Full Moon - Poem By Robert Graves

Full Moon

              -  By Robert Graves

As I walked out that sultry night,

I heard the stroke of one.

The moon, attained to her full height,

Stood beaming like the sun:

She exorcised the ghostly wheat

To mute assent in love's defeat,

Whose tryst had now begun.

The fields lay sick beneath my tread,

A tedious owlet cried,

A nightingale above my head

With this or that replied - 

Like man and wife who nightly keep

Inconsequent debate in sleep

As they dream side by side.

Your phantom wore the moon's cold mask

My phantom wore the same;

Forgetful of the feverish task

In hope of which they came,

Each image held the other's eyes

And watched a grey distraction rise

To cloud the eager flame - 

To cloud the eager flame of love,

To fog the shining gate;

They held the tryannous queen above

Sole mover of their fate,

They glared as marble statues glare

Across the tessellated stair

Or down the halls of state.

And now warm earth was Arctic Sea,

Each breath came dagger-keen;

Two bergs of glinting ice were we,

The broad moon sailed between;

There swam the mermaids, tailed and finned,

And love went by upon the wind

As though it had not been.

Twined together and, as is customary,

For words of rapture groping, they

'Never such love,' swore, 'ever before was!'

Contrast with all loves that had failed or staled

Registered their own as love indeed.

And was not this to blab idly

The heart's fated inconstancy?

Better in love to seal the love-sure lips:

For truly love was before words were,

And no word given, no words broken.

When the word 'love' is uttered

(Love, the near-honourable malady

With which in greed and haste they

Each other do infect and curse)

Or, worse, is written down......

Wise after the event, by love withered,

A 'never more!' most frantically

Sorrow and shame would proclaim

Such as, they'd swear, never before were:

True lovers even in this.

How to Help an Injured or Stranded Sea Turtle

Shorelines are known for their pristine waters which attract turtles as well as other sea marines. Pollution, environmental degradation, the depletion in coastlines and the deposits of plastics and other garbage on the shores can harm their existence. It is an important matter which cannot be neglected at all. Sea turtles are known to eat almost anything including plastic scraps which can be harmful for their digestion and could result in intestinal blockage. The garbage on the shorelines very often includes fishing hooks which could also be ingested by a turtle and could severely damage it's digestive tract. Such hook if does not pass of in stools, tends to snag up on the intestinal wall, which would eventually rust in a matter of months causing further damage. Sea turtles also get caught in buoy lines, fishing nets and fishing lines. Once a turtle gets caught in such lines, it is very difficult, almost impossible for the turtle to escape through. Turtles can further be injured due to boat hits, which could damage their shells. Such hits can cause severe cuts or deformities on the turtle shell. The sudden strike of boat can also cause a severe damage to lungs or muscle damage.

Usually stranded or injured turtles come across with minor injuries such as a cut or infected flipper, cuts and bruises to the neck or shell. In some cases damage to a turtle could also lead to blood loss or severe bone damage. Most harm is often found happening to sea turtles like Oliver Ridley turtles, green turtles, hawks-bill turtles and even loggerhead turtles. The most prominent cause for injury in turtles is the trash that is dumped into the sea. A huge wave can throw the turtles far away from the sea which can leave them injured and lost. On such occasions we should do our best to help such stranded and injured sea turtles to get back to their home. Here are few tips which can be helpful in helping a injured or stranded sea turtles.

How to Help an Injured or Stranded Sea Turtle

1. If you ever come across a stranded or injured sea turtle, it is best to contact the wildlife control room or the forest department. If you have no contact number of such official, it is best to inform the local police who may have the necessary contact details of such authorities. Share the exact location and other details of injury which you can manage to share out of the best judgement. It is very important to judge the injury which needs to be reported for immediate care and attention.

2. If you come across a nestling female or an injured turtle, it is best to turn off the flashlights and mobile phone camera. Nestling females get scared with too much of light. Few people have a habit of taking selfies with anything they come across, which should at least be avoided in such cases, as camera flash can scare the injured animal more and it may try to move, even if it has an injury which can further aggravate the problem.

3. Do not attempt to touch or move the turtle, if it looks like it is injured. Until you get an idea of the severity of the injury of this turtle, it is better to stay far off and just observe the turtle for any injuries. A sudden movement like trying to move or pick the sea turtle can cause severe damage to its vital organs.

4. If you realize that the injured sea turtle you came across has broken flippers, do not try to move the flippers for further examination, as it could cause severe pain to the animal.

