Fog by Carl Sandburg

The fog comes
 on little cat feet.

It sits looking
 over harbor and city
  on silent haunches
 and then moves on.

PROMPT: Re-live

Is there an age or year of your life you would re-live?

If I could do so as the me I am now, I’d do any of them (post-High School,) but if I’d be the me I was at the time, then I don’t see the point. Either way, there would be changes that would ripple through the rest of my life, to varying degrees. I got through largely without unnecessary tragedy, I’d as likely screw it up as improve upon it.

If nothing downstream could be changed, that would be like watching a boring documentary that had none of the tedious parts cut out. Like watching the 17 days a wildlife photographer sat freezing his ass off uneventfully before he got footage of a snow leopard. I really don’t see the point of that.

Life is beautiful because one has no idea what it might bring.

Depreciation [Tanka]

in the morning,
 a fresh blanket of snow
  makes the world look new.
 by day's end, it's well-trodden:
  a car driven off the lot.  

DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Michigan Avenue

PLAYTHINGS by Rabindranath Tagore [w/ Audio]

CHILD, how happy you are sitting in the dust, playing with a broken twig all the morning.

 I smile at your play with that little bit of a broken twig.

 I am busy with my accounts, adding up figures by the hour.

 Perhaps you glance at me and think, "What a stupid game to spoil your morning with!"

 Child, I have forgotten the art of being absorbed in sticks and mud-pies.

 I seek out costly playthings, and gather lumps of gold and silver.
 
 With whatever you find you create your glad games, I spend both my time and my strength over things I never can obtain. 

 In my frail canoe I struggle to cross the sea of desire, and forget that I too am playing a game. 

PROMPT: Historical Event

What historical event fascinates you the most?

It varies over time. For a long time, it was the Second World War and the Holocaust. How do you get the rise of Nazis and the horrors that sprang therefrom? Sadly, I think that question has been answered to my — for lack of a better word— satisfaction.

The execution of Socrates has spurred a great deal of thought.

In terms of what is not so much a historical event, but historical processes, I’m intrigued by the life of Buddha.

Then there are a lot of explorer / adventurer travels.

BOOKS: The Crescent Moon by Rabindranath Tagore

The Crescent Moon : Poems and Stories [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2017] Rabindranath TagoreThe Crescent Moon : Poems and Stories [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2017] Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available free at Project Gutenberg

Amazon.in Page

This is a collection of forty poems that are all connected by the theme of childhood. Many are in the voice of a child, but others are in a parent’s voice as he contemplates the nature of youth and how life has changed — or simply as he looks upon a sleeping infant. Some are brief stories or vignettes and others are scenes or philosophical reflections. Among the more well-known inclusions are: “Playthings,” “Paper Boats,” “The Gift,” and “My Song.”

This is Tagore at his most playful, but it retains his usual clever musing.

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Stillness in Flow [Haiku]

with taut anchor line,
 the fisherman's boat looks still
  in flowing waters.

DAILY PHOTO: Scenes from Kolkata