In gazing even upward,I saw a cloud-sprent autumn skyPerforated nearly By the waxing lunar eye;A rainbow wrought in cirrus, Rounding perfectly and still.One hallowed image crafted Just to, momentary, lie.And in that vap'rous sheercloth,Like a veil upon the night,I sought to find some meaningIn an arc of prismed light.But soon the wind had carried allAnd … Continue reading “Two Poems on the Full Moon”, & the Border Sky
Month: November 2020
Random Pictures
A few of my favorites that I've taken in the last year, to establish some photographs for this site.
Christopher Knight & The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk
William Cowper (1731 - 1800) Inspired by the true experience of the titular Scottish sailor, who was marooned on an uninhabited island for four years. I am monarch of all I survey;My right there is none to dispute;From the center all round to the seaI am lord of the fowl and the bruteO Solitude! where … Continue reading Christopher Knight & The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk
Eulogy for an Alder
A humble sapling, spry and meekAt the crest of the hill had sproutedAgainst the wall of our crumbling barnWhere my father’s instructions were flouted.Barely waist high in my fourteenth yearThat little tree could measureAnd in mercy I left it to grow as it wouldAnd to watch me whack weeds at its leisureSeasons would pass since … Continue reading Eulogy for an Alder
Quarantine in Newark
"Pnin walked slowly under the solemn pines. The sky was dying. He did not believe in an autocratic God. He did believe, dimly, in a democracy of ghosts. The souls of the dead, perhaps, formed committees, and these, in continuous session, attended to the destinies of the quick."Vladimir Nabokov, "Pnin" (1957) Why is it that … Continue reading Quarantine in Newark
On Sterling Pond
"Neither had my secret thought conceived the snowflake, nor in all my music was contained the falling of the rain."J.R.R. Tolkien, "The Silmarillion" (1977) One ridge of phosphorescent glass, electric with sunlight. At another angle the breeze-raked surface applauds, dappled with buoyant reflective motes; sparks struck off the forge of creation, an alloyed sheen like … Continue reading On Sterling Pond
I Ink, Therefore.
"When the mind is braced by labor and invention, every book we read becomes luminous with manifold allusions."Ralph Waldo Emerson, "The American Scholar" (1837) It's difficult to become the center of your own orbit, trying to tease out the physics of those dark matter strengths beyond the range of weaknesses' sight. Trepidation is spiritual myopia, … Continue reading I Ink, Therefore.
Hermit Thrush 