Kilt Monday!

Because let's face it, Mondays are hard rough difficult. 

Sometimes it's Best to Linger a Bit At the End of the Year, Look Back, and Remember Those We Leave Behind.

A Song for New Year's Eve
     by William Cullen Bryant

Stay yet, my friends, a moment stay— 
     Stay till the good old year, 
So long companion of our way, 
     Shakes hands, and leaves us here. 
          Oh stay, oh stay, 
One little hour, and then away.

The year, whose hopes were high and strong, 
     Has now no hopes to wake; 
Yet one hour more of jest and song 
     For his familiar sake. 
          Oh stay, oh stay, 
One mirthful hour, and then away.  

The kindly year, his liberal hands 
     Have lavished all his store. 
And shall we turn from where he stands, 
     Because he gives no more? 
          Oh stay, oh stay, 
One grateful hour, and then away.  

Days brightly came and calmly went, 
     While yet he was our guest; 
How cheerfully the week was spent! 
     How sweet the seventh day's rest! 
          Oh stay, oh stay, 
One golden hour, and then away.  

Dear friends were with us, some who sleep 
     Beneath the coffin-lid: 
What pleasant memories we keep 
     Of all they said and did! 
          Oh stay, oh stay, 
One tender hour, and then away.  

Even while we sing, he smiles his last, 
     And leaves our sphere behind. 
The good old year is with the past; 
     Oh be the new as kind! 
          Oh stay, oh stay, 
One parting strain, and then away.

Photo Source.  

A New Law

- Greg Delanty 

Let there be a ban on every holiday.

        No ringing in the new year.

No fireworks doodling the warm night air.

        No holly on the door. I say

let there be no more.

        For many are not here who were here before.



Copyright 2010.

The Garden Year

- Sara Coleridge

January brings the snow,
Makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,
Thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes, loud and shrill,
To stir the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,
Scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs
Skipping by their fleecy dams.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,
Fills the children's hands with posies.

Hot July brings cooling showers,
Apricots, and gillyflowers.

August brings the sheaves of corn,
Then the harvest home is borne.

Warm September brings the fruit;
Sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasant;
Then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Dull November brings the blast;
Then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet,
Blazing fire, and Christmas treat.

2013 Reading Challenges

You know, every year I say, "No more challenges!" And every year . . .         

So here they are, my challenges for the new year.

    
UPDATE 6/26/13: Yes, I've just added this challenge to the list! Why are you rolling your eyes at me? The goal of this challenge is kind of obvious; read more poetry and write about it. My updates for this challenge will be FOUND HERE.

2013 Dive Into Poetry Challenge



Choose one (or more) of the following options to complete the challenge:




1. Read and review up to 2 books of poetry and leave the full link to each review in Mr. Linky.
2. Participate in at least 3 Virtual Poetry Circles throughout the year.
3. Sign up to feature poetry on your blog for April’s National Poetry Month as part of Savvy Verse & Wit’s Blog Tour.
4. Feature one poet per month on your own blog.
5. Or some combination of the above.

.  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  .

New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge (short term: December 26 - January 31)

"The goal of this challenge is to build a community around reading books to support our New Year’s Resolutions so that we can share book ideas and encourage each other in our pursuits.

Whether you are resolved to apply to graduate school, write that novel, or eat healthier, there are books that will help. The New Year’s Resolution Reading Challenge is to read 1 to 4 books that will stimulate action on your goal. Here are the levels:

Resolved: 1 book / Determined: 2 books / Committed: 3 books / Passionate: 4 books

For the past few years my main goal has been to work on my writing (poetry mostly). So far I have been pretty happy with my improvements, but that leaves me with a new problem - publication. I've had a few things published in the past, but I have to admit - I'm a lazy slug. Actual publishing requires research into markets, submission guidelines, and much more stuff that . . . Well anyway, my resolution this year is to do all this work and send out my poetry. Either I will be published or not, but I can stop wondering.

To further this goal I plan to read:

1. Create Your Incredible Year (Business Edition) - Leonie Dawson (COMPLETED) 

From what I've read, I think this book will help me organize my goals and set out the steps I need to follow.

2. The Poet's Market - Robert Lee Brewer, Ed. (COMPLETED) 

There is always good practical advice in The Poet's Market about writing letters and making submissions. 

