind) we used to make leprechaun traps. The next day at school all of our traps would be set off and treats left behind for us. I loved it! My school also had tiny little green footprints that would be new all over the school. We loved to follow them around to see where the leprechaun went, but he always ended up inside a vent where we couldn't go. 

I love the holidays. Not necessarily only the legal holidays we would be off of school or work, but the fun ones. Like St. Patrick's Day or Valentine's Day. I think that there is just so much that can ben done for each little holiday, especially with children, and to create a tradition for each holiday that just makes you enjoy the day that much more.

Thus, I decided to look up some holidays that I knew or couldn't remember. While reading them I would come up with ideas for each holiday, and I hope you will too!

January

Birthstone: Garnet

Flower: Carnation, Snowdrop

Month of: National Thank You; National Eye Care; National Volunteer Blood Donor; National Book; Apple and Apricots; Arichoke and Asparagus; Bath Safety; Birth Defects; Celebration of Life; International Creativity; National Polka; 

Holidays: New Years; Save the Eagles Day; Amelia Earhart Day; Martin Luther King Jr. Day; Benjamin Franklin's Birthday; 100th Day of School; Inauguration Day; Chinese/Lunar New Year; Tu B'Shevat; Australia Day

February

Birthstone: Amethyst

Flower: Violet

Month of: Black History; American Heart; Chocolate Lover's; National Bird Feeding; Abocado and Banana; Bake for Family Fun; Exotic Vegetables and Star Fruit; National Mend A Broken Heart

Holidays: National Freedom Day; Groundhog Day, Boy Scout Day; Valentine's Day; Presidents' Day; Superbowl Sunday; Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday; Washington's Birthday

March

Birthstone: Aquamarine, Bloodstone

Flower: Jonquil

Month of: National Nutrition; National Women's History; Girl Scout Week (10-16th)

Holidays: Read Across American Day/Dr. Suess Birthday; Mardi Gras/Ash Wednesday; St. Patricks; Daylight Savings; First Day of Spring

April

Birthstone: Diamond

Flower: Sweet Pea, Daisy

Month of: Cancer Control; Alcohol Awareness; Celebrate Diversity; Couple Appreciation; International Guitar; Jazz Appreciation; Keep America Beautiful; Military Child; National Card and Letter Writing; National Garden; National Kite; National Poetry Month

Holidays: All Fool's Day; Passover; Palm Sunday; Good Friday; Easter; Patriots' Day; Arbor Day; Earth Day; Administrative Professionals Day

May

Birthstone: Emerald

Flower: Lily-of-the-Valley, Hawthrone

Month of: Steelmark; National Physical Fitness and Sports; Asian/Pacific American Heritage; Family Wellness; Creative Beginnings; National BBQ; National Bike; National Military Appreciation; National Photo; National Salad; National Smile; Personal History; Tennis; National Family

Holidays: May Day; National Teacher's Day; Cinco de Mayo; Join Hands Day; Mother's Day; Nurses Day; Armed Forces Day; National Maritime Day; Victoria Day; Patriots' Day; Law Day; Loyalty Day; National Day of Prayer; Peace Officers Memorial Day; National Defense Transportation Day; Shavou'ot; Ascension Day; Police Week (week w/ 15th)

June

Birthstone: Pearl

Flower: Rose

Month of: National Rose; National Dairy; Audio Book Appreciation; Caribbean-American Heritage; Great Outdoors; National Camping; 

Holidays: Shavou'ot; World Environment Day; Flag Day; Father's Day; First Day of Summer; St. Baptiste Day; Juneteenth; National Go Barefoot Day; Doughnut Day; Drive-In Movie Day; Raggedy Ann and Andy Day; Family History Day; Fudge Day; World Handshake Day; Descendants Day; 

July

Birthstone: Ruby

Flower: Larkspur, Water Lily

Month of: Air-Conditioning Appreciation; Cell Phone Courtesy; Family Reunion; National Blueberries; National Ice Cream; National Hot Dog; National Wheelchair Beautification; Sandwich Generation; Tour de France

Holidays: Canada Day; Independence Day; Bastille Day; Parents' Day; U.S. Postage Stamp Day; Compliment Your Mirror Day; Chocolate Day; Father-Daughter Take a Walk Together Day; Tell The Truth Day; Teddy Bears' Picnic Day; Embrace Your Geekness Day; National Lollipop Day; Gorgeous Grandma Day; Take Your Houseplan For A Walk Day

