Sue's purchases and travels

Saturday we attended a memorial service for a cousin of Peter's who had been an English professor. The service was filled with lots of lines of poetry and prose from artists as diverse as Henry Miller and e.e.cummings. Peter and I stayed in the city following the service and decided to go to the Algonquin hotel for dinner. We thought that this landmark, at which the New Yorker was created, was the perfect place to pay homage to Jack's memory. We arrived late so the restaurant was relatively empty save for a few tables. One especially loud table had two "business men" who spent the evening texting, photographing each other, and being generally obnoxious and "non'literary". I was feeling a little down about the whole experience until I headed to the ladies room. There in the hallway was a handwritten copy of Carl Sandburg's poem "Carpe Diem". I stood in the darkened hall and read the carefully printed poem.

I especially, given the days activities, loved the last few lines:
It lives less in the present
Than in the future always,
And less in both together Than in the past.
The present Is too much for the senses,
Too crowding, too confusing—Too present to imagine.

The present is way too crowding and confusing. And the past, especially on days like this, is a place you want to be...because there everyone is happy, young and with us.

Labels: algonquin, carl sandburg, carpe diem, parl, Swedish Antiques