Monday, December 28, 2015

Poem for Monday, Zoo Lights, Seneca Lights

The Times Are Nightfall
By Gerard Manley Hopkins

The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less;
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:
They waste, they wither worse; they as they run
Or bring more or more blazon man’s distress.
And I not help. Nor word now of success:
All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one—
Work which to see scarce so much as begun
Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.

Or what is else? There is your world within.
There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.
Your will is law in that small commonweal...

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Quickie as we got home late after a very nice afternoon and evening -- we went to the National Zoo with Adam and Christine, first to see the animals in the ridiculous 70-degree temperatures we have this late December -- in addition to the puzzled-looking cheetah and lazy, sleepy lions, we saw deer and turtles from Rock Creek Park wandering confused through animal enclosures -- then to see the ZooLights display, which was insanely crowded yet quite pretty.

We drove from the zoo to the Silver Diner in Rockville, where we decided to have dinner since I had a birthday-month coupon for a free entree and dessert (I had eggs benedict, and we all shared my brownie hot fudge sundae). Then we drove to Gaithersburg to the Winter Lights Festival in Seneca Creek State Park, where it was drizzly but we had no proper rain until we were already driving home. Six photos from the zoo and two from the Gaithersburg lights -- more tomorrow!
















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