hello fellow tweetsters,

i spent several moments enjoying a large group of joyfully buzzing
cedar waxwings as they flitted between trees above my head while i
walked to my office. i stopped to watch them for a few minutes between
classes, tipping my head all the way back, causing a pedestrian
traffic jam and receiving some curious stares from some members of
my newest clutch of students.

there are days when i am certain we should be watchers rather than
movers and shakers: this is one of those days.

in keeping with the theme of this message, i want to share some (rather
more) articulate thoughts with you all;

waxwings

Four Tao philosophers as cedar waxwings
chat on a February berrybush
in sun, and I am one.

Such merriment and such sobriety--
the small wild fruit on the tall stalk--
was this not always my true style?

Above an elegance of snow, beneath
a silk-blue sky a brotherhood of four
birds. Can you mistake us?

To sun, to feast, and to converse
and all together--for this I have abandoned
all my other lives.

-- robert francis

Deborah Wisti-Peterson email:nyneve at u.washington.edu
Department of Zoology, University of Washington, Seattle, Wash, USA
Visit me on the web: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~nyneve/
=-=-=-Graduate School: it's not just a job, it's an indenture!=-=-=