General Muttering

Just Some Stuff	General Crankiness
Things I Wish I Could Do	I Was Rude
On the Meaning of Names	Telemarketing - Religious, Political, and Other (With Numbers)
Customer Hall of Shame	Ads on Websites
Miscellaneous Writings, Humor, Etc.	Software Copy Protection
Poems	Spammer Names

Things I Wish I Could Do

Code. I really don't have the personality and/or talent to write code, but every few years I have a compulsion to learn how. I wind up spending $100 on books from O'Reilly, do intense reading on and off line, and at the end of several weeks I can write "hello world" in Perl. Then I try to do something a little more complex, fail utterly, and give up. A year later when I wish I could do something with that Perl module that tells you what day it is in Middle Earth, the madness will start all over again. Even simple scripting is intriguing. The ability to code is the ability to control the magic.

Speak many different languages effortlessly. My youngest son and I are taking Japanese lessons, which is great fun. I don't kid myself that I'll ever be fluent in Japanese, though. The best I can hope for is to learn the really crucial words:
Please
Thank you
Yes
No
I throw myself at your feet in abject apology for my unforgivable rudeness and ignorance.
Where is the bathroom?
How much do I owe you?
Cat

Update - I have given up on Japanese. It would be more useful for me to learn Elvish or Klingon.

Sing. Yes, I will finally admit it but only to you, my Gentle Readers. I am incapable of carrying a tune. I do sing when I'm alone, but never in company. It's too dreadful. Even singing alone I must be careful as certain melodies can wake the Elder Gods, who then shout at me in their fell voices - "Shut the fsck up!"

On the Meaning of Names

Remember to fill in this space with some incredibly deep, beautifully fascinating New Age twaddle. In the meantime, note that "Malke" means "Queen" in Hebrew. Which is As It Should Be. Update - I still haven't thought of anything marvelous to write here. Years have passed. I pretend to be deep.

Customer Hall of Shame

Since this is my Muttering Page, I can bitch about People Behaving Badly. I've been in business for many years and have been incredibly fortunate in having really nice people as clients. Of course I love some more than others, but on the whole my experiences have been very, very good. But then we have these people (names withheld to protect the innocent - me!):

1. The guy who refused to learn how to copy a file onto a floppy drive. He called me and insisted I drop what I was doing and immediately come to his house to transfer a file from one computer to another. It took me over an hour (round-trip) to get to his house and then he refused to pay me for my time because he said it was my responsibility to make sure he had all the files he needed on the computer where he wanted them. It should be noted that my previous work for him did not include backing up data. Let's hope one of his kids took pity on him and is backing up for him.

2. The woman who had me set up a network at her home, which I did with no problems. A few days later, she called to see if I had "mistakenly picked up*" her copy of Microsoft Office. I told her that I hadn't taken her copy of Office or even seen it since Office had nothing to do with setting up a network. I foolishly thought this was the end of it. I ran into this woman at some store about a week later and she asked me again about her damn Office. I was a bit abrupt with her since I don't steal, Office doesn't run on Linux, and I have legitimate copies of Office for the Windows boxen. Then her clueless husband had the balls to call me for some free tech advice a few days later. Needless to say, I never went back. People like that are loose cannons and too dangerous to deal with. They probably still think I stole their copy of Office. I still think they are arrogant pigs.

*stolen

3. The woman who called me to fix the printer that her kids had mistreated - it was broken. While I was at her house, I cleaned up her machine since it had malware. She understood that the printer problem was a mechanical one. I then watched as she shut down the machine by pushing the power button. When I tried to tell her this was a Bad Thing, she told me she had been doing it successfully for 1-1/2 years! This is like stopping your car by ramming it into a wall instead of using the brakes. She also thought she had to shut down and restart into a different user account to access her email. She would not let me show her how to get email from her own account. A few days later she called me because her computer wasn't working correctly. When I told her that her problems were caused by the way she was (mis)treating the machine, she told me I "didn't know what the f**k I was doing". I'm sure her family loves her.

4. The man who had an old computer that wouldn't even boot. He had called me to install a cd-rom. I did hardware testing on the machine for free, and suggested he contact the person from whom he had gotten the machine for tech support. The alternative was to buy a new machine. He opted for a new machine and had me set it up. Months later, he told me the original tech guy said he didn't need a machine and I had caused him to spend unnecessary money. Somehow I had forced him to buy a new computer (not purchased from me, either). When I insisted that he tell me exactly what he wanted from me or contact my attorney, I never heard from him again. How odd.

