NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Inspired by the halloween season, this telescopic portrait captures a cosmic cloud with a scary visage. The interstellar scene lies within the dusty expanse of reflection nebula IC 2118 in the constellation Orion, the Hunter. IC 2118 is about 800 light-years from your neighborhood, close to bright bluish star Rigel at Orion's foot. Often identified as the Witch Head nebula for its appearance in a wider field of view it now rises before the witching hour. With spiky stars for eyes, the ghoulish apparition identified here seems to extend an arm many light-years long toward Orion's hot supergiant star. The source of illumination for IC 2118, Rigel is just beyond this frame at the upper left.

Photo by Casey Good/Steve Timmons

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When I came to you
with hat in hand,
it was to talk
to you as a man.
A man enchanted by
your radiant smile,
with so much charm,
you would then beguile,
with words of passion
and of love,
which made me pray
to the Lord above.
Please tell me your story,
as I want to know,
about your childhood
and how you became
the enchantress, or so
I think you work your wiles
and keep the suspense
away from your smiles.

Your beauty is still with you today.
"Your skin has few wrinkles," I say.
You have survived lung cancer, stage three,
But the Chemo triggered Dementia, unfortunately.
The cancer, gone for six years, my wife,
While the Dementia has changed your life.
The only thing left to do,
Is for me to take care of you.

To wit,
too wit,
two wit,
which is three
ways to write,
to be right,
when I scribe,
words for thee.

Is it one
or one more,
making it four,
like saying before.
Are these words,
those which will soar
or like Poe, in "The Raven"
saying "Nevermore/"

What can be said,
has been said before,
some words are silent,
other words roar.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Why is the Lobster Nebula forming some of the most massive stars known? No one is yet sure. Cataloged as NGC 6357, the Lobster Nebula houses the open star cluster Pismis 24 near its center -- a home to unusually bright and massive stars. The overall blue glow near the inner star forming region results from the emission of ionized hydrogen gas. The surrounding nebula, featured here, holds a complex tapestry of gas, dark dust, stars still forming, and newly born stars. The intricate patterns are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity. NGC 6357 spans about 400 light years and lies about 8,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Scorpion.

Photo by Steven Mohr

Colored chalk,
a grassy knoll.
Don't speak to me
of your sorrow,
for if I should
leave this place,
it's not going to be tomorrow.
You make promises
but not to keep, but to borrow,
for you lie and you lie again,
like a farmers rusty old harrow.

Sit I here, amongst all the dread
and the fear which is in my head.
A fear of what will soon be,
when I cannot care for thee.

There are too many words,
lodged in my head.
Stale, unused, hard and dry,
as if day old bread.
I need to cleanse this mess,
out of this aged, cluttered brain.
It may be best if I try to explain.
When I write, over and
over, once again,
the words are very stale
and cause me some pain.
Don't overuse words,
such as "that".
It makes your writings
so excessively flat.
Do not keep using the same word,
row after row after row
as it will haunt the writing
with no place to go.
With a train of thought, heck,
you may provide a writing
which is a train wreck.
Keep writing and let yourself go
and for your answer take not a No.

Depression: a slight dip in the surface; concave.

I have a slight depression in my Soul.
Standing with my lovely wife,
helping her brush her teeth.
A slow process, as I tell her to grab
her toothbrush. She picks up a bottle
of skin lotion and asks, "This?"
I am amazed how little she
remembers, about the day to day
tasks. My role is to step through
these requirements, morning and night.
Tonight, as I stood near her, as
she brushed her teeth, she did it well
but had to be reminded to put
toothpaste on the brush, always responding,
"Like this?" It's then, my emotional
well being, becomes stretched and I
sadly feel, like I am becoming unhinged.
We will get through this, you and I.
You will see as we can only try.

My grasp of sanity
has left with you.
From whence came I
when I no longer do.
This mind of mine,
unlike so many or so few,
wants to quit my
love for you. But as I
walk the jagged edge,
I see it's not you, it's me.
Why does my heart burn so
if I am to be the last to go.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

What would an erupting volcano on Venus look like? Evidence of currently active volcanoes on Venus was announced earlier this year with the unexplained warmth of regions thought to contain only ancient volcanoes. Although large scale images of Venus have been taken with radar, thick sulfuric acid clouds would inhibit the taking of optical light vistas. Nevertheless, an artist's reconstruction of a Venusian volcano erupting is featured. Volcanoes could play an important role in a life cycle on Venus as they could push chemical foods into the cooler upper atmosphere where hungry microbes might float. Pictured, the plume from an erupting volcano billows upwards, while a vast lava field covers part of the hot and cracked surface of Earth's overheated twin. The possibility of airborne microbial Venusians is certainly exciting, but currently controversial. An APOD Described on TikTok: By astrokirsten

She is in bed, quiet, unaware
of her lovely shade of hair.
Silver color, with a wave or two.
A short haircut is her new do.

Too many words crowd the page.
Don't confuse my love for rage.
I love waging a war of words,
Better than using guns or swords.

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day:

Do any shapes seem to jump out at you from this interstellar field of stars and dust? The jeweled expanse, filled with faint, starlight-reflecting clouds, drifts through the night in the royal constellation of Cepheus. Far from your own neighborhood on planet Earth, these ghostly apparitions lurk along the plane of the Milky Way at the edge of the Cepheus Flare molecular cloud complex some 1,200 light-years away. Over two light-years across and brighter than the other spooky chimeras, VdB 141 or Sh2-136 is also known as the Ghost Nebula, seen at toward the bottom of the featured image. Within the reflection nebula are the telltale signs of dense cores collapsing in the early stages of star formation.

Photo by Bogdan Jarzyna

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"Grandfather cuts loose the Ponies" - A public art sculpture situated near Vantage, WA. created by David Govedare in 1989–1990 Also known as the Wild Horse Monument.  It consists of 15 life-size steel horses which appear to be galloping across a ridge above the Columbia River. Presented as a gift for the centenary of Washington's statehood, the sculpture was conceived as a memorial to the wild horses which once roamed the region.

I walk the road,
I drive the car,
I search the fields,
both near and far.
Where are you now?
What is my goal?
I look for you
and my missing Soul.

My head is now spinning,
like a wind without sail,
as my thoughts of a person;
a Bulgarian girl.
I'm too old for this now,
so what can I do
but to fight off those feelings
of all this I see.
What in the World is now
happening to me?
Am I so starved for affection
in this time of life,
or is it because I can no longer
converse with my Wife?

A glimpse of your leg,
a wink of your eye,
tells me nothing about
the warmth of your sigh.
A sigh of compassion
or a question of why,
creates a new emotion,
as evening draws nigh.
A strange time, on this day
as we live in this World,
where dreams have gone away.