#TodaysPoem "Now it is Loneliness who comes at night Instead of Sleep, to sit beside my bed..." - Katherine Mansfield, from Loneliness (1910) Born: October 14, 1888, Wellington, New Zealand

"The Journal of Katherine Mansfield is a beautiful book and an invaluable one, but it is her own book, and only her dark, sad eyes should have read its words. I closed it with a little murmur to her portrait on the cover. 'Please forgive me,' I said." - Dorothy Parker (The New Yorker, 1927) 1/

#MelvilleMonday "It is not down on any map; true places never are.” - Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (Ch. 12) The Mystical Boat by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

A simpler version (a tad better, I think): 🍂 Awash in autumnal glow A fleeting gift

#SundaySentence "This is no new thing: Americans learn only from catastrophes and not from experience." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1913

Awash in autumnal glow – 'Tis fleeting But seeps in 📷From my wife's walk:

"To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire, To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire..." - Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Life Is a Privilege (1905) 📷From my wife's walk today:

"The men who profit and make their living by the depravity and the awful misery of other human beings stand far below any ordinary criminals, and no measures taken against them can be too severe." - Theodore Roosevelt, Autobiography (1913), on his experience as NYC Police Commissioner c. 1896.

Today’s Daily Cartoon, by Adam Douglas Thompson. #NewYorkerCartoons Sign up for our humor newsletter to get Daily Cartoons delivered to your inbox: nyer.cm/0EivDaD

"Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, you all had great moments, but you never tasted the supreme triumph; you were never a farm boy riding in from the fields on a bulging rack of new-mown hay." - Grant Wood (1891 - 1942) Grant Wood. Fall Plowing. 1931.

"The one red leaf, the last of its clan, That dances as often as dance it can, Hanging so light, and hanging so high, On the topmost twig that looks up at the sky.” ― Samuel Taylor Coleridge, c. 1798 From my wife's walk:

"The strange randomness of the world beguiled him, that randomness which never would, so long as the world lasted, give meaning to those choruses again." - James Hilton, 1934

#MelvilleMonday "What if the gulfs their slimed foundations bare? So deep must the stones be hurled Whereon the throes of ages rear The final empire and the happier world." - Melville, The Conflict of Convictions (c. 1860-1) The Sentinel by the Gate. Ernest A. Pickup. 1934.

#SundaySentence "Coming to terms with death is a necessary element in any great poem, Sullivan once said." - Joan London, The Golden Age (2014)

"Strange, in a way, that the sacrifices of one generation should so cancel out those of another." - James Hilton, 1934

Blue of lake and sky You enter through silent shade I need not know how Or why From my wife's walk today:

"If we lose hope, we're doomed." We must continue Dr. Jane Goodall's mission and all fight for the future of the planet.

"Touchy, no sense of humor, no sense of proportion - that was the matter with them, these new fellows. ... No sense of proportion." - James Hilton, 1934

"Now mellow, crisp autumn days, bright moonlight nights, One dilates and feels like work again, Now I awhile retire to thee O soil of autumn fields..." - Walt Whitman, c. 1881 Frank Mason. Corn Stacks, Pownal, Vermont.

"He was a quiet, conventional person, and the world, viewed from the haven of Brookfield, seemed to him full of distasteful innovations..." - James Hilton, 1934

#MelvilleMonday 📖✨ "...the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and companionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those which seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to little, but abound in much." - White-Jacket (XLI, A Man-of-War Library)

"A thing which fades With no outward sign— Is the flower Of the heart of man." - Ono No Komachi (Japan, 9th century) Vincent van Gogh. Country Road. 1890.

#SundaySentence Rereading an old favorite... "There came to him, stirred by the warmth of the fire and the gentle aroma of tea, a thousand tangled recollections of old times." - James Hilton, 1934

"I keep in mind the fine moral qualities Which make no great noise or show." - Book of Songs (11th to 7th centuries BC), edited by Confucius (551 - 479 BC)

#TodaysPoem #MECFS In lieu... Of radiance, of wind Of crisp autumn air — Petals of sun cast a wholesome glow In slanting shafts, in shadows Not there But here.