3. How to Publish Your Poetry - Helene Ciaravino (COMPLETED)   

My reading also tells me that this book will be a gold mine of aid and information. 

UPDATE 1/28/13: My final post for The New Year's Resolution Reading Challenge is now linked on Joy's Book Blog.

.  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  .

2013 Mental Illness Advocacy (MIA) Reading Challenge

"Many reading challenges already exist in the book blogging community to address racism, sexism, and homophobia, but I could not find any to address the stigma faced by those suffering from mental illness."

Challenge Levels:
Acquainted–4 books / Aware–8 books / Advocate–12 books


This will be my third year with this challenge, and I hope to outdo my prior performance.
  
MY LIST:

1. Break the Bipolar Cycle - Elizabeth Brondolo & Xavier Amador
2. The Tao of Bipolar - C. Alexander Simpkins & Annellen Simpkins
3. Ten Days in a Mad-House (ebook) - Nellie Bly
4. Learning from the Voices in My Head (ebook) - Eleanor Longden
5. The Bedlam Detective (audiobook) - Stephen Gallagher
6. Bipolar not ADHD - George Isaac

{FINAL POST here}

2013 Women Challenge

"This challenge will make us want to read more books of any kind written by women, so choose whatever you like and get involved!"

Level 1: BABY GIRL - read 1 to 5 books written by a woman author 
Level 2: GIRLS POWER - read 6 to 10 books written by a woman author 
Level 3: SUPER GIRL - read 11 to 15 books written by a woman author 
Level 4: WONDER WOMAN - read 16+ books written by a woman author

Given that the majority of writers on any given list of authors (save those specifically listing women) are men, I tend to seek out for women authors. I'm hoping for some inspiration.

MY LIST:

1. Cat Coming Home - Shirley Rousseau Murphy      
2. Create Your Incredible Year - Leonie Dawson  
3. How to Publish Your Poetry - Helene Ciaravino    
4. Coming Into Eighty - May Sarton
5. The Moon is Always Female - Marge Piercy 
6. Ariel - Sylvia Plath   
7. How to Tail a Cat - Rebecca M. Hale    
8. Kinsey And Me - Sue Grafton     
9. Sneaky Pie for President - Rita Mae Brown   10. 
11. Break the Bipolar Cycle - Elizabeth Brondolo & Xavier Amador
12. The Tao of Bipolar - C. Alexander Simpkins & Annellen Simpkins
13. The Haiku Handbook - William J. Higginson & Penny Harter
14. Garment of Shadows (ebook) - Laurie R. King
15. Witness for the Prosecution (audiobook) - Agatha Christie
16. My Dear Watson (audiobook) - Margaret Park Bridges
17. 4th of July (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
18. The Fifth Horseman (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
19. The Sixth Target (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro 
20. 7th Heaven (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
21. The Eighth Confession (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
22. Darkness, My Old Friend (audiobook) - Lisa Unger
23. 2nd Chance (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
24. 3rd Degree (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
25. The Knopf National Poetry Month(TM) Catalog Collection (audiobook) - Various
26. The 9th Judgement (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
27. 10th Anniversary (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
28. 11th Hour (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
29. Malice Domestic, Volume 6 - Anne Perry
32. Dust - Patricia Cornwell  
33. 12th of Never (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
34. A Novena for Murder - Sister Carol Anne O'Marie
35.  The Anatomist's Apprentice (audiobook) - Tessa Harris
36. Ten Days in a Mad-House (ebook) - Nellie Bly
37. Learning from the Voices in My Head (ebook) - Eleanor Longden

UPDATE 12/28/13: Hey! I made the Wonder Woman level! 

2013 EBook Challenge

"Encouraging readers to expand past just physical books to embrace ebooks in all forms, whether on Kindle, Kobo, computer, or any other reader."