5. The woman who called me because I had done work on her computer and now the cd-rw drive didn't work. It turned out the work had been done 8 months prior to her call and consisted of cleaning up her very badly malware/virus-infested machine. Lots of file-sharing by the kids. I told her no hardware changes had been made at that time and she said her kids told her it was a different cd-rw drive. She kept repeating this and I finally told her that not only do I own lots of machines with their own cd-rw drives, but that these drives are inexpensive to buy new and I didn't need to steal drives out of a client's machine. She told me, "you have issues" so I hung up on her. Lovely family. Enjoy Kazaa.

6. Then there are the people who are not customers but who think it is a Good Thing to call me - never during normal business hours - because they want me to basically rebuild their computer over the phone for free. I'm always happy to answer questions for my clients and I encourage them to email me if they need to know how to do something. The people I'm bitching about are total strangers who want me to walk them through installing Windows at 8:00 P.M. on a Sunday night and who are then offended when I suggest bringing the machine into the shop for service. Hey guys - try GeekSquad.

7. The client who calls me to come on-site and fix something and then thinks I should wait around for an hour - at no charge - because they don't have the foresight (or courtesy) to have a signed check ready. The concept of filling in the amount when I'm done was difficult for them. They know I don't bill and that payment is expected on completion of the job. The last time I was there, they acted annoyed and tried to make me feel bad for wanting my money when the job is done. Can you imagine? Me neither. I don't know what parallel universe these people live in, but I'm not visiting it again.

8. The client who calls me because her Internet is out. I ask if she power-cycled her modem and router (explaining how to do this) and she tells me that Comcast told her to do that and she told them she did, but she lied to them and really didn't because she was afraid to. Then she tells me there's a problem with her son's laptop but she doesn't know the error message and she doesn't have the laptop. When I ask a few questions, she says "We don't all know as much about computers as you do" in a nasty tone. Great - you don't have the error message, you don't have the computer, and yet somehow it's my fault for not being able to read minds and fix the nebulous error over the phone. Lady, if I had that kind of power I wouldn't be doing tech support for a living. I'd make a killing in the stock market or win the lottery and retire.

Well, that certainly felt good.

General Crankiness

I was rude to someone today in a tech support newsgroup. There really was no excuse for it. The person had asked a simple question but had prefaced it by writing, "Don't ask me to search. LOL". Gentle Reader, I snapped. Here, in my own little corner of the web, I can finally admit it: every time I read "LOL" I want to slap the LOLer. Hard. It grates. I want to shake them by their shoulders and say, "Typing 'LOL' doesn't change the fact that you are too lazy to enter a search term into Google. It doesn't make me want to chuckle indulgently along with you and dribble the knowledge into your shell-like ear and move your fingers on the keyboard for you. It makes me want to hit you upside the head with a high-quality power supply."

Still, there is no call to be hurtful. I must go out into the garden, eat worms and die for my heartlessness. I wonder if worms are tref. Perhaps I can get someone to Google it for me.

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Telemarketing - Religious

And now a word about the right-wing religious maniacs who have somehow got my telephone number and are busy leaving lengthy pre-recorded messages on my answering machine about the evils of Same Sex Marriage. No, I just can't say the word. Not that other one, either. I have some vestige of politeness left and a child might accidentally stumble upon this webpage while Googling for "skeleton sex"* and innocently say, "What does this word mean, Mummy?". I can't be responsible for that sort of emotional scarring (of either party).

So instead, I'll just say: "Stop it you fscking bastards! No, I'm not concerned about the sanctity of marriage between any combination of adults whatsoever. I just don't care and I want you to stop calling me." What is particularly galling is that they call on my business phone and I get all excited thinking someone needs their computer fixed and I'll be able to pay for those incredibly expensive video cards I bought the kids. When it turns out to be this religious garbage I just want to slam a crown of thorns down on their heads and install AOL on their computer.

*An actual Google search performed by a client's 10-year-old son. I have no idea what "skeleton sex" consists of and I don't want to know.

