New Heart-Throb

One of my favorite poems by e.e. cummings


maggie and milly and molly and may

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn’t remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it’s always ourselves we find in the sea

TRUE STORY BUT NO PICTURES FOR OBVIOUS REASONS

CFW leaves me a phone message: "The Kittery Police called and said that they've received a report of a seagull at Fort Foster using an injury to get the sympathy of people on the beach. If you're able, will you go to Fort Foster to see if the gull needs assistance?" She's laughing. It's illegal for a gull to "use its injury" to garner food or affection from nearby humans? Is the bird letting one wing droop a bit while sighing softly "To fly or not to fly?" Is it throwing up on tots? Is it going into a dead faint right next to the cheese doodles?

I drive up to Fort Foster and ask the man at the gate if he knows anything about a deceitful gull.
"Yes," he says. "We had quite a few reports. A police officer responded to the call. As soon as that gull saw the officer, it flew away. The officer said he thought the gull was frightened off by his
uniform. We figured the gull was just sick or something."

"Maybe ate some bad fish?" I say, getting into the swing of things.

"Yes!" says the man at the gate. "That's just what we thought!"

But I'm left wondering just who calls the cops on a gull? And why does a police officer show up on the beach FOR A SEAGULL????

You figure it out. . .

After the March 31st release and the sighting of male and female together
I haven't seen the swans on the pond until today. The pictures are of swan
#1 in the clear water, swan #2 in the green water and #3 swans together.
They were clear across the pond so the pictures are blurry and small but
who cares. They are alive and clearly very happy to be together. I couldn't be happier myself.

March 31, 2010 Swan Returns to Pond

The swan we found on January 13th who had a 6 inch deep wound in her chest recovered, mainly due to the incredibly good care she received at the Center for Wildlife. These are pictures of Lorisa, who should be named Goddess-Savior of Wildlife,
returning the swan to the pond. We'd been told that the swan's mate had been killed. But he showed up the next day. Really a very happy story.

POOTS

"If we give objects the friendship
they should have, we do not open
a wardrobe without a slight start. Beneath its russet wood, a wardrobe
is a very white almond."
-Gaston Bachelard

MARCEL

"An immense cosmic house is a potential of every dream of houses. Winds radiate from its center and gulls fly from its windows. A house that is as dynamic
as this allows the poet to inhabit the universe. Or, to
put it differently, the universe comes to inhabit the house."
-Gaston Bachelard

There's a gannet in the bathtub
(not my bathtub, thank God)

and a baby possum in my heart

This is Amy, one of the staff members at the Center for Wildlife, with one of our many new babies.

The Great Auk, Extinct

Relative of Extinct Auk appears in Wells, Maine

I happened to be working at the Center for Wildlife as a Razor Bill was admitted. Technically, it really should have been swimming off the coast of Newfoundland. So a lot must have gone wrong for this beauty to appear
at a construction site in Wells, Maine.
We all stopped work to marvel. The
Razor Bill's the bird that most resembles the extinct giant Auk.

Razor Bill somewhat off course

Black and white, interrupted

The bird appeared to be such a black and white affair that the intake of breath ( from all of us gathered to watch the exam) was audible.
"Mango!" said Amy. And that's exactly the color of the inside of the Razor Bill's mouth. Mango bright and true!

Slim stem's the thing connecting what we can see with what we can't. Those little hearts? Obvious everyday valentines from each side to the other.

Am not sure what this is. That's probably why I bought it -- at the grocery store! Clearly, it cannot be edible to anyone or anything on this earth?

OTIS July 1992 - April 2010

Whose religion centered around tearing off any loose wallpaper; who, over time, turned the banister into splinters as he clawed his way from the first to second floor, never taking stairs when there was an opportunity to shred wood; who could wake from the deepest sleep by the scent of freshly toasted bread, leaping to the table or my lap and tearing off tiny bits of toast, flinging the scraps every which way and only eating the bits that had the most butter; who, spiritually, mentaly and physically
could not abide flowers in vases -- never once failing to swat every flower out of every vase (eating a few, ignoring the rest); whose purr was certain remedy for any sadness, small or large. Apparently no remedy for the sadness that attends his passing.

My new mantra

If at first an idea does not sound absurd, then there is no hope for it."
--Albert Einstein