Bent Nib

once new, once a gift

tip now jagged from misuse

old fountain pen nib

Still Pretty

still pretty to me

though piebald, patchy, forlorn

late October shrub

Here's to a Great Fifth Year

pink folding paper
her fingers craft lovely cranes
i can make a hat

Poets United: LIFE OF A POET ~ SARA MCNULTY

Poets United: LIFE OF A POET ~ SARA MCNULTY: Today, my friends, we are taking a road trip down the beautiful West Coast Highway 101, along one of my favorite coastlines, in Oregon, to ...

Redshift, Dark Energy, and the Quickening Hurtling-outward of It All

Redshift is the displacement of spectral lines toward longer wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) in radiation from distant galaxies and celestial objects. Somehow, measuring redshift, we've come to believe that not only is the matter in the universe hurtling out from the center, it's hurtling faster and faster. Some say that the cause of the increasing acceleration of matter from the center outward is to do with dark energy, which is distributed throughout space. I'm not trying to put up a front. I don't understand what redshift is or how we measure it or how those measurements lead us to these theories, and I sure don't know what dark energy might be. Perhaps I just like articulating science-y stuff once in a while. But it's interesting that science is kind of the new religion. We have to make a leap of faith, because we're sure not doing the experiments ourselves, nor could we even read and comprehend the research papers which the research generates, probably. We have our high priests to take care of all that. The new clergyman: the scientific shaman. What am I on about? Oh, I dunno. It's just a haiku, right? Or have I now made it into a haibun?

 way down the long wave 

spectral lines all out of whack

 Big Bang speeding up

"Blame"- a poem after Dickinson's "Answer July"

Today’s directive from Imaginary Garden With Real Toads: Using not more than 100 words, compose a query in the style of Emily Dickinson’s "Answer July"…

Oh boy. This ain’t a-gonna be easy.

Okay, here goes.

Blame

Tell me, Man:
Wherefore art thou –
Wherefore so vain –
Wherefore fickle?

Came back Man:
Wherefore to you –
Wherefore do you reign –
Wherefore the sickle?
Tell. Do tell.

First – said Death:
Witness genocide –
Witness murder –
Witness war!

Grumbled War:
Who hones the blade?
Who leads the charge?
Who pulls the trigger?
Man, answered Death.

"Kissing Gate" with Carpe Diem

Kissing Gate photo by Paul Militaru.

gray gate 'midst the green
and what color is our love
as we pause to kiss