FULL MOON IN SCORPIO

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate THE 2nd full moon in Scorpio.

Pixie, kobold, elf, and sprite,
All are on their rounds tonight;
In the wan moon’s silver ray,
Thrives their helter-skelter play.
~Joel Benton

Within the circles of our lives
We dance the circles of the years,
The circles of the seasons
Within the circles of the years,
the cycles of the moon
within the circles of the seasons,
The circles of our reasons
within the cycles of the moon.
Again, again we come and go,
changed, changing. Hands
join,unjoin in love and fear,
grief and joy. The circles turn,
each giving into each, into all.
Only music keeps us here,
each by all the others held.
In the hold of hands and eyes
we turn in pairs, that joining
joining each to all again.
And then we turn aside, alone,
out of the sunlight gone
into the darker circles of return.

Wendell Berry, Earth prayers from Around the World, 1991

The moon, like you,
is far away from me, but it’s our sole memento:
if your look and recall our past through it,
we can be one mind.

- Saigo
Awesome Nightfall

 Everyone is a moon and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody.
–Mark Twain

 Friendship
By Michelle Gibson

 

Every time the moon races the sky,
We think of things worldwide.
We think of things we cannot hide,
Of emotions, trapped deep inside.

 The rising moon has hit the stars;
Her level rays, like golden bars,
Lie on the landscape green,
With shadows brown between.

And Silver white the river gleams,
As if Diana, in her dreams,
Had dropt her silver bow
Upon the meadows low
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Endymion 

I am the sun, the clouds, the moon
I am the bloom that went to soon
I am the star that shines above
I am the one you could not love 
 

there is a long ,
long trail a winding
-into the lands of my dreams
-where the nightmare is singing
-and white moon beams
-a long night of waiting untill my dreams all come true…….. 

GIFFING OFF UNTO THE MIDNIGHT HOUR

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate the approach of the Midnight Hour. HE is out there still on the sawdust floor and SHE hasn’t heard HIM sing for a very long time. Wait then for MIDNIGHT.

 

Without courage, wisdom bears no fruit.
- Baltasar Gracian

 

   Happy owner, happy cat. Indifferent owner, reclusive cat. – Chinese Proverb

      It ’s possible to forgive someone a great deal if he makes you laugh.
Carolyn Llewellyn

  

 

You’ve got to practice meditation when you walk, stand, lie down, sit, and work,
while washing your hands, washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, drinking tea,
talking to friends, or whatever you are doing. When you are washing the dishes,
washing the dishes must be the most important thing on your life. Just as when
you are drinking tea, drinking tea must be the most important thing in your life.
-  Thich Nat Hahn

 

      

Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

DARKNESS OF A MOONLESS NIGHT

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate the darkness of a moonless night. Some nights seem a little darker than others.

 

Darkness
(1816) by Lord Byron

---

I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish’d, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went–and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill’d into a selfish prayer for light:

 

I built a bridge out of nowhere,
across nothingness and wondered
if there would be something on the other side.
I built a bridge out of fog,
across darkness and hoped that
there would be light on the other side.
I built a bridge out of despair,
across oblivion and knew that
there would be hope on the other side.
I built a bridge out of hell,
across chaos and trusted that
there would be strength on the other side

 

 

 

 

At evening casual flocks of pigeons make
Ambiguous undulations as they sink
Downward to darkness, on extended wings.
- – - -Wallace Stevens “Sunday Morning”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing,
Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness.
So on the ocean of life we pass and speak one another.
Only a look and a voice; then darkness again and a silence.
- – - -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “Tales of a Wayside Inn”

 

 

 

YEA THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEY OF DEEP DARKNESS, I WILL FEAR NO EVIL FOR THOU ART WITH ME.

 

From Upanishads;

Brahman is the whole world.

Thou art the dark-blue bird and the green parrot with red eyes, Thou hast the lightning as thy child. Thou art the seasons and the seas. Having no beginning, thou dost abide with all-pervadingness, Wherefrom all beings are born.

