I love my radio

My routine on the weekends - if I'm home - includes puttering around and listening to NPR. Today is one of the day's when my loyalty is rewarded: The Next Big Thing had a short piece with Sam Waterston reciting part of Abraham Lincoln's Cooper Union speech against slavery. I've heard the recitation before but I love it. So here I am, sitting at my computer with a hot cup of fresh coffee and a lap full of warm cat listening to Sam Waterston talk. Such bliss.

And a week or so ago, Scott Simon recited Lord Byron's "She walks in beauty, like the night" which made me decide that the only thing more charming than Mr. Simon's warm, happy laugh is the way he reads poetry. I sent Stacey (who works for NPR) an e-mail letting her know that he had read poetry to me on the air, that, yes, other people could hear it, too, but he was really reading to me.

(Stacey has known me long to enough that she can nod-and-smile by return e-mail. All my friends eventually master the nod-and-smile, a sort of voiceless "yes, dear.")

And here's the poem, just for fun.

"She walks in beauty, like the night" -- Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellow'd to that tender light
Which Heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress
Or softly lightens o'er her face,
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,—
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.