Public Posts Seattle, WA Seattle, WA (zoom)

What games we play
in Life's charade.
Acting lessons were
for the daily parade.

Acts we play,
characters we use,
to fool others
as we peruse.

those actions we
every day, choose,
to be the life actor,
we wish to use.

Is it a sham,
playing this game
of interaction with
others we can name.

Running hard,
through the trees.
A graveled path,
plunging down
the hill,
towards the lake,
with waters, still.

Games we played,
when we were young.
We played hard,
while running free,
no video games,
no TV.

Remembering, my first,
County Fair.
Music was playing,
loud, everywhere.
The aromas of food cooking,
a scent filled air.
Pronto Pups,
Elephant Ears,
Onions grilling,
Corn on the cob
steaming, lathered
in butter.
Great memories,
stimulate the senses.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

It was noticed hundreds of years ago by stargazers who could not understand its unusual shape. It looked like a ring on the sky. Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) may be the most famous celestial circle. We now know what it is, and that its iconic shape is due to our lucky perspective. The recent mapping of the expanding nebula's 3-D structure, based in part on this clear Hubble image,indicates that the nebula is a relatively dense, donut-like ring wrapped around the middle of an (American) football-shaped cloud of glowing gas. Our view from planet Earth looks down the long axis of the football, face-on to the ring. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star, now a tiny pinprick of light seen at the nebula's center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionizes atoms in the gas. The Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,500 light-years away.

The dirt, between
my fingers and toes.
Mud was my thing,
when as a child,
I would run
playing, wild,
like a weed,
growing in your yard.
Cut it down or
let it grow.
How it develops,
you may never know.

For the past several years, my wife Michele and I have had a running debate about how much stuff to hold onto and whether or not to give away (or in some cases, throw away) some of the rarely used excess items lying around the house.
Michele has a long list of what she considers to be totally unnecessary items that are no longer being used, just taking up space, and should be given away. I’m cautiously optimistic to report that as of this writing, I am not one of the items on that list. But I suspect I’m on the bubble........ Read more

Do you not
know me?
Can you call,
me by name?

Someday, in the morning,
when the sky is still grey,
Death will come calling,
taking someone away.

Life is quite short, in this scene,
it isn't forever, we can live here,
for when the road ends,
all memories, will disappear.

If life was fair,
then it's not.
Would you care,
about another's lot?

When love has,
lost its bloom,
will you still be
waiting in another room?

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans. Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar give it a hook-shaped appearance in this deep colorful image, with spiky foreground stars scattered across the telescopic field of view. The image also reveals the distant galaxy's obscuring dust lanes, young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions surrounding a core of yellowish light from an older population of stars. But the star forming regions seem more concentrated along the drawn-out (upper right) spiral arm. The distorted structure is likely the result of an ancient close encounter with the smaller galaxy seen near the top left of the frame. The two interacting galaxies are separated by about 150,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 2442.

Photo by Nicolas Rolland

When April's here and meadows wide
Once more with spring's sweet growths are pied
I close each book, drop each pursuit,
And past the brook, no longer mute,
I joyous roam the countryside.

Look, here the violets shy abide
And there the mating robins hide—
How keen my sense, how acute,
When April's here!

And list! down where the shimmering tide
Hard by that farthest hill doth glide,
Rise faint strains from shepherd's flute,
Pan's pipes and Berecyntian lute.
Each sight, each sound fresh joys provide
When April's here.

This poem by Jessie Redmon Fause is in the public domain.

Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882 – 1961) was a poet, essayist, novelist, educator and editor from the Harlem Renaissance. Her literary work helped sculpt African-American literature in the 1920s as she focused on portraying a true image of African-American life and history. She wrote several novels, including There Is Confusion (1924) and Plum Bun (1928). Fauset also served as the editor of The Crisis from 1919–26.... Wikipedia

Waking from a deep sleep,
clearing cobwebs, from my head,
is what one becomes,
when sleeping like the dead.