August

Birthstone: Jade, Peridot

Flower: Gladiolus

Month of: National Inventor's; What Will Be Your Legacy Month

Holidays: Islamic Ramadan; Friendship Day; Assumption Day; National Aviation Day; Women's Equality Day; Isamic Eid ul-Fitr; Spiderman Day; Watermelon Day; National Chocolate Chip Day; Girlfriends Day; Respect For Parents Day; Purple Heart Day; Sister's Day; Smithsonian Day; S'mores Day; Best Friends Day; Bad Poetry Day

September

Birthstone: Sapphire

Flower: Aster

Month of: National Hispanic Heritage; College Savings; Childhood Cancer Awareness; National Honey; National Piano; One-on-One; Women's Friendship

Holidays: Labor Day; Grandparent's Day, Patriot Day; Stepfamily Day; Constitution Day and Week; International Day of Peace; Native American Day; First Day of Autumn; Gold Star Mother's Day; September 11; Google.com Day; Mayflower Day; Hobbit Day; Love Note Day

October

Birthstone: Opal, Tourmaline

Flower: Calendula

Month of: National Disability Employment Awareness; National Breast Cancer; Apple; Down Syndrome Awareness; National Book; National Chili; National Go On A Field Trip; National Popcorn Poppin'; Stamp Collecting

Holidays: Child Health Day; National Children's Day; Leif Erikson Day; Columbus Day; Canada Thanksgiving; Sweetest Day; National Boss Day; Mother-in-Law Day; United Nations Day; Halloween; National Lace Day; World Teacher's Day; Balloons Around the World Day; National Chess Day

November

Birthstone: Topaz, Citrine

Flower: Chrysanthemum

Month of: Aviation; Good Nutrition; National American Indian Heritage; Banana Pudding Lovers; Family Stories; National Adoption; National Life Writing; National Scholarship

Holidays: All Saints' Day; All Souls' Day; Guy Fawkes Day; Veterans Day; Remembrance Day; Armistice Day; Thanksgiving Day; Islamic New Year; Election Day; Use Your Common Sense Day; Cliché Day; National Girls Day; I Love To Write Day

December

Birthstone: Turquoise

Flower: Narcissus

Month of: National Tie; Rising Star

Holidays: ADIS Awareness Day; Islamic Ashura; Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day; Human Rights Day; Wright Brothers Day; Pan American Aviation Day; Hanukkah; Forefather's Day; First Day of Winter; Christmas Day; Boxing Day; New Year's Eve; National Cookie Day; National Haiku Poetry Day; Tick Tock Day

These are all some holidays, some random and some well known. There are so many others out there... Wouldn't it be great if we could find some things to do for the ones we choose? Incorporate it so that it's a tradition? A memorable one?

Sources: Holidaysmart, Federal Holidays, Brownielocks & The 3 Bears

HTML and CSS

HTML

I’m back to my Interact with Web Standards: A Holistic Approach to Web Design reading, and it’s getting a bit more complicated. Chapter 10 introduces HTML. Thus, HTML “consists of content – the words, references that pull in images to be displayed, and other data found on a web page – wrapped in special syntax markers that indicate what the difference pieces of context are (paragraphs, lists, images, etc).” There are some important types of HTML available:

   
1. Emphasizing pieces of text: some elements are for emphasizing pieces of text within the paragraphs, such as quotes, cited quote sources, strong/important text, code excerpts, deleted or inserted text, etc.
   
2. Numbered lists: HTML elements make this list possible and is one of the more important types to know as it is frequently used.
   
3. Forms: this element allows website visitors to enter information into the page.
   
4. Images: this element I particularly like as it means that that images can be inserted into a web page. I love looking at pictures of places and people and things.
   
5. Linking documents: these are elements that allow the linking of one document to another, even other people’s.

CSS

Chapter 11 is introducing CSS. CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS2 became a recommendation in 1998; CSS 2.1 was agreed upon in 2001. Yet, CSS3 was started in 1998 and is still being worked upon. Some important concepts of the chapter are as follows:

   
1. Inheritance: is the mechanism by which certain properties are passed from a parent element on to its children. If it didn’t exist, you’d have to specify every property for every HTML element, every time you wrote a web page.
   
2. The cascade: it’s the mechanism that controls the end result when multiple conflicting and overlapping CSS declarations apply to the same element. It has three main concepts: importance, specificity, and source order.
   
3. Importance: the importance of a CSS declaration depends on where it is specified. The later orders override earlier ones.
   
4. Specificity: it’s a measure of how specific a rule’s selector is. A selector with a low specificity may match many elements, while a selector with a high specificity might only match a single element on the page.
   
5. Source order: if two declarations affect the same element and have the same importance and the same specificity, this is the final distinguishing mark. The declarations that appears later in the style sheet will win.

