Friday, October 11, 2013

Sheep in autumn sunlight

 
These are the adorable Shetlands whose winter rations we were picking up last night in Cheboygan. And the little red maple nearer the barn was planted by my grandson. He marked a red one on our land and dug it up when the limbs were bare. It had begun to grow well when it suffered a bad accident involving livestock, which broke most of it off. It is looking now to  be well on the way to recovery and should become a very nice tree; these things take a long time.
I think the way the afternoon sun hits the tops of their fleece is beautiful. When I was a child (I hope I have not Memory-Threaded this before) I got my concept of sheep from children's picture books, and maybe also from Grade School art in which we pasted cotton balls on that horrible brittle cream-colored paper and drew sheep legs and feet and a sheep head and tail on the paper, When I actually encountered real sheep I was shocked at how dirty the fleece was. I wonder how many incorrect perceptions I still have to fix in the next few years.

Well, it is night, and I didn't finish what I should have finished today to tidy up things here and pack for the long drive. Here is one of Pat Shelley's tanka from her The Rice Papers, Saratoga Trunk, 1992, p.11.



I shall never dread the night
or think it long
or close my eyes against her
For I am a dark child
and she is my mother

 * * * *


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