Poem for Tuesday

Shiloh: A Requiem
By Herman Melville

Skimming lightly, wheeling still,
  The swallows fly low
Over the field in clouded days,
  The forest-field of Shiloh--
Over the field where April rain
Solaced the parched ones stretched in pain
through the pause of night
That followed the Sunday fight
  Around the church of Shiloh--
The church so lone, the log-built one,
That echoed to many a parting groan
  And natural prayer
  Of dying foemen mingled there--
Foemen at morn, but friends at eve--
  Fame or country least their care:
(What like a bullet can undeceive!)
  But now they lie low,
While over them the swallows skim,
  And all is hushed at Shiloh.

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Spent a nice day visiting with , eating her food and watching The Manchurian Candidate -- the original -- had forgotten just how wonderful that film is, and how good Sinatra was in it. Georgie the kitten was there being utterly adorable -- I took photos but have not had time to size them, so not even she has seen them yet! I always feel very decadent slumping on someone else's couch, eating her food, watching her movies. Heh.

Then I came home and got my kids, which led to the usual hilarity one has with kids. My younger son was cleaning his room and discovered for the first time, though they have been there forever, the collection of stuffed Opuses (Opi?) from Bloom County on his very top shelf. These belonged to me and , a longtime Berke Breathed fan. So younger son asked, "What's the name of the penguin on my shelf? And how come his nose is so big?" and then, a few minutes later, "If his nose is big, does that mean his weenie is big?" Hazards of quoting Life of Brian with children around even when you think they are not listening! himself meanwhile sent me a link to this article on beavers that built a dam out of stolen money. Very amusing, but my first question was, "Tell the truth, you were searching under 'beaver' weren't you?" Heh.

Meme, gacked from because it amuses me: tell me which Harry Potter character I would be and why! Am having delayed lunch with and and I am so excited! And have busy schedule with kids the next two days so had better go. Thanks so much everyone for the fic comments; I feel all warm and fuzzy now. Snape does too, but he insists that that is the result of a potion he was testing and he scoffs at my Muggle ignorance.


Light hitting the spray over the part of the falls not trapped by the natural dam on the way to Olmsted Island.


Light coming over the canal, so bright that not even my wonderful camera's automatic settings could cope.


The canal was so clear and shallow that the light penetrated to the bottom, allowing a rare glimpse of the rocks down there.


The geese were out enjoying the afternoon sun; around here they don't migrate, since food is reasonably plentiful even in the winter.


Though a champion kayaker drowned less than a month ago when his kayak overturned, and there were helicopters out looking for his body while we were at the falls, others could not resist the gorgeous weather.


Some of the invaders from the river washed ashore during a past flood; none of these are indigenous, they were dumped into the river by ships and are choking off the native fauna.