Dust in the Wind

Kansas (1977) by Kerry Livgren

I close my eyes
only for a moment
and the moment's gone
all my dreams
pass before my eyes a curiosity
dust in the wind
all we are is dust in the wind

Same old song
just a drop of water
in the endless sea
all we do
crumbles to the ground
though we refuse to see
dust in the wind
all we are is dust in the wind

Now, don't hang on
nothing lasts forever
but the earth and sky
it slips away

And all your money
won't another minute buy

Dust in the wind
all we are is dust in the wind
dust in the wind
everything is dust in the wind

Summer Dust

The unseasonably cool temperatures around Central Texas have fled, replaced by triple-digit highs. Summer has arrived, but more humid than usual. The grasses are dying. The dust is rising. A few gentle blossoms remain for our comfort.

"The good die first, and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust, burn to the socket."
-- William Wordsworth

"No matter how vital experience might be while you lived it, no sooner was it ended and dead than it became as lifeless as the piles of dry dust in a school history book."
-- Ellen Glasgow

"The wide stare stared itself out for one while; the Sun went down in a red, green, golden glory; the stars came out in the heavens, and the fire-flies mimicked them in the lower air, as men may feebly imitate the goodness of a better order of beings; the long dusty roads and the interminable plains were in repose--and so deep a hush was on the sea, that it scarcely whispered of the time when it shall give up its dead."
-- Charles Dickens

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death."
-- William Shakespeare

"The gentian's bluest fringes
Are curling in the sun;
In dusty pods the milkweed
Its hidden silk has spun."
-- Helen Hunt Jackson

Dust Bowl

"The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it." - John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, Chapter 5

"No cracked earth, no blistering sun, no burning wind, no grasshoppers are a permanent match for the indomitable American farmers and stockmen and their wives and children, who have carried on through desperate days and inspire us with their self-reliance, their tenacity and their courage." - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Stardust

Did you know you can usually be positively identified by only 3 pieces of information? Your birth date, gender, and zip code are typically enough for experienced data analysts to pinpoint everything about you. But, its still harder to identify a planet circling any other solar system than ours, so you should feel at perfect ease. Right?


Photos courtesy of NASA Hubble Project - click for larger image.

Swimming in a Sea of Time

To or fro' cross rippling waters
Back or forth 'twixt wrack and ruin
Fract or join the mundane stories
Lose or gain some precious truths
Fall or climb with speed and sloth
Death or life the ports of call

Dust to Dust

Brazen fallen heros never praise their foes
Callow living victors often speak their woes
Many storied legends come from lurid bards
How then shall we sift through fortune's cards?

 

 

Celebrate National Poetry Month before it's too late!

Dust and Ashes

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.” - Berthold Auerbach

"You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.” - Maya Angelou

"The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls.” - Pablo Picasso

"Things need not have happened to be true. Tales and adventures are the shadow truths that will endure when mere facts are dust and ashes and forgotten” - Neil Gaiman

"Excuse my dust” - Dorothy Parker