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Silver Threads June 97- WWW edition
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Silver Threads is a production of The Senior Group, an informal
group of older netizens who produce three e-mail newsletters:
Silver Threads - general senior interest
Silver Feathers - birding and nature related items
Elderhostel Notebook - elderhosteling
To subscribe to any of these, e-mail to Jim Olson, at
olsonjam@uwec.edu
All three newsletters are archived at
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/senior-citizens/center.html
Silver Threads also has a graphically oriented World Wide Web
edition located at
http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/sthreads
Silver Threads Editors:
e-mail edition: Jim Olson, olsonjam@uwec.ed
Web page edition: Tom Kyle, tom_kyle@mbnet.mb.ca
Boulder Community Net Archivist: Art Rifkin,
Net Surfing: Pat Scott, jpscott@golden.net
TaleSpinner: Jean Sansum, Jean_Sansum@mindlink.bc.ca
**********************************************
Contents
Editorial Bits and Bytes
Features and Gleanings from the Net
Surfing with Pat
The Cup of Memory
Senior Smiles
TaleSpinners
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EDITORIAL BITS AND BYTES
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This issue returns to the practice of having separate e-mail and
web site editions. This is the web edition.
I am attempting to get all three Senior group e-mail publications
down to 20k or less in size to facilitate the e-mail process, but
will maintain more features in the web editions..
As many of you know internet e-mail is in somewhat of a crises at
the moment as mail boxes fill with junk mail and the various
schemes set up to thwart the junk mail are either easily defeated
or end up restricting other mail as well- like Silver Threads.
Some of our mailings have been returned as "refused" meaning the
recipients mail system has confused us with junk mail.
There will be a number of changes in our graphic WWW site as Tom
gets his system up and running normally and retrieves as many
lost files as he can following one of those computer hard disk
crashes that happen to all of us eventually (keep your fingers
crossed).
Meanwhile Art will continue to post the text version on the BCN
web site.
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FEATURES AND GLEANINGS FROM THE NET
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An Internet Junkie Confesses
- Joyce Larson (trackal@aol.com)
Who in her right mind would interrupt a sound sleep and rise at 2
a.m. to log onto the internet?
And shouldn't she know better, being in her 70s?
My computer name is Trackal, and until now I've kept my
activities secret from my family and friends.
I used to scorn little old ladies who played bingo every night or
went to Atlantic City and gambled away their grocery money. But
how can I look down on their dear souls when I walk past my
computer before breakfast with the intention of opening a window
blind, only to find myself sitting down and turning on the
screen?
Four hours later, it's noon, and I'm feeling hungry. I quickly
make a sandwich and get back to typing. Virtual visitors come
and go, but Trackal stays online with other intrepid souls
inhabiting the Senior Net Chat Room.
When people question my good sense or sanity, or both, I tell
them about the valuable wisdom and information I get on the Net.
I was packing for my Florida trip and wondered what type of
clothes I would wear there. "Hey, you in Orlando, I'm coming to
your city in a few days, so what should I pack?" I typed. The
response: "Clothes."
When I first got involved with computer chat, I spent at least
two weeks boning up on the lingo and protocol of the Senior Net
and other areas I planned to use.
I learned I shouldn't type in capital letters, or I would be
shouting. LOL means you're laughing out loud. If you're
grinning, you'd type . And here are some special symbols: :-)
is a sideways face, (((Hugs))) and, of course, -* is a kiss. We
routinely pass around coffee cups -(_)> (_)>- at breakfast. They
may also notify chatters that a person will BRB (be right back).
One spring day while chatting about birds, we simulated them: ^v^
^v^. Someone typed, "Cover your heads."
Some of my new friends have imaginative screen names: Grumpy
Dude, Old Dog, Old Hound, Duckhess, SweetOleBill, LilOldBill,
Barhop, Tippie, Newbie and Pole Cat. One anonymous person was
dubbed Jabber Fingers because she tends to monopolize
conversations.
I've met some interesting people: An actress who said she was on
the Academy Awards selection committee, a physician, teachers and
an 84-year-old gal who volunteered she and her husband met online
and were the second of 12 Senior Net couples to be married since
the chat room opened for business.
The Wall Street Journal summarized chat room discussions as
"often scatterbrained exchanges focusing on the lurid, the kinky
or the just plain sophomoric." So far the exchanges I've been
involved in were about grandchildren (called Grands), someone's
recent knee surgery, fishing, boating or golfing. Certainly
nothing I would call lurid or kinky.
