Five Wise Lines from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature, a complete impossibility!

Algernon

Oh! it is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn’t. More than half of modern culture depends upon what one shouldn’t read.

ALgernon

It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don’t mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind.

Algernon

One has a right to Bunbury anywhere one chooses. Every serious Bunburyist knows that.

Algernon; [fyi: “Bunburying” is the use of appointments with ficticious individuals to get out of one’s duties and obligations.]

One should always eat muffins quite calmly.

Algernon

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll [w/ Audio]

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
 All mimsy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
   The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
 Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
    The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
   Long time the manxome foe he sought --
 So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
    And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
   The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
 Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
    And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
   The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
 He left it dead, and with its head
    He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
   Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
 O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
    He chortled in his joy. 

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
   Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
    And the mome raths outgrabe.

Above the City [Haiku]

pleasant summer day:
 city-dwellers look up,
  and watch clouds drift.

DAILY PHOTO: The Brown Danube

PROMPT: Lazy Days

Daily writing prompt
Do lazy days make you feel rested or unproductive?

Rested. Definitely. I believe one has to think of rest and recovery as part of the process of living. If one thinks of it as just wasting time between “doing things,” then one isn’t going to get the most out of body and mind.

Monsoon Autumn [Haiku]

autumn afternoon:
 swollen clouds cut the light,
  it looks like sundown.

O Captain! My Captain by Walt Whitman [w/ Audio]

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
 The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won,
 The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
 While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
       But O heart! heart! heart!
          O the bleeding drops of red!
             Where on the deck my Captain lies,
                Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
 Rise up -- for you the flag is flung -- for you the bugle trills,
 For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths -- for you the shores a-crowding,
 For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
       Here, Captain! dear father!
          This arm beneath your head!
              It is some dream that one the deck
                 You've fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
 My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
 The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
 From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
       Exult, O shores! and sing, O bells!
          But I, with mournful tread,
             Walk the deck my Captain lies, 
                 Fallen cold and dead. 

DAILY PHOTO: Bratislava Blue Skies

Hulk Limerick

FEMA Photo by Win Henderson
There was an Anger Management counselor
 who, truth be told, was kind of an amateur.
   His schedule planner
   didn't know the name "Banner."
 So, for his new place, he hired a nerd.

PROMPT: Successful

Daily writing prompt
When you think of the word “successful,” who’s the first person that comes to mind and why?

Diogenes [of Sinope] and – also – Drukpa Kunley. Each of them spoke his mind, lived by his own rules, never wore a mask, and could not be controlled. They were truly free.