A bit of red and blue seems fitting for this Monday holiday, and as we honor our Veterans, let us take a moment to pause in the stillness of the dawn of this day. We will revisit the past week in a captivating recap later today – for now, just a few photos for contemplation. The world needs more honor. More respect. More time to acknowledge what a precious privilege it is to be alive, to be present, to be here.
Japanese Maple
by Clive James, 2o14
Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.
So slow a fading out brings no real pain.
Breath growing short
Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain
Of energy, but thought and sight remain:
Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see
So much sweet beauty as when fine rain falls
On that small tree
And saturates your brick back garden walls,
So many Amber Rooms and mirror halls?
Ever more lavish as the dusk descends
This glistening illuminates the air.
It never ends.
Whenever the rain comes it will be there,
Beyond my time, but now I take my share.
My daughter’s choice, the maple tree is new.
Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.
What I must do
Is live to see that.That will end the game
For me, though life continues all the same:
Filling the double doors to bathe my eyes,
A final flood of colors will live on
As my mind dies,
Burned by my vision of a world that shone
So brightly at the last, and then was gone.
“Even when a river of tears
courses through
this body,
the flame of love
cannot be quenched.â€
―
