Eye adventures!

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a picture of my retina, my very own left retina. I went to the eye doctor on Thursday, and instead of dilating my eyes they used an Optomap, which has a bright green light that scans your retina. I of course asked them to email it to me, and they did. The doctor pointed out everything in the picture and then told me I have a very healthy retina with healthy tissue and good blood flow. The fat black lines are my eyelashes. The glowing yellow dot where the veins converge is my optic nerve (where all the nerve axons combine to take visual information to the brain). The place where the optic nerve begins is where one's blind spot is; it is a blind spot because there are no rods or cones there.

For a demonstration of your blind spot go to http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/chvision.html

To the right of my optic nerve in this picture is my fovea, or the place with the highest concentration of cones (which help you see color and detail). If you click on the retina picture, you can see it blown up really big, and you can even see the individual nerve fibers above and in between the optic nerve and fovea. They are leading to the optic nerve, carrying information from my rods and cones to my brain.

The eye is absolutely amazing, and the more I learn about it, the more I am in awe.

Psalm 139:14 "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!
O my soul, praise Him, for He is thy health and salvation!
All ye who hear, now to His temple draw near;
Praise Him in glad adoration.

Praise to the Lord, who over all things so wondrously reigneth,
Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth!
Hast thou not seen how thy desires ever have been
Granted in what He ordaineth?

Praise to the Lord, who hath fearfully, wondrously, made thee;
Health hath vouchsafed and, when heedlessly falling, hath stayed thee.
What need or grief ever hath failed of relief?
Wings of His mercy did shade thee.

Praise to the Lord, who doth prosper thy work and defend thee;
Surely His goodness and mercy here daily attend thee.
Ponder anew what the Almighty can do,

If with His love He befriend thee.

Praise to the Lord, who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around thee are raging,
Biddeth them cease, turneth their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.

Praise to the Lord, who, when darkness of sin is abounding,
Who, when the godless do triumph, all virtue confounding,
Sheddeth His light, chaseth the horrors of night,
Saints with His mercy surrounding.

Praise to the Lord, O let all that is in me adore Him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before Him.
Let the Amen sound from His people again,
Gladly for aye we adore Him.

William Carlos Williams

First, I must say that I love the name William Carlos Williams. It hints at the type of poetry he writes. He belongs to the imagist school of poetry, which we learned about last year in English III. Here are the two poems that were featured in our literature book

The Red Wheelbarrow

William Carlos Williams

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

This Is Just to Say

William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

Forgotten

Serena

The piano, its

eighty-eight keys

old and chipped

and faded

could still make

beautiful music

if skilled hands

would caress it

e. e. cummings

My first poet is e. e. cummings. While I don't agree with the messages of some of his poems, (i.e. "since feeling is first") I think he expresses his ideas in a beautifully poetic manner. I've actually written two poems in his style. I'll give you two e. e. cummings pieces, and then the two I've written.

since feeling is first
e.e. cummings

since feeling is first
who pays any attention
to the syntax of things
will never wholly kiss you;
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world

my blood approves,
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
lady i swear by all flowers. Don't cry
—the best gesture of my brain is less than
your eyelids' flutter which says

we are for each other: then
laugh, leaning back in my arms
for life's not a paragraph

And death i think is no parenthesis

i carry your heart with me
e.e. cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Now for my poems. You should know enough about me to recognize that neither of these poems are based on my personal experiences. I used an e. e. cummings' subject matter (love).

presently, i see you and understand

presently, i see you and understand

more secrets hide within me than a spring (hides bubbling

beneath the earth) deepness puddles in my soul

brimming:less than the pools in your eyes which are

holding the meaning of that first kiss, powerfully transient

drink deeply—my mind knows you

are part of the color rising in my cheeks.

your hand in mine (no raindrop knows the cloud or sea)

this moment time recognizes;but does not know

before and behind:which is not, our need

only the smile on my lips, my head resting (herenow)

in the familiar place on your shoulder.

after the rain when the sky is silent

after the rain when the sky is silent

and i am brave enough to walk outside i think of you--remember

when our minds conversed(and sang in harmony)

i used to waltz through stormy weather with

you(bright jewel)hung in my heart;i thought

i knew all i needed about;the bright sea of stars:

we named at night smiled(because you

played counterpoint to their phrygian melody)

but this is all whatusedtobe

and

not

what

is

the harmony between us soured and diminished:and then

all you left me was your echo and i

learned that the blackemptiness that separates the stars can

muffle(entirely) their song;with a silence louder than memory.

i think of you and try to weep, but i

cannot even recall the taste of your smile

My Poetry Project

I've decided to give myself a challenge. Every day, or more likely every few days, I will post a couple poems by a poet I enjoy, and then a poem that I will write in his or her style.

If necessary, I'll fall back on poems I've already written and edit them for the blog, but what I'm trying to do is get in the habit of writing poetry more frequently. I think giving myself a project like this will be helpful.

"Ink runs from the corners of my mouth

There is no happiness like mine.
I have been eating poetry."
~Mark Strand

"Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves we make poetry." ~W.B. Yeats

"Poetry: the best words in the best order" ~Samuel Coleridge

Six Word Stories

A famous legend says Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write a story using only six words. He wrote "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." Some people call it his best story. Others say it's just a folk tale.

Some of my favorite six words stories follow:

With bloody hands, I say goodbye.

-Frank Miller

It cost too much, staying human.

-Bruce Sterling

Found true love. Married someone else.

-Dave Eggers

Kirby had never eaten toes before.

-Kevin Smith

Easy. Just touch the match to

-Ursula K. Le Guin

Please, this is everything, I swear

-Orson Scott Card

I saw, darling, but do lie.

-Orson Scott Card

Finally, he had no more words

-Gregory Maguire

He read his obituary with confusion

-Steven Meretzky

"Kitty will be fine," he lied.

-Dan Bergstein

"Forgive me!" "What for?" "Never mind."

-John Updike

My nemesis is dead. Now what?

-Michael Cunningham

As she fell, her mind wandered.

-Rebecca Miller

A book, called Not Quite What I Was Planning is an anthology of six word stories and memoirs. They are pretty fun! I haven't written any of my own yet, but I'm working on it :)

A Short, Simple Thought

The following quote really stuck with me when I read it, and I wanted to share it with you. :)

"If monotony tries me, and I cannot stand drudgery: if people fret me and the little things of life set me on edge; if I make much of the trifles of life, then I know nothing of Calvary's love." ~ Amy Carmichael