On Love and Barley Haiku of Basho
Matsuo Basho
Steven Johnson
Greg Iles
Jack Kerouac
Margaret Weis
Classic Haiku: An Anthology of Poems by Basho and His Followers
Asataro Miyamori (Translator)
Margaret Weis
Jack Kerouac
Margaret Weis, Don Perrin
Seabiscuit: An American Legend
Laura Hillenbrand
The Knights of the Black Earth
Margaret Weis, Don Perrin
This is my personal web log. I am speaking as an individual here.
Doc Searls - Saving the Net
Good editorial by Doc Searls on media concentration and protecting the Internet as a public domain and a natural habitat for markets.
Posted 7/23/2003 12:25:00 PM - permanent link to this entry
Mars Up Close
This August Earth and Mars will be the closest together they've been since Neanderthals walked the Earth. Right now it's 42.7 million miles away. I've never been able to see any details on Mars through the telescope - just a light orange disk.
This morning I went to have a look. This was the first clear morning we've had here in a couple of weeks. The sky was very clear and seeing was steady. I centered Mars up with a low power eyepiece then switched to my highest, 198X, which I just recently ordered. The view literally took my breath away. A polar ice cap was bright, white, and clear at the top of the disk. The edge of the cap was surprisingly sharp. I looked for several minutes, allowing my eyes to acclimate. In moments of steady seeing, I could make out a faint, fairly concentrated darker area in the upper left quadrant. Occasionally I could see a similar spot on the upper left limb. Quite an amazing view.
I swung around to the last quarter Moon. I seldom get a telescope out at 5:00 am, so I don't usually see the Moon with the Sun shining at that angle. Through the new 198X eyepiece, the terminator, the edge where the Sun was setting, showed intricate detail all the way along. There was a plain out on the edge with a peak in the middle that was casting a shadow that must have been hundreds of miles long. There was an mountain range right on the edge of the termiinator that was incredibly rugged, a jumble of peaks and valleys sharply highlighted in the oblique Sun.
All of this observing was done using my trusty 30 year old Criterion Dynascope RV-6. It's dinged up, a bit dusty, but it still does the job.
Posted 7/21/2003 06:13:00 AM - permanent link to this entry
Spring rain --
under trees
a crystal stream
the single rivulet
how slowly a pond
lets go
meteor!
quicksilent
into first Light
Blue Dawn
Mars setting
So close -
An owl calls.
Blue Dawn
At dusk the harvest moon
Paints a pine tree
against the blue.
Ransetsu
Crickets winding down,
Cicadas awakening:
The hidden creek.
Blue Dawn
See how a tree-frog is swaying,
Perched on a banana leaf.
Kikaku
Winter-blue sky
In midsummer -
A storm has passed.
Blue Dawn
A pine cone drops
silent
until
Blue Dawn
Blue sky
through aspen leaves:
Summer breeze
Blue Dawn
Aspen grove,
Black on white -
The quiet wind.
Blue Dawn
Lunar eclispe
Sun on the rim
The armadillo forages.
Blue Dawn
In the spring breeze
The snowy white heron flies white
Among the pine-trees
Wide awake:
listening to
your deep breath
Blue Dawn
almost asleep
a breeze wakes me--
northern lights
Tom Lynch
The vast night
now is nothing else
but a fragrance.
sun & moon
in the same sky
the small hand of my wife
the stillness --
soaking into stones
a cicada's cry
at the edge
great heron strikes!
no sound.
Blue Dawn
The stillness;
Peaks of cloud
In the busom of the lake.
