Despite the disgusting day it was yesterday, today the sun is out and I am so appreciative of the green. This Roethke poem was assigned for class and I really liked it, even though it's kind of sad in a way, so I thought I'd post it. Wet and rainy or not, I'm sure glad that it's finally spring!

Moss-Gathering, by Theodore Roethke

To loosen with all ten fingers held wide and limber
And lift up a patch, dark-green, the kind for lining cemetery baskets,
Thick and cushiony, like an old-fashioned doormat,
The crumbling small hollow sticks on the underside mixed with roots,
And wintergreen berries and leaves still stuck to the top, --
That was moss-gathering.
But something always went out of me when I dug loose those carpets
Of green, or plunged to my elbows in the spongy yellowish moss of the marshes:
And afterwards I always felt mean, jogging back over the logging road,
As if I had broken the natural order of things in that swampland;
Disturbed some rhythm, old and of vast importance,
By pulling off flesh from the living planet;
As if I had commited, against the whole scheme of life, a desecration.

I know I post a lot of these faux-vintage pictures. But they're so pretty, I can't resist. I'd write about what I've been up to, but all I've been doing is writing about Oscar Wilde and pulling my hair out because I can't wait for finals to be over. Adios, winter quarter. It's been rough and I'm ready to move on. Although I will miss reading some good teen novels, I have to admit. Onward and upward to irrelevant science! I can't wait...