speechless

Some can write a sonnet
To describe in silvery words
The rising and the setting of the sun
Some can paint a picture
In shades of vibrant color
It almost looks like heaven when they’re done
Lord, when I try to speak from my heart
I don’t know where to start
When it comes to you I’m speechless

 – Avalon

audacity

no room for death

the time has come…

two roads

The Road Not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

but sometimes you have to cut across a field

waiting.

The sky has grown tired of holding up the trees,
the slow tedium of repetition.
Encircled by winter, all things living
are hungry for the sweet taste of color,
white blossoms, green branch on blue sky.

Early on a February morning, a tall maple
weeps quietly, stretching his naked wrists to the sky,
and I wonder at the difference between begging and longing,
at the knowledge of created things.
There are times when I can imagine myself with a gift
for consolation, and the sky and trees are soothed,
and we all have patience enough for a little more waiting.
We tell stories to warm out days with memory,
or let the air fall silent and still.
Our breath turns to lace.
Remembrance is sweetness and aching,
and winter the space in between.

– by Sabrina Fountain, taken from This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley

there is a time

thursday, i read a blog post about famous last words. yesterday, i attended a funeral. so, my mind has kind of been on the topic of death. not in a bad, morbid way, but just as a fact of life. (ironic: death is a “fact of life”)

as a result of my current state of mind and for the the sake of personal interest, i looked up epitaphs. here are the ones that i thought were really good:

George Washington Carver – “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.”

Benjamin Franklin – “The Body of B. Franklin, printer
Like the Cover of an old Book
Its Contents torn out
And stripped of its Lettering & guilding
Lies here food for worms
For, it will as he believed appear once more
In a new and more elegant edition
Corrected and improved by the Author.” (written by Ben Franklin)

Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh – “If I take the wings of the morning
and
dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea” (from Psalm 139:9)

Isaac Newton – “Hic depositum est, quod mortale fuit Isaaci Newtoni,” which is translatable as “here is deposited what was mortal of Isaac Newton” (written by Alexander Pope)

Alfred Lord Tennyson – “Sunset and evening star,
And one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.”
(written by Tennyson)

George Washington – “Looking into the portals of eternity teaches that
The Brotherhood of Man is inspired by God’s Word;
Then all prejudice of race vanishes away.”

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found on a grave in Tasmania, Australia – “Stop ye travellers as you pass by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, soon you shall be –
Prepare yourself to follow me.”

Graffiti response:
”To follow you
I am not content —
How do I know
which way you went?”

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For everythingthere is an appointed time,
And an appropriate timefor every activityon earth:
A time to be born,and a time to die;
A time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
A time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance.
A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to search, and a time to give something up as lost;
A time to keep, and a time to throw away;
A time to rip, and a time to sew;
A time to keep silent, and a time to speak.
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time for peace.
~ Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

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What is our death but a night’s sleep? For as through sleep all weariness and faintness pass away and cease, and the powers of the spirit come back again, so that in the morning we arise fresh and strong and joyous; so at the Last Day we shall rise again as if we had only slept a night, and shall be fresh and strong. ~ Martin Luther

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The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. ~ Indian Proverb