Other conversations on the Net are to discuss the many get
togethers called bashes, that have taken place all over the
country or are being scheduled. I'm a little leery of traveling
to one of these gatherings alone, but one of my family members
has offered to go with me. I may decide to keep my new-found
virtual friends in cyberspace rather than deal with reality face
to face.
But in the meantime, I'll be talking to them daily on the Net.
***********
The Joy of Chat
- Jim Olson
If Joyce Larson's account of her adventures with internet chat
has aroused your curiosity and you wish explore the topic a
little further, you have many options. There are a variety of
chat sites that are aimed at the audience she refers to, and
they come in several formats with various technical and
communication features ranging from the relatively basic exchange
of interactive short messages within a group of 2-30 people in
"rooms" to more complex formats involving spoken messages,
exchange of graphics, music, and several that gather people into
large auditoriums arranged in rows. Here are some chat sites you
might explore:
____________
America On LIne Chat (for AOL customers only):
Seniornet Community center - Joyce described the chat room at
seniornet- keyword "seniornet" then click on "Community Center."
AARP Chat rooms- Keyword "AARP" then click on "Chat Rooms". You
will have a choice of an "Event " room or and "Open" chat room.
Event rooms host special events and scheduled chats on particular
topics led by a chat room moderator. One of the features of the
Open room is that, as often is the case, when a room fills with
23 people a new room is opened. Chatting in a room with more that
23 is quite difficult.
AOL Celebrity Chat rooms- Keyword "Live". This is an auditorium
type chat with a celebrity interview where the audience can ask
questions through a moderator or discuss the event with other
people in the same auditorium "row" with direct chat. There is a
"help" button on the main screen for more details on the
procedure.
Member Chat rooms- AOl allows users to set up personal, private
chat rooms, or create a public room of your own. Keyword "Chat"
or click on People Connection in the menu. This will take you to
a Town Square Lobby room with general AOL chat but will also have
buttons to click to "list chats" and from there to members public
rooms and to create or enter a private room. There will be a help
button for details. The private chat room is a good place to meet
and talk with family members around the country. many of the
members "public" rooms are the type of chat the Wall Street
Journal referred to in Joyce's article.
AOL instant message- AOL has a variation of chat for just two
persons called Instant message and has recently developed
software to open this feature up so the two "chatters" need not
both be AOL users. For details check AOL help.
_____________
Thirdage chat- http://coltrane.thirdage.com:4080
There are several rooms and a number of scheduled chats including
a celebrity type chat. For example, Betty White is scheduled to
be in a auditorium type chat early in July. Check the site for
details. This is a commercial site and will take or give
"cookies"(information placed on or retrieved from your hard disk
by the site) if that is of concern to you.
____________
http:www.WBS.com
This is a multiple room chat site with community rooms for 50+
and 60+ age group.
This site allows graphics during chatting and members also often
put "buttons" in their messages that trigger musical selections.
It is not quite as interactive, however, as some of the other
sites as you must press a special button to "send" and " receive"
the chat screen although a new technique called "Streaming"
allows a more continuous flow of messages.
_________
http:/www/seniornet.org
Go from this page to "Roundtables" and the from the welcome menu
in Roundtables to "Chatterbox". This chat site requires a java
enabled web browser such as Netscape 3.0 or higher. It has the
standard chat features such as allowing for blocking out a
person you don't wish to chat with, for personal message between
two users, and for the creation of private rooms. It also allows
each chatter to select a color for the chat lines of their
messages which helps to further identify the person speaking. You
must register (no charge) at the welcome page to use the chat or
forums in Roundtables.
_________
http://winter-q.com/Agesmart.html
This is the web page of the senior related listserv "Agesmart" It
has a chat feature available for users with some Java enabled
browsers (see seniornet above)
_________
http://www.tribal.com/powwow
This is POW Wow chat and has many features including the use of
voice chat. It requires special software (downloadable from the
site) to use. The software is not currently available in a MAC
format.
___________
http://www.mirabilis.com/
This ICQ communications program is one of the newest of the
personal direct internet communications sites with features too
complex to describe in detail here, but it does offer a variety
of voice, split screen, and other chat features as well as many
other ways for netizens to interact online. It requires special
software (downloadable from the site- not yet available for MAC
users)
_______
Mirc Irc chat-
This is the grandaddy of internet chat systems. It is
independent (but now being connected) with the WWW. It requires
special software and connections to participating net sites. An
excellent tutorial and description of the protocol and how to
link to #seniorchat is found at
http://www.trailerpark.com/phase1/Gabe/index.html
It is the home page of my net friend and fellow poet, Gabe
. Read some of his verses while you are
there.
