Poem for Saturday, Valiant, Lotus Festival

Beyond the Years
By Paul Laurence Dunbar

I

Beyond the years the answer lies,
Beyond where brood the grieving skies
    And Night drops tears.
Where Faith rod-chastened smiles to rise
    And doff its fears,
And carping Sorrow pines and dies—
    Beyond the years.

II

Beyond the years the prayer for rest
Shall beat no more within the breast;
    The darkness clears,
And Morn perched on the mountain’s crest
    Her form uprears—
The day that is to come is best,
    Beyond the years.

III

Beyond the years the soul shall find
That endless peace for which it pined,
    For light appears,
And to the eyes that still were blind
    With blood and tears,
Their sight shall come all unconfined
    Beyond the years.

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I had a good, busy Friday -- writing a review of Deep Space Nine's "Valiant", then going to retrieve Daniel from College Park while his apartment is repainted and cleaned. We saw an unnerving number of fire trucks -- two on the Beltway cleaning up an accident that created lots of traffic, at least eight at the 4-H building at the University of Maryland for reasons we never discovered, and a couple on our cul-de-sac in the afternoon apparently because of a neighbor's health crisis.

The weather was gorgeous and despite all the trucks we saw a couple of bunnies. We had dinner at my parents' and watched a bit of the Nationals game (they lost but the Orioles won, yay), then came home and watched Flight, which was not remotely like the action movie we'd seen advertised -- it's a superbly acted but quite sad drama about addiction and how people cope with terrible life crises. Here are a few more lotuses in bloom at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens a couple of weeks ago: