To trace their shadows

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T h e   B r i g h t   F a d e

Pleasant Forest Cemetery

Knoxville, Tennessee

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When I have fears that I may cease to be
Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain,
Before high pil`d books, in charact’ry,
Hold like rich garners the full-ripen’d grain;
When I behold, upon the night’s starr’d face,
Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance,
And feel that I may never live to trace
Their shadows, with the magic hand of chance;
And when I feel, fair creature of an hour!
That I shall never look upon thee more,
Never have relish in the faery power
Of unreflecting love; -- then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone, and think,
Till Love and Fame to nothingness do sink.

= John Keats =

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Happy Tuesday

Hope every day renewed

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I ' m   L i c h e n   I t

Bethany Cemetery

Aiken, South Carolina

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They must to keep their certainty accuse

All that are different of a base intent;

Pull down established honour; hawk for news

Whatever their loose phantasy invent

And murmur it with bated breath, as though

The abounding gutter had been Helicon

Or calumny a song. How can they know

Truth flourishes where the student's lamp has shone,

And there alone, that have no solitude?

So the crowd come they care not what may come.

They have loud music, hope every day renewed

And heartier loves; that lamp is from the tomb.

= W.B. Yeats =

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Happy Monday

Safely abide forever

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M o t h e r   a n d   F e a t h e r

Swan Lake Iris Gardens

Sumter, South Carolina

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My way was filled with danger; I felt alone

The enemy had singled me out to do me wrong

And when he drew near, my heart filled with fear

Then I heard someone dear calling me to His side

And I ran under His wings, and there He covered me

And now I can sing

The enemy still looks for me, but what he can't see

Is that I'm under my Lord's wings.

Under His wings, under His wings

Who from His love can sever?

Under His wings, my soul shall abide

Safely abide forever.

= Unknown/Cushing =

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He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide

under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, he is my refuge

and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee

from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust:

his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

Psalm 91:1-4

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Happy Sunday

Something to have been

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O v e r   E a s y

Elmwood Cemetery

Charlotte, North Carolina

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It is something to have wept as we have wept,
It is something to have done as we have done,
It is something to have watched when all men slept,
And seen the stars which never see the sun.

It is something to have smelt the mystic rose,
Although it break and leave the thorny rods,
It is something to have hungered once as those
Must hunger who have ate the bread of gods.

To have seen you and your unforgotten face,
Brave as a blast of trumpets for the fray,
Pure as white lilies in a watery space,
It were something, though you went from me today.

To have known the things that from the weak are furled,
Perilous ancient passions, strange and high;
It is something to be wiser than the world,
It is something to be older than the sky.

In a time of sceptic moths and cynic rusts,
And fattened lives that of their sweetness tire
In a world of flying loves and fading lusts,
It is something to be sure of a desire.

Lo, blessed are our ears for they have heard;
Yea, blessed are our eyes for they have seen:
Let the thunder break on man and beast and bird
And the lightning. It is something to have been.

= G.K. Chesterton =

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Happy Saturday

Among the crickets

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W a i t   H e r e

Side Street

Newberry, South Carolina

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And victor of life and silence,
I stood upon the Heights; triumphant,
With upturned eyes, I stood,
And smiled unto the sun, and sang
A beautifully sad farewell unto the dying day.
And my thoughts and the eve gathered
Their serpentine mysteries around me,
My thoughts like alien breezes,
The eve like a fragrant legend.
My feeling was that I stood as one
Serenely poised for flight, as a muse
Of golden melody and lofty grace.
Yea, I stood as one scorning the swords
And wanton menace of the cities.
The sun had heavily sunk into the seas beyond,
And left me a tempting sweet and twilight.
The eve with trailing shadows westward
Swept on, and the lengthened shadows of trees
Disappeared: how silently the songs of silence
Steal into my soul! And still I stood
Among the crickets, in the beauteous profundity
Sung by stars; and I saw me
Softly melted into the eve. The moon
Slowly rose: my shadow on the ground
Dreamily began a dreamy roam,
And I upward smiled silent welcome.

= Yone Noguchi =

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Happy Friday