What to do if they fall:

Stand her up.… Stay with her.
wail of the ambulance
……… is not reporting you to the police

She slurs, cries out:
‘the blue fire is coming’
then: “If I fall, don’t…’

Go with her up in the laneway
She might fall again;
bleeding on darkness.

John Stokes

 

 

 

 

THE MOON

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate the Moon. HE is off at Wintermoon.  Here in the Valley SHE is in the Dark. Cannot see the moon at the moment but when it is visible from the Cottage, It is one fine sight.

Poetry, like the moon, does not advertise anything.  ~William Blissett

In the night the cabbages catch at the moon, the leaves drip silver, the rows
of cabbages are a series of little silver waterfalls in the moon.
-  Carl Sandburg

Heidi said:

Failure is like the sun not rising and the moon not shimmering.

Shoot for the moon because even if you miss, you will end up in the stars – Aubrey Auby, WA

Steal all your kisses underneath the moon

The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.
- Michel Eyquem De Montaigne

I think that a particle must have a separate reality independent of the measurements. That is an electron has spin, location and so forth even when it is not being measured. I like to think that the moon is there even if I am not looking at it.” EINSTEIN

 

 

 

LIGHTS AT NIGHT

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate the lights at night. On the Far Ridge they string like a necklet. Along the Heights and out to sea. And on occasion – nights like this one light or two shine down at the Creek where the farmer lets people camp – from time to time. In the Cottage SHE has lights on. The Main House – because its sad up there now – has just the one or two lights in the living room before my old gentleman goes to bed. Once it was lit with dozens of candles and bright lights and on occasion the driveway lights were on as well. Up through the pine trees where tonight she saw the White Hoot Owl who was here when she came to live here 3 years ago. The day Marian died and one month before her father slept into the forever.

In the Cottage, SHE has all the lights on except for the bathroom where the fan comes on and whirrs with the light. Way back in Tumbulgum , sometimes the Very Bad Man would leave the porch light on for her and sometimes her son would come out and make sure she was home OK. Now SHE is home and waiting for HIM to come home and that means she has the LIGHTS ON.

Down at the Ovals at the Club , the lights were on till 9pm for the soccer game. Cars parked all over and cheers SHE can hear from The Hill.  Soon , the Moon will rise from the Ocean and then SHE will turn out her lights and lie in bed with Moonlight.

AFTERNOON IN AN AUTUMN VALLEY

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate Late afternoon in an Autumn Valley. Light softened over the Hills and the creatures of the night preparing to emerge from the crevices of the Northern Banks. The Creek glosses over and mists prepare for the darkness before them. Ready to rise and enghost. One white fence circles a ancient cottage on a knoll above the willows and breezes which HE loves begin a pre-dusk whispering up from the Dell where something They have never seen is stretching for its wandering hours.

On this bleary white afternoon,
are there fires lit up in heaven
against such faking of quickness
and light, such windy discoursing?

Edwin Honig, Through a Giant Copper Beech

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John Muir

An autumn night — don’t think your life didn’t matter.
- Basho

Winter dies into the spring, to be born again in the autumn.
- Marche Blumenberg

We are reformers in spring and summer; in autumn and winter, we stand by the old; reformers in the morning, conservers at night.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

These bursting yellow pears I hold,
In burning hands so lately cold,
My quiet autumn day confound;
I feel my fingers pressing round
In quick delight – old thoughts renew…
Ah, who’s to say when summer’s through?
- – - E. F. Weisslitz

Autumn wins you best by this, its mute Appeal to sympathy for its decay.

NIGHTS AT HOME IN THE DARK OF THE COUNTRYSIDE

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate Night at home with only one light on and crickets in the long grasses. Autumn edging in and the phones silent.

On Hanukkah, the first dark night,
Light yourself a candle bright.
I’ll you, if you will me invite
To dance within that gentle light.
~Nicholas Gordon, poemsforfree.com

He that has light within his own clear breast May sit i’ the centre, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.
John Milton

Dreaming permits each and everyone of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives.
William Dement

May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full
moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all
the way to your door.