Missionary Poetry

I've mentioned previously that I don't like most poets; that Billy Collins is my favorite and I enjoy Robert Frost. Yet, now I have another to add to this list of poets I like.
My Young Adult Literature class had required that I have 25 cards on which I had written about 25 different books. The cards were to be 4x6, and I just so happened to pick blank ones. Thus, when finishing the assignment I had 75 4x6 blank indexcards that I had no idea what to do with. They've been sitting on my desk for a few days.
This same class required that I look up and bring a poem to class, and that's when I told all of you about Billy Collins and some of his poems. In the midst of this assignment, as I glanced at 75 huge blank cards, I was impressed with an idea.
Hallmark cards, or any professional cards for that matter, usually have a little poem or thoughtful/humorous message. I thought, Hey! I have 75 huge blank indexcards... I can totally make cards and send them out to my friends on missions!
As a result I googled Missionary Poems. There isn't a lot out there. But I finally did find an excellent source. My Mormon Mission Poems: a Witty Poem a Week for 2 Years. Written by Russell Elkins and first published December 2006, it is the most hilarious thing I've read for awhile. Elkins served his mission in Guatemala and these poems seem to be truly expressing his feelings on the matter. On the copyright page he says:

Feel free to use the poems for anything you see fit, but if you ever claim them as your own or somehow figure out how to make money off of them, I’ll hunt you down and rhyme you to death.

 I haven't bought the book for it's cheap price (though I think it would be worth it), but I was able to download it for free. Thus began my reading of the poems. They seem to give a true sense of a mission.
I found some that I liked and decided to print them onto a few of my huge blank indexcards. After they were printed, I wrote on the other side of the card, put them in an envelope, and mailed them off. I hope they appreciate the gesture.
These are some of the poems I've gotten around to reading:


Canonized Meals
Many just cook us simple things
And that’s more than just fine
‘Cuz many people think like
The 3rd verse of Genesis 9
    The things my comp can stand
    Aren’t all the same as me
    But we don’t talk about it much
    After reading Romans 14:3
Sometimes one of us gets sick
And what he ate is what he blames
There is only one thing to do
And that’s in 5:14 of James
    Sometimes when elders get sick,
    To the bathroom they’ve gotta run
    But God won’t heal who stays in there
    Alma 60:21
If you are not exactly sure
You understand what I mean
It is well explained once again
In Jeremiah 4:19
    There is always an alternative
    When the food does not satisfy
    This is what the scriptures teach us
    In 19:20 of 2 Nephi



Another Food Poem
In the past ya’ll got in the mail
A few of my precious rhymes
About how we eat lunch with members
And how bad it is sometimes
    Elder Lesueur and I developed a plan
    That has risks that aren’t few
    But it’s more than worth the gamble
    Let me tell yous what we do
If the people have a dog
Then that takes care of the fuss
Dogs were put here for a purpose
To help ease the burden on us
    There’s still hope without a dog
    We can still make them think we ate
    We stick what we can fit in our pockets
    And leave the rest on one plate
The next part’s kind of hard
Cuz the cook you’ve gotta trick
The one still with food says he’s full
Cuz lately he’s been sick
    If they start to catch on
    There’s one thing that never hurts
    And that’s to make sure you both
    Have gotten some on your shirts


It’s Not All In the Wrists
Back in the states I didn’t think much
Of the music director up on the stand
Here in Guat the calling is so much more
Than just standing, waving the hand
    Often times members’ voices start to drift
    From the top to the bottom of their vocal range
    The director helps ‘em jump keys in unison
    So that they all sorta make the same key change
It’s the chorister’s decision to decide
Which notes to hold extra and those cut in half
Despite what the congregation wants to sing
Or what the artist wrote on the staff
    The chorister takes all the parts written down
    And decides which parts need fixed
    The chorister won’t do this with every verse
    Just the ones the chorister picks
I hope you realize now the importance
And that ya can’t just use any bum off the street
If ya follow their direction, you’ll be fine
Just don’t watch his hand or you’ll lose beat

Poetry

I used to have a strong dislike for poetry. Really. The only ones I rather enjoyed were Robert Frost's; and that's only because of how famous they were and the fact I had read them before learning about them in school.

Last year, however, I discovered that I could actually learn to love poetry, beginning with having a tolerance for it. For my Young Adult Literature class I'm required to find a poem or an excerpt of a play or some such, and I remembered last year and my newfound tolerance for poetry because of a poet I couldn't remember the name of.

Thus, digging through my journals of the pervious year in the approximate time frame I learned about him in class, I found him! His name is Billy Collins; someday, I'll purchase a book of his poems for myself.

