[Revised post]

It lives!

If I haven't called you back yet...I will...soon.

I wrote this for Abigail Faulkner Aisling Cook [note the first "i" in "Aisling"; it's what gives the name its "sh" sound: ASH-ling] before I knew--at least for certain (more on that later) if she were a boy or (as my nephew sez) grail.


For Little Whomever Who Missed the DNC

& the zig zags say, Look at all the squares.
& the squares say, Hell yeah, y'all!
& the wonks say, Diddle-me do.
& the interns sweep up & look for theirs.
& the buttons & flyers & placards & posters can't stop saying.
& the fences have no place to go.
& the cops go boom-boom clickety-clack.
& the city goes ghost.
& the oysters go slurp & the beer goes glug.
& over there ka-ching & here hear a void.
& I'm a little zig-zag the squares can't see,
as the TV goes zub-zub long into the night.


"Look at all the squares" is borrowed from Patrick Doud.

Friend Josh Reynolds sez Abby'll be a Christian Conservative.
Ha, very funny.
Speaking of...sing loud all of you lefties in NYC!

Abby-Ais has come down stairs! (Not on her own, not yet, not for some time to come.)

Have you seen her photo over at A.'s site (ironstonewhirlygig.blogspot.com)? Have you? Go now!

Here's the story behind the names (in case you're wondering)...

Abigail Faulkner is one of A's forebears (in a direct line). She was convicted of witchcraft in August of 1692. Like Elizabeth Proctor's (you all know E.P., no?), her execution was postponed because she was pregnant. Like E.P., A.F. was not killed because key skeptics emerged and the executions were stopped.

More on A.F.: she gave her son a Hebrew name meaning "Our family has been shown mercy." (Me too! Where would I be w/o Amanda! w/o Abby!) Also important to the naming is A.F.'S father Francis Dane who spoke out against the trials before A.F. was accused. There's more to it but that's the gist.

(I'm typing one handed w/ my Aisling in my arms. Sorry if there're typos. I'm hardly reading 1/2f what I'm typing.)

In any case... Aisling means dream or vision...only my brother knew I'd had a dream that we were to have a girl (I was drunk when I told him; I don't remember it very well, like the dream itself).

Note on the Irish language:
(the Irish just call it "Irish" but Yanks insist on Gaelic--not differentiating between Scots-Gaelic & Irish...people correct me when I say "Aisling is Irish for vision or dream." They say "oh, [you mean] Gaelic." This also happens when I pronounce Celtic (as in the football club) w/ a soft "c"; they say "oh, [you mean] Keltic"; sometimes I explain how when Celtic was founded in 1888 "Seltic" was still the accepted pronunciation of both the club & the adjective form of Celts (then "Selts" now "Kelts"); through the 20th century the pronunciation shifted from "Seltic" to "Keltic" (as people using the word became aware of its etymology having (one source has it) to do w/ the Greek name for the Celts, apparently "Keltoi"). But the football club, named before the shift & having supporters unconcerned w/ academic matters of etymology & such , is still called "Seltic". That having been said I also accept that most Americans w/ an interested in Hibernian matters will say "Keltic" thinking the pronunciation of Boston "Seltics" is the result of American parochial ignorance. Not so. Or not exactly so at least.

Aisling is also a song by the maker Shane MacGowan:

Aisling
By Shane MacGowan (1994)
See the moon is once more rising
Above our our land of black and green
Hear the rebels voice is calling
"I shall not die, though you bury me!"
Hear the Aunt in bed a-dying
"Where is my Johnny?
"Faded pictures in the hallway
Which one of these brown ghosts is he?
Fare thee well my black haired diamond
Fare the well my own Aisling
Thoughts and dreams of you will haunt me
'Till I come back home again
And the wind it blows
To the North and South
And blows to the East and West
I'll be just like that wind my love
For I will have no rest
'Til I return to thee
Bless the wind that shakes the barley
Curse the spade and curse the plough
Waking in the morning early
I wish to Hell I was with you now
One, two, three, four telephone poles
Give me a drink of poitin
Madness from the mountains crawling
When I first met you my own Aisling
Fare thee well my black haired diamond
Fare the well my own Aisling
Thoughts of and dreams of you will haunt me
'Till I come back home again
Fare thee well my black haired diamond
Fare the well my own Aisling
Thoughts of and dreams of you will haunt me
'Till I come back home again

Lyrics from http://www.shanemacgowan.com/lyrics/aisling.shtml can't check this version vs. the album at the moment... Turns out I know one of the webmasters of shanemacgowan.com. Mick Madden was once a member of the Allston-Brighton Glasgow Celtic Supporters Club.

Abby & I are off to the study while mom gets some well deserved rest up stairs.

slan,
Jamie