April 25 - Against Whatever It Is That's Encroaching

This image is here for one reason: it was one of the top results for "sitting at home."

Not much time today, I have to go to Venice. Here's a poem by Charles Simic. The link on his name is to a very good bio of him, so I'll just say that he's won the Pulitzer and was poet laureate in 2007. He is currently a co-editor for The Paris Review. This poem is from The Voice at 3:00 AM, a finalist for the National Book Award. If you're not busy tonight, it may give you a nice way to spend your evening as well.



Against Whatever It Is That's Encroaching

Best of all is to be idle,
And especially on a Thursday,
And to sip wine while studying the light:
The way it ages, yellows, turns ashen
And then hesitates forever
On the threshold of the night
That could be bringing the first frost.

It's good to have a woman around just then,
And two is even better.
Let them whisper to each other
And I you with a smirk.
Let them roll up their sleeves and unbutton their shirts a bit
As this fine old twilight deserves,

And the small schoolboy
Who has come home to a room almost dark
And now watches wide-eyed
The grown-ups raise their glasses to him,
The giddy-headed, red-haired woman
With eyes tightly shut,
As if she were about to cry or sing.