Telemarketing - Political

I hate politicians. I mistrust every single one of them, no matter to what party they belong. I particularly despise the ones that call and leave a recorded message on my business phone because they want my vote. Listen Mr. McCain, no matter what I think of you (and it's not good), I don't want you to take up space on my answering machine. Not once - and you left me three fscking messages and then your wife left one. Anyone that clueless shouldn't be President of anything, let alone a country that has nuclear capability. Must gather my armies....

Telemarketing - Other

I don't know anyone who likes telemarketers yet clearly someone must be making money by doing this or it would stop. Market forces and all that. There should be a special Circle of Hell reserved for telemarketers who don't want to take "no" for an answer, who hang up before you finish getting out "put me on your do-not-call list", and the ones who try and threaten you. I've decided to start collecting company names and phone numbers and posting them here. I don't expect it will do any good to stop them but it will be one small step towards me not getting an ulcer. Of course we all know about the National Do Not Call List, but Some People are apparently just ignoring it. What I find particularly illogical is when you've told a company not to call and they keep on doing it - don't they understand that I'm never going to purchase anything from cretins such as they have just proved themselves to be?

Quality Images - 877-241-1442 - The guy was all friendly and called me by my first name, like I'm supposed to know him. This immediately irritates me. They apparently put the name of your company on pens and such. I told him I never buy that sort of thing and he said, "Why not?" and then hung up on me while I was in the middle of saying "put me on your do-not-call list". Earth to Quality Images: I don't expect to start buying pens with my name on them but if I ever did, it wouldn't be from you.

Valley Yellow Pages - I actually tried Valley Yellow Pages advertising once (along with my regular phone company Yellow Pages advertising) a number of years ago. It was a complete loss. When the salesman called for renewal, I told him I wasn't interested. He gave me a very hard time and insisted that he would need to visit me in person. I told him that wasn't going to happen and I called his boss and said that when I originally signed up there was nothing in the contract about having to give an exit interview if I chose not to renew. I still get a call from them at least once a year and even though I have told them in no uncertain terms that I will never advertise in Valley Yellow Pages and they shouldn't bother me again, they keep calling. Today, 2/11/08, they just called again. Cluestick needed!

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Ads on websites - I don't mind ads much in magazines or newspapers and I am well aware of the necessity for ads on commercial websites. Sometimes I even read the ads and if the advertiser looks legitimate and is selling something I might be interested in, I might even click on that ad (not on a Windows machine, though - let's not be foolhardy). But let me be frank - if the ad moves or makes noise, it is Right Out. I have the Ad-Block extension for Firefox and I'm not afraid to use it. So if any of you reading this have a commercial website - including the New York Times online (and I just know their webmaster reads CountingSpoons) - remember that most people don't want dancing, singing, swishing-past-you-very quickly ads when they are just trying to read an article. Update - And how I hate those rollover thingies that popup an ad box when you accidentally brush your mouse across a highlighted word! So intrusive.

Software Copy Protection - Update - I've just re-read this and I still feel this way. Three years later and there has been a slight break in the ice over Digital Rights Management but not enough. The old-line corporate music industry is dead; they just don't know it yet.

There has been a lot of uproar lately (I'm writing this in November of 2005) about the Sony copy protection fiasco. I'd like to tell all the content providers like the music and games industries that it is time to listen to your customers. I am not in the general demographic of the music and games industry customers, but I am the person who pays for your products for the general demographic customers (the kids). Here's what I want:

When I buy music, whether it is a CD or from a download service like iTunes, I want to:

a. Back up that music onto another CD so I can play it in the car.
b. I want to be able to play the music on my computer without anything being installed.
c. I want to be able to rip the songs off the CD to play on my computer if I don't want to use the CD.
d. I want to be able to put the music on whatever handheld portable player I have, whether it is an iPod or something else.

When I buy a movie DVD, I want to be able to back it up once so that if the original gets ruined, I don't have to buy another DVD. Sorry, but I just don't want to buy the damn thing twice. I guess the movie people will just have to cut down on their cocaine use and buy a slightly less expensive grade of caviar for the evening.

When I buy a computer or console game, I want to do the same thing. I'd love to have the ability to make one backup copy and maybe pay a little extra ($10-20 or so) for the license to put the game on more than one computer. The technology is available to do this.

And I don't want to be treated like a criminal. After all, I'm not pirating any of these things. I'm actually putting out great wads of cash for these products. And I'm not stooping to calling the music, movie, and game industry greedy bastards, am I? We could be civilized about this.