Levels: Floppy disk – 5 ebooks / CD – 10 ebooks / DVD – 25 ebooks / Memory stick – 50 ebooks / Hard drive – 75 ebooks / Server – 100 ebooks / Human brain – 150 ebooks
 
The Nook my husband gave me has broadened my bookish endeavors. Many alarm calls have been raised about the death of the printed word at the hands (metaphorical, of course) of these evil electronic creatures. Well, that isn't the case in my house - although my husband credits it with keeping space in the house for him and his computer. (and we are talking "literal" here)

MY LIST:

1. A Study in Sherlock - Various
2. How to Tail a Cat (ebook) - Rebecca M. Hale    
3. Garment of Shadows (ebook) - Laurie R. King
4. Logic to the Rescue: Adventures in Reason (eBook) - Kris Langman
5. Ten Days in a Mad-House (ebook) - Nellie Bly
6. Learning from the Voices in My Head (ebook) - Eleanor Longden  
  

UPDATE 12/28/13: This year my finances sent me to the library for most of my new reading material. I discovered the joys of audiobooks and, obviously, it cut into the number of eBooks I read. My Nook was still the conduit for both formats.

2013 Mystery/Crime Reading Challenge


"If you read a certain number of novels you receive a rank at the end I will award a secret prize to the person who reads the most books."

5 books= Detective / 10 books = Sergeant / 15 books = Lieutenant / 20 books = Captain / 25 books = Chief / 30+ books = Sherlock Holmes

 

And I read the complete Sherlock Holmes cannon last year and the year before! The good news is that mysteries are my drug of choice. That makes The Crafty Book Nerd an enabler.

MY LIST:

1. Cat Coming Home - Shirley Rousseau Murphy      
2. A Study in Sherlock - Various
3. How to Tail a Cat (ebook) - Rebecca M. Hale     
4. Guilt - Jonathan Kellerman 
5. Kinsey And Me - Sue Grafton    
6. Garment of Shadows (ebook) - Laurie R. King
7. 1st to Die (audiobook) - James Patterson   
8. The Sherlockian (audiobook) - Graham Moore  
9. The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov (library) - Guess Who 
8. The Stonehenge Legacy (audiobook) - Sam Christer  
9. Witness for the Prosecution (audiobook) - Agatha Christie  
10. Puzzles of the Black Widowers (library) - Issac Asimov
11. Ash Wednesday (audiobook) - Ethan Hawke
12. My Dear Watson (audiobook) - Margaret Park Bridges
13. 4th of July (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
14. The Fifth Horseman (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
15. Sherlock Holmes: A Double Barreled Detective Story - Mark Twain
16. The Sixth Target (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro 
17. 7th Heaven (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
18. The Baker Street Letters - Michael Robertson
19. The Eighth Confession (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
20. Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation - George Washington
21. Darkness, My Old Friend (audiobook) - Lisa Unger
22. 2nd Chance (audiobook) - James Patterson
23. 3rd Degree (audiobook) - James Patterson
24. The Pyramid (audiobook) - Henning Mankell
25. The 9th Judgement (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
26. 10th Anniversary (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
27. 11th Hour (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
28. Malice Domestic, Volume 6 - Anne Perry
29. Tales from the Fire Zone (audiobook) - Jonathan Maberry
30. Deadly Heat - Richard Castle    
31. The Last Sherlock Holmes Story - Michael Dibdin  
32. Dust - Patricia Cornwell  
33. 12th of Never (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro  
34. The Brothers of Baker Street (audiobook) - Michael Robertson  
35. Just After Sunset - Stephen King   
36. The Body on the Beach (Feathering Mystery Series) (audiobook)- Simon Brett   
37. A Novena for Murder - Sister Carol Anne O'Marie    
38. Some Buried Caesar (audiobook) - Rex Stout  
39. Over My Dead Body (audiobook) - Rex Stout
40. The Anatomist's Apprentice (audiobook) - Tessa Harris   
41. The House of Silk (audiobook) - Anthony Horowitz
42. Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong (audiobook) - Pierre Bayard
84. The Bedlam Detective (audiobook) - Stephen Gallagher 

UPDATE 12/28/13: At 84 Mystery/Crime books, I've reached the level of Sherlock Holmes - I wish!

2013 Mount TBR Reading Challenge

And you're invited to join me in knocking out some of those books that have been waiting in the wings for weeks .... months ... even years.
 
Challenge Levels (from your TBR pile):
 
Pike's Peak: Read 12 books; Mount Blanc: Read 24 books; Mt. Vancouver: Read 36 books; Mt. Ararat: Read 48 books; Mt. Kilimanjaro: Read 60 books; El Toro: Read 75 books; Mt. Everest: Read 100 books; Mount Olympus (Mars): Read 150+ books


I always plan to finish off my TBR pile, but there are so many tempting new books coming out all the time that it tends to grow instead of shrink.