His poems are rather clever and simple and easy to understand as well as amusing. I'd like to think that I can actually identify with them versus so many other poems that I just can't comprehend at first, second or third glance. 

Here are some of his poems that I am particularly partial to:

Introduction To Poetry

I ask them to take a poem

and hold it up to the light 

like a color slide

or press an ear against its hive.

I say drop a mouse into a poem

and watch him probe his way out,

or walk inside the poem's room

and feel the walls for a light switch.

I want them to waterski

across the surface of a poem

waving at the author's name on the shore.

But all they want to do

is tie the poem to a chair with rope

and torture a confession out of it.

They begin beating it with a hose

to find out what it really means. 

Japan

Today I pass the time reading

a favorite haiku,

saying the few words over and over.

It feels like eating

the same small, perfect grape

again and again.

I walk through the house reciting it

and leave its letters falling

through the air of every room.

I stand by the big silence of the piano and say it.

I say it in front of a painting of the sea.

I tap out its rhythm on an empty shelf.

I listen to myself saying it,

then I say it without listening,

then I hear it without saying it.

And when the dog looks up at me,

I kneel down on the floor

and whisper it into each of his long white ears.

It's the one about the one-ton temple bell

with the moth sleeping on its surface,

and every time I say it, I feel the excruciating

pressure of the moth

on the surface of the iron bell.

When I say it at the window,

the bell is the world

and I am the moth resting there.

When I say it at the mirror,

I am the heavy bell

and the moth is life with its papery wings.

And later, when I say it to you in the dark,

you are the bell,

and I am the tongue of the bell, ringing you,

and the moth has flown

from its line

and moves like a hinge in the air above our bed.

Thesaurus

It could be the name of a prehistoric beast

that roamed the Paleozoic earth, rising up

on its hind legs to show off its large vocabulary,

or some lover in a myth who is metamorphosed into a book.

It means treasury, but it is just a place

where words congregate with their relatives,

a big park where hundreds of family reunions

are always being held,

house, home, abode, dwelling, lodgings, and digs,

all sharing the same picnic basket and thermos;

hairy, hirsute, woolly, furry, fleecy, and shaggy

all running a sack race or throwing horseshoes,

inert, static, motionless, fixed and immobile

standing and kneeling in rows for a group photograph.

Here father is next to sire and brother close

to sibling, separated only by fine shades of meaning.

And every group has its odd cousin, the one

who traveled the farthest to be here:

astereognosis, polydipsia, or some eleven

syllable, unpronounceable substitute for the word tool.

Even their own relatives have to squint at their name tags.

I can see my own copy up on a high shelf.

I rarely open it, because I know there is no

such thing as a synonym and because I get nervous

around people who always assemble with their own kind,

forming clubs and nailing signs to closed front doors

while others huddle alone in the dark streets.

I would rather see words out on their own, away

from their families and the warehouse of Roget,

wandering the world where they sometimes fall

in love with a completely different word.

Surely, you have seen pairs of them standing forever

next to each other on the same line inside a poem,

a small chapel where weddings like these,

between perfect strangers, can take place. 

Reading an Anthology of Chinese Poems of the Sung Dynasty, I Pause To Admire the Length and Clarity of Their Titles

It seems these poets have nothing

up their ample sleeves

they turn over so many cards so early,

telling us before the first line

whether it is wet or dry,

night or day, the season the man is standing in,

even how much he has had to drink.

Maybe it is autumn and he is looking at a sparrow.

Maybe it is snowing on a town with a beautiful name.

"Viewing Peonies at the Temple of Good Fortune

on a Cloudy Afternoon" is one of Sun Tung Po's.

"Dipping Water from the River and Simmering Tea"

is another one, or just

"On a Boat, Awake at Night."

And Lu Yu takes the simple rice cake with

"In a Boat on a Summer Evening

I Heard the Cry of a Waterbird.

It Was Very Sad and Seemed To Be Saying

My Woman Is Cruel—Moved, I Wrote This Poem."

There is no iron turnstile to push against here

as with headings like "Vortex on a String,"

"The Horn of Neurosis," or whatever.

No confusingly inscribed welcome mat to puzzle over.

Instead, "I Walk Out on a Summer Morning

to the Sound of Birds and a Waterfall"

is a beaded curtain brushing over my shoulders.

And "Ten Days of Spring Rain Have Kept Me Indoors"

is a servant who shows me into the room

where a poet with a thin beard

is sitting on a mat with a jug of wine

whispering something about clouds and cold wind,

about sickness and the loss of friends.

How easy he has made it for me to enter here,

to sit down in a corner,

cross my legs like his, and listen.