Wednesday, March 03, 2010

A few announcements, and an elegy.

A few announcements.

1. I am so. far. behind. I want to cry.
2. I am, in a perhaps not unrelated development, sick.
3. There are certain themes in my life:
  • too many magazines accumulate beside my bed
  • I need to reduce the amount of clothes, shoes, etc. by one-third
  • I screen out the same callers on my caller ID (SLVFA, Stage Attractions, Banker's Life, Deluxe Carpet Cleaners, &c. & c.) pretty much every day
--but I am not sure if the magazines, extra 33 1/3 % clothes/shoes, recurrent callers are an enlightened boddhisatva, sent to me to teach me a lesson, or whether I am just a wreck of a human being.
4. Work is making me anxious.
5. My daughter and grandson are in Scotland. Not that daughter, the other one. Actually, both of them. But there's still one daughter here at home. Also, my son is in China.
6. Over spring break, come hell or high water, the historian and I are going to L.A. for The L.A. Project, Part 2. We will be near Joshua Tree for a couple of days, then back to the coast. I am hoping for some beach, some Griffith Park, some historic L.A. I am hoping not to think about work at all.

An Elegy to my Sabbatical

I know: an elegy is not to,

rather on, but I am not Keats,
nor was meant to be: yet once more,

o ye unfettered hours, I think
upon you and--hear my plaint,

o ye unfettered hours: you
have skedaddled and with you,
every last flouret of a thousand hues

&c &c, but O the heavy change,
now thou art gon,

damn straight, thou art gon
and never must return: seriously,

o ye unfettered hours, I
hella miss you, and now I am sick
and pining for you a full-on pine.

Sabbatical, you were worth it,
but coming back to work was

a bitch: thus sang the uncouth
swaine to her sabbatical,
which hath dissolved into a mist:

is that a sabbatical I see
behind me? Come, let me

grasp thee. I have thee not,
and yet I see thee still--

tags: elegy, pastiche



5 comments:

  1. Some lessons: after sabbatical, ease back into work. Say no to everything, except lunch & movie dates with Dr. W. Do not be in charge of anything (this is pretty much a rule I follow always).
    I will try to remember these. In the meantime, I hope I get to see you. We can mourn the loss of sabbatical over tea and the what nots.

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  2. I share your pain. I'm delighted to hear you will spend spring break pursuing festive, break-like activities. Good for you!

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  3. i miss your sababtical too! one piece of luggage finally arrived the other two hopefully tomorrow. love you!

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  4. Keats WISHES he'd thought of, "I hella miss you"!

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  5. That's the saddest freaking poem I've ever read.

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