5. Do not try and lift a sea turtle without determining it's actual weight and physical strength. It is possible that you may try to lift the turtle but due to it's heaviness it could slip from your hands, injuring it further.

6. If the sea turtle attempts to pass by to the sea on it's own, allow it to do. Just follow him till it reaches the sea but do not push it unnecessarily. Try and remove any obstacle that is in his way such as plastic bags, chairs, mats. See to it that he has a safe and hurdle free passage. Do not shout and make severe noises. Be quiet and keep a distance. Loud voices can further scare the animal.

7. Do not try and open the mouth of a turtle, as it can bite your fingers or take a chunk out of your skin easily.

8. If you find people crowding around the turtle, please request them to stay away and keep distance.

9. If the sea turtle you found looks dehydrated or seems to be out of water for a long time, arrange to get some sea water with the helps of the onlookers, and pour the sea water slowly on the turtle, to keep him hydrated. You can also soak some towels with sea water and place it close to an injured turtle around it's neck and flippers, till the requested authority makes it's presence and the sea turtle is attended for injuries.

10. If you wonder how to treat a turtle wound it is best to leave it to the experts. Do not try and apply antibiotic or turmeric on the wound of a sea turtle. This application may further aggravate the problem.

The litter is one of the most important problem that needs to be taken care of. Sea waves throw litter from the sea which also gets deposited on the beaches. While walking on the beach if you come across broken fishing nets, fishing hooks or plastic litter, pick them up and throw in the nearest bin. We can play our part as a good Samaritan, which  if helps even one marine animal, then is really worth it.  

Solitude - Poem By Walter De La Mare

Solitude

       - By Walter De La Mare

Ghosts there must be with me in this old house,

Deepening its midnight as the clock beats on.

Whence else upwelled - strange, sweet, yet ominous - 

That moment of happiness, and then was gone?

Nimbler than air-borne music, heart may call

A speechless message to the inward ear,

As secret even as that which then befell,

Yet nought that listening could make more clear.

Delicate, subtle senses, instant, fleet! - 

But oh, how near the verge at which they fail!

In vain, self hearkens for the fall of feet

Soft as its own may be, beyond the pale.

Good Bye - Poem By Walter De La Mare

Good Bye

      - By Walter De La Mare

The last of last words spoken is, Good-Bye - 

The last dismantled flower in the weed-grown hedge,

The last thin rumour of a feeble bell far ringing,

The last blind rat to spurn the mildewed rye.

A hardening darkness glasses the haunted eye,

Shines into nothing the watcher's burnt-out candle,

Wreathes into scentless nothing the wasting incense,

Faints in the outer silence the hunting-cry.

Love of its muted music breathes no sight,

Thought in her ivory tower gropes in her spinning,

Toss on in vain the whispering trees of Eden,

Last of all last words spoken is, Good-bye.

Estranged - Poem by Walter De La Mare

Estranged

                     -     By Walter De La Mare

No one was with me there - 

Happy I was - alone;

Yet from the sunshine suddenly

A joy was gone.

A bird in an empty house

Sad echoes makes to ring,

Flitting from room to room

On restless wing:

Till from its shades he flies,

And leaves forlorn and dim

The narrow solitudes

So strange to him.

So, When with fickle heart

I joyed in the passing day,

A presence my mood estranged

Went grieved away.

The Soldier - Poem By Rupert Brooke

The Soldier

                 - By Rupert Brooke

If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

A body of England's, breathing English air,

Washed by the rivers, bless by the suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

For A Dead Lady - Poem By Edwin Arlington Robinson

For A Dead Lady

       - By E. A. Robinson

No more with overflowing light

Shall fill the eyes that now are faded,

Not shall another's fringe with night

Their woman-hidden world as they did,

No more shall quiver down the days

The flowing wonder of her ways,

Whereof no language may requite

The shifting and the many-shaded.

The grace, divine, definitive,

Clings only as a faint forestalling;

The laugh that love could not forgive

Is hushed, and answers to no calling;

The forehead and the little ears

Have gone where Saturn keeps the years;

The breast where roses could not live

Has done with rising and with falling.

The beauty, shattered by the laws

That have creation in their keeping,

No longer trembles at applause,

Or over children that are sleeping;

And we who delve in beauty's lore

Know all that we have know before

Of what inexorable cause

Makes Time so vicious in his reaping.