************
Modern Travel Woes
- Pat Schade
When the letter arrived concerning my husband's 50th college
reunion, it seemed like a great idea to merge a trip to New
Jersey to meet our new grandson with a few days in Virginia with
very old friends.
As it turned out the baby was full of smiles and the old grads
were full of prescription drugs and alcoholic beverages. The time
spent with the baby was a lot more fun. Ah well, everything has a
price and therein lies my tale.
Traveling is a flipping nightmare when you compare it to the
adventure it used to seem. Have you noticed how things just
don't run smoothly any more? I suppose it could be our "age" or
that we are less tolerant of slip-ups, perhaps it's just the way
the world is now. What was simple is now complicated.
The times we live in make checking luggage and
photo-identification necessary, but it does make for long lead
times for every flight and adds to the general grumpiness of both
the airline employees and the passengers.
I'm not crazy about flying to begin with so when I saw a stairway
down to the tarmac, my enthusiasm for this trip began to fade. I
tried to think of other things but instead kept mentally
reviewing the list of who gets the silver and jewelry and
wondering if I was doing the right thing.
As it turned out, the flight was fine but the rental car people
were rotten liars......(I cleaned it up a bit) that wasn't what I
was thinking as we trailed through the airport with our
luggage...
"Go to gate 2H" a female voice said..... you can probably guess
that this was the gate farthest from where we had exited the
building. It was cold and rainy, which didn't improve our already
souring opinion of the car rental people. They swore the car
would be ready and waiting in a place close to the designated
exit. They lied.
Dragging luggage across an open parking lot in the rain doesn't
do a lot for your disposition. We barely spoke to one and other
or the van driver who would take us to an office building far
away from the airport. We hoped a rental car would be
waiting...it was a "paper cup" kind of car, not engineered to
take you to the next century but it might do the 120 miles to
Charlottesville and back.
The events at the University ran seamlessly. The programs and
parties were entertaining and well planned and astounding in the
the number and and sprightliness of the graduates that had turned
up for a 50th college reunion.
Back to Dulles in the paper cup........the young man at the
rental desk swearing that the van would drop us off at our
airlines entrance......Liar, liar pants on fire....schlepped
through the parking lot again...luggage heavier now since we had
purchased a couple of things at a favorite store. I am now
cursing my beloved who told me that I didn't need my luggage
carrier.......and myself for listening to him.
The plane was smaller than my living room......and on boarding
this flight to Cleveland.....(so we could eventually get back to
Tampa) felt that I was about to have a panic attack or an MRI
done. As you know,I still don't like commuter planes and this was
really small.....19 souls including the pilot and co-pilot.
At this point, I would have paid a lot for a hand full of Valium
or a couple of drinks........but no luck....not even a bathroom
on this little fella. By now,I'm starting to feel that I am
paying double for any good things that happened to occur on this
junket. After an hour and a half on this sardine can, came close
to trampling those ahead of me when it was time to get off. Just
a 2 hour lay over left to deal with and then, blissfully, an
adult sized plane and a speedy take off for Tampa.......
We are home, it's 78 and clear......the air feels wonderful and I
can smell the tropical flowers. Thank you God.....
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Surfing with Pat
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SURFING WITH PAT
This month we are going to have a terrific time singing along
with Frank Sinatra, learn all about Java scripts which will help
when making our super web pages, ask Dr. Weil our questions about
many medical mysteries, read complete books on-line, do some
quilting in your own home, drool a little while surfing around
the Baskin Robbins site, remember the horrifying times of the
U-Boats during the years 1939-1945 and travel to Northern
Ireland. Please have a great time and don't forget to check out
MY home page! Make some Irish bread the authentic way^Ê
http://www.why.net/home/exuian/irishcook/index.html
1. http://www.vex.net/~buff/sinatra/
This is a fantastic site with over 300 of Frank Sinatra's songs.
It also contains things like "Where to Buy Sinatra Material",
Newspaper and Magazine Articles, etc. You could spend quite a
bit of time here.
2. http://www.mcp.com/326603131548616/que/bookshelf/
Here you have complete books ON LINE!! All you ever wanted to
know about HTML, and other computer-related information. Prepare
to spend time here.
3. http://www.baskinrobbins.com/
What's the best way to quench your summertime thirst? With one
of the new BR Smoothies, of course! What a delicious site!!
