(The North Pine River at Sunrise. I took this with a cheap digital camera while going

for a walk at about 5am one morning)

Liz is the love of my life.

I wrote this double acrostic for her during a difficult time for us.

They’re difficult to write because the words are written in a square, and the first and last column of letters makes up a word – in this case a name. So each line has to have exactly the same number of letters, with the only leeway being that full-stops may have either one or two spaces after them to help keep the acrostic square.

They’re worth the challenge. But so is life

Enduring hope of a shareD
Life with you gives extrA
Impetus to us.  No shadoW
Zones of despair can ruiN
An iron-strong tie insidE
Both of us.  Our love caN
Endure the many trials iN
This life that we face. I
Have faith in our onenesS 

This song by Merle Travis is a great inspiration to not spend too much time in the office!

A great thought for a Friday afternoon.

DARK AS THE DUNGEON (Merle Travis)

Come all you young fellers so young and so fine

And seek not your fortune in the dark, dreary mine

It will form as a habit and seep in your soul

‘Til the blood of your veins runs as black as the coal

Chorus:

Where it’s dark as the dungeon and damp as the dew

Where the dangers are many and the pleasures are few

Where the rain never falls and the sun never shines

It’s dark as the dungeon way down in the mines

It’s many a man I have seen in my day

Who lived just to labor his whole life away

Like a fiend with his dope or a drunkard his wine

A man must have lust for the lure of the mine

I hope when I’m gone and the ages do roll

My body will blacken and form into coal

Then I’ll look down from the door of my Heavenly home

And pity the miner a-digging my bones

The midnight, the morning, the breaking of day

Are the same to the miner who labors away.

Where the demons of death often come by surprise,

One slip of the slate and you’re buried alive.