The Butterfly as Muse

The season is in dormancy. Two pupae from last season wait in a glass outdoors—to help them feel the cold, under whose influence their tiny hidden bodies will generate a kind of antifreeze; they dream of Spring. But, despite that, the Spirit of the Butterfly is present still. I found a note from Brigitte this morning with a poem by Brandon Watson inspired by the Butterfly as Muse. We’re grateful. Brigitte’s note said: “How utterly wonderful! Thank you, Brandon!” I join her. Pure delight (link).

Siris is Six

About two years ago I happened across Siris. It came up as a Google answer on some search I’d made regarding St. Thomas Aquinas. The site intrigued me. I began to page around and, in that process found Brandon’s poetry. The coincidence of philosophical vigor, calm sanity, and genuine poetic gifts on the same pages caused me to bookmark the site at once. The site, mind you, not the blog—because in those innocent days I didn’t as yet realize that Siris was a blog. I thought that blogs were things of the sort David Horowitz produced. Soon Brigitte and daughter Monique were also enthusiastic readers of Brandon’s poetry and other posts—and not just Brandon’s but his selection of quotes from the English-language literature stretching back in time. After I started a blog of my own, one day, with a little inward laugh at my own naïveté, I realized at last that Siris was a blog. It is more. But in the spirit of that site, I’ll avoid over-large gestures here and simply say that Siris, for us, is a cultural value and a treasure house. It stands all by itself: interesting, difficult, sometimes obscure, many-faceted, enlightening, indeed often strikingly novel, beautiful, sage, and inspiring. Such things don’t simply happen. And Siris is not the work of a leisured, retired sage but of an active man whose day job is to teach the next generation.

Siris turned six on June 2. Happy birthday!