4. http://www.fred.net/jbower/jscripts.htm
Making your own Home Page? Interested in java script? Here's a
good place to find out about it.
5. http://cgi.pathfinder.com/@@44tC1QUAvtP6ZyOi/drweil/
Ask Dr. Weil!! What a fantastic place to ask your medical
questions.
6. http://rvik.ismennt.is/~gummihe/uboats/
Oh, what memories! The U-Boat War 1939-1945. Here you will find
complete profiles of all 1168 U-boats, plus over 77 personnel
pages. There are maps too.
7. http://quilt.com/pinetree
Do you like to quilt? Lots of help here. I love to quilt and
I'm always happy to find another place to get patterns and
supplies.
8. http://www.globalgateway.com/ggtv/index.asp
Travelling to Northern Ireland? Or wish that you were? Lots of
goodies here. Where to stay, what to eat, and who to see. Great
place to spend some time. Good photos too.
9. http://www.bluemountainarts.com/index.html
Blue Mountain Electronic Cards. Send a greeting to someone you
love or who is celebrating a birthday. There are many, many
categories from which to choose. So get out your date book and
see who in your circle of friends is having that next "special
day" and go right to this URL and send them a card. Enjoy
yourself here. I did!!
Pat
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The Cup Of Memory
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A Winter's Ramble through Essex, England in Bygone Days
-Horace A. Basham"
* Note- this cup of memory dedicated to our downunder readers now
experiencing winter. Horace is now in NZ.
I recall we met at Stratford (Essex) High Level railway station
where we entrained for Havering, in those days a not so built
over small country town.
At Havering we headed for the footpath that lead us to our lunch
destination, a country pub. of course. Climbing the first style
we headed across the first of the frozen snow covered fields
where a few cattle were munching hay put down by the farmer. We
are careful to sight the gate across the field. This type of gate
is known as a kissing gate. (Kissing gates are very popular with
us youngsters), So called because a toll of a kiss was demanded
of the girl friend before she was allowed to pass through. I have
never known this toll not to have been paid.
Footpaths go from village pub to village pub, Or Church to
church. For the steeples and towers of village churches can be
seen for great distances. Of course in medieval times, for the
illiterate traveller, pub signs were very important land marks.
Most farmers are friendly and tolerant folk when the public keep
to the footpaths. Keeping to footpaths damages less crops than
walking round the edges of the fields, or headlands. Headlands
are the strips of land at the ends of the farrows where the
plough is turned. Farmers sow down these parts last.
Large scale ordinance maps of the district are essential. These
show in great detail, every copse, contour, farmhouse, village,
church and pub, every lane, road, and every footpath across
farmland and common. Many public footpaths cross private land in
Britain. The lands were once held in common. But then came the
enclosures acts where much of the common lands were fenced and
put into the hands of the gentry.
But let us continue on our way. The hedgerows are covered with
hoar frost. Each twig and branch make up a fairyland of silvery
crystal icicles, while the fences and telephone lines along the
nearby lane too have their covering.
Crunching across another field we pass a frozen pond. We give
greeting to a couple of winter fishermem. Swaddled heavily
against the bitterly cold air, Gloved hands holding fishing lines
dropped through holes cut in the thick ice. It is hard not to
make some joking comment to them, but who are we to cheek them.
We who are ourselves tramping through snow and icy air in open
flat terrain of that part of England where icy winds have no let
nor hindrance. Smilingly they wave, as if telling us what we are
really thinking. We keep on moving on. It's too cold to stop to
chat.
We shelter behind a stone wall to drink hot tea from flasks and
eat a sandwich. We then move on. The view is shrouded with the
winter mist. The countryside is almost silent. Only an occasional
lowing of a cattle beast is heard. It is too cold for the birds
to sing. The world looks so closed in by the cold mist. The
distant low hills and trees are hardly discernable. It is the
sort of scene I love to photograph.
We pass through a gate into a farmyard. There, most menacingly
stands the farmer's enormous bull. Tethered thank goodness. "Is
that tether strong enough?" we ask ourelves. We cautiously sidle
past this monster. We tramp up the track to the gate to emerge
into the village street. Here we find a typical Essex village
looking like a traditional Christmas card with it's deeply snow
covered village green complete with covered well. The village
church towers over the cottages' snow covered roofs. It also snow
covered. And there is the welcoming pub, by the green, with its
swinging sign.
