Green is fading from the leaves.
Yellows, reds surround the trees.
They seem to know that winter nears
Approaching it with trust, not fears.
Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of “if you go down in the woods today”. These photos were from Friday in Sunset Ridge Woods Forest Preserve.
Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. I did nothing this past week with the 3x+1 problem. I don’t know if that is something worth a smile, but it did make me smile. The changing forest preserve was clearly worth a smile. I took so many photos yesterday, I used up the battery on my phone. Perhaps that was a sign that I took enough of them. It amazes me that the trees know winter is coming.
There's just one problem with a swing:
Its cyclic motion to and fro
Since we all know how it must go
And without purpose like a fling
Or sorry tune the mindless sing -
Emotional, but nothing new,
No clue of what one ought to do,
No hint of why we're anxious here.
Stay covered up with lust or fear
Or busy back and forth on cue.
Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge where the challenge is to use the word “swing” as one of the A rhymes in a décima where the rhyme pattern is ABBAACCDDC.
I worry now if I'll remember -
"Take a photo, 2 PM."
While wondering about November
I'll take those photos. I'll remember
Then post a few or all of them.
Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of photographing wherever we are within one hour after 2 PM on Sunday. I set the alarm on my phone.
Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. One of my poems, Narrow Trails, appeared in the October 2020 issue of Snakeskin 277. I am grateful to George Simmers for accepting it and thereby giving me something to report for the weekly smile besides the many walks this past week.
The only muse worth listening to,
The only One who even is,
Corrects us, guides us, leads us. His
Consuming fire will clean, renew
Transforming everything we do.
We sinners turn. This living flame
Burns off the chaff. The devil's blame
Becomes as nothing. We are still.
As falsehood breaks, each true word will
No longer be lukewarm, nor tame.
Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge where the challenge is to use the rhyme word “still” in the D part of the rhyme pattern ABBAACCDDC. For another poem on the Holy Spirit see Mary Hood’s poem Holy Spirit and her observation that there’s a difference between the Greek muses and the Holy Spirit. I used to talk about “muses”, but given the Holy Spirit I see no need to hide Him behind some Greek myth.
Here is a statement on abortion by Jonathan Cahn that I found powerful and convincing.
What is evil we now call good and what is good we now call evil. What we once revered we now revile and what we once knew to be wrong we now celebrate. We too have profaned the sacred and have sanctified the profane and as for our children, our most innocent possession, we have sacrificed them on the altars of self-indulgence. It was here, in this city, over there. It was here that their collective murder was blessed and given sanction. But a thousand laws and a thousand Supreme Court rulings and a thousand angels swearing on a thousand Bibles cannot alter one iota of this basic measure of morality: to shed the blood of an unborn baby is to murder a human life.
If you are a resident of the United States, 18 years of age or older, the Moral Outcry provides an opportunity for you to sign a petition to the United States Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade. This starts about 4:09:00 in the video.
I am a registered Democrat in Miami Beach, Florida. I voted for the President, Donald Trump, and I predict he will win on November 3rd. Then I predict he, along with the help of others, will drain this swamp.
I am grateful that the Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett as an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court with a vote of 52 to 48.
From summer green to autumn red
To winter white and rest.
Arise from winter's silent bed.
Spring has passed the test.
Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of inversions. While walking in the forest preserve, I ran into a maple tree that had turned deep red earlier than the others. Unsure of what an inversion was, I thought of this change as an inversion, moving from summer green to autumn red.
Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. Outside of an email exchange with someone offering a proof of the 3x+1 conjecture, I did not update my program further. So no excuse for a smile from that quarter, but weather was beautiful, I explored new trails in the forest preserve and I enjoyed (online) The Return, the Washington Prayer March on Saturday. Many smiles there.
Another smile arriving this very morning came from listening to Crystal Grimes’ composition Gratitude DSE #9.
Today is the Washington Prayer March, The Return. Psalm 51 is a psalm David wrote after being exposed by Nathan for his relationship with Bathsheba. Many verses are memorable especially verse 10 (12 in the Tehillim) where David asks God to create in him a clean heart, something only God can do.
When rain returns the barren land
Is filled with blooms we all can see,
A resurrection mystery,
A pouring that we understand
As blessings from an open hand.
A year ago we doubted. Look!
There’s water flowing in the brook.
Those ways we’ve turned from have somehow
Been transformed into nothing now
Like drivel from an unread book.
Linked to Ronovan Writes Décima Poetry Challenge where the challenge is to use the word “look” as the C rhyme in a poem with rhyme scheme ABBAACCDDC.
An ordinary, tiny bug
Lived on a painted wall.
Before he died
He tried and tried
To understand it all.
Linked to Cosmic Photo Challenge where Dale offers the theme of turning “the everyday into the unusual”. The photos are of graffiti on top of graffiti but viewed up-close. Although the messages were somewhat confusing even at normal distance the paint made the bridge over the brook in the forest preserve colorful.
Also linked to Trent P. McDonald’s The Weekly Smile. I realized I made a mistake in my algorithm to verify the records in the 3x+1 problem and fixed it. My best time with the incorrect code was 352 seconds as I reported last week. My best time with the new code was 354 seconds. Although I haven’t repeated the runs to find the variance in these timings, I was relieved that the correction did not seem to significantly harm the performance. That was enough to make me smile even though I am still a long way from my 10-second goal.
I am grateful to Sammi Cox for publishing this story in Whispers and Echoes. Here is the submissions page in case you would also like to contribute to the journal.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 