Poems and Poets

I have been re-reading a couple of books about Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath - and I wonder why there had to be such sturm and drang about the writing of poetry back then.

Maybe there still is now?  But hopefully not.

And what a bad press Sylvia Plath gave to those who loved her.  If I hadn't read about her life but had only read her poetry I would have assumed that her father was a Nazi.  Whereas he was far from it.  He did die when Sylvia was young, but i doubt that he did it on purpose.

Once again, I have to note the Bible's superior wisdom.  "The truly wise woman has built up her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands." - Proverbs 14:1

And also, as I don't want to take sides, suppose Ted Hughes had known and taken to heart these words:  "Drink water out of your own cistern, and tricklings out of the midst of your own well.  Should your springs be scattered out of doors, [your] streams of water in the public squares themselves?  Let them prove to be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.  Let your water source prove to be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth,  a lovable hind and a charming mountain goat. Let her own breasts intoxicate you at all times. With her love may you be in an ecstasy constantly.  So why should you, my son, be in an ecstasy with a strange woman or embrace the bosom of a foreign woman? " - Proverbs 5:15-20

A charming mountain goat... of course, as us ladies get older it tends to become more of a (hopefully) charming mountain goat with rather bad knees who tends to avoid mountains and stairs. But the principle remains the same.  Faithful and loyal love between a married couple is a source of true happiness. Especially in retirement.

Its difficult because it wasn't meant to be like this We were never meant to wither and die. We were made to live forever. And we would, if our first parents had not unplugged themselves from their Creator, their source of life, before they had us, their children.  So its not easy to cope with. And marriage now is the union of two imperfect people in an imperfect world.   But we all long for the perfection we should have had - and will have, if we trust in Jehovah with all our heart.

Ted and Sylvia were the fatally flawed children of Adam, living in a world system ruled by Satan. And so am I.  So I am in no position to judge them (or anyone) - I just wish they had known the truth.

However, I can say that it didn't require one ounce of sturm and drang to get this poem written (but you could probably have guessed that even if i hadn't told you):

THE BACKYARD SQUIRREL

 by me 

The cardboard – Cardboard?? – that helps to prop

My aged father’s tumbledown Heath Robinson greenhouse up

Has come into its own today

The backyard squirrel has been carting it away

To become part of a ramshackle array

Of nesting bits that fill the fork

Of our tallest tree.   We must be careful how we walk

So as not to frighten her away.

If she can rear a brood in that leafy muddle

We’ll have a Spring of baby squirrels.

If the backyard squirrel is still around she must be a great grandmother many times squared by now.