Doctor Maria

Hispanic / literature phd / Catholic / female / teacher / choral singer / single and happy

[ihaveonlymydreams]

Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter

by John Crowe Ransom

There was such speed in her little body,

And such lightness in her footfall,

It is no wonder her brown study

Astonishes us all.

Her wars were bruited in our high window.

We looked among orchard trees and beyond

Where she took arms against her shadow,

Or harried unto the pond

The lazy geese, like a snow cloud

Dripping their snow on the green grass,

Tricking and stopping, sleepy and proud,

Who cried in goose, Alas,

For the tireless heart within the little

Lady with rod that made them rise

From their noon apple-dreams and scuttle

Goose-fashion under the skies!

But now go the bells, and we are ready,

In one house we are sternly stopped

To say we are vexed at her brown study,

Lying so primly propped.

[ihaveonlymydreams]

✨

[every-day-creechur]

White-lipped Tree Frog Sandyrana infrafrenata

It is the world's largest tree frog and is found in Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste. It has a loud, barking call, but when distressed, it makes a cat-like "mew". Its diet is mainly insects and other arthropods. It can live to over 10 years in the wild. This species of frog is known for being moved around in fruit produce from northern Australia and ending up becoming a lost frog in southern areas.

Least Concern

image by jacinta francesca

[markscherz]

Look at this muppet (Paradoxophyla sp., maybe a new species? we aren't sure yet). Just look at his hilarious face. This is not the face a frog is supposed to have. What are you doing with that NOSE?¿?¿?

[stick-by-me]

A frequent struggle...

From @lydiajoypalmer at this shop here!

[my-dailydreams]

[databent]

hi. i really, really need everyone to see this gif of someones frog i just saw on reddit

[ihaveonlymydreams]

Vow

By Emily Jungmin

I love you; I don’t know how else to begin.

How we began, though, was almost as if

it were already written. The details of how we arrived

at each other, to say I love you even as we fall asleep,

to let each other’s name be the first sound

we utter every morning, can only be a gift of careful construction,

a design of an elsewhere where we were already together.

Saying nothing, you make me want to live

more meaningfully. The world is so wild, beautiful,

and terrifying, and everywhere we turn, a new atrocity.

Then, I close my eyes and picture joy.

Among things, there is this day. Among faces,

there is yours. And I am no longer afraid.

I watch you in your own, quiet moments,

and I want this life. I want this life

to be longer. All I want is more time with you.

I love you.

This is the only way I know how to end.

[ihaveonlymydreams]

COUNTING, NEW YEAR'S MORNING, WHAT POWERS YET REMAIN ΤΟ ΜΕ

By Jane Hirshfield

The world asks, as it asks daily:

And what can you make, can you do, to change my deep-broken, fractured?

I count, this first day of another year, what remains.

I have a mountain, a kitchen, two hands.

Can admire with two eyes the mountain,

actual, recalcitrant, shuffling its pebbles, sheltering foxes and beetles.

Can make black-eyed peas and collards.

Can make, from last year's late-ripening persimmons, a pudding.

Can climb a stepladder, change the bulb in a track light.

For years, I woke each day first to the mountain,

then to the question.

The feet of the new sufferings followed the feet of the old,

and still they surprised.

I brought salt, brought oil, to the question. Brought sweet tea,

brought postcards and stamps. For years, each day, something.

Stone did not become apple. War did not become peace.

Yet joy still stays joy. Sequins stay sequins. Words still bespangle, bewilder.

Today, I woke without answer.

The day answers, unpockets a thought as though from a friend-

don't despair of this falling world, not yet

didn't it give you the asking

[randominteresting]

When frogs attack

[markscherz]

"Hey, nice frog!"

[x]

"Thanks, it has pockets!"

[x]

Assa, colloquially known as 'pouched frogs' raise their tadpoles in pockets on their hips.

[x]

[markscherz]

I just realised how fun a tattoo of one of these frogs would be. Someone would point and go ‘hey nice frog tattoo’ and you could look them dead in the eye and go ‘thanks, it has pockets’ and then engage them in a free, five minute Learning Session™ during which you could watch a whole host of emotions play across their face.

[wyvernslovecake]

@swampstew @fiden-criatura @helloarchivist THE FROG HAS POCKETS!!!

[ihaveonlymydreams]

Okay you guys it's story time.

So my 8th period class is a bunch of 9th graders, including some pretty funny boys that I have a good rapport with.

Today I have two of these jokesters seated at the back table by the door, and I notice as I'm lecturing that every time I turn around their table is in a slightly different spot in the room, like a couple of teenage boy Weeping Angels.

Pretty soon it's right at the door.

Then it's partway out the door.

At this point I say, "ok guys, that's too far." Everyone laughs.

The next time I turn around, the table is gone, the boys are gone, and there's just two empty chairs sitting there like the Rapture of 14-yr old jokesters has suddenly happened.

I tell the boy by the door to lock the door, and they suddenly appear at the window (our school doors have windows in them looking into the hall).

I ignore their piteous looks and keep teaching, so they start taking notes through the window. The next time I turn around, they've grabbed two other chairs from down the hallway, set up their table near the door, and are following class through the window.

...

I let them stay out there for a good five to ten minutes before I let them back in.

I can't wait to check the hallway cameras tomorrow and watch the video. 😂

[ihaveonlymydreams]

Feliz Dia de Los Reyes Magos!

Muchas gracias, ¡y a ti también!

[theodysseyofhomer]

penelope didn't have to turn the tree bed into a riddle. she could have asked odysseus to prove his identity, to tell her something only he would know — which she actually did a few books earlier, when she asked the beggar to describe odysseus, and odysseus told her about a purple cloak with a particular golden brooch that she fastened herself twenty years ago. when penelope tells telemachus they have signs by which they'll know each other, you sort of expect more of the same. and instead, she decides to trap him. like a bug in a cup.

and it's delightful to me, idk, how odysseus has been trapped and cornered in various way throughout the odyssey, but arguably never so that he has to tell the truth to get out. (with the phaeacians, maybe? the omniscient narrator corroborates some of what he tells them, but do we really know everything?) and in fact he is not trying to get free of penelope. he wants something from her, wants to convince her, wants to be welcomed home, but until this point he's lied to her, revealed himself to other people before her, and been distant with her (though also patient! he doesn't try to strongarm or rush her into accepting him; it's his idea to sleep elsewhere).

except penelope isn't looking for him to be distant and patient. penelope lies in a way that requires odysseus to stop playing along — not only to prove that he knows what odysseus knows, but that he's willing to tell the truth about himself.

[viveperdiemnoctemque]

(tags from @finelythreadedsky )

[theodysseyofhomer]

#and the thing is he has a scar. a physical identifier. but that one he only shows servants to prove his identity#repeatedly flashing a scar on his thigh is MORE impersonal and less revealing. to him#he must do something far more exposing and vulnerable and revealing with penelope. he must drop the act via @ilions-end

[important-animal-images]

[stickyfrogs]

Every Finger is Extremely Delicious and should be Completely Devoured! (By Round Frog!)

[silverview]

https://x.com/tommchenry/status/1428891618770407428/