Spirits Of The Dead

Thy soul shall find itself alone
‘Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;
Not one, of all the crowd, to pry
Into thine hour of secrecy.

Be silent in that solitude,
Which is not loneliness — for then
The spirits of the dead, who stood
In life before thee, are again
In death around thee, and their will
Shall overshadow thee; be still.

The night, though clear, shall frown,
And the stars shall not look down
From their high thrones in the Heaven
With light like hope to mortals given,
But their red orbs, without beam,
To thy weariness shall seem
As a burning and a fever
Which would cling to thee for ever.

Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,
Now are visions ne’er to vanish;
From thy spirit shall they pass
No more, like dew-drop from the grass.

The breeze, the breath of God, is still,
And the mist upon the hill
Shadowy, shadowy, yet unbroken,
Is a symbol and a token.
How it hangs upon the trees,
A mystery of mysteries!

Photo: Elderly Couple With A Young Female Spirit
Photo by: National Media Museum
Taken: Circa 1920
Poem by: Edgar Allan Poe
Poem provided by: CZ

Confessions Of A Former Drone Warrior

Imagine this: killing more than 1,500 enemies in war without ever stepping foot on the battlefield. That was Brandon Bryant’s life. He was a drone sensor operator responsible for tracking and killing militants halfway around the world from where the trigger was pulled, a ground control station in the U.S. states of Nevada and New Mexico.

Grainy black-and-white videos like this one give us a bird’s eye view of this new form of warfare. This attack, for instance, took place on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan back in 2008.

Bryant spent years helping to unleash such drones on militants and admits that he fears that one of his attacks may have, in fact, killed a child. Eventually he became so disillusioned with the career that he turned down a hefty bonus to continue.

He was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. Now Bryant is opening up about it all, giving the world a window into the windowless bunker where he spent the past several years and revealing new details about America’s top secret and controversial drone program.

The Mist

Over the vistas broke a cold gray light, such as seen in those false dawns that are neither night nor true morning, when the world and all its contents seem but shapes of mist, formed in vain hope and desire… If you awake from troubled sleep at such a time, you can only sit by the window and think of those that have been lost to you, those that followed your parents into those cold and heartless regions below the grass, silent and dark. Eventually, morning comes and the world resumes its solidity, but another tiny thread of ice has been stitched into your heart forever.

WallPaper
Quote provided by: CZ
Quote by: K.W. Jeter, Morlock Night

U.S. Must Champion The War On Islam

U.S. policy should be reinforcing the interim government [of Egypt]… the United States must articulate a global strategy in what has become a cold war between the civilized societies of the world and violent Islamic fundamentalists who seek our overthrow. This is a mortal struggle with enemies who diametrically oppose Western moral philosophies and democratic worldviews.

[Norm Coleman, a Republican U.S. senator from Minnesota from 2003 to 2009, was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee]

Silent and Spooky

All houses wherein men have lived and died
Are haunted houses. Through the open doors
The harmless phantoms on their errands glide,
With feet that make no sound upon the floors.

We meet them at the door-way, on the stair,
Along the passages they come and go,
Impalpable impressions on the air,
A sense of something moving to and fro.

There are more guests at table than the hosts
Invited; the illuminated hall
Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts,
As silent as the pictures on the wall.

The stranger at my fireside cannot see
The forms I see, nor hear the sounds I hear;
He but perceives what is; while unto me
All that has been is visible and clear.

The spirit-world around this world of sense
Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere
Wafts through these earthly mists and vapours dense
A vital breath of more ethereal air.

So from the world of spirits there descends
A bridge of light, connecting it with this,
O’er whose unsteady floor, that sways and bends,
Wander our thoughts above the dark abyss.

Photo by: QAuZ
Poem: Haunted Houses
Poem (partial) by: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Poem provided by: CZ

Iron Mike Tyson Knockouts

One of the greatest boxers devastating his opponents.

Colors Of Fall

“No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace as I have seen in one autumnal face.”

By Alieturk
Location: Japanese Garden, Portland, USA
Quote by: John Donne
Quote provided by: CZ

Fall 2013

Nature is a language and every new fact one learns is a new word; but it is not a language taken to pieces and dead in the dictionary, but the language put together into a most significant and universal sense. I wish to learn this language–not that I may know a new grammar, but that I may read the great book which is written in that tongue.

By JJ Peabody
Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Quote provided by CZ

Ghost

The leather soles go shufflin’ in
Stinking of smoke and ten cent gin
Now who will toast our noble host
Who has this mornin’ given up the ghost?

The wooden coffer hand to hand
Kind words are offered silent prayers
But she is satisfied the most
While stabbing madly at the roast

The rib of adam the eyes of eve
The sons of cain receive no reprieve
The rib of adam the eyes of eve
The sons of cain receive no reprieve

The creditor rides with his men
The death of debtors he won’t forgive
They repossess his silver eyes
Now in the potter’s field he lies

The rib of adam the eyes of eve
The sons of cain receive no reprieve
The rib of adam the eyes of eve
The sons of cain receive no reprieve

Waitin’ for a dead man’s shoes
Have you heard the latest news?
Lazarus is back from the dead
Lookin’ as one would expect

Drippin’ with the waters of sheol
Babblin’ about body and soul
And then he found his wife in their bed
Buck naked and already wed

The tax collector beneath his sheets
The door swings open floorboards creak
Now who will toast our noble host
Who has this mornin’ given up the ghost?

The rib of adam the eyes of eve
The sons of cain receive no reprieve
The rib of adam the eyes of eve
The sons of cain receive no reprieve

The rib of adam the eyes of eve
The sons of cain will receive no reprieve
The rib of adam the eyes of eve
The sons of cain will receive will receive

Artist: Clutch
Scenes from the movie The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford

Castle On The Lake

I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

By Anndr

Quote by Henry David Thoreau

Provided by CZ