Quote of the Day (Sara Teasdale, on the Ecstasy of Winter Skaters)

“Across the lake the skaters
Flew to and fro,
With sharp turns weaving
A frail invisible net.
In ecstasy the earth
Drank the silver sunlight;
In ecstasy the skaters
Drank the wine of speed;
In ecstasy we laughed
Drinking the wine of love.”— American poet Sara Teasdale (1884-1933), “A Winter Bluejay,” in Rivers to the Sea (1915)
 
Well, maybe this is more of a collective urban experience than what Sara Teasdale had in mind when she wrote these verses a little over a century ago. (There wasn’t much room for “the wine of speed” on this crowded rink.)
 
But plenty of people experienced the ecstasy of ice skating when I visited New York’s Bryant Park when I took this photo in February 2018. It’s not quite winter yet, but it’s getting there, and some areas of upstate New York and other northern areas may already be witnessing the kind of scene the poet had in mind.