R.L. Swihart's Blog, page 78
December 14, 2020
The Gnawing Mouse
Poem by Ezra Pound. Even when I forget the exact wording (my mind always changes "full" to "long"), the gist is there. I think I also connected (long ago) the field mouse to Michelangelo's gnawing mouse. Anyway ...
#rlswihart13 #rl_swihart #ezrapound #mouse #fieldmouse #gnawingmouse #poetry #reading

December 11, 2020
Evening Walk
Long Beach. Evening walk: Colorado Lagoon (coots = mythological earth-divers) and Marine Stadium (sunset).
#rlswihart13 #rl_swihart #longbeach #coloradolagoon #marinestadium #sunsets #coots #creation #mythology #poetry #readmorepoetry


December 10, 2020
Ho Ho Ho
Long Beach. Xmas trees @ Todd's -- that time of year. We prefer Nobles.
#rlswihart #rl_swihart #longbeach #belmontheights #xmastrees #christmas2020 #todds #poetry #hohoho

December 8, 2020
Networking
Long Beach. The Neighborhood. Networking.
#rlswihart13 #rl_swihart #longbeach #alamitosheights #walking #birds #morebirds #birdsonwire #neighborhood #networking #poetry #readmore #walkmore #moremore

December 7, 2020
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher @ Colorado Lagoon
Long Beach. Blue-gray gnatcatcher wintering in CA. Very hard to "catch." Best pic I've got so far (with my phone).
#rlswihart13 #rl_swihart #longbeach #coloradolagoon #birds #bluegraygnatcatcher #poetry #readmorepoetry #walking

Christmas Town
Long Beach. Around the neighborhood.
#rlswihart13 #rl_swihart #longbeach #alamitosheights #xmas #xmastown #tistheseason #poetry #readmorepoetry #walking

December 5, 2020
Chekhov @ Sakhalin
At Korsakovsk I was accompanied round the cabins by the convict Kislyakov, quite a strange man. Very probably the court reporters still have not forgotten him. This was the same Kislyakov, a military clerk, who, at St Petersburg, killed his wife on St Nikolai’s Street with a hammer and presented himself before the City Governor to announce his crime. According to his story, his wife had been beautiful, and he had loved her very much, but one day after quarrelling with her he had sworn before an icon to kill her, and from that time right up to the murder some invisible power had whispered without ceasing in his ear: “Kill, kill!” Up to the trial he had been in St Nikolai’s Hospital; very probably because of this he himself considered he was a psychopath, for he more than once asked me to plead on his behalf that he should be recognized as a lunatic and shut up in a monastery.* His entire penal servitude consisted of the following: in the prison he had been entrusted with making the pegs for fastening the makeweights to portions of bread* – not hard work, one would think, yet he would hire somebody in his place, while he himself “gave lessons” – that is, did nothing. He was dressed in a lounge suit of sailcloth and had a prepossessing appearance. He was not a very bright fellow, but he was a talker and philosopher. “Where there are fleas, there you’ll find kids,” he’d say in a sweet, rich baritone voice every time we saw children. When people asked, while he was present, why I was drawing up the census, he would say: “They’re doing it so as to send us all off to the moon. You know where the moon is?” And when, late in the evenings we would be returning on foot to Alexandrovsk, he would repeat several times right out of the blue, “Revenge is the most noble emotion.”
December 3, 2020
Bolsa Chica: Herons in Palms
Bolsa Chica. That time again: Herons nesting in palms.
#rlswihart13 #rl_swihart #california #bolsachica #bolsachicareserve #herons #heronsinpalms #birds #birdsofafeather #nature #beauty #walking



December 2, 2020
Holidays: Juxtaposition
Long Beach. California Autumn Juxtaposed with the Holiday Season. It's All Good.
#rlswihart13 #rl_swihart #longbeach #coloradolagoon #autumncolors #autumn #winterholidays #christmas #tistheseason #leaves #colors #lights #beauty #poetry #readmorepoetry





Morning Toilet
Colorado Lagoon. Morning toilet.
#rlswihart13 #coloradolagoon #longbeach #whitebirds #birds #birdsofafeather #egret #poetry #morning #toilet #grooming #beauty #readmorepoetry #walking
