Watermark

Fire Bird

Also known widely as the Fire Bird, the phoenix is a profound symbol of life and rebirth. It has a life cycle of 500 to 600 years and after that amount of time, it sets itself on fire and dies in the flames. Then, after three days, it rises again from the ashes. It is a completely benign creature who lives in dew. It is said that the phoenix has a beautiful melodious song which grows ever more mournful as its life comes to an end. It is also a symbol of the sun and immortality.

What mythical beast best represents you?   Take the quiz!

via chris murray's tex files

Snapshot 02 February 02005 [Belated]

I am dreaming again
of prisons, and whales
    breaching in Douglas

Channel, that slow under-
water rising. You are
    riding your bike

through rice fields; sleeping
spooned to a long-haired
    woman. I wake

in darkness, into this cage
of pain, nosed by happy
    dogs. Hoarfrost

whitens the grass; slickens
the steps to the river.
    Your cool season

approaches its end. Here,
cows are calving, their milk
    drops. Brighid's

Day brings buds
to the birch trees.
    Tonight I will

dream the shadows
of whales deep
    in the water.

Soon snow will mound
in this garden again.
    I drink my bitter

coffee and read that
your mango this morning
    was especially sweet.

Love Thy Neigh-Purr

This is from Hanna (click the image to go to her site for the large, readable one):

I love this story, and cats' tendency to develop attachments to creatures of other kinds. I have a few more of these, and they will make a nice post all together, one day. But not today.

What I especially like about this story is this:

Tigger is a nasty old cat, who will bite and hiss and scratch, but he just melts around Annie . . .

This week's Carnival of Cats; Carnival of Dogs; Friday Ark.

Deja Vu

From non-blogging friend Cindy:

"United States officials were surprised and heartened today at the size of turnout in South Vietnam's presidential election despite a Vietcong terrorist campaign to disrupt the voting. According to reports from Saigon, 83 percent of the 5.85 million registered voters cast their ballots yesterday. Many of them risked reprisals threatened by the Vietcong. A successful election has long been seen as the keystone in President Johnson's policy of encouraging the growth of constitutional processes in South Vietnam."

- Peter Grose, in a page 2 New York Times article titled 'U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote,' September 4, 1967.