That's all. And after I gather my armies and take my rightful place as Empress of the World, I am going to get My Way. So the music, movie, and games industries had better Watch Out and get on my good side ahead of time.

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Spammer Names

Like everyone, I get a fair amount of spam. Not much gets into my Inbox since my web host's mail server has some really good spam filtering on it. But every day I get a Spam Report with just the headers so I can be sure that real mail isn't getting filtered out. Some of the names in the "From" field are really funny so I decided to collect them and share them here. I can't imagine where the spammers come up with these names, or maybe the names are generated by a computer. The ones that are most amusing to me sound like they are people in a Jack Vance novel. (Capitalization - or lack of it - is as it came.)

farley moishe	cailis soam	laird wuntsin	Shaarod rumble
pip	gawain lynette	Walker Vela	Mr. Choy Chong Yip
Santiago K. Maxwell	Millie F. Peacock	wiwi drain	allbert bunny

Miscellaneous Writings, Humor, Etc.

Words I Like	Gentile Jokes
Jewish Haiku	Love Is
Zen Judaism	A Dog's/Cat's Diary

Words I Like

extravagant	mystical	linkage	plange	Constantinople
lemon curd	Bloomingdale's	purple	silk	lilacs
catenary arch	chocolate	coracle	anything said in French*	plush
mithril	cocoa butter	salamander	Aeolian	pitter patter

*It doesn't even have to make sense. See "A Fish Called Wanda".

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Gentile Jokes (Sorry, but you probably won't get these if you aren't Jewish. But that's OK; we love you anyway.)

A Gentile goes into a clothing store and says, "This is a very fine jacket. How much is it?"
The salesman says, "It's $500."
The Gentile says, "OK, I'll take it."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two Gentiles meet on the street. The first one says, "You own your own business, don't you? How's it going?"
The other Gentile says, "Just great! Thanks for asking!"
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A Gentile calls his mother and says, "Mother, I know you are expecting me for dinner this evening, but something important has come up and I can't make it."
His mother says, "OK."
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A Gentile man calls his elderly mother. He asks, "Mom, how are you feeling? Do you need anything?"
She says, "I'm feeling fine, and I don't need anything. Thanks for calling."
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A Gentile drops by his parents' house to tell them he's going to drop out of med school and get a job on a fishing boat.
His mother says, "My! That sounds like fun!"
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A Gentile returns from a trip to Indianapolis and his wife asks him how he liked the restaurants there. He says "the food was delicious, but the portions were too large!"
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Two mothers are talking about their children. The first says, proudly, "My son is a construction worker!"
The second then says, even more proudly, "My son is a truck driver. Isn’t it nice to have such hard working children."
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A married couple are in a smart restaurant and the husband says to the waiter, "I'll have the steak with some green salad and my wife will have the roast pork. And we'll both have coffee after the meal."
The waiter asks, "How would you like your steak and salad prepared, sir?"
The man replies, "I'd like the steak medium, the salad is fine as is."
The waiter says, "Thank you."
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A woman meets an old friend. The friend asks, "How’s your son?"
The woman says, "He's fine, thank you. He was 40 last week."
"And where does he live?" asks the friend.
"Oh he lives at home with me. I don't think he'll ever get married."
The friend says, "How nice."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Jewish Haiku

After the warm rain the sweet smell of camellias. Did you wipe your feet?	Her lips near my ear, Aunt Sadie whispers the name of her friend's disease.	Today, mild shvitzing. Tomorrow, so hot you'll plotz. Five-day forecast: feh
Looking for pink buds to prune, the old moyel wanders among his flowers.	Today I am a man. Tomorrow I will return to the seventh grade.	Left the door open. for the Prophet Elijah. Now our cat is gone.
Harsh Scrabble discord -- someone has placed "putzhead" on a triple word score.	Testing the warm milk on her wrist, she sighs softly. But her son is forty.	Yenta. Shmeer. Gevalt. Shlemiel. Shlimazl. Tochis. Oy! To be fluent!
The sparkling blue sea reminds me to wait an hour after my sandwich.	Tea ceremony -- fragrant steam perfumes the air. Try the cheese Danish.	Quietly murmured at Saturday services, Yanks 5, Red Sox 3.
Lacking fins or tail the gefilte fish swims with great difficulty.	Yom Kippur -- Forgive me, Lord, for the Mercedes and all that lobster.	A lovely nose ring? -- Excuse me while I put my head in the oven.
My nature journal -- today, I saw some trees and birds. I should know the names?	Like a bonsai tree, your terrible posture at my dinner table.	Hard to tell under the lights -- white Yarmulke or male-pattern baldness.
Jews on safari -- map, compass, elephant gun, hard sucking candies.	Sorry I'm not home to take your call. At the tone please state your bad news.	The same kimono the top geishas are wearing: got it at Loehmann's.
Is one Nobel Prize so much to ask from a child after all I've done?	Jewish triathlon: gin rummy, then contract bridge, followed by a nap.	Seven-foot Jews in the NBA slam-dunking! My alarm clock rings.
The shivah visit: so sorry about your loss. Now back to my problems.	Concert of car horns as we debate the question of when to change lanes.	Mom, please! There is no need to put that dinner roll in your pocketbook.

