This and That

I have just a couple of minutes before an arranged phone call. I want to share a few lines

from Michael Ondaatje's poem "Light" that can be found in a collection of his poems entitled

"The Cinnamon Peeler."

The speaker is sitting on his front porch watching a thunder storm. In a lightning

flash he is reminded of family photos that he has made into slides. One photo is of

his grandmother. He writes: "My Grandmother, who went to a dance in a muslin dress,

with fireflies captured and embedded in the cloth, shining

and witty. This calm beautiful face."

This gets me through the day along with a glowing bouquet of yellow gold roses given

to me last night by my daughter Amy. And the garden wall outside my window blazing

with showers of Queen's Wreath hearts, shouting their pinkness among the quiet pale

blue Plumbago.

Clouds of glory indeed!