Janet Fogg's Blog, page 34

Stop and smell the roses

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Photo by Richard Fogg

 

You got to stop and smell the roses

You’ve got to count your many blessings everyday

You’re gonna find your way to heaven is a rough and rocky road

If you don’t stop and smell the roses along the way

~ Carl Severinsen and Mac Davis, songwriters.

 

Press’d by the Moon

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Photo by Richard Fogg

 

Press’d by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides,

While the loud equinox its power combines,

The sea no more its swelling surge confines,

But o’er the shrinking land sublimely rides.

The wild blast, rising from the Western cave…

~ Charlotte Smith

It Takes Courage to be a Writer

I glory in tales of heroes and heroines, those who risk everything to gain or protect their passion, whether it’s love, conquering new planets, or righting a wrong. These stories resonate in my heart–I pray they always will.

In The Green Hills of Earth, a short story by Robert A. Heinlein, “Noisy” Rhysling, a blind and dying balladeer is catching rides back to Earth where he wants to be laid to rest. Yet he sacrifices himself to repair a malfunctioning space ship. His final song, before he dies…

…harsh bright soil of Luna –

Out ride the sons of Terra,

Far drives the thundering jet –

Saturn’s rainbow rings –

the frozen night of Titan –

We pray for one last landing

On the globe that gave us birth

Let us rest our eyes on the fleecy skies

And the cool, green hills of Earth.

Then there are Batty’s final words in Blade Runner:

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I’ve watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”

Yes, Batty is the “bad guy,” but at that moment he’s captured his life as neatly as the pair of doves he holds in his hands. And he is transformed, as is Dekker, the “good guy.” Both want to experience “things you people wouldn’t believe.”

It takes courage to set emotions to paper and perseverance to claim the tale. It takes courage to be a writer. We might not wear armor and carry swords, but then again, I have traveled through space, danced on moons, and won the battle of battles. I’ve traveled back in time and flown P-51s. I’ve risked my life to save others, and I’ll do it all again tomorrow. I hope you will, too.

She Walks Alone

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Photo by Richard Fogg

She walks alone against the dusky sky,


With something of the manner of a queen-


Her gesturing peaks, imperious and high;


Her snowy brow, serene.


 


Under her feet, a tapestry of pine;


Veiling her marble figure, purple haze,


Draped with a scarf of clouds at timber-line,


In a billowy silken maze.


~ Lew Sarett


 

Fly Me To The Moon

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Photo by Richard Fogg

Fly me to the moon

And let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like

On Jupiter and Mars

~ Bart Howard.

The Starlings

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Photo by Richard Fogg

 

…the starlings are chattering, quarreling and laughing,

whispering and quietly enjoying themselves,

when suddenly a blustering as of ten thousand pairs

of sharp-edged scissors

passes through the republic of the plains–

it is as though an alarm had sounded,

heard as an echo over the muffled traffic.

Soon the darkness of night will fall.

But the starlings up there won’t stop talking,

they move together, push one another, chatter and flit.

~ Jesper Svenbro

Always Somewhere

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Photo by Richard Fogg

 

Somewhere always is an everywhere

Where the mountains and the snow grow down

In time, until, in winter’s deep sleep, time

Grows balanced, and in quiet you can climb

A mountain and the snow no one can own

Because in afternoon sunshine, time’s there.

~ David Rothman

Before the gods that made the gods…

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Photo by Richard Fogg

 

Before the gods that made the gods

Had seen their sunrise pass,

The White Horse of the White Horse Vale

Was cut out of the grass…

~ G. K. Chesterton

One lonely hour

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Photo by Richard Fogg

 

When insect wings are glistening in the beam

Of the low sun, and mountain-tops are bright,

Oh, let me, by the crystal valley-stream,

Wander amid the mild and mellow light;

And while the redbreast pipes his evening lay,

Give me one lonely hour to hymn the setting day.

~ William Cullen Bryant.

Stand sleeping in the cold

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Photo by Richard Fogg

Thus having prepared their buds

against a sure winter

the wise trees

stand sleeping in the cold.

~ William Carlos William.