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Love Is - from alt.religion.kibology

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined and more than made up for the jail time they had to do. See what you think:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. Then she gives him a hand-job. That's love." - Rebecca - age 8

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired. Wait, no, that's coffee." - Terri - age 4

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. They don't call you 'jerkface' like all the kids at school do. Oh, how I long for the sweet kiss of death." - Billy - age 4

"Love is when you go out to eat and give someone most of your French fries without making them give you any of yours, and they don't report you to the FBI for not calling them 'freedom fries'." - [NAME AND AGE OF SUBJECT REDACTED FOR NATIONAL SECURITY REASONS]

"Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, and he wears it every day. Then you tell him you like another guy's shirt, and he beats up the other guy and takes his shirt and gets sent to juvie. Love is fun!" - Noelle - age 7

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Jeff Vogel once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard and started whacking him with a lead pipe. When his Mother asked him what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry."

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Zen Judaism

Let your mind be as a floating cloud. Let your stillness be as the wooded glen. And sit up straight. You'll never meet the Buddha with posture like that.	There is no escaping karma. In a previous life, you never called, you never wrote, you never visited. And whose fault was that?
Wherever you go, there you are. Your luggage is another story.	Do not let children play contact sports like football. These only lead to injuries and instill a violent, war-like nature. Encourage your child to play peaceful games, like "sports doctor".
Learn of the pine from the pine. Learn of the bamboo from the bamboo. Learn of the kugel from the kugel.	If there is no self, whose arthritis is this?
Those who know do not kibbitz. Those who kibbitz do not know.	Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. Forget this and attaining Enlightenment will be the least of your problems.
The Tao has no expectations. The Tao demands nothing of others. The Tao does not speak. The Tao does not blame. The Tao does not take sides. The Tao is not Jewish.	Drink tea and nourish life. With the first sip, joy. With the second, satisfaction. With the third, Danish.
Enter into your inner self and behold the eye of the soul. Gaze upon your original face before you were even born. Shocked? Remember, this was before the nose job.	In nature, there is no good or bad, better or worse. The wind may blow or not. The flowering branch grows long or short. Do not judge or prefer. Ask only, "Is it good for the Jews?"
Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkes.	The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single oy.

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(This has been in the wild on the Intertubes for a long time as well as circulated in email so I don't think I'm stepping on anyone's toes by posting it here. I can't give proper attribution since I don't know who originally wrote it - sorry.)

A Dog's/Cat's Diary

As seen in a dog's diary:

7 am - Oh boy! A walk! My favorite!
8 am - Oh boy! Dog food! My favorite!
9 am - Oh boy! The kids! My favorite!
Noon - Oh boy! The yard! My favorite!
2 pm - Oh boy! A car ride! My favorite!
3 pm - Oh boy! The kids! My favorite!
4 pm - Oh boy! Playing ball! My favorite!
6 pm - Oh boy! Welcome home Mom! My favorite!
7 pm - Oh boy! Welcome home Dad! My favorite!
8 pm - Oh boy! Dog food! My favorite!
9 pm - Oh boy! Tummy rubs on the couch! My favorite!
11 pm - Oh boy! Sleeping in my people's bed! My favorite!

As seen in a cat's diary:

Day 183 of my captivity... My captors continued to taunt me with
bizarre little dangling objects.

They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while I am forced to eat dry cereal.

The only thing that keeps me going is the hope of escape, and the mild satisfaction
that I get from clawing their furniture.

