Milestone

Just reached 1003 page views! Wow! That was a bit of a shock, but I'm really excited to have reached 4 digits! Thanks everyone!

Mushrooms

This poem is one that I did in high school, which I really liked. Now I'm writing an essay on Sylvia Plath, and I thought of this poem again. I really like it.

Mushrooms

Sylvia Plath

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.

2 German poems and 1 English

A couple of German poems that I really like, and one English poem:

Mondnacht

Eichendorff

Es war, als hätt' der Himmel,
Die Erde still geküßt,
Daß sie im Blütenschimmer
Von ihm nun träumen müßt.

Die Luft ging durch die Felder,
Die Ähren wogten sacht,
Es rauschten leis die Wälder,
So sternklar war die Nacht.

Und meine Seele spannte
Weit ihre Flügel aus,
Flog durch die stillen Lande,
Als flöge sie nach Haus.

Vereinsamt

Friedrich Nietzsche

Die Krähen schrein
Und ziehen schwirren Flugs zur Stadt:
Bald wird es schnein, -
Wohl dem, der jetzt noch - Heimat hat!
Nun stehst du starr,
Schaust rückwärts, ach! wie lange schon!
Was bist du Narr
Vor Winters in die Welt entflohn?

Die Welt - ein Tor
Zu tausend Wüsten stumm und kalt!
Wer das verlor,
Was du verlorst, macht nirgends Halt.

Nun stehst du bleich,
Zur Winter-Wanderschaft verflucht,
Dem Rauche gleich,
Der stets nach kältern Himmeln sucht.

Flieg, Vogel, schnarr
Dein Lied im Wüstenvogel-Ton! -
Versteck, du Narr,
Dein blutend Herz in Eis und Hohn!

Die Krähen schrein
Und ziehen schwirren Flugs zur Stadt:
Bald wird es schein, -
Weh dem, der keine Heimat hat!

Paradoxes and Oxymorons

John Ashbery

This poem is concerned with language on a very plain level.
Look at it talking to you. You look out a window
Or pretend to fidget. You have it but you don’t have it.
You miss it, it misses you. You miss each other.

The poem is sad because it wants to be yours, and cannot.
What’s a plain level? It is that and other things,
Bringing a system of them into play. Play?
Well, actually, yes, but I consider play to be

A deeper outside thing, a dreamed role-pattern,
As in the division of grace these long August days
Without proof. Open-ended. And before you know
It gets lost in the steam and chatter of typewriters.

It has been played once more. I think you exist only
To tease me into doing it, on your level, and then you aren’t there
Or have adopted a different attitude. And the poem
Has set me softly down beside you. The poem is you.

England and other fun stuff

I realise that my blog posts are very irregular, and that they may not be the most reliable way to keep up to date about my life, so here is an attempt to let you know what has been happening over the last few months. In June, I went and visited England. It was my first time overseas, and was a lot of fun! I really enjoyed it, and it was pure excitement for me! It's funny, because I sort of imagined that it would feel like this huge change for me, that I'd need to make this huge adjustment, but it just felt completely natural being there. I really enjoyed my 5 weeks there, seeing all of my family that I've missed for so long, and getting to experience another country about which I've read so much. My highlights were going to see the Phantom of the Opera on West End, and going to the London temple. It was absolutely beautiful there, and they held a session especially for me!

Me at the Fashion Museum in Bath, dressed in Victorian clothes. The corset was shockingly tight, but it was amazing how quickly I got used to it and actually felt comfortable! When I took it off I actually felt kind of exposed... it was a weird feeling! Anyway, I think the Victorian look suits me :)

This is me playing what was probably Jane Austen's piano, at the Jane Austen House Museum. They can't be absolutely sure that this was her piano, but considering how rare it was for people at the time to own one, it is a very good chance that this did belong to her family. It was very exciting for me to play on the very same instrument that one of my favourite writers, who lived so long ago, is likely to have played on!

Here I'm at the visitors' center at the London Temple.  This was a truly magical experience for me!

When I got back from England, I had to get straight back into varsity mode, although it was difficult with my Intervarsity competition right around the corner! I found myself practicing in all of my spare moments, preparing for the exciting moment that I'd get to compete in Pretoria. The weekend that we went away was lots of fun, and the bus ride was very enjoyable, despite it being so long. When we arrived in Pretoria, we were all pretty tired, but amped up about the weekend, prepared for dancing to our hearts' content! I didn't get very far in any of my sections, except for ballroom, in which I made it to semi-finals, but it was still tons of fun! We won the team cup, the spirit cup, and the team-dancing cup. It was exciting bring them all back home again. (Unfortunately I don't have any Intervarsity pictures available to put up, because I've disabled my Facebook account until after exams.)

After Intervarsity weekend, I managed to focus again on my work. I had a lot of work to do, and lots of reading! But I still managed to find time to go and do a photo shoot with a friend of mine. Here are a couple of photos:

This one was actually taken one they were still busy figuring out which lenses to use and stuff. There are a few on Facebook of my friend and me both sitting here, which people can see once I go back on.

 We did it at Rhodes Memorial, just above UCT, and I got to wear my new yellow dress, which I absolutely adore! It looks like it comes right out of the sixties! The ribbon in my hair I already owned, and suddenly remembered on the day that I had it lying around, and that it matched the dress perfectly. So I put that in. My hair looks red because I decided to temporarily go auburn, with a non-permanent dye. I really liked it, and will probably do it again sometime.

Then, of course, there's the reason why I haven't been able to do much dancing lately: I hurt my foot. Well, I actually cracked the bone. I was burning my English notes after my mid-term exam, because I didn't want to ever look at them again (the one book we wrote on was really terrible), and Richard put some concrete slabs up around the flames to protect it from the wind, and to prevent ashes from spreading. When he found a spider on his leg, however, he got a fright and, in his attempt to get it off, knocked over the slab, which fell onto my foot. We didn't go for x-rays, because mom told me that the doctors wouldn't be able to do much anyway, because of where in the foot it is. We've since discovered that it was definitely cracked, because it's developed a bump of some sort where it's healing, which is apparently what happens when there's been a crack.

Anyway, I can't really think of much else to share... To be honest, I should be busy doing an assignment right now, but I don't have the right notes with me for it, and my other assignment that I need to work on is based on an interview which is saved on my home laptop, and I don't have it available right now. Oh well... I guess I'll just have to do it when I get home.