Poetry for a blustery day

I am feeling lazy today, staying in bed just a little longer but not too late. My main goal for the day is to respond to an email I received from Mrs. S., the former headmaster of my high school alma mater, Trinity School in Midland, Texas. Trinity was a small day school that had only offered classes up to the 9th grade until they expanded to the 10th-12th grades starting with the class ahead of me. Most of the kids from 9th grade went on to public school, but a handful of us remained in my class with only 7 of us eventually graduating together. It was a very intimate and supportive environment. My teachers and classmates were like extended family to me.

The last interaction I had with Mrs. S was in 2009, when I had returned to my hometown for the school’s 50th anniversary (I think that was the last time I was in Midland). She had heard I might be moving to Ireland from a teacher and his wife with whom I’m still in close contact, and they had passed on my email address to her. Mrs. S is in her 90s now, and I’m very touched that she reached out after so many years. When clearing out the SF house, I had come across some old letters from her and others teachers, so she had been in my thoughts as well. I have Mrs. S to thank for awakening me to the gift of poetry during a senior writing seminar she taught my class.

On the topic of poetry, I thought I’d share a poem included below by the Irish poet Derek Mahon, who passed away on October 1st, the day I arrived to Dublin. I had picked up a few of his collections before the lockdown and have been very much enjoying them. The poem I’ve chosen, “Everything Is Going To Be All Right,” has been circulating since his death for its poignancy during our present day COVID era.

My weekly Zoom session with my therapist was rescheduled from yesterday to today because of the power outages in the East Bay in California that were imposed due to the increased fire hazard caused by high winds and extremely dry air. I also have my weekly DBT session later on tonight / early tomorrow morning, so I’ll be heading to bed soon to get a few hours of sleep before that.

I did get out for a brief walk earlier. The weather has turned blustery, with rain off and on today. I did a quick loop over the millenium bridge and back over the Ha’penny bridge, stopping to take a quick snapshot of seagulls along the Liffey.

I stop by a couple of stores on the way back to the apartment. There are still some people out the streets, but the town remains eerily quiet due to the lockdown. The number of daily COVID cases in Ireland seems to have tapered off somewhat, but it’s still too early to say whether the lockdown is working. As I’m putting things away in the kitchen, I listen to an interview on RTÉ Radio News with an Irish cousin of Joe Biden’s who is confident that he’ll win the election. He is definitely the favoured candidate here. 

There’s reflection of the bright waxing moon in a window across the street from my building. I just realized that the full moon falls on Halloween this year. Spooky! 

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