John's Dura Mater Blog

After awhile, I no longer remembered why I was being punished, and after that I was not sure it was punishment at all. There was enough to do with checking the weather each morning, selecting the right clothing—waterproof for rain, my slatted sun hat for bright afternoons, a heavy shawl pinned round my shoulders on frosty mornings. Then a bite to eat, choices there too, oat cakes or bread, honey or marmalade, so many decisions before starting the work of the day. And each day was different. There were small blue flowers breaking through the cracks when the weather warmed, huge dusty turtles I had to swerve to avoid, the occasional passerby, too far for conversation, but close enough to study the new styles of hat and jacket, each one’s way of walking, a shuffling gait, a jaunty step. And then the rock itself was never the same. My fingers would penetrate encrustations, caress slopes worn smooth as powdered skin, its touch remembered these many years, dimly remembe

I'm always chasing rainbows Watching clouds drifting by My schemes are just like all my dreams Ending in the sky Some fellows look and find the sunshine I always look and find the rain Some fellows make a winning sometimes I never even make a gain Believe me, I'm always chasing rainbows Waiting to find a little bluebird in vain - I’m Always Chasing Rainbo ws; music by Harry Carroll, adapted from Fantaisie-Impromptu by Frédéric Chopin; lyrics by Joseph McCarthy; published in 1917; introduced in the Broadway show Oh, Look!, March, 1918

e.e. cummings - somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience,your eyes have their silence: in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look will easily unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose or if your wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility:whose texture compels me with the color of its countries, rendering death and forever with each breathing (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens;only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody,not even the rain

I lit my love and watched it burn; asking nothing in return except the lessons I would learn holding crazy faith. I've been touched by that bright fire down to the root of my desire, while the smoke it rises higher on crazy faith. 'Am I a fool for hanging on?' 'Would I be a fool to be long gone?' 'When is daylight gone to dawn on my crazy faith?' The questions will not let me sleep; The answer's buried way too deep at the bottom of a lovers' leap made by crazy faith. Love your losing; lose your love. Let the hawk fly from the glove and do not search the skies above; search your crazy faith. Love is lightning; love is ice. It only strikes the lucky twice: once, so you will know the price; and once for crazy faith. You're not asking if I love this man... I know you don't; you don't believe you can. Yet I've seen love open like a dancer's fan. It's crazy I know; but my faith says so- it tells me. by Allison Krauss and

Tonight I’ve watched The moon and then the Pleiades go down The night is now half-gone; youth goes; I am in bed alone It is clear now: Neither honey nor the honey bee is to be mine again -Sappho 

No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend's were. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am involved in mankind. Therefore, send not to know For whom the bell tolls, It tolls for thee.   - John Donne