Tennyson

"Tears, Idle Tears" 

- Alfred Lord Tennyson 

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather in the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

   Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

   Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

   Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!

Thematic Photographic 156 - Red

 Meet Lucy.  Sure Iʻd like to say I took these photos while diving in some exotic locale but Iʻm an above the water kind of gal.   And Lucy here is a giant Pacific octopus living at the Seward Sea Life Center in Seward, Alaska.  Sheʻs HUGE!  Huge looking in the photos anyhow. 

At the time of this photo, Lucyʻs bulbous head was only about the size of a small cantalope.  She was young.  Average size for her species full grown is 16ʻ total length and 110 pounds.  Theyʻre able to move up to 700 pounds with those strong arms!

It was mesmerizing to watch Lucy effortlessly maneuver over every square inch of her tank.  She never stopped moving.  All eight arms constantly reaching in different directions.  Her color would shift from a dull orange-red to deep or bright red if someone stepped near her tank wearing red.

(For more Thematic Photographic, visit Carmi at Written Inc.  Itʻll be time well spent.)