2023 Saturday — Dance

I saw this sign in “Fred & Betty’s Thrift Store” this afternoon. I’d be delighted to have it in my kitchen, but I don’t have a wall for it. So I did the next best thing to buying it; I photographed it.

I think especially during Valentine’s month, dancing should happen in the kitchen.

And most kitchens have a clock, so this poem from my little book of Valentine poems seems appropriate here.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
On the Outside of Time

FOR YOU, FRIEND,

this Valentine's Day, I intent to stand
for as long as I can on a kitchen stool
and hold back the hands of the clock,
so that wherever you are, you may walk
even more lightly in your loveliness;
so that the weak, mid-February sun
(whose chill I will feel from the face
of the clock) cannot in any way
lessen the lights in your hair, and the wind
(whose subtle insistence I will feel
in the minute hand) cannot tighten
the corners of your smile. People
drearily walking the winter streets
will long remember this day:
how they glanced up to see you
there in a storefront window, glorious,
strolling along on the outside of time.

by Ted Kooser,
Poet Laureate of the United States, 2004-2006


Holding back time is an idea I like; Kooser has captured the concept with vivid images. slowing time, occasionally, would be sufficient.

Good night from
California’s Central Coast,
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol
and Chloe & Mitzi too!