With Love....From a Lonely Dog by Edith Lasen Johnson

I wish someone would tell me

What it is I've done wrong.

Why do I have to stay chained up

And be left alone so long?

They seemed glad to have me

When I came here as a pup.

There were so many things we'd do

While I was growing up.

The Master said he'd train me

As a companion and a friend.

The Mistress said she'd never fear

To be alone again.

The children said they'd feed me

And brush me every day,

They'd play with me and walk me

If I would only stay.

But now the Master "hasn't time."
And the Mistress says I shed.

She doesn't want me in the house

Not even do be fed.

The children never walk me

They always say "not now."
I wish that I could please them.

Won't someone tell me how?

All I had, you see, was love.

I wish they would explain

Why they said they wanted mine,

And then left it on a chain. 

This poem has been on the side of the fridge at my house ever since I can remember, and so I decided to post this one up as my response for this week. It is one of my favorite poems because of its poignant and sad tone, yet the speaker still retains a glimmer of hope and love for his family even in his state of neglect. Unlike some people, instead of holding resentment and anger at his owners for his situation, all he wants to do is show his loyalty and love to them because he thinks it is his fault. This unconditional love I think people could serve to learn from, dogs are such great people at times. This poem also is a sad reminder of how a lot of pets are neglected, and makes me feel glad to have my pets and know that they are well taken care of. Now if you've got a dog (or more than one), go give him or her a good petting :)

Fable by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The mountain and the squirrel
Had a quarrel;
And the former called the latter "Little Prig."
Bun replied,
"You are doubtless very big;
But all sorts of things and weather
Must be taken in together
To make up a year
And a sphere.
And I think it's no disgrace
To occupy my place.
If I'm not so large as you,
You are not so small as I,
And not half so spry.
I'll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track;
Talents differ: all is well and wisely put;
If I cannot carry forests on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut."


I was particularly drawn to this poem because it is by Ralph Waldo Emerson, not only because he is one of my favorite poets, but also because he focuses on nature in a majority of his poems. This poem is about a squirrel and a mountain having a fight over who is better than the other. The mountain believes himself to be bigger and therefore better, but this is not necessarily true. The squirrel takes the wiser approach and states things that are good about himself and the mountain such as him being rather spry, and the mountain being able to bear forests on his back. I like this poem because it emphasizes the fact that even though one is smarter or more capable to do something than someone else, they are not necessarily better than the other person. Each person has their pros and cons, and no one should discount himself or someone else based upon them. Everyone has their place in the world; mountains serve to house forests, and squirrels help to plant them. Just remember, you are unique, just like everybody else. :)

Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

I don't normally like long poems, just because they usually take forever to get their point across, and I'm a rather impatient person. However, I like this one because of the fact that, even though it is somewhat lengthy, It has a very deep and widely applicable meaning to it that carries throughout the entire poem. Frost mentions a couple of times that his neighbor lives by the phrase "Good fences make good neighbors," meaning that if you set up boundaries around yourself, or in the poem, your land, people will respect you more than if you didn't. Each spring, he and his neighbor go out toghether and build up the stone wall that has been worn down by weather and careless hunters the previous year, all the while keeping the wall between them. This shows that each holds an amount of amicable respect for the other, and wishes to keep it that way through their toil upon the rock wall (Frost seems less uptight about the wall though). Even though there are places where it seems unneeded, his neighbor insists that they keep it up. I believe that this poem is not only talking about a property line, but also protection around oneself as well. Just because you are close to someone does not mean you do not have to let them walk all over you, and oftentimes you will be in better relations with them if you set boundaries.

Sum Insanissima

MECHANIC: SOMEONE SET US UP THE BOMB
OPERATOR: MAIN SCREEN TURN ON
CATS: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
CATS: YOU HAVE NO CHANCE TO SURVIVE MAKE YOUR TIME
CAPTAIN: FOR GREAT JUSTICE.






Veni, Vidi, Victus Sum.........