Sea Dreams and Time Machines

Lullaby
By Meg Winikates, June 2, 2009

Cast your wish upon a sea star.
Let the current carry your dreams.
Rock in the waves of moonlight.
Let your skin slip apart at the seams.
Surf upon the stardust
With the selkies all dancing beside,
While the siren sings to her hairbrush,
And the moon falls in love with the tide.

There’s a song in our souls that connects us
To the rhythm of ripples on shore
The touch of Wild Magic selects us
For our dream fins and night wings and more.
Cast your wish upon a sea star,
Let the current carry your dreams,
Whisper soft to the wind who you most are–
At the heart of the oyster, it gleams.

As I was trolling through the wonderful world of ‘associated links’ and ‘other articles that might interest you,’ I came across a gem of a blog written by a fellow museum educator on the other side of the continent, and her defense of English majors.

As an English major myself, I pounced on this particular blog entry with the glee of a thousand Napoleonic-era British sailors on hearing their rum ration had been increased.  5 Reasons to be Proud That You Majored in English is a really fun article and has some very entertaining links therein, my favorite being a list of famous English majors.

Now he is scattered among a hundred cities
And wholly given over to unfamiliar affections.
~WH Auden, “In Memory of WB Yeats”

The clicking on of my morning radio alarm rarely makes me all that happy–more rarely still does what I hear make me want to cry.  The world, the nation, and the state of Massachusetts have all lost a great friend today.  I’ve always been proud to live in Ted Kennedy’s Massachusetts, and I wish him peace and his family comfort.  Countless people a lot more famous, important, and well-spoken than I will be delivering messages of thanks and sorrow today, remembering his generosity of spirit, dedication, and huge contributions to causes both immense and individual.

I’m just going to borrow from the words of one of my favorite poets, who wrote these verses in memory of his good friend, another great liberal senator, Charles Sumner.

Death takes us by surprise,
And stays our hurrying feet;
The great design unfinished lies
Our lives are incomplete.

But in the dark unknown
Perfect their circles seem,
Even as a bridge’s arch of stone
Is rounded in the stream.

Alike are life and death
When life in death survives,
And the uninterrupted breath
Inspires a thousand lives.

Were a star quenched on high,
For ages would its light,
Still travelling downward from the sky
Shine on our mortal sight.

So when a great man dies,
For years beyond our ken,
The light he leaves behind him lies
Upon the paths of men.

~Henry W. Longfellow, “Charles Sumner”

The Trouble with omnivores is
they’re unthinkingly voracious–
It’s a subject on which, I admit,
I wax rather loquacious.

I’m not advocating carnivoes
like Tyrannosaur Ferocious,
or pure herbivoric tendencies–
to be too bovine is atrocious.

But on behalf of picky eaters,
I ask you to be cautious
and be aware some recipes
are less edible than nauseous.

A simple Caesar salad, say,
which is properly herbaceous
is ruined by a lobster tail
or other specks cretaceous.

Tomatoes, melons, sausages
produce dread over elation–
Which is why I pack the peanut butter
for every long vacation.

This is one of my favorite clever uses of language.  Syllepsis is the term used to describe when one word (usually a verb) modifies two words, and must be understood differently in order to fit them properly.  “Silva Rhetoricae” also describes it as  ‘A combination of grammatical parallelism and semantic incongruity, often with a witty or comical effect.’

Examples include:

“You held your breath and the door for me.” ~ Alanis Morissette

“I live in shame and the suburbs.”

“Putting on airs and long skirts.” ~ Me  🙂

I would love to hear any other examples you can come up with, quoted or your own!

And living in the British Postal Service?

http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2009/03/an-opportunity.html