You Can Help a Fellow Tribester Win Funds to Support Her Pet Rescue Work!

Care 2 is coordinating a contest to give $10,000 to some deserving Pet Rescue organization.

The two lovely little black angels above are half Siamese, and I have them to love because of Tribe. They came from two different litters who would have had no homes to go to if it hadn't been for the work of my Tribe friend, Amma, and her sisters:

people.tribe.net/ammanaga

They run Three Sisters Pet Rescue in Cincinnati, Ohio, and they have saved HUNDREDS of dogs and cats from being euthanized in pounds because they weren't wanted. Can you imagine? ? ? Well, my little black meezers and I would like to recommend that you find Three Sisters on this link, click them, and vote for them to get much needed financial support to continue their wonderful work in these hard times. Thank you so much!

www.care2.com/animalshelt...test/search/

Near Fall

I asked the August dawn,
Gold palmed, had pale stars all withdrawn
The whole of their account
From yawning vault, improvident,
And scooped the dusty fount?
I asked, and dawn,
Profligate to the dale and mount,
Left me for a mendicant.

I asked the August noon,
Heedless with goldenrod all strewn
Hand over fist, subprime,
If time were money: confident
Money likewise was time.
I asked, and noon
Sovereign at its shadeless climb,
Said time wanted not a cent.

I asked the August dusk,
Of green receding to the husk,
“What have I left to spend?”
And the unheeding firmament,
With summer at an end,
I asked: and dusk,
Seedy of cloak, “Nothing to lend!”
Rasped in coinless covenant.

I asked the August night,
Careless of silver at the height,
“What is there left to buy?”
Of moths and moons, of moneyplant,
With summer passing by
I asked: and night,
Silver, remote, flung its reply
Down in Perseid vanishment.


Copyright Briar Rose 2009

Image--"Sun at Dusk" Copyright Briar Rose 2009


The line "of moths and moons" is gratefully borrowed from a line in a story by New England author Scott Thomas. When the story, "Burnshire, the Shrunken Coxswain," finds its way to an anthology, I will update you. Meanwhile, here are two other stories of Scott's, from an older anthology, to read online:

www.infinityplus.co.uk/storie...ton.htm

www.infinityplus.co.uk/storie...ers.htm

Temporal Lobe Fragment

And say of yourself:
I am a thing and no thing
A confluence of things and more than the sum of things
I have never not been and never will be
I have always just begun, I look back on the end
I am time out of no time, I am the end of time,
And pretender of time,
I am all of nothing,
Some of never,
Approximately always
Forever

And say of that other self:
A thing and no thing,
A confluence of things and less and less of things,
Having never not been, never need be,
Having always begun, always just ending.
Time out of no time, who ends time portends time,
All of nothing,
Some of never,
Approximately always
Forever

Copyright 2009 Briar Rose


Photos: Neuron in brain; computer simulation of universe. Mark Miller, Brandeis University; Virgo Consortium for Cosmological Supercomputer Simulations, www.visualcomplexity.com, The New York Times.

Vegan Corned Beef and Cabbage. . .

. . .for your iconoclastic dining pleasure.

2 medium onions, cut into wedges
1/2 head cabbage, finely chopped or shredded (I used red cabbage this time)
4 carrots, cut into 2-inch lengths and quartered
2 ribs celery, thickly sliced
4 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon mild horseradish
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
6-8 ounces vegetarian "beef" or seitan or reconstituted TVP chunks (like Lightlife Strips)
2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon red wine or cooking sherry (really adds great flavor)

Sauté the onion in a large, non-stick pot until it starts to brown. Add the remaining vegetables, the broth, and the seasonings. Cover and cook over medium heat for 15 minutes. Add the "beef," cover, and cook for 15 more minutes, until vegetables are soft.

Use a slotted spoon to remove the vegetables and "beef" to a serving plate and keep warm. Return the broth to the heat. In a small cup, combine the flour, water, and wine. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the simmering broth. Cook and stir, scraping the bottom of the pan, until the broth has thickened, about 10 minutes. Pour the gravy over the "beef" and vegetables to serve.

Makes 4 servings. Each serving, using the Lightlife strips, contains 117 Calories (kcal); trace Total Fat; (3% calories from fat); 10g Protein; 20g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 336mg Sodium; 7g Fiber.

Recipe is from this site:

blog.fatfreevegan.com/2007/03...ted.html

(And I must say, that is the stupidest looking harp, not to mention harping technique, I have ever seen--but what do cows know?)

Debunketty bunketty bunk. . .

. . .another myth is sunk:

txtwriter.com/onscience/A...tsnakes.html

And I Will Not Forget

~On Williamson’s 65th~

It was a dream I had,
A moment captured in a blink,
Spring green or autumn russet-clad
Balanced on the brink

All in a synapse span,
The while mute constellations turned
Beyond, and where the plovers ran,
Scryless ocean churned.

I named it after me,
Drew out the light and it was good,
And to the dark a boundary,
Fixed and understood,

To mean what I decide;
Now clotted knotwork runs of rhyme
Make and unmake, leave and abide.
Syllables mark time.

