I received this poem in my e-mail the other day from PoemHunter.Com

I read the poem through and I knew I had heard it before. I couldn't remember at first. Then I could hear the voice reciting this poem.

This is such a moving poem. I hope you like it.


To an Athlete Dying Young

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields where glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl's.

Alfred Edward Housman

Then it came to me where I had heard this poem. It was in the movie "Out of Africa."

Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep) read this poem during the funeral of Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford). He had died in a plane crash. He was buried on a hill top on Blixen's property.

Meryl read this so well that I was in tears through the whole thing.

"Out of Africa" is one of my all time favorite movies.

A quiet day around the homestead. The most I did was vacuum the carpet in the general areas and wash up dishes that didn't make it into the dishwasher last night. Other than that we have been watching movies and now getting ready for Sunday Night Football.

mz. em




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"There comes a time in your life, when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Forget the bad, and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right, pray for the ones who don't. Life is too short to be anything but happy.Falling down is a part of life, getting back up is living."

-- Jose N. Harris, MI VIDA



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CURRENT MOON

about the moon

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"I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again." - William Penn, English entrepreneur and philosopher



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