New Blog -- Oriole Science Guy

Instead of mucking up the Chili site with my techie escapades, I'm going to write them on my new blog at Oriole Science Blog.

Hope this serves all interests :)

P.S. I'll be moving such blogs from this site to make it more single themed.

A poem to share

Dedicated to all those we knew growing up who have gone before us.

Japanese Maple by Clive James

Your death, near now, is of an easy sort.

So slow a fading out brings no real pain.

Breath growing short

Is just uncomfortable. You feel the drain

Of energy, but thought and sight remain:

Enhanced, in fact. When did you ever see

So much sweet beauty as when the rain falls

On that small tree

And saturates your brick back garden walls,

So many Amber Rooms* and mirror halls?

Ever more lavish as the dusk descends

This glistening illuminates the air.

It never ends.

Whenever the rain comes it will be there,

Beyond my time, but now I take my share.

My daughter’s choice,the maple tree is new.

Come autumn and its leaves will turn to flame.

Amber Room

What I must do

Is live to see that. That will end the game

For me, though life continues all the same:

Filling the double doors to bathe the eyes,

A final flood of colors will live on

As my mind dies,

Burned by my vision of a world that shone

So brightly at the last, and then was gone.

The New Yorker September 14, 2014

* Check out "Amber Room" on Wikipedia for picture and interesting history