A decade for a day,
And on the seventh day to rest,
No God but I, who scribe in clay,
At the words’ behest.


Copyright 2008 Briar Rose

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses...c-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

~Title gratefully borrowed from a recurring line in "Five Denials on Merlin's Grave," by Robin Williamson

Photo: Celtic Pen

November Takes the Field

The thistle is all done.
The dogrose bows beneath the sun,
The greenest tree the gravest
Skeleton.

The bravest has been slain.
A crown has lost its Aquitaine,
An amber jewel its setting
Yields to rain.

Besetting cold is near,
Thrusts blue to bone like any spear,
Parts flesh and bone and gristle.
Winter’s here.

Copyright 2008 Briar Rose

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses...c-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.



(The illustration is called "Dead Roses" and is by a London artist called Mayko--
thelittlechimpsociety.com/kuron...ayko/)

"Fire it up! Fire it up! Fire it up!"

STILL my favorite movie in all the world.

Happy Hallowe'en, everybody!

Next Door Neighbors

Dawn the dew slips cold to footfalls,
Called to work or called to school.
Take a pen or take a shovel,
Every calling has its tool.

At mid-morning hear the teacher
Drill the chronicles of strife.
Through the window hear the preacher
Drone for everlasting life.

And the carver’s echoed chip,
And the arid scrape of chalk,
Tell a birth and date of death,
Tell the ticking of the clock.

Noon is not resigned to autumn,
Fan blades whirl, sun pushes down.
Summer shuns to reach the bottom.
Fall’s a verb and fall’s a noun.

Dusk, the rusty maples yielding,
Dusk, the ember, ash and frost,
Dusty script the sun forsaking,
Dusty couplets of the lost.

Leaves that plaster to the glass
With the autumn wind and rain
Leave disaster when they pass,
Leave with summer in their train.

And summer kicks us to the curb,
And summer plays us for a fool;
And "leaves" is both a noun and verb—
At least that’s what I learned at school.

There’s a schoolyard and a graveyard,
Slate leads in and slate leads out.
Chalked or chiseled, all the same,
Slate is what it’s all about.



Copyright Briar Rose 2008

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit creativecommons.org/licenses...c-nd/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.

CATS

On August 20th, my sweet old white polydactyl said, "Well, it's been a lot of fun, but I think it's time to cross the 9th Life boundary." She was almost 18 1/2, and had done very well for years on medication for hyperthyroid, greatly exceeding the average survival expectancy for that feline ailment. In July her blood cells started showing changes consistent with certain more serious diseases, including cancer, although we didn't pursue the Big Serious Testing that might have yielded a more definite diagnosis because. . .well, jeez, she was over 18, you know? Our vet said whatever the tests were gonna show, the news would have been bad. We showered her with love for three more weeks or so and then when she stopped eating her kitty food, we gave her Nutrical and indulged her with deli roast turkey slices and--her favorite!--fresh corn cut off the cob. (Yeah, all cats love SOMETHING you wouldn't think a cat would eat. . .) When she stopped eating altogether, we let our vet gently put her to sleep.

Nature and cats don't like empty spaces, however, and just as we were beginning to think a house with only four cats was a pretty sensible arrangement, along comes a friend of mine who says a friend of his has had two cats palmed off on her by a friend of HERS, and. . .well, she has the cats two weeks and ends up in a rehab hospital and comes home in a big old heavy leg brace.

I hasten to add that her hospitalization was not prompted by the cats!

Nevertheless, now she reckons she has about enough energy and wherewithal to take care of ONE cat, so she's keeping the nine year old cat without eyes (that's another story) and needs to find a home for the 2 1/2 year old cat who steals the eyeless cat's food.

Guess who's ended up with the 2 1/2 year old cat?

Well, she's kind of a long haired kitty--that kind of coat's totally new to me! She comes with no mats at all, so I'm hoping she won't be high maintenance--I may luck out; I suspect her somewhat casual care two owners ago didn't include constant brushing. She'd never been seen by a vet and has never been spayed; never even been in heat, is what I get second hand. Well--that seems a little unlikely!

Hell, for all I know she may be in a coy, demure version of "heat" now--she doesn't yowl and roll, but she does head-butt and hiss at the same time. Stands on her back paws to thrust her little head into a waiting hand, purrs and mews--and when she's had enough, hauls off and whacks your hand. A magnificent little bitch goddess!

We went to visit the nice Kitty Doctor yesterday and Samantha tested blissfully free of nasty contagious cat diseases and got some shots, and we have a spay appointment in a little over a week. I walked out of the vet's office with the cat carrier in one hand and the box containing Akasha's ashes in the other. Jeez--full circle!

We always end up doing Baptism of Fire cat introductions in this household. Samantha's mainstreaming with the other cats now--and tomorrow a doggie comes to visit.

If cats had thumbs, they'd thumb their noses at planning.

Well, actually, Akasha *had* thumbs, so I guess I know who to blame.