{"id":35413,"date":"2020-07-26T17:20:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T01:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=35413"},"modified":"2023-12-21T13:03:01","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T21:03:01","slug":"a-stray-cat-young-wildlife-and-a-couple-of-short-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=35413","title":{"rendered":"A stray cat, young wildlife, and a couple of short poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caveat lectorem:<\/strong> When readers submit comments, they are asked if they want to receive an email alert with a link to new postings on this blog. A number of people have said they do. Thank you. The link is created the moment a posting goes online. Readers who find their way here through that link can see an updated version by simply clicking on the headline <\/strong>above the posting.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Stray cat.<\/strong> Does anyone around Point Reyes Station recognize this small, black cat? It started showing up at Mitchell cabin three days ago. I assume the owner lives somewhere in the vicinity of Highway 1 north of the Point Reyes-Petaluma Road. It seemed weak from hunger when we first saw it, and Lynn gave it some tuna.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Geraniums on our deck. Lynn and I spent a couple of hours yesterday rearranging pots of flowers, succulents, and a small tree on our deck to give some of them more sunlight. Three large pots of geraniums were part of the mix, and that brought to mind a poem by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Theodore Roethke (1908-1963).<\/em><\/p>\n

The Geranium<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I put her out, once, by the garbage pail,\/ She looked so limp and bedraggled,\/ So foolish and trusting, like a sick poodle,\/ Or a wizened aster in late September,\/ I brought her back in again\/ For a new routine, \/ Vitamins, water, and whatever\/ Sustenance seemed sensible\/ At the time; she’d lived\/ So long on gin, bobbie pins, half-smoked cigars, dead beer\/ Her shriveled petals falling\/ On the faded carpet, the stale\/ Steak grease stuck to her fuzzy leaves.\/ (Dried-out, she creaked like a tulip.)<\/p>\n

The things she endured!\/ The dumb dames shrieking half the night\/ Or the two of us, alone, both seedy,\/ Me breathing booze at her,\/ She leaning out of her pot toward the window.<\/p>\n

Near the end, she seemed almost to hear me\/ And that was scary\/ So when that snuffling cretin of a maid\/ Threw her, pot and all, into the trash-can,\/ I said nothing.<\/p>\n

But I sacked the presumptuous hag the next week,\/ I was that lonely.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As we get into summer, I’m seeing more and more young wildlife<\/strong> around the cabin.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A black-tailed doe leading her two young fawns, all three of them on full alert, across a field downhill from us last Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A blackbird feeds two of her young as they noisily compete with mouths wide open for seeds she’s pecked up. This repast yesterday was enjoyed in a pine tree just outside our window.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A flock of hungry red-winged blackbirds began flying in yesterday when they saw Lynn and me spread birdseed on the railing of our deck while right below them….<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

two does, each with a fawn, grazed where the grass was a tad greener.<\/em><\/p>\n

I’ll sign off with a whimsical poem<\/strong> by the 1970 US poet laureate William Stafford (1914-1993). It provides a bit of humor to brighten these sad times.<\/p>\n

Adults Only<\/strong><\/p>\n

Animals own a fur world:\/ people own worlds that are variously, pleasingly, bare.\/ And the way these worlds are<\/em> once arrived for us kids with a jolt,\/ that night when the wild woman danced\/ in the giant cage we found we were all in\/ at the state fair.<\/p>\n

Better women exist, no doubt, than that one,\/ and occasions more edifying, too, I suppose. But we have to witness for ourselves what comes for us,\/ nor be distracted by barkers of irrelevant ware;\/ and a pretty good world, I say, arrived that night\/ when that woman came farming right out of her clothes, by God,\/ At the state fair.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caveat lectorem: When readers submit comments, they are asked if they want to receive an email alert with a link to new postings on this blog. A number of people have said they do. Thank you. The link is created the moment a posting goes online. Readers who find their way here through that link […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,10,11],"tags":[1348,1279,1349,1350,1347],"class_list":["post-35413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-west-marin-nature","category-wildlife","tag-alan-dugan","tag-black-tailed-deer","tag-geraniums","tag-red-winged-blackbirds","tag-william-stafford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35413"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40646,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35413\/revisions\/40646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}