Time Does not Bring Relief: You all have lied

BY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied

Who told me time would ease me of my pain!

I miss him in the weeping of the rain;

I want him at the shrinking of the tide;

The old snows melt from every mountain-side,

And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane;

But last year’s bitter loving must remain

Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.

There are a hundred places where I fear

To go,—so with his memory they brim.

And entering with relief some quiet place

Where never fell his foot or shone his face

I say, “There is no memory of him here!”

And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Time Does Not Bring Relief” from Collected Poems. Copyright 1931, © 1958 by Edna St. Vincent Millay and Norma Millay Ellis. Reprinted with permission of Elizabeth Barnett and Holly Peppe, Literary Executors, The Millay Society.

Source: Twentieth-Century American Poetry (2004)

Do Not Stand

Do not stand at my grave and weep;

I am not there.

I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn's rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush,

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there.

I did not die.

"Written at least 50 years ago, this poem has been attributed at different times

to J.T. Wiggins (an English 'migr' to America), two Americans: Mary E. Fry and

Marianne Reinhardt, and more recently to Stephen Cummins, a British soldier

killed in Northern Ireland who left a copy for his relatives. Others claim it is a

Navajo burial prayer.

The following was taken from The London Magazine December / January 2005:

Mary Elizabeth Frye nee Clark was born in Dayton, Ohio, on November 13th 1905.

She died on September 15th 2004. Mary Frye, who was living in Baltimore at the

time, wrote the poem in 1932. She had never written any poetry, but the plight

of a German Jewish girl, Margaret Schwarzkopf, who was staying with her and her

husband, inspired the poem. She wrote it down on a brown paper shopping bag.

Margaret Schwarzkopf had been worrying about her mother, who was ill in Germany.

The rise of Anti-Semitism had made it unwise for her to join her mother. When her

mother died, she told Mary Frye she had not had the chance to stand by her mother's

grave and weep.

Mary Frye circulated the poem privately. Because she never published or copyrighted

it, there is no definitive version. She wrote other poems, but this, her first, endured.

Her obituary in The Times made it clear that she was the undisputed author this famous

poem, which has been recited at funerals and on other appropriate occasions around the

world for seventy years. A 1996 Bookworm poll named it the Nation's Favourite Poem"

[London Magazine Editor, Sebastian Barker] "

This poem was read at George Best's Funeral 3rd December 2005

Riley Dog

half-baked cookies in the oven ... fruitcakes on the street ...

6:59 AM

I’ve been told
that people in the army
do more by 7:00 am
than I do
in an entire day

but if I wake
at 6:59 am
and turn to you
to trace the outline of your lips
with mine
I will have done enough
and killed no one
in the process.

Sketch

If I knew what I know now then
way back when we first met
I’d point to the sunset and say

I drew that for you

see

it’s wrinkling in the rain.

Skin 2

I don’t imagine you
saran-wrapped in black latex
or seeping out the edges
of something tight and red

I don’t close my eyes
to dream of your back
arched at the impossible angle
of a bow pulled tight
encouraging your shoulder blades
to drip the blood
of stockpiled broken hearts
but I hope the sound
of you not shielding your eyes
from my blinding humility
will one day top the charts

it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard
and you’re the charlie chaplin of your beautifuls
because you make me believe it
when you say it all without saying a word

looking at you it occurred to me
I could sit around all day
wearing nothing but your kiss

you make mirrors
want to grind themselves
back down into sand
because they can’t do your reflection justice

and this just in
I am done with those
who in life would have made me fight
an army of imperfections
a battalion of flaws
tonight we’re going to keep this city up
when they hear our bodies
slap together like applause.

Surprise

I found god
inside a cracker jack box

smaller than I expected.

Mint Chocolate Chip Cake

Ingredients

Dark Chocolate Cake
3 pints green mint chocolate-chip ice cream
2 pints white mint chocolate-chip ice cream

Directions

Trim cake layers to 6-inch squares. Slice each layer in half horizontally, making a total of 4 layers. Cut a 6-inch square of cardboard or foam; set aside.
Microwave green ice cream until softened, about 20 seconds. Transfer ice cream to a medium mixing bowl, and stir with a rubber spatula. Place in the freezer. Microwave white ice cream until softened, about 20 seconds, and transfer to another mixing bowl. Stir with a rubber spatula.
Place one cake layer on the cardboard. Using an offset spatula, spread 2 cups white ice cream over the cake. Place another cake layer on top of ice cream. Place cake and bowl of white ice cream in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Remove the cake and the bowl of green ice cream from the freezer. Stir ice cream with the spatula to soften. With the spatula, evenly spread 2 cups green ice cream over cake. Place a third cake layer on top. Return the cake and the bowl of green ice cream to the freezer for 20 minutes more.
Remove the cake and the bowl of white ice cream from the freezer, and spread the remaining 2 cups white ice cream over the top; place the fourth cake layer on top of the white ice cream. Return the cake to the freezer for 20 minutes more.
Remove the cake and bowl of green ice cream from freezer, and spread 2 cups green ice cream over top. Return cake and ice cream to freezer, and chill the cake until firm, about 1 hour.
Remove the cake and remaining 2 cups green ice cream from freezer. Using a long serrated knife, trim 1/4 inch from all sides of the cake, making them even. Using an icing spatula, quickly spread the remaining green ice cream around the sides of the cake. Return the cake to freezer; freeze until completely hardened.

Terry Border

Cookie Crumbs

Terry Border is one of our favorite creative people on the planet. He never ceases to amaze us, as he takes boring, everyday objects and makes them come alive!

What's great about his work is that it can be enjoyed by everyone. Young or old, we can all get a good chuckle out of his hilarious, bent objects.

"I always knew that my weird point of view was my gift or perhaps curse, so I'm glad I finally found a use for it," Terry says. "As far as getting ideas, I simply try to amuse myself. I look at objects and wonder what they remind me of and then I create a sort of story about that. I have a good sense of humor. I like to laugh but I can't tell a joke to save my life."