Magazine Posts

From the darkness it crept, steadily,
crawling across a mind's barren plain,
coursing the emotionless range.
Spewing hate, in words now chosen
to disparage all heart felt emotions.
Low were the thoughts, attacking within,
never to be recovered or seen again.

Is there an element of life
which still remains unclear
and creates more doubt
than it would appear?

I visit her daily,
at her new family home,
a Memory Care unit,
where she lives alone.

Alone in her room,
of this I am aware,
as she watches TV
with an unfathomable stare.

She does not understand
the programs she sees,
and the mind's stimulation
is absent, unwilling to please.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What's that at the end of the road? The Sun. Many towns have roads that run east - west, and on two days each year, the Sun rises and sets right down the middle. Today is one of those days: an equinox. Not only is today a day of equal night ("aequus"-"nox") and day time, but also a day when the sun rises precisely to the east and sets due west. Featured here is a picturesque road in northwest Illinois, USA that runs approximately east -west. The image was taken during the March Equinox of 2015, and shows the Sun down the road at sunset. In many cultures, this March equinox is taken to be the first day of a season, typically spring in Earth's northern hemisphere, and autumn in the south. Does your favorite street run east - west? Tonight, at sunset, you can find out with a quick glance.

Photo by Roland Christen

Blue was the streak,
in her raven, dark hair,
hiding the face,
of the one, unaware
of a new love,
if she would dare,
as I caught a glimpse,
from the top of the stair.

Long will I remember
your friendship, to me,
as you became more,
like my own family.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

2MASS J17554042+6551277 doesn't exactly roll off the tongue but that's the name, a coordinate-based catalog designation, of the star centered in this sharp field of view. Fans of the distant universe should get used to its spiky appearance though. The diffraction pattern is created by the 18 hexagonal mirror segments of the James Webb Space Telescope. After unfolding, the segments have now been adjusted to achieve a diffraction limited alignment at infrared wavelengths while operating in concert as a single 6.5 meter diameter primary mirror. The resulting image taken by Webb's NIRcam demonstrates their precise alignment is the best physics will allow. 2MASS J17554042+6551277 is about 2,000 light-years away and well within our own galaxy. But the galaxies scattered across the background of the Webb telescope alignment evaluation image are likely billions of light-years distant, far beyond the Milky Way.

From among the rubble,
rises a cry, why are you
killing our children? Why?
What have they done
to deserve to die?
Please tell me now,
for I'm too sad to cry.

When the Sun rises,
a new day begins,
a life's journey
of sorrow or joy.
Pick the right path,
if you seek happiness.
The wrong path may
end in sadness,
lo the light of
this new day,
leaves us, going away.
Long the night,
lonely it will be,
when I am no longer
here with thee.

Long were the years,
when you were mine.
We loved our life,
our hearts entwined.
Please let us love
until the end of time.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Bluish reflection nebulae seem to fill this dusty expanse. The sharp telescopic frame spans over 1 degree on the sky toward the faint but fanciful constellation Monoceros, the Unicorn. Seen within the Monoceros R1 cloud complex some 2,500 light-years away, bluish IC 447 is on the left, joined by a long dark filament of dust to IC 446 at lower right. Embedded in IC 447 are young, massive blue stars much hotter than the Sun, whose light is reflected by the cosmic cloud of star stuff. Observations reveal that IC 446 also contains a young stellar object, a massive star still in an early stage of evolution. The dark filament of dust and molecular gas joining the two star-forming regions is over 15 light-years long.

Photo by Giorgio Ferrari

When darkness falls
as daylight dims,
I'm reminded
of what lies within,
my soul which
has incurred scars
of a love lost
from my lifelong
friend, whose memory
has escaped the fray
and yet is in her mind
but cannot be revealed
to anyone.