"All men are poets at heart." (Emerson)

The poem "Invictus" in my blog yesterday is one of my favorites--maybe in the top 10. Letterman has a lot of top 10s on his shows, but I'm guessing never of poems. So, why can't I start a top 10 theme for various subjects on my blogs?

Since I don't hear any objections, why not now? If you've had a high school or college education, you should know every one of these--if not go to Google:

1.Invictus, (Henley); 2.The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, (Fitzgerald); 3. Stopping by Woods (Frost); 4. The World is Too Much With Us, (Wordsworth); 5. Kubla Khan, (Coleridge); 6. Dover Beach, (Arnold); 7. To a Mouse (Burns); 8. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (T.S. Eliot); 9. Ode on a Grecian Urn, (Keats); 10. Ode to the West Wind, (Shelley)

So there, you have it. It wasn't an easy task for me to gather all these ten poems out of the hundreds I have read, but even though some may deserve to be in my top ten and they're not in it, I'm sure they'll get over it. It's like picking two teams for the NCAA football championship. There certainly are more than two who deserve to be in the game. Well, perhaps when we come home from our cruise I'll try to pick out the ten best of something else that has captured my interest...including culinary treats of course. Speaking of the cruise, I am all packed for tomorrow while Rhoda hasn't even begun--and it's now 1pm. I'm not concerned--she'll be ready tomorrow. A limo will be picking us up at 11:30. Besides our luggage, we are going to bring along the parts of my scooter to be assembled at the port. We're going on the Holland American ship, Noordam for ten days. So, this will be my last blog for at least the next ten days. Bon jour and have a wonderful holiday.

My only Priest is my Conscience.

Yesterday I obtained an ISBN for my book "Pater Noster in Condoland Vol. III". So now it's an official publication to be listed in the Congressional Record, or wherever, and also on Amazon, etc. for sale if anyone out there wants to buy a book of blogs. It's a book that's dedicated to my four children, but I believe I already sent them copies. It wasn't so hard to get that ISBN and it didn't cost me a dime. It didn't cost me a dime to get the book published either...it only cost me to buy the book, but even I don't have to buy it if I don't want to. It, of course, can be located at the right hand column of this blog by clicking on the "My Lulu Store". I'm working now on Vol. IV of Pater Noster, and it will be dedicated to a feature and voluble commentator on these blogs, Mr. Phil Bergovoy, teacher, coach, and friend, extra-ordinaire. However, I have to be very careful about what I write on these blogs, so I don't upset his political equilibrium. For example, when I write in the blog to be "liberal with the chocolate icing on the cake," Phil gets a hissy fit and reminds me how the Democratic governors of the State of Illinois have been put in jail, although I fail to see the connection between "liberal" doses of chocolate and criminal governors. But Phil is so bright that he reads between the lines and sees stuff that the rest of us are unaware of. Incidentally, did I mention that this blog "Liberality" was published in the Florida Sun-Sentinel on Saturday, Dec.13? Yeah, think I did yesterday.

As a result of this insignificant accomplishment, son Joel suggested in an e-mail (tongue in cheek) that I write away and offer to be a columnist for the paper. Phil suggested that I was a combination of J.L Mencken, Jimmy Cannon, and Damon Runyan. I feel more like Charlie Chaplin, Harpo Marx, and the Mills Brothers. However, whenever my feathers are blown thither and hither I think of the poem, "Invictus" by William Henley.

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstances
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the honour of the shade,
And yet the menaces of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishment the
Scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Don't you just love it?