Tomorrow I will eat another houseplant.

Today my attempt to kill my captors by weaving around their feet while they were
walking almost succeeded - must try this at the top of the stairs.

In an attempt to disgust and repulse these vile oppressors, I once again induced
myself to vomit on their favorite chair. I must remember to try this on their bed.

Decapitated a mouse and brought them the headless body in an attempt to make them
aware of what I am capable of, and to try to strike fear in their hearts. They only
cooed and condescended about what a good little cat I was

Hmmm, that did not work according to plan ...

There was some sort of gathering of their accomplices. I was placed in solitary
throughout the event. However, I could hear the noise and smell the food. More
important, I overheard that my confinement was due to my powers of inducing
"allergies."

I must learn what this is and how I may use it to my advantage.

I am convinced the other captives are flunkies and maybe snitches. The dog is
routinely released and seems more than happy to return. He is obviously a half-wit.

The bird, on the other hand, has got to be an informant and speaks with them
regularly. I am certain he reports my every move.

Due to his current placement in the metal room, his safety is assured. But I have
patience, I can wait, it is only a matter of time

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Poems

Excerpts from The Masque of Queen Bersabe by Algernon Charles Swinburne
Untitled sonnet by Dorothy L. Sayers (Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey)
A Code Poem for the French Resistance by Leo Marks

~~~~~~
Excerpts from The Masque of Queen Bersabe by Algernon Charles Swinburne

Aholibah

I am the queen Aholibah.
My lips kissed dumb the word of Ah
        Sighed on strange lips grown sick thereby.
God wrought to me my royal bed;
The inner work thereof was red,
        The outer work was ivory.
My mouth’s heat was the heat of flame
For lust towards the kings that came
        With horsemen riding royally.

Cleopatra

I am the queen of Ethiope.
Love bade my kissing eyelids ope
        That men beholding might praise love.
My hair was wonderful and curled;
My lips held fast the mouth o’ the world
        To spoil the strength and speech thereof.
The latter triumph in my breath
Bowed down the beaten brows of death,
        Ashamed they had not wrath enough.

Semiramis

I am the queen Semiramis.
The whole world and the sea that is
        In fashion like a chrysopras,
The noise of all men labouring,
The priest’s mouth tired through thanksgiving,
        The sound of love in the blood’s pause,
The strength of love in the blood’s beat,
All these were cast beneath my feet
        And all found lesser than I was.

Chrysothemis

I am the queen of Samothrace.
God, making roses, made my face
        As a rose filled up full with red.
My prows made sharp the straitened seas
From Pontus to that Chersonese
        Whereon the ebbed Asian stream is shed.
My hair was as sweet scent that drips;
Love’s breath begun about my lips
        Kindled the lips of people dead.

Alaciel

I am the queen Alaciel.
My mouth was like that moist gold cell
        Whereout the thickest honey drips.
Mine eyes were as a grey-green sea;
The amorous blood that smote on me
        Smote to my feet and finger-tips.
My throat was whiter than the dove,
Mine eyelids as the seals of love,
        And as the doors of love my lips.

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~~~~~~
Untitled sonnet by Dorothy L. Sayers (Harriet Vane and Lord Peter Wimsey)

Here then at home, by no more storms
distrest,
Folding laborious hands we sit, wings
furled;
Here in close perfume lies the rose-leaf
curled,
Here the sun stands and knows not
east nor west,
Here no tide runs; we have come, last
and best,
From the wide zone in dizzying circles
hurled
To that still centre where the spinning
world
Sleeps on its axis, to the heart of
rest.

Lay on thy whips, O Love, that we
upright,
Poised on the perilous point, in no lax
bed
May sleep, as tension at the verberant
core
Of music sleeps; for, if thou spare
to smite,
Staggering, we stoop, stooping, fall
dumb and dead,
And, dying, so, sleep our sweet
sleep no more.

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~~~~~~
A Code Poem for the French Resistance by Leo Marks

This poem was written to allow resistance operators to transmit safely from France during World War II. It was given initially to Violet Szabo who worked for the resistance until her capture and eventual execution in Ravensbruck. The story behind the creation of this poem is detailed in Leo Marks' book, Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker's War, 1941-1945 Free Press, 2000.

The life that I have is all that I have
And the life that I have is yours.
The love that I have of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have,
Yet death will be but a pause,
For the peace of my years in the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.

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