The Carrizo Plain in the sky . Thanks to shinydome and rakkity.
Silence
There is the sudden silence of the crowd
above a player not moving on the field,
and the silence of the orchid.
The silence of the falling vase
before it strikes the floor,
the silence of the belt when it is not striking the child.
The stillness of the cup and the water in it,
the silence of the window above us,
and the silence when you rise and turn away.
And there is the silence of this morning
which I have broken with my pen,
a silence that had piled up all night
like snow falling in the darkness of the house –
the silence before I wrote a word
and the poorer silence now.
Billy Collins
Fierce Baby
On “Silence:”
Take that Louise G!
silently agog
Stupendous images, in wavelengths we see, or not. Thanks for he news from space, Rakk!
And while Fierce Baby apparently considers “Silence” a smackdown, I find it no less bleak than Gluck, while having some of Mike’s and my autodestruct tendencies. Not that I don’t like it — I do. But it’s hardly 180.
michael
I hope everyone clicked to get a larger Sombrero.
Fierce Baby
While “Silence” may be melancholic, it does not make me want to slit my wrists. However, poetry being the subjective form it is, who knows what I might think on another day. However, my “take that” was not in response to the subject or any underlying theme. I just find BC to be a much better poet than LG — my opinion, that’s all.
rakkity
Michael,
For posterity’s link you’ve got to use http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050511.html
which gives the May 11 picture instead of
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix
which gives today’s picture!
rakkity