Greetings, Poetry Lovers! Did you catch the Perseids Meteor Shower? Alas, I did not. Cloudy here in recent days and I didn't stay up past midnight (though I often do). ;0) But I've had the night sky on my RADAR this week lately for a poetic reason. Our Haiku Society of America region has another little contest going on, which I entered at the last minute, and we were supposed to consider the theme, "blue moon." I'm anxious to read what folks came up with!
Hence, the fun illustration above, and the appeal of this quirky old poem I hadn't read before. I found it in THE POETRY BOOK - 5, a 1920s educational book from a series by Rand McNally & Company.
GOING TOO FAR
by Mildred Howells (painter and poet, 1873-1966)
A woman who lived in Holland, of old,
Polished her brass till it shone like gold.
She washed her pig after all his meals
In spite of his energetic squeals.
She scrubbed her doorstep into the ground,
And the children's faces, pink and round,
She washed so hard that in several cases
She polished their features off their faces -
Which gave them an odd appearance, though
She thought they were really neater so!
Then her passion for cleaning quickly grew,
And she scrubbed and polished the village through,
Until to the rage of all the people,
She cleaned the weather-vane off the steeple.
As she looked at the sky one summer's night
She thought that the stars shone out less bright;
And she said with a sigh, "If I were there,
I'd rub them up till the world should stare."
That night a storm began to brew,
And a wind from the ocean blew and blew
Till, when she came to her door next day
It whisked her up, and blew her away -
Up and up in the air so high
That she vanished, at last, in the stormy sky.
Since then it's said that each twinkling star
And the big white moon, shine brighter far.
But the neighbors shake their heads in fear
She may rub so hard they will disappear!
I could use a smidge of her cleaning skills, though I'd leave all facial features intact.
Take "a walk in the woods" (you'll see) over to Janice's Salt City Verse for this week's Roundup. Thanks for hosting, Janice!