Storm Windows

I raked the lawn today & put all the patio furniture in the garage for the winter.  While doing so, I couldn't help but regret how few times we ate dinner at the table on the deck or even sat there.  I think this is my new favorite poem. When we are young, we take solace in the fact that certain things will last forever, when we are old we mourn the fact that nothing lasts forever. 

The Chairs That No One Sits In

By Billy Collins

You see them on porches and on lawns

down by the lakeside,

usually arranged in pairs implying a couple

who might sit there and look out

at the water or the big shade trees.

The trouble is you never see anyone

sitting in these forlorn chairs

though at one time it must have seemed   

a good place to stop and do nothing for a while.

Sometimes there is a little table

between the chairs where no one   

is resting a glass or placing a book facedown.

It might be none of my business,

but it might be a good idea one day

for everyone who placed those vacant chairs

on a veranda or a dock to sit down in them

for the sake of remembering

whatever it was they thought deserved

to be viewed from two chairs   

side by side with a table in between.

The clouds are high and massive that day.

The woman looks up from her book.

The man takes a sip of his drink.

Then there is nothing but the sound of their looking,

the lapping of lake water, and a call of one bird

then another, cries of joy or warning—

it passes the time to wonder which.

 

 

Five Favorite Songs of the Day

 

 The Heart of a Saturday Night-Tom Waits

Storm Windows-John Prine

 

Josh Mcbride-The Head & the Heart

Hang Me Oh Hang Me-Deep Dark Woods

Dink's Song-Bob Dylan

Happy Saturday, friends...

andrew