MY LIST:

1. Cat Coming Home - Shirley Rousseau Murphy      
2. Conversation Pieces: poems that talk to other poems - Kurt Brown, ed.
3. Coming Into Eighty - May Sarton
4. The Moon is Always Female - Marge Piercy 
5. The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary - Gilliver, Marshall, & Weiner, ed.
6. The Book of American Negro Poetry - James Weldon Johnson  
7. A Study in Sherlock - Various
8. Ariel - Sylvia Plath   
9. The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands - Stephen King    
10. Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation - George Washington
11. A Novena for Murder - Sister Carol Anne O'Marie

UPDATE 12/28/13: Okay. This is my weakness. I don't have a huge TBR pile, but it does exist. And it needs more attention than I am giving it. (Although I did better this year than last!) I didn't even make it to the first checkpoint on Pike's Peak.

          My Life According to Mt. TBR: 
Are you male or female?: The Moon is Always Female doncha know.
Describe yourself: I'm like a Cat Coming Home.
Describe where you currently live: Second house on the right, Dark Tower III: The Wastelands
If you could go anywhere where would you go?: I would tour The Ring of Words.
Your favorite form of transportation: That would have to be The Book of American Negro Poetry.
What's the weather like?: Right now it's a bit like A Study in Sherlock.
Favorite time of day?: Coming into Eighty is when I take a few moments for tea and reflection.
Your relationships: They're a lot like Conversation Pieces: Poems that Talk to Other Poems.
You fear: A Novena for Murder
What is the best advice you have to give?: I'd have to offer Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation
If you could change your name, you would change it to: Why, Arie, of course!

(I was a book short, and it didn't really work with my the titles I had, but I tried.)

2013 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge

"What’s your reading goal for 2013? If it’s to read more books, then this is the reading challenge for you!"

Levels:
     Getting my heart rate up – Read 1–5 more books
     Out of breath – Read 6–10 more books
     Breaking a sweat – Read 11–15 more books
     I’m on fire! – Read 16+ more books


I fell far short of my goal in 2012, only 74, but aim to do better in 2013.

MY LIST:

1. Cat Coming Home - Shirley Rousseau Murphy      
2. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair - Pablo Neruda  
3. Create Your Incredible Year - Leonie Dawson  
4. The Poet's Market - Robert Lee Brewer, Ed.
5. How to Publish Your Poetry - Helene Ciaravino    
6. Conversation Pieces: poems that talk to other poems - Kurt Brown, ed.
7. Coming Into Eighty - May Sarton
8. Modern Haiku Volume 43.3
9. Acorn #29
10. The Moon is Always Female - Marge Piercy 
11. The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary - Gilliver, Marshall, & Weiner, ed.
12. The Book of American Negro Poetry - James Weldon Johnson  
13. A Study in Sherlock - Various
14. Ariel - Sylvia Plath   
15. The Dark Tower III: The Wastelands - Stephen King     
16. How to Tail a Cat - Rebecca M. Hale     
17. Guilt - Jonathan Kellerman 
18. Kinsey And Me - Sue Grafton     
19. Sneaky Pie for President - Rita Mae Brown   
20. Haiku: This other World - Richard Wright 
21. The Dream Keeper and Other Poems - Langston Hughes
22. Ardor: Poems of Life - Janine Canan
23. The Woman Who Fell from the Sky - Joy Harjo
24. The Ring and the Book - Robert Browning
25. An Introduction to Haiku: An anthology of Poems and Poets - ed. Harold G. Henderson
26. Not a Muse: The inner Lives of Women - ed. Kate Rogers, Viki Holmes
27. Tracing the Tradition: An Anthology of Poetry by Women - ed. Linda Hall
28. Classic Poetry: An Illustrated Collection - ed. Michael Rosen, illus. Paul Howard
29. Break the Bipolar Cycle - Elizabeth Brondolo & Xavier Amador
30. The Tao of Bipolar - C. Alexander Simpkins & Annellen Simpkins
31. The Haiku Handbook - William J. Higginson & Penny Harter    
32. Garment of Shadows (ebook) - Laurie R. King
33. 1st to Die (audiobook) - James Patterson   
34. The Sherlockian (audiobook) - Graham Moore  
35. When You Are Engulfed in Flames (audiobook) - David Sedaris
36. The Best Mysteries of Isaac Asimov (library) - Guess Who 
37. Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation - George Washington
38. The Stonehenge Legacy (audiobook) - Sam Christer  
39. Witness for the Prosecution (audiobook) - Agatha Christie  
40. Puzzles of the Black Widowers (library) - Issac Asimov 
41. Ash Wednesday (audiobook) - Ethan Hawke
42. My Dear Watson (audiobook) - Margaret Park Bridges
43. 4th of July (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
44. The Fifth Horseman (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
45. Sherlock Holmes: A Double Barreled Detective Story - Mark Twain
46. The Sixth Target (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro 
47. 7th Heaven (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
48. The Poetry Home Repair Manual - Ted Kooser
49. The Baker Street Letters - Michael Robertson
50. The Eighth Confession (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
52. Darkness, My Old Friend (audiobook) - Lisa Unger
53. 2nd Chance (audiobook) - James Patterson
54. 3rd Degree (audiobook) - James Patterson
55. Flatland (audiobook) - Edwin A. Abbott
56. Poems of Rumi (audiobook) - Jalaluddin Rumi
57. The Knopf National Poetry Month(TM) Catalog Collection (audiobook) - Various
58. The Pyramid (audiobook) - Henning Mankell
59. The 9th Judgement (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
60. 10th Anniversary (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
61. Readers and Writers (audiobook) - Walter R. Brooks
62. 11th Hour (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
63. Logic to the Rescue: Adventures in Reason (eBook) - Kris Langman
64. Malice Domestic, Volume 6 - Anne Perry
65. For the Relief of Unbearable Urges (audiobook) - Nathan Englander
66. Carry On, Jeeves (audiobook) - P. G. Wodehouse
67. Tales from the Fire Zone (audiobook) - Jonathan Maberry
68. this world - The Haiku Society of America   
69. Father Sergius and Other Short Stories (audiobook) - Leo Tolstoy  
70. You Know When the Men are Gone - Siobhan Fallon   
71. Deadly Heat - Richard Castle    
72. The Last Sherlock Holmes Story - Michael Dibdin  
73. Dust - Patricia Cornwell  
74. 12th of Never (audiobook) - James Patterson & Maxine Paetro  
. . . (Number ACHIEVED Last Year) . . .
75. The Brothers of Baker Street (audiobook) - Michael Robertson  
76. Just After Sunset - Stephen King   
77. The Body on the Beach (Feathering Mystery Series) (audiobook)- Simon Brett   
78. A Novena for Murder - Sister Carol Anne O'Marie    
79. Some Buried Caesar (audiobook) - Rex Stout  
80. Over My Dead Body (audiobook) - Rex Stout
81. The Anatomist's Apprentice (audiobook) - Tessa Harris   
82. The House of Silk (audiobook) - Anthony Horowitz
83. Sherlock Holmes Was Wrong (audiobook) - Pierre Bayard
84. The Bedlam Detective (audiobook) - Stephen Gallagher
85. Ten Days in a Mad-House (ebook) - Nellie Bly
86. Learning from the Voices in My Head (ebook) - Eleanor Longden  
87. Bipolar not ADHD - George Isaac

UPDATE 12/28/13: I outdid my last year's total by 13 books, which puts me at Breaking a sweat. It isn't as many as I would have liked but I am definitely headed in the right direction.

A little unfinished business from 2012: The Challenges may have ended before I could complete them, but I intend to try and reach the goals anyway.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Book Challenge 2012. My Link.

The Dark Tower Reading Challenge. My Link. 

.  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  .

Try:
A Novel Challenge
- to find your next reading challenge(s)

My 2012 Reading Challenges: FINAL POST

Another year draws to a close. Time to take stock, reevaluate, and adjust course. It's been a rough year and I find myself facing challenges I never expected, but I'm hardly alone there. 

I read less but wrote more, so I think it balances out. I made new blogging friends and learned a lot. I stretched myself and tried new things. All in all, I think I made progress this year.

Below are the links to 2012's challenges and my close out posts. I fell short of my goals in each one, but I wrote nearly every day and I have regularly worked on editing. So like I said, "I think it balances out."

Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

LINKS to MY 2012 CHALLENGES:

• 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge hosted  by the Book Vixen. My Link.
• Off The Shelf  2012. My Link.
• The Dark Tower Reading Challenge. My Link.
• Kinsey Millhone Reading Challenge. My Link.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Book Challenge 2012. My Link.
• Mental Illness Advocacy (MIA) Reading Challenge. My Link.

In Memoriam [Ring out, wild bells]

- Lord Alfred Tennyson

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
   For those that here we see no more;
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

BUDDHA,

-  Lina Rozbih-Haidari

Listen to my voice,

That rolls, reflects and echoes in the sad and broken valleys of your land,

Buddha,

Listen to my voice, as I murmur your pain that is closely woven into mine,

Buddha,

Listen to my tale of senseless and insane destruction of a civilization,

Buddha,

Bear with me, as I tell you the tales of terror, fear and horror of your land,

As I tell you the saga of helpless Afghans,

As I mourn the tragedy of your destruction, and the fall of a great nation,

Buddha,

Your ruins and my head both did not crunch the thirst of barbarians,

How ridiculous that your silent, peaceful existence and my spark of ideas and logic,

Posed a deadly threat to THEIR hollow, poisonous existence!

Buddha,

Your ashes and my beheaded body,

Went unnoticed and forgotten,

Just like the death of thousands before you and after me,

In the precious land, sadly ruled by ignorant unruly.

Buddha,

Your place is empty,

Like an eye drawn from its socket,

When my mother went blind,

As she sobbed herself to sleep each night with the vision of my beheaded body.

Buddha,

Your destruction will always remind mankind of the suffering,

Of women beaten, men beheaded, and children imprisoned.

Buddha,

Though your tenacious statue is no more,

We can declare with pride, honor, and glory,

That Buddha suffered alongside his people to ensure,

The world witnessed and will remember forever the agony of the Afghan nation.

Buddha,

I know that You wanted to be no more because of intolerable savagery,

That You longed for ending the endless pain that you felt in your nation,

Buddha,

They tell us You intended to fall in the land of lunies,

Not as a gesture of surrender and submission,

But as a rebellious voice of voiceless,

Against,

Oppression,

Tyranny,

Injustice,

Cruelty,

Ignorance,

And SHAME!

BOOK REVIEWS. Sort Of.

This is my second post for THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN Book Challenge for 2012. The first can be found here with my reviews of 6 of the 9 books in the challenge. 

As I posted before, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen started as a graphic novel by Alan Moore featuring various classic book characters, and the movie followed in 2003. Once again this challenge comes to us courtesy of Booking in Heels.

I only managed one more book in the challenge. That leaves two unread.
I still plan to read the last two. I just didn't complete this challenge before the end of 2012.

King Solomon's Mines - H. Rider Haggard

I confess, I really wanted to like this one. The writing reminds me a bit of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and I'm sorry to say that I'm not a Burroughs fan. I realize that it was written in a different time, with diferent notions of correctness and acceptability. But . . .

Allan Quartermain may be Indiana Jones' predecessor, but I think Indy benefited greatly from his partnership with Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg.

~  ~  ~

 

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde   

The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (kind of)

BOOK REVIEWS. Sort Of.

The Bone Bed - Patricia Cornwell   

The latest outing for Kay Scarpetta was a quick read. I enjoyed the plot, but for an accomplished, successful, professional woman, Kay whines an awful lot. In fact, she whines as much as my kids did when they were teenagers.

It was better than the middle of the series, but not as good as the beginning. All in all, I guess we're headed back in the right direction.

Also, has anyone else noticed that the Scarpetta books are getting bigger and bigger? The word count isn't increasing, just the air space?

Quote of the Day

And a Merry Christmas to Anyone Who Wants One . . .

Did you know there is an "official" Christmas website, Merry-Christmas dot com?

Kilt Monday!

Because let's face it, Mondays are hard rough difficult. 

Peace On Earth, Good Will To All . . .

Perhaps My Favorite of All Christmas Stories,

 especially because it's True.

Christmas Eve 1914

 
Photo Source.

Same place, 98 years later.

 Photo Source.

Read the whole story:

 here, here, here, or here.

My previous post:
here.