Tis the night – the night Of the grave’s delight, And the warlocks are at their play; Ye think that without The wild winds shout, But no, it is they – it is they.
~Arthur Cleveland Coxe

SUNSET AND DUSK IN THE VALLEY

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate DUSK. The sun has gone down over to the west behind the Hill. Autumn is sweet in the sub-tropics . Later tonight the Moon will come up over the Pacific Ocean and the cows are likely to let loose down in the paddock. Kate and Les’ new dog is apt to bark until they come home from the Bilambil Sports Club and whatever it is that lives in the bottom paddock above the road and the mangoes will start in to shrieking – AFTER DUSK. HE will come home from the Boss’ panelbeating shop where they are rehearsing STICKY GRASS PUDDING for the WINTERMOON in Far North Queensland. DUSK LEADS TO UNSEEN THINGS.

Out in a world of death far to the northward lying,
Under the sun and the moon, under the dusk and the day;
Under the glimmer of starts and the purple of sunsets dying,
Wan and waste and white, stretch the great lakes away.

Never a bud of spring, never a laugh of summer,
Never a dream of love, never a song of bird;
But only the silence and white, the shores that grow chiller and dumber,
Wher’ever the ice winds sob, and the griefs of winter are heard.

Crags that are black and wet out of the grey lake looming,
Under the sunset’s flush and the pallid, faint glimmer of dawn;
Shadowy, ghost-like shores, where midnight surfs are booming
Thunders of wintry woe over the spaces wan.

Wifred Campbell, The Winter Lakes

Heat lingers
As days are still long;
Early mornings are cool
While autumn is still young.
Dew on the lotus
Scatters pure perfume;
Wind on the bamboos
Gives off a gentle tinkling.
I am idle and lonely,
Lying down all day,
Sick and decayed;
No one asks for me;
Thin dusk before my gates,
Cassia blossoms inch deep.
- Po Chu-i (772-864), Autumn Coolness
Translated by Howard S. Levy and Henry Wells

“At all seasons the coming of dusk has its spell upon the imagination. Even in cities it puts something of silence into the turmoil, something of mystery into the commonplace aspect of the familiar and the day-worn. The shadow of the great change that accompanies the passage of day is as furtive and mysterious, as swift and inevitable, amid the traffic of streets as in aisles of the forest, or in glens and on hills, on shores, or on the sea. It is everywhere the hour of suspense. Day has not receded into the confused past, already a shadow in eternity, and night has not yet come out of the unknown. Instinctively one feels as though crossing an invisible bridge over a gulf, perchance with troubled glances at the already dimming shore behind, or with dreaming eyes or watchful or expectant gaze on the veiled shore upon which we are almost come.”
From The Coming Of Dusk by Fiona Macleod

Po Chu-Yi

At dawn I sighed to see my hairs fall;
At dusk I sighed to see my hairs fall.
For I dreaded the time when the last lock should go…
They are all gone and I do not mind at all!
I have done with that cumbrous washing and getting dry;
My tiresome comb is forever laid aside.
Best of all, when the weather is hot and wet,
To have no top-knot weighing down on one’s head!
I put aside my messy clothy wrap;
I have got rid of my dusty tasselled fringe.
In a silver jar I have stored a cold stream,
On my bald pate I trickle a ladle full.
Like on baptized with the Water of Buddha’s Law,
I sit and receive this cool, cleansing joy.
Now I know why the priest who seeks Repose
Frees his heart by first shaving his head

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world
And older than the flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it Lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi
when Abe Lincoln went down to New
Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom
turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul; has grown deep like the rivers.
Langston Hughes

The Book of Werewolvesby Sabine Baring-Gould
(1834-1924)

Thord and his companion were opposed to Skallagrim in the game, and they were too much for him, he wearied, and the game went better with them. But at dusk, after sunset, it went worse with Egill and Thord, for Skallagrim became so strong that he caught up Thord and cast him down, so that he broke his bones, and that was the death of him.

