Monday, September 27, 2004

optical illusion

Sunday, September 26, 2004

September

Sunday morning and it's cool 'nd bright
New fallen leaves are stirin' 'round the yard
A crisp blue blue sky above....
For a brief moment all is right
And in that moment time dilates into a dream....
To another world far far away.
All in the space of one deep breath.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - The New Series

Thursday, September 23, 2004

When the Frost is on the Punkin

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin' turkey-cock,
And the clackin' of the guineys, and the cluckin' of the hens,
And the rooster's hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it's then's the times a feller is a-feelin' at his best,
With the risin' sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

They's something kindo' harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer's over and the coolin' fall is here --
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin'-birds and buzzin' of the bees;
But the air's so appetizin'; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur' that no painter has the colorin' to mock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin' of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries -- kindo' lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin' sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below -- the clover over-head! --
O, it sets my hart a-clickin' like the tickin' of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin' 's over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too!
I don't know how to tell it -- but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin' boardin', and they'd call around on me --
I'd want to 'commodate 'em -- all the whole-indurin' flock --
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder's in the shock!

James Whitcomb Riley

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

What I Am

I Am! Yet What I Am None Cares or Knows

I am: yet what I am none cares or knows,
My friends forsake me like a memory lost;
I am the self-consumer of my woes,
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shades in love and death's oblivion lost;
And yet I am, and live with shadows tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life nor joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life's esteems;
And e'en the dearest -that I loved the best -
Are strange -nay, rather stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man has never trod,
A place where woman never smiled or wept;
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept:
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie, -
The grass below -above the vaulted sky.

John Clare
Written in Northampton County Asylum

Friday, September 17, 2004

Talk Like A Pirate Day

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

A Farm Picture ~ Whitman

The Writer's Almanac September 14th, 2004

A Farm Picture
Through the ample open door of the peaceful country barn, A sunlight pasture field with cattle and horses feeding, And haze and vista, and the far horizon fading away.

Walt Whitman

More Idle thoughts Autumn

My favorite time of year is near.
The wind, picking up,
whistles thru creaky old windows;
shadows of tree limbs dance on the floor,
steam from the kettle rises then magically disappears.
To sleep, to dream, to explore time,
amid pillows and quilts sipping sweet hot tea.
~w