The angry beauty of the night sky....

"...those war-clouds that gather on the horizon, dragon-crested, tongued with fire; - how is their barbed strength bridled? .....what bits are these they are champing with their vaporous lips...." [John Ruskin, "The Cloud - Balancings"]

Reason and passion

"Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgement wage war against the passion and the appetite......

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul. If either your rudder or your sails be broken,  you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore, let your soul exalt your reason to the height of passion, that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the Phoenix rise above it's own ashes."

(Khalil Gibran)

This is by far my favourite poet, whose book, given to me by a friend a very long time ago,  I tend to re-read on occasion ....especially when the occasion calls for it ......