this cat is purring a poem
gently in my ear
the rhythm only a whisker away
from being pure doggerel

but then he changes up the beat

Gratitude List:
1. First Quarter grades are finally ready for posting.  Just in time.  Oh, I have learned so much about time management.  I thought I was being wise, but I think I can really tweak my next semester to be much more efficient.  Sometimes you just need to get around that first lap to understand the lay of the course, to see how you need to plan the run.  I have learned so much.  Suddenly, though I am weary, I feel full of energy and excitement for the next lap.  This one, I am going to manage so much more efficiently.
2. That red-shouldered hawk with the gingery breast who sits in Neighbor John’s walnut tree for hours at a time while the sun warms her feathers.  She sits so still, and close enough that I can see the black and white checkered pattern on her wings and the red on her shoulders that gives her her name.
3. The way this cat clings to desperately to me when he sits on my lap. But it makes it really hard to get up and get anything else done.
4. Watching the 9th graders catch fire for writing poetry.  We have to study the poetry of other people, too, but they’re having so much fun writing their own that I want to do that the whole time.  Watching their eyes as they read out something that fell together in a quick exercise, when they realize that meaning is born from the juxtaposition of random words or ideas, the repetition of a phrase, or the sudden coming together of similar sounds.
5. Tonight I will sleep and sleep and sleeeeeep.

May we walk in Beauty.  May your sleep be deep.