A Blessing for the Day

FROM THE WRITERS FORUM

May the God of the dawn awaken you
May the God of sunrise stir you up
May the God of morning bless your work
May the God of noon renew your strength
May the God of sunset bring you home
May the God of dusk soothe your soul
May the God of night bring you rest.

© Adapted from a blessing by ~Andrew Greeley

SLEEPINESS ON A NIGHT OF SCORPION FULL MOON

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate SLEEPINESS in all its forms. Blessed and welcome. An attempt to cease existing for a time. The portal to sweet and deep dreamings or the the refused invitation.

FOR BREATHING AND MANY FORMS OF MEDITATION TRY http://www.egreenway.com/wellbeing/breathing.htm

On a Myer hairdryer:
“Do not use while sleeping”.
(Darn, and that’s the only time I have to work on my hair).

“One should either be sad or joyful. Contentment is a warm sty for eaters and sleepers.”

Eugene O’Neill

MURAQABA

When the lips are closed, then the heart begins to speak; when the heart is silent,
then the soul blazes up, bursting into flame, and this illuminates the whole of life.

So I gave up the idea of a circus, and concluded
  he was from an asylum. But we never came to an asylum -- so I was up a stump,
  as you may say. I asked him how far we were from Hartford. He said he had never
  heard of the place; which I took to be a lie, but allowed it to go at that.
  At the end of an hour we saw a far-away town sleeping in a valley by a winding
  river; and beyond it on a hill, a vast gray fortress, with towers and turrets,
  the first I had ever seen out of a picture. 

“Bridgeport?” said I, pointing.

“Camelot,” said he.

My stranger had been showing signs of sleepiness. He caught himself nodding, now, and smiled one of those pathetic, obsolete smiles of his, and said:

“I find I can’t go on; but come with me, I’ve got it all written out, and you can read it if you like.”

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Courtby Mark Twain
a.k.a. Samuel Clemens
(1835-1910)

which is gratitude, to be given a mind and a heart
and these body-clothes,
a mouth with which to give shouts of joy
to the moth and the wren, to the sleepy dug-up clam,
telling them all, over and over, how it is
that we live forever.

Mary Oliver, Messenger

poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, from An Unquiet Mind)
Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year's bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide.
There are a hundred places where I fear
To go, - so with his memory they brim.
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, "There is no memory of him here!"

And so stand stricken, so remembering him.

THE MOON BEHIND CLOUD

2 Tough and Crazy people get together and consider life through the Oracle of the Animated Gif. They contemplate the Night of the Birthday. They have eaten cake baked fresh in the Turbo Oven. They have planned the trip to Lennox Head and the party at Ilnam Winery . They work on their computers and HE opens e-cards from AUSTLIT. But the Moon is unseen behind cloud. There are lights at the Jets Football Club in the Valley and the necklace of houses lit on the Heights. But the Moon is behind the Clouds – for now. What else is behind the Clouds ?

The hazy, cloudless skies of Indian Summer. Leaves scurrying down the street
before the wind. The cold shiver from an arctic blast. Indian Summer. The last
warmth of the sun. Chilly mornings and glorious warm afternoons. The Harvest
Moon. The Hunter’s Moon. The Rainy Season. Dry corn stalks clattering in the
wind. The touch of frost on grass and window pane. The smell of burning leaves.
-   Keith C. Heidorn

Once upon a Lammas Night
When corn rigs are bonny,
Beneath the Moon’s unclouded light,
I held awhile to Annie…
The time went by with careless heed
Between the late and early,
With small persuasion she agreed
To see me through the barley…
Corn rigs and barley rigs,
Corn rigs are bonny!
I’ll not forget that happy night
Among the rigs with Annie!
-   Robert Burns

Swift as thought it was done – in an instant he fled Behind the church portal to hide; And brighter and brighter the moon-beam was shed, As the dance they still shudderingly plied; But at last they began to grow tired of their fun, And they put on their shrouds, and slipped off, one by one, Beneath, to the homes of the dead