“Writing is a solitary occupation….”

Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.

– Quotation by Jessamyn West

Happy Birthday William Blake (born on this date, 1757)

“He who binds to himself a joy Does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies Lives in eternity’s sunrise” -by William Blake

Gratitude

“Wake at dawn with a winged heart

and give thanks for another day of loving.” 

Quotation by Kahlil Gibran

Trust…

Trust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

– Kahlil Gibran

Solitude

“I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people:  that each protects the solitude of the other.”

– Rainer Marie Rilke

“It is always sunrise somewhere….”

“The grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never dried all at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.” – Quotation by John Muir

“At the sight of blackbirds…”

At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

– by Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, 1923

Issa

This moth saw brightness
in a woman’s chamber–
burnt to a crisp.

– Issa

“Keep me fully glad…” by Rabindranath Tagore

(Keep me fully glad…” by Rabindranath Tagore)

Keep me fully glad with nothing. 

Only take my hand in your hand. 

In the gloom of the deepening night take up my heart

and play with it as you wish.  Bind me close to you

with nothing. I will spread myself out at your feet and lie still.

Under this clouded sky I will meet silence with silence.

I will become one with the night clasping the earth in my breast.

Make my life glad with nothing. The rains sweep the sky

from end to end. Jasmines in the wet untamable wind revel

in their own perfume. The cloud-hidden stars thrill in secret.

Let me fill to the full my heart with nothing but my own depth of joy.

Leonid Meter Showers are Coming!

 

Look Up on November 17th and 18th… the Leonid Meter Showers peak during those nights.  

NASA has predicted that the best time to view the Leonid meteor shower will be after 1:30 a.m. EST and before sunrise on November 17, 2009. Because the moon will not be visible from Earth (it will be darker) and will be in a new moon phase during the Leonid meteor showers peak, the meteors should be easier to see than ever before.

From http://www.space.com:

Most of the shooting stars in the annual Leonid meteor shower are the result of tiny bits of material, the size of sand grains or peas, blown off a comet and wafting through space for centuries. The Leonids are spawned by the comet Tempel-Tuttle. Every 33 years, it rounds the Sun and then goes back to the outer solar system. On each passage across Earth’s orbit, Tempel-Tuttle lays down another trail of debris, each in a slightly different location than previous trails. Over time, the debris trails spread out. Each year, Earth passes through different streams, and different parts of the streams, creating bursts of activity and slack periods in the nights surrounding the event’s peak.