“In the Gloaming”

This photo reminded me of lines from two Robert Frost poems that I recorded recently, so descriptive of the days-end shadow-fall.

Flower-Gathering

By Robert Frost

I left you in the morning,

And in the morning glow,

You walked a way beside me

To make me sad to go.

Do you know me in the gloaming,

Gaunt and dusty gray with roaming?

Are you dumb because you know me not,

Or dumb because you know?

All for me? And not a question

For the faded flowers gay

That could take me from beside you

For the ages of a day?

They are yours, and be the measure

Of their worth for you to treasure,

The measure of the little while

That I've been long away.

Asking for Roses
by Robert Frost

A HOUSE that lacks, seemingly, mistress and master,

With doors that none but the wind ever closes,

Its floor all littered with glass and with plaster;

It stands in a garden of old-fashioned roses.

I pass by that way in the gloaming with Mary;

'I wonder,' I say, 'who the owner of those is.

'Oh, no one you know,' she answers me airy,

'But one we must ask if we want any roses.'

So we must join hands in the dew coming coldly

There in the hush of the wood that reposes,

And turn and go up to the open door boldly,

And knock to the echoes as beggars for roses.

'Pray, are you within there, Mistress Who-were-you?'

'Tis Mary that speaks and our errand discloses.

'Pray, are you within there?

Bestir you, bestir you!

'Tis summer again; there's two come for roses.

'A word with you, that of the singer recalling--

Old Herrick: a saying that every maid knows is

A flower unplucked is but left to the falling,

And nothing is gained by not gathering roses.'

We do not loosen our hands' intertwining

(Not caring so very much what she supposes),

There when she comes on us mistily shining

And grants us by silence the boon of her roses.

Here is the link to my Librivox recordings of these and other poems, in the Robert Frost volume, A Boy's Will.

Today I realized that, hey, it may be warm enough outside to swim! Really? Actually? Yes, 70 degrees. People are probably doing that. So I donned the suit and walked over to the pool. Yep, folks are here, but all are lounging in the sun and reading in the quiet shadows. For at four o’clock the shadows are setting in here. Relaxing in a lounge chair and reading a book. What a concept. You’d think they were on vacation. Maybe they are. I could learn how to do this, maybe. Maybe, with practice.

But today I plunged in and did my 30 minutes of aqua jogging, staying in the sunshine beams to keep warm, because the air was chilling quickly. Nice. I could get used to this. Maybe, with practice.