"Summer has gone, but she has left a show Of downy clouds against the autumn sky, Which the chill breezes chafe until they glow..." - Edgar Lee Masters From my wife's walk today:

"One of the worst features of the old spoils system was the ruthless cruelty and brutality it so often bred […] Life is hard enough and cruel enough at best, and this is as true of public service as of private service." - Theodore Roosevelt, as Civil Service Commissioner, 1889.

"Surely every one of us who knows his own heart must know that he too may stumble, and should be anxious to help his brother or sister who has stumbled." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1913 1/

#MelvilleMonday "What though Reason forged your scheme? 'Twas Reason dreamed the Utopia's dream: 'Tis dream to think that Reason can Govern the reasoning creature, man." - Herman Melville, A Reasonable Constitution (Uncollected Poetry) 🎨Lyonel Feininger. Lunar Web. 1951.

#SundaySentence "And so he [Dabster, the philosopher] began to prate of the smallness of human affairs, and how that even so slight a removal from earth made man and his works look like the tenth part of a dollar thrice computed." - O. Henry, Psyche and the Pskyscraper (c. 1905)

"Thou wilt find nothing here Of all that pained thee in the haunts of men..." - William Cullen Bryant, Inscription for the Entrance to a Wood (1821) From my wife's walk today:

"He [the philosopher] would let her behold the grandeur of his mind, the half-nelson he had on the infinite, and the memory he had for statistics." - O. Henry (c. 1905)

"Dream delivers us to dream, and there is no end to illusion." - Emerson, c. 1844

"To play the demagogue for purposes of self-interest is a cardinal sin against the people in a democracy." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1913

#haiku A winsome farewell Homeward, with duty done, the Last flicker burns bright From my wife's walk today:

"Fundamentally, our fight was part of the eternal war against the Powers that Prey; and we cared not a whit in what rank of life these powers were found." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1913

"To be patient and gentle, ready to teach, returning not evil for evil: that is the strength of character of the people." - Confucius (551 - 479 BC) Modern Library, 1938. Edited and translated by Lin Yutang.

"Having been a rather sickly and awkward boy, I was as a young man at first both nervous and distrustful of my own prowess. I had to train myself painfully and laboriously not merely as regards my body but as regards my soul and spirit." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1913

"Wake yourself up with poetry, establish your character in 'li' [ritual and propriety] and complete your education in music." - Confucius (551 - 479 BC) Modern Library, 1938. Edited and translated with notes by Lin Yutang.

#MelvilleMonday ✨ "What we call Fate is even, heartless, and impartial; not a fiend to kindle bigot flames, nor a philanthropist to espouse the cause of Greece. We may fret, fume, and fight; but the thing called Fate everlastingly sustains an armed neutrality." - Melville, White-Jacket (1850)

#MelvilleMonday "Each mortal casts his vote for whom he will to rule the worlds. [...] In two senses, we are precisely what we worship. Ourselves are Fate." - White-Jacket (LXXV) 1/

#SundaySentence Rereading... "Limerick gained a reputation for piety, but we knew it was only the rain." - Frank McCourt, 1996

A poignant, serene piece for the weekend. 🌾

"The 'caveat emptor' side of the law, like the 'caveat emptor' side of business, seemed to me repellent; it did not make for social fair dealing." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1913

"Sweet Peace, where dost thou dwell? I humbly crave, Let me once know. I sought thee in a secret cave, And ask'd, if Peace were there. A hollow wind did seem to answer, No: Go seek elsewhere." - George Herbert, from Peace (1633) Joseph Wright of Derby. Matlock Tor by Moonlight (c. 1780).

"Most certainly prize-fighting is not half as brutalizing or demoralizing as many forms of big business and of the legal work carried on in connection with big business." - Theodore Roosevelt, 1913

What does a mother sing when her child is lost to war? Górecki’s Symphony No. 3: II. Lento e Largo Tranquillissimo unfolds like a slow prayer, aching, suspended in time. Each phrase breathes sorrow & grace. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN2D...

"Green branches, green branches, I see you beckon; I follow! Sweet is the place you guard, there in the rowan- tree hollow." - Fiona MacLeod (William Sharp), The Lonely Hunter (1895) From my wife's walk:

"Close along the shaded stream, Source of many a youthful dream, Where branchy cedars dim the day, There I muse, and there I stray." - Philip Freneau, The Vernal Ague (1786) From my wife's walk today:

Bits of color, here and there. From my wife's walk today.