Misadventures of the Monster Librarian

"On the beach at night" On the beach at night, Stands a child with her father, Watching the east, the autumn sky. Up through the darkness, While ravening clouds, the burial clouds, in black masses spreading, Lower sullen and fast athwart and down the sky, Amid a transparent clear belt of ether yet left in the east, Ascends large and calm the lord-star Jupiter, And nigh at hand, only a very little above, Swim the delicate sisters the Pleiades. From the beach the child holding the hand of her father, Those burial-clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all, Watching, silently weeps. Weep not, child,Weep not, my darling, With these kisses let me remove your tears, The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious, They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only in apparition, Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge, They are immortal, all those stars both silvery and golden shall shine out again, The great sta...

I woke up this morning to find big downy flakes falling to the ground as silently as they were made. These are the days that it is hardest to get out of bed. These are the days that I pray the snow will come down and gather around our house, piling higher and higher, until all is tucked in neatly and there is no coming or going. However, the majesty of the snowfall only lasted as long as it took me to get to work and then the snow disappeared. Even in its brevity this was the type of snowfall I wanted on Christmas, however, true to the current trend in Michigan the last few years, we recieved none. I am glad Christmas is over. I am glad that soon people will stop asking me how it was for my family without Dad. I wish I could bury my head in the sand to their questions; shout over their voice, scream until my mouth is full of sand, and can make no reply. I hate the mopey expressions that people make, trying to pry into my sadness with their very eyes. I feel as though people ask...