Today we have one of my absolute favorite poets, Peter McWilliams, what I most love about his work is how incredibly much he can make you feel in very few words, enjoy ~ ZD Blue
Photo by ZD Blue
(Peter McWilliams)
You like it that I write
Poems
about you.
Your ego takes some
Perverse pleasure
in them.
You will cause
enough pain to fill
a book, and then
send autographed
copies to your
friends.
Today a poem from a reader, Patrick Graven was kind enough to share this piece for your reading pleasure and since Patrick is from Ireland a photo from the emerald isle. ~ ZD Blue
Photo by ZD Blue
by Patrick Graven
Looking back to those days in the past,
At the times and feelings that just didn’t last,
Now It’s time to move forward as life moves fast,
For I have found you in a meaningful friendship so vast,
~In Your Heart~
There is a wave, a change in your eyes,
From dusk till dawn, the seasons in the skies,
Can’t you hear the cold silence in the night,
A longing call that you will hope to find,
For the times you stare into the pure open blue,
You say to yourself, “If only they really knew”,
A path that you’ll make of what is so true,
For the beauty is the mirror inside of you,
The feeling of passion that strengthens you to run,
You know that something special has just begun,
The hope inside of you when you glare into the sun,
The hope for two lonely hearts out there to become one,
What you give to me is a beautiful art,
A creative beauty that is beginning to start,
For we are not far nor poles apart,
As i am within, always in your heart.
Happy Fourth of July, poetry day 4
Well in honor of our Independence Day, the greatest war poem ever written. Although we celebrate our independence, we should never forget, the horror of war or the old lie that it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.
Dulce et Decorum Est
By Wilfred Owen
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.
Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori
So for your viewing enjoyment this Friday some sites with absolutely great images including an album of my own from a couple of trips. This first link is to some of the most amazing photos I’ve ever seen, enjoy:
From around the world:
http://vivithemage.com/2011/12/awesome-pictures-from-around-the-world/
My own travel galleries:
Ireland:
Galway Cathedral
Jackson Square
So St. Patrick’s Day means a lot of things to a lot of people. To a lot of folks it’s an excuse to get drunk, or dress up in green and annoy people who don’t. I’m sure someone somewhere actually even celebrates St. Patrick in some way, although I’ve never met that person. For me, it’s a day to think about my grandfather who was such a staunch Irish Catholic that once, after our neighbors repainted his favorite lawn chairs orange, he never sat in them again. A bit silly, but that’s just who he was. The fellow in the clip below reminds me of my grandpa, talking about the economic crisis and telling it like it is, if you’re offended by profanity, don’t click on the link. Happy St. Patty’s Day and thanks to Audrey for the clip.
If you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured, it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed, races won, or lasting happiness achieved.
Maurice Chevalier
In 1924 George Leigh Mallory, a British climber, was asked why climb Mount Everest, he famously quipped, “because it’s there.” So is Mallory, he never returned from that climb and it is believed that his body was found in 1999. Mount Everest is the biggest mountain on earth, at least above the ocean, and also the most coveted to climb. It isn’t however the most difficult to climb, at least not from a technical climbing perspective, but Sagarmatha as the Nepalese call her is the biggest hill on earth. Something about that fact has always drawn people, me included, to her slopes. Now, I’m not a climber, I didn’t go to the Himalayas to climb Everest, only to step on the base of her slopes at a little over 17,700 feet, and even more exciting to me, the idea of walking on the Khumbu Ice Fall.
The idea had always been in the back of my mind but it wasn’t until I stumbled onto a website for a trekking company that I truly thought about actually doing it. Of course, like most of these things, when would I ever have the time and the money to take that trip? Well that time came last year, after over a year and a half of planning I finally was in a position to take 8 months off of work. I had put away the money to cover my expenses for that time and come up with a plan. That plan including a trek to the base camp of Mount Everest. Now the really nutty thing about this plan was not only am I not a climber, I also had never done a multi-day hike and I’d only been over 12,000 feet once outside of Lhasa, Tibet. Now here I was planning 22 days in the Himalayas with a goal of over 17,000 feet. Oh and just to make it exciting, I can’t take the medicine (Diamox) that most people take to help prevent them from getting altitude sickness. Needless to say the mention of the plan either frightened or was totally blown off by the people close to me, truly, I couldn’t be stupid enough to actually be doing this.
Those same thoughts had crossed my mind as well, but I was taking 8 months off and the best time to trek in the Himalayas is November, so it would be near the end of my time off. So being the logical creature that I am, I decided I’d use the first part of my time off to get fit and ready for Everest. My plan was simple, start hiking a lot before May when my time off would begin. Then start to progressively get ready for the big hills so of course I would start in Scotland, with no mountain over 4,000 feet. There was some logic to this trip, I planned to hike the Great Glenn Way over a 6 day period, my first multi-day hike, 73 miles. Next I would spend time in Utah and really start to stretch myself out and get ready. I am fortunate enough to have an aunt who has a house near Bryce Canyon National Park and that would be my home base. For three months I would hike in the park, live at 6600 feet and spend as much time as possible above 8000 feet and some time above 10,000 feet on Bryan Head.
Piece of cake right, first of course I’d drive across country, visit my brother and friends in Texas, dig for diamonds in Arkansas (didn’t find any), visit family and friends in the East and head for Ireland and Scotland for the month of June. Ride a bike around Ireland, hike the Great Glenn Way and then land back in Utah by July. Over the next few weeks I will take you across Scotland, up into Bryce Canyon and then into Nepal and up the big hills of the Himalayas, I hope you enjoy the trip.
Directional Sign to the Great Glenn Way
You can find out more about the Great Glenn Way at the link below:
Welcome to the last Fun Friday of the year and given that it’s New Year’s Eve it might be a very Fun Friday indeed. Given the holiday I decided to go out and find some creative forms of hangover remedies for you to experiment with as you start off the New Year. The link below will teach you hangover remedies from Ireland, Russia, Puerto Rico and even Outer Mongolia! These will include cucumber juice, bull’s penis, eyeballs and armpit fruit, enjoy!
http://www.40cozy.com/uncategorized/8-bizarre-hangover-cures-from-around-the-world/
