This is a slightly different interpretation of a Li Po poem I've already posted. I think I like this version better!

Amidst the Flowers a Jug of Wine

Amidst the flowers a jug of wine,
I pour alone lacking companionship.
So raising the cup I invite the Moon,
Then turn to my shadow which makes three of us.
Because the Moon does not know how to drink,
My shadow merely follows the movement of my body.
The moon has brought the shadow to keep me company a while,
The practice of mirth should keep pace with spring.
I start a song and the moon begins to reel,
I rise and dance and the shadow moves grotesquely.
While I'm still conscious let's rejoice with one another,
After I'm drunk let each one go his way.
Let us bind ourselves for ever for passionless journeyings.
Let us swear to meet again far in the Milky Way.

Li Po

This poem definitely doesn't make the last days of old age very appealling. Then again, I suppose the truth is bitter in this regard and the "last stage of all" is truly not glamorous but macabre! HERE'S TO GROWING OLD AND LOSING EVERYTHING WE'VE GAINED IN LIFE!!!

Growing Old

What is it to grow old?
Is it to lose the glory of the form,
The lustre of the eye?
Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?
Yes, but not for this alone.

Is it to feel our strength -
Not our bloom only, but our strength -decay?
Is it to feel each limb
Grow stiffer, every function less exact,
Each nerve more weakly strung?

Yes, this, and more! but not,
Ah, 'tis not what in youth we dreamed 'twould be!
'Tis not to have our life
Mellowed and softened as with sunset-glow,
A golden day's decline!

'Tis not to see the world
As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,
And heart profoundly stirred;
And weep, and feel the fulness of the past,
The years that are no more!

It is to spend long days
And not once feel that we were ever young.
It is to add, immured
In the hot prison of the present, month
To month with weary pain.

It is to suffer this,
And feel but half, and feebly, what we feel:
Deep in our hidden heart
Festers the dull remembrance of a change,
But no emotion -none.

It is -last stage of all -
When we are frozen up within, and quite
The phantom of ourselves,
To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost
Which blamed the living man.

Matthew Arnold

Found this on BoingBoing. Just had to repost!

Wow...can't say I'm really THAT suprised considering the origins of Coca-Cola! The USA has a long history of crazy things!

This is an awesome flipbook animation sketched on a notepad of the history of everything! Definitely worth watching!!!

Hark! Hark! The Lark

Hark! hark! the lark at heaven's gate sings,
And Phoebus 'gins arise,
His steeds to water at those springs
On chalic'd flowers that lies;
And winking Mary-buds begin
To ope their golden eyes;
With everything that pretty is,
My lady sweet, arise:
Arise, arise!

William Shakespeare

Infinite

These solitary hills have always been dear to me.
Seated here, this sweet hedge, which blocks the distant horizon opening inner silences and interminable distances.
I plunge in thought to where my heart, frightened, pulls back.
Like the wind which I hear tossing the trembling plants which surround me, a voice from the inner depths of spirit shakes the certitudes of thought.
Eternity breaks through time, past and present intermingle in her image.
In the inner shadows I lose myself,
drowning in the sea-depths of timeless love.

Giacomo Leopardi

Here Dead We Lie

Here dead we lie
Because we did not choose
To live and shame the land
From which we sprung.

Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.

Alfred Edward Housman

I think the title says it all, really!

apprehension grew as i crawled
into the den of the mother
may we all be well fed
to survive her winter

I wanted to repost this message from my friends at Robots + Monsters. I'm a past, present and future supporter of theirs and the causes they support. I ask that you give it some consideration as well!

Robots + Monsters Partners With Doctors Without Borders For Haiti
Helping Out In One of The Worst Natural Disasters In Modern History

Over the past three years, Robots + Monsters has gone on to raise nearly 20K for great causes like the SF AIDS Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Water.org.

This round is a little different, if only because there is an urgency behind the cause. As I'm sure you're aware, the devastation wrought by the earthquake in Haiti last Tuesday is overwhelming. The disaster is distressing on so many levels; not only is the physical destruction appalling, but for it to hit a country that already had so many infrastructural problems boggles the notion of basic fairness in the world.

Robots and Monsters stands with everyone else in being filled with a sense of duty to help, in whatever way we can. Luckily, we have a little history knowing how to do that; as fate would have it, we were already in talks with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) when the earthquake hit. When we asked MSF if it was alright if we launched a little earlier than expected in order to get a jump start on the fund-raising, they gave us their full blessing. From a press release from MSF:

“Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. Today, MSF provides aid in nearly 70 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. MSF provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need.

On Tuesday, January 12, a massive earthquake struck Haiti’s Port-au-Prince, leaving thousands of people injured and homeless.

At the time of the quake Doctors Without Borders was providing emergency care in three medical centers around Port-au-Prince.  Our medical teams moved quickly to establish temporary shelters, moving operations to safely respond to the overwhelming medical need of our patients.   More than 1,000 injured people have been treated by Doctors Without Borders medical teams in the first 24 hours following the earthquake and we are currently transporting additional staff and emergency supplies into Haiti.

Our teams need your help to do their work.  Support to this emergency response and ongoing emergency medical work in Haiti by visiting Robotsandmonsters.org, or doctorswithoutborders.org.”

In many situations like this, a large fund-raising effort drops off precipitously after the news media stops leading with the story. To that end, we're committed to MSF for a long-term relationship that will hopefully help them out throughout the year. Hopefully, we can all work together to help MSF assist the truly needy, and aid them in refilling their coffers long after the news cameras have gone home.

As usual, we have an amazing roster of talented artists; the incredible favorites like Apelad, John Martz, and David Huyck, along with teriffic new artists like Jeannine Schafer, Michael Fleming, and Molly Crabapple. Please join them and Robots and Monsters in helping raise money for MSF and their continuing efforts.

Thanks for being part of what we do,

Joe Alterio
Founder, Robots and Monsters.org