Altarwise by Owl-Light: All Good Things, Etc., Etc.

Where's that title from?

Altarwise by Owl-Light

I.

Altarwise by owl-light in the half-way house
The gentleman lay graveward with his furies;
Abaddon in the hangnail cracked from Adam,
And, from his fork, a dog among the fairies,
The atlas-eater with a jaw for news,
Bit out the mandrake with to-morrow's scream.
Then, penny-eyed, that gentleman of wounds,
Old cock from nowheres and the heaven's egg,
With bones unbuttoned to the half-way winds,
Hatched from the windy salvage on one leg,
Scraped at my cradle in a walking word
That night of time under the Christward shelter:
I am the long world's gentleman, he said,
And share my bed with Capricorn and Cancer.

-- Dylan Thomas

02 August 2007

All Good Things, Etc., Etc.

Well, this is my last night in my Bowling Green apartment, so even though I should be finishing my packing, I feel I should commemorate the evening with a post.
My first thought is, "It feels like only yesterday I rented this place, and now it's time to go." (It's a clichéd first thought, but there you have it.)
My next thought is, "Damn! I have a lot of books!" 23 boxes full of them so far, and the end is not yet near. I have to admit that, though it's true my bibliophile acquisitiveness has created quite a burden right now, the other 51 weeks of the year when I'm not moving are made more pleasant by all my treasures.
Some Buddhist I am.
I've spent the summer intensely resisting the awareness that all this is ending and it's time to go. But now I'm finally beginning to enter the "acceptance" stage.

Fear not (if, in fact, anyone is reading this): future posts will be much more pithy and high-minded. But now is my time to lament.

2 comments:

Julie Platt said...: Hey Michael,

Pretty cool of you to start up a blog! I feel like that's the only way I keep in touch with friends anymore, thanks to my international-woman-of-mystery lifestyle. It's 6:35 in the a.m. here in Pennsylvania (I can't sleep because I'm apparently coughing up what's left of my lungs) and in about 24 hours I'll be moving to Lansing. I have about 15 boxes of books, but I hired movers to help.

It does feel like just yesterday we started the MFA. I'm gonna get all sentimental. Well, actually, what I'm feeling right now is more like fear and trembling. Do link to me, and I will link to you as soon as I get settled. And we'll talk.

BTW, your next steps are to set up a facebook account and find an AIM screen name. I suggest "MCPoetStud6000"; 3.8.07
Jeff Newberry said...: Glad that you've joined the blogosphere.

When my wife & I moved into our new home, I was astounded at the sheer number of boxes of books. I kept opening boxes & asking my wife, "Where the hell did we get all the books?"

When she pointed out that 90% of the books were those skinny little contemporary poetry titles, I knew the culprit was I.

Looking forward to reading more ...

(Got here via Gary's space, btw); 3.8.07