Outside the pub with much stomping of feet to remove the snow,
and clapping of gloved hands we bring feeling back into our
limbs. The door opens to let us tumble into the warm hospitable
snuggery. Relieved of our day packs we are soon holding a
welcomed warmed pint of shandy. We sit crowded around a rustic
table nearest to the blazing log fire and chat of the mornings
walk and the sights we have seen while we eat our lunch. We are
warmed up now. We are happy. We talk over our planned route for
the afternoon. We look forward to the walk during which we will
stop for afternoon tea at a tea shop in the village next along
the way.
We leave the pub to pass through the lynch gate of the church. We
enter the church to inspect the brasses set in the church floor
and read the names of people long dead. We note the important
people of the past. We admire the stained glass windows and the
alter. There is a local knight his carved effigy on top of his
tomb. We pass out of the churchyard climbing the stone steps over
the low wall on to the footpath to cross more undulating frozen
fields. Passing small cottages on the lane though the village and
through Harold Wood we reach the teas shop for welcomed pots of
tea, and freshly made scones, lots of creamy farmhouse butter
with homemade strawberry jam and cream.
Afterwards we walk the mile or so to the railway station for the
early evening train back to our smoky town existence. But yes, we
are happy! We sing all the way back in the train.
Alas that idyllic countryside is no longer the same. Outer London
seems to have stretched way out there.
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Senior Smiles
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Sam has been in the medical sales business for 25 years and is
finally Sam has been in the medical sales business for 25 years
and is finally sick of the stress. He quits his job and buys 50
acres of land in Vermont as far from humanity as possible.
Sam sees the postman once a week and gets groceries once a month.
Otherwise it's total peace and quiet. After six months of
complete isolation he's finishing supper one evening when someone
knocks on his door. He opens it and there is a huge bearded
mountain man there.
"Names Enoch .... your neighbour from four miles over the ridge
having a party Saturday ...thought you'd like to come". "Great",
says Sam, "After six months of this I'm ready to meet some
locals, thanks".
As Enoch leaves he stops, "Gotta warn you there's gonna be some
drinkin'".
"Not a problem .... after 25 years living in New York I can drink
with the best of them".
Again, as Enoch turns to go he stops, "More 'n' likely there's
gonnabe some fightin' too".
"Damn," Sam thinks, "... Tough crowd".
"Well, I get along with people, I'll be there, thanks again".
Once again Enoch turns from the door, "could be there's some wild
sex at the party too".
"Now that's definitely not a problem" says Sam, "remember I've
been alone for 6 months! I'll definitely be there ... by the way
what should I wear?"
Enoch stops in the door and says, "It doesn't much matter,
there's just gonna be the two of us".
___________
Sometimes life presents us with its own moments of humor,
especially when viewed in retrospect. Here is a "confession"
from one of our readers:
My spouse picked up the telephone and started to "gab" for her
morning session to about half a dozen friends. All she got was
two conversations going on in the background caused by two
answering machines plus one repetitive conversation coming from
whoever she was calling plus a number of unmentionable comments
coming from somewhere else.
Confession: Last night after she went upstairs I decided to try
and hitch up Internet Phone Link machine with a two-line wireless
system in my study. Eight connection are involved----and all of
my dinner wine had not been flushed from my sterling and
upstanding system.. I do not intend to tell her that I did
this for another week----or, until an extra jolly period shows
itself. But, apparentyly both phones were hooked up in "X"
fashion plus the dictating machines, plus the connections both to
one Internet Server, plus AOL. and several concurrent incoming
messages. I have made an historical BOOOOOOBOOOOO!
Like G. Washington. I must confess I'm not an immediate
"techie". I just gotta keep trying. Luvy'all!
JIGGSC@aol.com
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Tale Spinners
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Stories in this in this section are selected from Jean Sansum's
Tale Spinners, a weekly e-zine from Vancouver, BC.
________
MORNING WALKS AT THE ZOO
- Laurie Stone (lauriejs@worldnet.att.net)
I look out the window at the hanging grey, then back at my cozy,
warm bed. Do I really want to chance a morning drenching just to
check up on the animals while getting my dose of healthy
exercise? On the other hand, do I really want to make like a
hibernating bear and, ultimately, look like one? So off we go,
fortified by my standard equipment, double-tall (non-fat) latte
and umbrella. If you're young in Seattle, you'd rather be caught
dead than using an umbrella; if you've lived here forever or are
over 50, you never leave the house without one.
