‘… His Sepulchre Shall Be Glorious.’

From the Armadio degli Argenti of Blessed John of Fiesole, OP (Fra Angelico), c. 1450

In that day the root of Jesse, who stands for an ensign of the people, him the Gentiles shall beseech, and his sepulchre shall be glorious.’

Isaiah 11: 10

‘Let Him Not Lose What He So Dear Hath Bought.’

From Cell 25 of the Convent of San Marco, by Blessed John of Fiesole, OP (Fra Angelico), 15th Century

Think on the very làmentable pain,

Think on the piteous cross of woeful Christ,

Think on His blood beat out at every vein,

Think on His precious heart carvèd in twain,

Think how for thy redemption all was wrought:

Let Him not lose what He so dear hath bought.

–Pico della Mirandola (translated by St Thomas More)

How to turn 40, part 1 – pizza at Olio’s.

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Clerihew: Oscar Wilde

Photographer: Napoleon Sarony

Oscar Wilde
Debauched and defiled;
His climactic perversion
Was a deathbed conversion.

Clerihew: Flannery O’Connor

Image credit: Cmacauley

Flannery O’Connor
Had a death sentence upon her:
Though it’s tough to discuss,
Yet sometimes it’s lupus.

Signpost in a Strange Land

Apparently, that there is a Japanese death poem.

Buying the Farm

A toast to three friends at a party celebrating their fortieth birthdays.

Forty came and forty went
A blink, and half our lives were spent
We never thought of what it meant
When mortgage took the place of rent

We’d no more borrow, we would own
Trade house of straw for house of stone
We’d make a stand and cease to roam
We’d claim a house and make it home

Foundations lent a sense of worth
But shadows dimmed our middled mirth
We had been tending here since birth
A slab of stone, a plot of earth

But I love you, and you, and you
So raise a glass, and then raise two
At forty years, we learn what’s true
We always were just passing through

Cheers!