I know today is Cute Kitten Picture day, but this was in my head all evening last night. It seemed pretty perfect for my mood, the events (I was sunbathing), the moon that evening, the end-of-July poignant indecisive feeling (yes, that’s the technical term for it).

Section XVI from Dark Harbor, by Mark Strand:

It is true, as someone has said, that in
A world without heaven all is farewell.

Whether you wave your hand or not,

It is farewell, and if no tears come to your eyes

It is still farewell, and if you pretend not to notice,
Hating what passes, it is still farewell.

Farewell no matter what. And the palms as they lean
Over the green, bright lagoon, and the pelicans
Diving, and the glistening bodies of bathers resting,

Are stages in an ultimate stillness, and the movement
Of sand, and of wind, and the secret moves of the body
Are part of the same, a simplicity that turns being

Into an occasion for mourning, or into an occasion
Worth celebrating, for what else does one do,
Feeling the weight of the pelicans’ wings,

The density of the palms’ shadows, the cells that darken
The backs of bathers? These are beyond the distortions
Of chance, beyond the evasions of music. The end

Is enacted again and again. And we feel it
In the temptations of sleep, in the moon’s ripening,
In the wine as it waits in the glass.

That’s so good: “…a simplicity that turns being into…an occasion worth celebrating, for what else does one do?” What else does one do, indeed.
And here’s a cute kitten picture to boot:

Not too bad for a Monday. The kitten here looks less than thrilled.