365 poems: 11, 12, 13

The universe is older, or younger (?) than we thought! I don't know. I didn't read the stories.  But William Shakespeare knows what good the universe is:

Hot Actor: Martin Henderson
(A Hunk O' The Week!)

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck (Sonnet 14)


by William Shakespeare

Not from the stars do I my judgment pluck,
And yet methinks I have astronomy;
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons' quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain, and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find.
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive
If from thyself to store thou wouldst convert:
   Or else of thee this I prognosticate,
   Thy end is truth's and beauty's doom and date.




Snow continues to blanket Wisconsin and it was 12 degrees yesterday.  But it's always summer in poetry!

Hot actress: Natalie Portman

On the Grasshopper and the Cricket

  by John Keats
The poetry of earth is never dead:
   When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
   And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper's--he takes the lead
   In summer luxury,--he has never done
   With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
   On a lone winter evening, when the frost
      Has wrought silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
   And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
      The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.



Besides, even if it is snowy, be happy! You are alive to witness the glory of a universe in which life-giving water rains from the heavens, and you can think about it.  For not thinking equals....

Hot actor: Henry Cavill

The Fly


by William Blake

Little fly,
Thy summer’s play
My thoughtless hand
Has brushed away.

Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?

For I dance
And drink and sing,
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
And strength and breath,
And the want
Of thought is death,

Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.


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All the hotness today was picked by Sweetie, who tried to switch Amber Heard:

for Natalie Portman, but once picked, a hotness selection is nonrefundable.

Feel free to suggest your own hot actors/actresses to run with these.

Also: You know Andrew Leon as the award-winning author of the books "The House On The Corner" and "Shadow Spinner", the latter of which is being serialized and is awesome.  But he also writes poetry: Check out Andrew Leon's great poem by clicking here!

Or go start on his incredible, Stephen King-esque horror story, Shadow Spinner, by clicking this picture: