I'm only really familiar with Shakespeare's sonnets - and that language is a bit tough for him.

I like John Masefield's Sea Fever and it's 12 lines

[link]

Check out Poetry 180. Lots of good, accessible poems there.

Oh, i agree. I was thinking 15 not 5th grade.

How about...

What is Pink?

~Christina Rossetti

What is pink? A rose is pink
By the fountain's brink.
What is red? A poppy's red
In its barley bed.
What is blue? The sky is blue
Where the clouds float through.
What is white? A swan is white
Sailing in the light.
What is yellow? Pears are yellow,
Rich and ripe and mellow.
What is green? The grass is green,
With small flowers between.
What is violet? Clouds are violet
In the summer twilight.
What is orange? Why, an orange,
Just an orange!

Ohhh, nice one Erin!!! Will print that for CJ.

Will bookmark that site Kristin. He has to do one a month.

I went to Southern Baptist Churches as a kid and at one point I was going there and to an Episcopal elementary school, that was interesting. I was taught that Catholics weren't true Christians (a couple of the churches had Chick Tracts out for the taking, if you want an idea of their theology).

That goes both ways in my experience. The Roman Catholic side of my family finally stopped acting like Protestant marriages, baptisms, and communion don't "count". Though some of them probably do still think it.

Some of my mom's relatives were a little taken aback when my cousin married a Jewish girl in a bi-religious ceremony (both rabbi and priest in attendance, and under a canopy).

Hey, he's God. Maybe he just created them all as seeds or something and kept the Earth warm in a giant blankie overnight. Maybe there was a cut scene with Pantomime God warning the plants not to germinate when his back was turned, and the Angels have to keep shouting at him to turn around.

I think I adore you, Mr. Billytea. (Wallybee is very lucky)

Kangaroos TiVo their young! In times of drought, they can hold onto a fertilised egg and pause its development until times are better. They lack the rewind function, though.

Like Peacekeepers! (From Farscape.)

Also, midrash is really, really cool. I've read some beautiful ones that my brain has since folded into the section of my brain marked "Old Testament." Meaning, I tend to forget that the midrash wasn't really in the bible, much like I tend to forget that Robin and Superboy haven't *actually* made out in the comics.

ION, I'm compulsive about picking up pennies that people discard. I'll fish them out of puddles, out of dirt, out of motor oil. (I *do* draw the line at pennies in poo or any other sort of bodily excretion, animal or human.)

The Boy and I were at the drugstore tonight, and walking out, I saw a penny on the ground and, naturally, picked it up. While I was exulting over my good penny luck, as we got closer to my car, The Boy leaned down and picked something up. Two $20 bills.

I told him he was a bad boyfriend for one-upping my penny.

Oh! One more thing! I'm actually seething about this: the BDSM group has a super-casual get-together once a month at a local dive bar. Because Cincinnati is so conservative, and because we're in a public place, we all dress -- and act -- like any other customers in the bar. We have no desire to bring down any sort of Moral Majority wrath.

We've been doing this bar night, once a month, at the same bar for the past 11 years. That's a long fucking time, no?

The owners of the bar decided to retire, and they sold the bar to their (adult) kids.

(Surely you can see where this is going.)

The kids closed the bar for a few months to do some cosmetic/fire code renovations, and it just re-opened last week. Tonight we had our first bar night there since ownership changed hands.

We were asked tonight to not come back, because the new owners want to maintain a "family" atmosphere.

Let me be crystal clear about this: anyone else at that bar -- unless they previously knew what our group was -- would NEVER know what our group was. Everyone is in jeans and t-shirts. No leather. No collars, no kinky shit of any kind. No behavior that even HINTS toward being kinky. Half the time the conversation is about computers, because MANY members are IT geeks.

Anyone wandering in to one of our bar nights would not know what our group was, unless they asked. We have NEVER been, in any way, any less "family-oriented" than any of the other customers who come to the bar, get hammered, and try to pick up someone for a one-night stand.

I'm seething. And flabbergasted. And, sadly, not entirely surprised.

Fuckers. Fuck them and their fucking "family-oriented" bar. Assclowns.

That sucks, Teppy. Jesus.