TODAY’S HAIKU:
When sleep takes over
Dreams appear.
Why are you not in them?
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July 5, 2007 Last evening, after watching the fireworks from the vantage of our hilltop, we came home to find our Night Blooming Cereus about to bloom. We called our neighbors over to share the event. The four of us stood around, almost holding our breath. First, the slender outer green petals began to peel away from the white bulb of the tightly compacted petals. We waited. Finally one white petal snapped out. Then another. Then so quick that if you had blinked, you would have missed it, the entire blosson snapped almost fully open, white, pure and glowing. We all gave a shout as if it was a game score. Two more blossoms opened in sequence in the same manner. We just sat there watching. Finally one neighbor remarked, “The beauty of seeing these open outdid all the fireworks I’ve seen tonight!”
NIGHT BLOOMING CEREUS
Out of heaven came this flower
So white, precisely petaled, so perfumed,
There is about it no aspect of earth
Though, by heaven’s consent, of earth it bloomed;In deference to lesser forms it stays aloof
Of sunlit hours and keeps a secret tryst
With those of us who seek at dark
This beauty, this fragrance none can resist:For early risers keen of mind at dawn
It lags behind the going away of night
Granting one more glimpse of fleeting grace
Before it folds and bows its head contrite.
From Blue Flame ~ Selected Poems
by R. Dean Tribble
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Let’s get political and talk about the Democrats. Just so you know where I’m coming from, I became old enough to vote for Franklin D. Roosevelt in his second term, and, with the exception of Dwight Eisenhoower, I have voted Democratic ever since. I think of myself as a moderate though I am by no means a locked-in-Democrat. If McCain had made it in his bid, I would have seriously considered him.
That said, perhaps you will allow me to express my disappointment with the Democratic members of Congress. They seem to be so busy being anti-Bush that they have not put forth any ideas pro-country. Surely they could see that Bush, for all his low-rating in the country, holds all the aces till end of his term, (short of impeachment). But what did they do? Push forward useless resolutions that got nowhere. It is my hope that now they will put their heads together and come up with real solutions to move this country forward.
Enough said. Dean