I check on the Green Lake path as we drive around the lake -it's
a good weather barometer. This morning it's the freeway at rush
hour - dog walkers (mostly on leashes), joggers, walkers,
strollers, runners, and jogging mothers pushing strollers, doing
two activities at once. Early morning is blessedly without
bicyclists and inline skaters on the path, always a hazard to the
older, slower walkers.
The senior Zoo Walkers group is out in force when we arrive; the
sky is looking marginally better, and friends wait to keep us
company. A quick warm-up, morning announcements ("party in the
coffee room on Thursday, people!"), and we're turned loose to
walk as we please, as a light drizzle begins (so much for
marginally better). First things first, however - in our own
little group of eight the important question is "Where do we meet
for lunch?" That taken care of, off we go.
In the distance, the siamangs are warming up their vocal cords;
as we briskly wind our way through the Family Farm, the cows give
us a polite "Good Morning!" and the goats bleat at us as we go
by. The vegetable garden is coming along nicely - wish mine at
home looked that good. A senior docent stands by the walkway, a
Flemish bunny in her arms for petting. We stop to stroke its
silky head, and the docent says smugly, "This is a plum job!"
Through the marsh to check on the trumpeter swans; not much doing
there, other than the inevitable preening; but the little
buffleheads are churning around as briskly as ever, along with
all the other species. The nesting boxes are nearly full now with
hovering mothers-to-be; very soon we'll see the fluffy effects of
all that romance. Crows scream obscenities from above the canopy,
deriding the occupants, and sparrows perch on top of it,
commiserating with the prisoners below. The marsh citizens don't
give a quack; they know when they have a good thing.
Emerging from the marsh on to the main path, we stand and admire
the white peacock as he fans his gorgeous tail feathers. Someone
passes us with "Have you seen the new baby colobus yet?" so we
make a quick detour to see the graceful black-and-whites hovering
over their new little arrival. It is snuggled down in the arms of
one of the numerous "aunties," as three more wait patiently for
their turn. We're reasonably sure the baby is there, although all
we can see is a fluffy white tail hanging underneath an auntie's
arm.
Coming back to the main path, we skirt the lemurs, pass up the
rain forest building (save the humid warmth for midwinter) and
head for the Northern Trail exhibit - always a popular one with
children. The otters and bears can usually be counted on to put
on a show for them, and there are times when we wonder if that
huge glass viewing window is strong enough to keep the bears on
the right side of it. The salmon in their pool swim serenely
between the huge bear legs, secure in the knowledge that the two
are such lousy hunters they'll never be caught.
As we pass the wolf hill, a grey head can be seen, looking
towards the elk herd - wistfully, no doubt, wishing the invisible
barrier would go away. But look! The clouds are fluffy and white
now instead of flat grey, there is a brave sun warming up the
place - and aren't we glad we didn't chicken out!
With renewed energy we trip past the Raptor Rescue field, through
the Trail of Vines, past the Elephant Forest, and give the
African Savanna a quick glance as we go by. "Oh look! They're
taking out the giraffes!" Close enough to touch, they glide
gracefully across the road from their night shelter to daytime on
the savanna...and me with no camera today.
Half the zoo still hasn't been checked on, but the sun is so warm
everyone is shedding jackets and sweaters and wishing they had
worn shorts, and the paths are becoming clogged with school
children on field trips (who DID wear shorts), as well as young
mothers with their strollers and toddlers filling the walkways,
along with diffident tourists clutching camcorders.
The remodeled zoo is well-loved and well-populated - at least
when it's sunny. But even the wide lawns, heavy plantings and
abundant trees can't soak up the zoo sounds now, and it's time to
leave. Besides, we're hungry and we've earned a guilt-free lunch!
*******************
Our sign off sonnet this issue, is one of those poems discovered
years after writing it. In this case the poet discovered it in an
old college Shakespeare text. It was written many years before
her life had refuted the poet's lament but not the lyrical
quality of the poem.
Nightsong
- by Marcia Mayeroff
A springtime loneliness has conquered me
And makes me weak on humid springtime nights
When flower-laden winds waft tree to tree
With shadowed pathways lit by star shine lights.
Within these dim-lit corners lovers hide
Make love with springtime passions, wild, free,
And those, like me, with love's embrace denied
Wear useless smiles and cry inside, like me.
Still nature mocks me with its shiny stars,
Moonlit nights, soft grasses, warmth and winds.
I might as well be whipped by winter's wars
Frigid cold, iced away from lovely sins.
Nightsongs whisper nightly in my ears.
I am spring storms, the weather is my tears.
-end ST June 97_