XMAS CACTUS

SO-CALLED TEMPLE OF NEPTUNE, PAESTUM (SOUTHERN ITALY)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx "It Is Not the Fact That I Will Die That I Mind but that no one will love as I did the oak tree out my boyhood window, the mother who set herself so stubbornly against life, the sister with her serious frown and her wish for someone at her side, the father with his dreamy gaze and his left hand idly buried in the fur of his dog. And the dog herself, that mournful look and huge appetite, her need for absolute stillness in the presence of a bird. I know how each of them looks when asleep. And I know how it feels to fall asleep among them. No one knows that but me, No one knows how to love the way I do."                                - Jim Moore

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Moments of the soft persuasion Chiming bells, the first occasion Tell the rest a smile awaken Till the last reminder shaken From whatever rude and sorrow Now, the time is now-tomorrow In the instant of remaking Just the giving of the taking In the instant of the living Just the taking of the giving Nothing more than earth and water Smiles of Spring from barren daughter Who at last in perfect motion Turning `round embrace the ocean Gracious calf of mankind suffering Sacrifice of old is ending x     - Peter Yarrow x