Pied Beauty

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Bug With Poise

I wish I could convey the gravity possessed by this bug.  He's not naturally shiny like that:  he arose from the sweet potato patch as I was watering one evening.  If you were there to watch closely, you might have seen him almost shake off the water.

Leaffooted Bug, I believe...
He had a measured and stately gait; ascending to the top of a nearby dwarf yaupon took him at least 5 minutes. I think he knew I was there, trying to catch him in the light with the proper camera lens.  He favored me with a slow glance over his shoulder as if to say, "Yes?"  But very slowly.  And with a very un-bug-like hauteur that is most uncommon in my little vegetable garden.

Photo: Tom Barrow
I stepped back and let him continue his sunset gaze.
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3 comments:

  1. VICTORFLAHERTYOctober 19, 2010 at 9:21 AM

    After gazing with admiration at leaf-footed bugs.... I usually pluck and squish

    ReplyDelete
  2. OneOctober 19, 2010 at 10:02 AM

    How nice to have a cute little bug that poses for you. I can see a water droplet on its face. Is it breathing?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elizabeth BarrowOctober 19, 2010 at 11:34 AM

    Well, Victor, then it would have been a whole 'nother blog post! And yes, it seemed to be breathing, I guess. It was definitely still alive!

    ReplyDelete

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