Distillation

I've been reading my students' blogs, and I trust they will be scandalized appropriately but not extraordinarily - especially one Shivana Thiru Moorthy, whom I must thank for quoting me in quite a kind way. Glad to know there are actually people listening in class. I never wanted to be a Chemistry teacher anyway; always wanted to teach Lit. Probably too late now.

Actually, it IS too late. I have to wake up at six am, and it is already 1:45 pm in New York. Sigh. Good night.

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like Russia she is; for all
a vast landscape of the mind,
hidden by forest and wall,
shuttered by curtain and blind.

like Russia, she is; such warmth
displayed by the cold people,
fairy-tales which darkly swarm
about bright bells in steeples.

like Russia, she is; distant
and yet close as a heart's beat,
faithful at the end, constant,
knowing grief but not defeat.

like the true Russia, respect
is what one feels if one knows;
one learns to love, circumspect,
the wide land through small windows.

like Russia, she is...