Hand

O gracious Father, who openest thine
hand and fillest all things living with
plenteousness…
—The Book of Common Prayer


Extend your hand beyond the door, beyond
the warmth of furnace and glow of fireplace, out
where the night winds chap the flesh and make
cold spread your body’s length. Extend your hand
and let the snowflakes settle in the dark, in the slight
breeze that spirals the flakes in the shards of moonlight
flickering between clouds that gather and scatter,
gather again. Extend your hand and let the darkness
rest in your palm, the plentitude, let the slight
spray of starlight exaggerate the hills and furrows
lining your hand, the world in miniature, hills that
rise beyond the pond invisible in the night, beyond
those hills the river, then the hills beyond that, the trees
and all the fruit waiting in their limbs to urge
outward, to press themselves furiously into light.

Snow

It's about damn time. Five days ago the temperate was 60, maybe a couple of degrees warmer. Now snow. When I woke this morning, it was still untouched--the expanse of white blanketing the field behind the house down to the pond.

Of course, by the afternoon it had turned to rain, which turned the snow to slush pretty quickly, and they're predicting that, as the temperature drops later this afternoon, it will turn to sleet.

Still, for that brief time...

No-bama (3)

I suppose what amazes me most is the momentum that such a mediocre public figure has established. I watched all of the "victory" speeches following Super Tuesday, and I've got to say that, of the five candidates, Obama seemed the least animated, the least connected with his audience, the most vague. Obama made Romney seem a paragon of audience engagement. Most of the time Obama spoke in vague oratical terms with not terribly inspiring oratory while he assumed GQ poses and spoke over the heads of his supporters, as though addressing the great visionary vistas. Too bad he doesn't have a vision. (Note to Barack: "Change" is not a vision; it's what of us do with our clothes.)

Obama's running the greatest con job since W's first run at the presidency. His policy proposals are vague compared with Hillary's (and Edwards' makes them look like kindergarten efforts), and he makes little indication either of how he'll enact them or how he'll pay for them. He has very little traction in Congress, mostly because he's served less than two years in the Senate and has done little of any note. Perhaps his most notable act was failing to show up for the vote on the Iran resolution for which he criticizes Hillary's vote. Puh-lease.

More than a third of his votes in the Illinois Senate were "present." Gee. That's what many of my students can claim while I'm desperately trying to get them to participate in the most elementary fashion in my English composition classes. Present. That's just what we need for a president. On the other hand, I guess that puts him a half step ahead of the current occupant of the Oval Office.

I think we should aim a little higher.