Hark! Hark!

Waterfront on Quiet Days

Hark! hark! the lark

at heaven's gate sings,

And Phoebus 'gins arise,

His steeds to water at those springs

On chalic'd flowers that lies;

And winking Mary-buds begin

To ope their golden eyes;
With everything that pretty is,
My lady sweet, arise:  Arise, arise! 

The early bird is the lark or so we believe because it sings at daybreak - but then again, my neighbor keeps chickens and they sing then too. I wondered down into the local village to get a Times and passed by our waterfront - all waves and whitecaps. Early Sunday mornings here, in a settlement that had Englishmen about the time of Shakespeare's death and larks may have been around but mostly we have to read poetry about them or listen to music/recordings that depict their calls. No matter.

What we had this morning that probably the settlers had 350+ years ago was a tablet on which to draw quiet in which to listen. There had to be calm mornings back then - without a wavelet or a cat's paw of motion and the water doing nothing other than reflecting, the details, lines, edges all perfect.

This morning, after a week's worth of pre-holiday hustle and bustle has been an unusually noisy Sunday morning, 

I miss the mornings when you could listen all you wanted but you would hear nothing so when a bird woke up the song stood out like red on white.We probably have a lark or two around here although I'd be hard pressed to know it if I saw it. However, I can enjoy Hark Hark a Lark and this very nice Sunday morning music (below), take my harbor walk and imagine things.