October and Poe

 October cannot escape me, without a mention of Poe. Edgar Allen Poe, the poet and writer, tapping at my door. I look forward to reading about him, and his work each crisp autumn night. This year I was so trilled to also have a novel, The Raven's Bride to dig into. I devoured it, each delicious word learning more about my Mr. Poe.
You see he married his cousin, who was thirteen at the time, Eddy(some called him) was twenty-six. Mr. P was a driven man, eccentric and earthly poor, they say a poets dream? He had a lonely early life, that of course, haunted him. The young lad was very romantic, he loved deeply, yet with an odd twist. His raven bride, slept with her mother until she was sixteen, and Edgar in an adjoining room. Not your everyday husband and wife start to life. I guess it worked for them, Poe was to say, "We loved with a love that was more than love." ?? Illness filled up their days. He drank himself crazy, and she had tuberculosis, coughing up blood more than most! A quote from Poe reads, "I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity!" Yet we still read his master work, he had the gift. The Raven is one of my favorite, it has a rhythm that sings.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary....its calls you to continue. The poem is lengthy and requires thought, which I consider wonderful. Tales of mystery and macabre. The Murders at the Rue Morgue, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, so many more.
Crisp autumn air, a chill seeping in, dark comes earlier and Poe returns.
He died in 1849, some say syphilis, cholera, rabies, heart disease, all mixed in with years of the juice. Lonely and sick, or a madman.

His words haunt us still, tis the wind and nothing more.

No-Bell?

 Today, like all the others, Bill and I get up very early. We did this early on in our marriage, before the mayhem of children's feet hit the floor. You know have our coffee, watch the news, visit with each other. The time of 4:30 or 5 am, send shivers down the spines of some, not us, we are wide awake! Its our routine, and rarely changes. When it does change, we both laugh, like last week. Maybe it was two weeks ago, who knows? I clambered down the stairs, and Bill was on the computer(same as usual) with the exception, he had earphones, earplugs? in his ears?? I tapped his shoulder, and asked him what he was listening to. He shooed me away! Finally he lifted an ear thing and said, " I'm waiting to hear who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry." WHAT.......I hollered, "Who does that Bill, it is so not normal!" AND......" I wanted to talk about how the squirrel population is increasing, as per Kelly Rippa!"
We are two very different peas in the pod, and it makes me laugh. We celebrate thirty-two years of sleeping in the same bed. Me with three pillows, and he with none.( He has one, but its so flat, I don't count that one)
He is all science, and I am all literature,art, music. He is the Box, and I'm swinging from the hinges. He is lucky that I love an educated, overly smart person and I'm lucky that he enjoys my spirit!!( Kind way of saying off the charts personality!) I'm dripping southern stories, and Bill is story-less. Did they have stories in Buffalo, New York? I think not, they were all frozen!!! He is my Bob Newhart to my Ann Margaret!!! It works, so we celebrate another year of laughter, through the many tears, we still laugh. 

Andy, Thank You More Then Moon River

I'm sitting at the kitchen table, my place of work, thinking about Ward. I wish that I could say , after five years, that grief was not an appendage. It just would not be the truth. Last week Bill and I both thought we had seen him. Bill thought Hart was Ward coming into a restaurant and I thought I had seen Ward walking up our front stairs. Grief lays in wait, and time helps you to not collapse when visited. So I depend on the universe and God to provide me with relief and it comes daily, and in strange ways.

Last week, the singer, Andy Williams died from cancer. I loved Andy Williams, I mean, really loved. Like I loved Dr. Kildare, The Beatles and Joe Namath!! Moon River is probably one of my favorite songs. So after I called mama to share our loss of Andy, I began a frantic search for the piano sheet music to Moon River. Remember my house is still under construction, and I don't know where things are, surely I could find the music. Think again, to the moon and back I looked. I found Christmas music and The Beach Boys, and so much more, just no Moon River. So I brought in the Calvary, Hart and Emma, to go on line and print me out some sheet music, STAT!! Hart, my favorite son, this week, quickly printed off the music. One page??
" Where is the rest of the song?" I asked. "Oh, isn't this enough to get you started, do you need the whole thing?" replied demoted favorite son. I thanked him for making a semi-effort, and began to play one line of the music.  Moon River, wider then a mile.............You dream maker, you heart breaker.......played all with one hand, forget the chords!! I was in grief!!!! I have practiced it all week, and sung to my hearts content. Just the one page, was enough to say thank you. Thank you for your Christmas specials before Claudine shot Spider! You calmed my young heart, and now calm my broken heart.

Henry Mancini, I thank you also. I never know what will help me get through the days, but I do know something always does. Some may call it miracles,today I call it Moon River.