A photography enthusiast's unhurried view of the world around him...
Monday, December 22, 2014
Friday, December 12, 2014
The Seven Mad Gods Convening
O Captain! My Captain!
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up -- for you the flag is flung -- for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths -- for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck
You 'ye fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
-- Walt Whitman
(1819 - 1892)
Friday, December 5, 2014
Escalator to NIH
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
-- William Ernest Henley
(1849 - 1903)
Friday, November 28, 2014
Friday, November 21, 2014
Nara Laterns
菊の香や
奈良には古き
仏達
In the city of Nara
Fragrance of chrysanthemums;
Buddhas of yore.
- Matsuo Basho
(1644 - 1694)
Friday, November 14, 2014
Solitude Pair, Lutsen, MN
Sea of Love
The ocean is like our love
There is no beginning and no end
Timeless and ageless an eternity in its depth
Holding long lost memories locked deep in the sea
Akin to our hearts memory of you and me
As the waves gently massage the shore
I am reminded of your sensual touch
Your loving hands upon my skin
Our bodies rocking together
That feeling of forever
Lost deep in your eyes
Like a sailor adrift upon the sea
Time stands still when we are together
Guided by the star like look of love in your eyes
Siren song of your voice pulling me deeper in love no surprise
An eternity I was lost at sea in search of your love
Never finding shore nor seeing one on the horizon
Lost in the vast emptiness that was everywhere
Your ocean of love eventually giving me life
Binding us together as husband and wife
-- Bill Turner
The Gales of November, Temperance River
Sea Fevers
No ancient mariner I,
Hawker of public crosses
Snaring the passerby
With my necklace of albatrosses.
I blink not glittering eye
Between tufts of gray sea mosses
Nor in the high road ply
My trade of guilts and glosses.
But a dark and inward sky.
Tracks the flotsam of my losses.
No more beclamed to lie,
The Skeleton ship tosses.
-- Agnes Wathall
Friday, November 7, 2014
Tree Under Vega
The More Loving One
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
-- W. H. Auden
(1907 - 1973)
Friday, October 24, 2014
Friday, October 17, 2014
Heavenly Morning
The Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.
-- Reinhold Niebuhr
(1892 - 1971)
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