The Bartlett Family Adventure is all about the moments that take my breath away as I grow in the glory of God, and live my life to the best of my ability while raising two rowdy boys. This blog is not just about me, it also includes stories of my family's daily adventures. We home school our boys, are trying to grow our fruits and vegetables, we are all on a journey to God, we are trying to live sustainably, and most importantly love the life we lead. Sometimes we stumble, but mostly I like to think we prevail. I am blogging to keep a sort of shared journal. Our life may be messy but it is perfect.
I love bad poetry especially when it is mine! Yay! I think it is funny to call it bad poetry even though secretly I really like but we all have different tastes. It is allowed to not like something, and to love something that may or may not be bad. Recently I learned that Emily Dickinson only published a dozen poems in her lifetime, it was only after her death that it was discovered that she wrote over 1800. Amazing. Also as an inspiring poet, fiction writer it is encouraging. I have written lots of poetry some of it bad, and some of it good. Poetry is something I write when I need to work through my emotions. This is the only thing that I write that might be considered non fiction (except you school paper. By the way I have 18.5 weeks left). I struggle with how much I belong in my writing and it is really my least favorite kind of writing because it is hard. In the past I did not value my work as much as I should have (crazy self esteem issues left over from my childhood) so I have lost an insane amount of work over the years due to being careless. I vow to stop being careless and more importantly value the talent God gave me. I hope you like my poem today. Hopefully I will bring you more work in the future. Also when I am finished with school I will be more active. I have a ton of projects in limbo which I decided to let sit until I am less distracted with what I am going to write for school.
I am
By Trisha Bartlett
Suffocating creativity
under the disguise
of teaching and learning.
Inspiration lost
in expectation.
My voice
transforming
unrecognizable
flat and boring.
This is me
on the page.
I cannot
will not
change
to simply please you.
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there's a pair of us!
Don't tell! they'd advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one's name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
I hope that your day is filled with inspiration, love, and laughter. Be well my friends.
Today's poem is Daffodils by William Wordsworth read by Sir Jeremy Irons. Daffodils are one of my most favorite flowers and I am waiting to see if they will come up in the garden this year. I hope so.
I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils; Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the milky way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they Out-did the sparkling waves in glee: A poet could not but be gay, In such a jocund company: I gazed--and gazed--but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
I hope that your day is filled with inspiration, love, and laughter. Be well my Friends.
Today I bring you (from Youtube) The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe read by James Earl Jones. I love his deep voice.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary, Over many a
quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping,
suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my
chamber door. `'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door
- Only this, and nothing more.'
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in
the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the
floor. Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow From
my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore - For the rare and
radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore - Nameless here for
evermore.
And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple
curtain Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt
before; So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood
repeating `'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door - Some
late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; - This it is, and
nothing more,'
Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no
longer, `Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore; But
the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping, And so faintly you
came tapping, tapping at my chamber door, That I scarce was sure I heard you'
- here I opened wide the door; - Darkness there, and nothing
more.
Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering,
fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream
before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, And
the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!' This I
whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!' Merely this and
nothing more.
Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me
burning, Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than
before. `Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window
lattice; Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore - Let
my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; - 'Tis the wind and
nothing more!'
Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and
flutter, In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore. Not
the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with
mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door - Perched upon a bust of
Pallas just above my chamber door - Perched, and sat, and nothing
more.
Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling, By the
grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore, `Though thy crest be
shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven. Ghastly grim and
ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore - Tell me what thy lordly name
is on the Night's Plutonian shore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
Much
I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly, Though its
answer little meaning - little relevancy bore; For we cannot help agreeing
that no living human being Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his
chamber door - Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber
door, With such name as `Nevermore.'
But the raven, sitting lonely on
the placid bust, spoke only, That one word, as if his soul in that one word
he did outpour. Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he
fluttered - Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown
before - On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown
before.' Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'
Startled at the stillness
broken by reply so aptly spoken, `Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its
only stock and store, Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful
disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore
- Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore Of
"Never-nevermore."'
But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into
smiling, Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and
door; Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking Fancy unto
fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore - What this grim, ungainly,
ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore Meant in croaking
`Nevermore.'
This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable
expressing To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's
core; This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining On the
cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er, But whose velvet
violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er, She shall press, ah,
nevermore!
Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen
censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted
floor. `Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has
sent thee Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of
Lenore! Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost
Lenore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of
evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! - Whether tempter sent, or whether
tempest tossed thee here ashore, Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert
land enchanted - On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore
- Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I
implore!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Prophet!' said I, `thing of
evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! By that Heaven that bends above us -
by that God we both adore - Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the
distant Aidenn, It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore
- Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?' Quoth
the raven, `Nevermore.'
`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or
fiend!' I shrieked upstarting - `Get thee back into the tempest and the
Night's Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul
hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my
door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my
door!' Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'
And the raven, never flitting,
still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my
chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is
dreaming, And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the
floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the
floor Shall be lifted - nevermore!
I hope your day is filled with inspiration, love, and laughter. Be well my friends.
Happy Valentine's Day! Today's poem is Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
And Sonnet 14
If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only. Do not say 'I love her for her smile—her look—her way Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day'— For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry,— A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love's sake, that evermore Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.
I hope that your day is filled with love and laughter. Be well my friends