Magazine Posts

When I awake, at night,
will you still be there,
or must I, once more,
have thoughts of despair?

Another night to forget,
when she awakes
with the bedding wet.
Why dear Lord,
must it always be,
in the A. M.
at half past 3?

A candle flickers,
A Spirit dies.
A gasp of breath
with no goodbyes.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Interstellar dust clouds and glowing nebulae abound in the fertile constellation of Orion. One of the brightest, M78, is centered in this colorful, wide field view, covering an area north of Orion's belt. At a distance of about 1,500 light-years, the bluish reflection nebula is around 5 light-years across. Its tint is due to dust preferentially reflecting the blue light of hot, young stars. Reflection nebula NGC 2071 is just to the left of M78. Flecks of emission from Herbig-Haro objects, energetic jets from stars in the process of formation, stand out against the dark dust lanes. The exposure also brings out the region's fainter, pervasive reddish glow of atomic hydrogen gas.

Photo by Wes Higgins

It's 4 am,
early morning time,
when my old mind
wants to write rhyme.
Why is my brain
wired this way?
I wish I knew,
but I cannot say.
I am happy to write,
just for you,
for at this moment,
It is what I can do.

A simple verse,
much like a curse,
is good for me
but her life is worse.
The suffering she does;
confusing to see,
causes me much hurt,
for what will soon be.

I see so much new growth
in our flower beds.
I am praying now,
for this projected freeze,
to pass us by,
for the joy I see now
may turn into a cry
if the Frost attacks the
tender new growth.
Snow is OK as young
plants handle it well.
No so much the old plants
as snow will act like an
undisciplined pruner.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Do magnetic fields always flow along spiral arms? Our face-on view of the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) allows a spectacularly clear view of the spiral wave pattern in a disk-shaped galaxy. When observed with a radio telescope, the magnetic field appears to trace the arms' curvature. However, with NASA’s flying Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) observatory, the magnetic field at the outer edge of M51's disk appears to weave across the arms instead. Magnetic fields are inferred by grains of dust aligning in one direction and acting like polaroid glasses on infrared light. In the featured image, the field orientations determined from this polarized light are algorithmically connected, creating streamlines. Possibly the gravitational tug of the companion galaxy, at the top of the frame, on the dusty gas of the reddish star-forming regions, visible in the Hubble Space Telescope image, enhances turbulence -- stirring the dust and lines to produce the unexpected field pattern of the outer arms.

Apologies for paraphrasing Tennyson

For hours he fought.
Four hours he thought.
For ever the light.
Foremost the sight.
Forlorn on this day.
Forgotten, I can say.

At Last!
Four years, now past.
Four years of infamy.
Four years of pain and sorrow.
Four years of racial rhetoric.
Four years of mental sickness.

When I write down
the words,
those in my mind,
I know.
There must be a reason.
A reason
of some special kind,
but I
cannot bring them forth.
How unkind.