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Thanks to the morning light,
Thanks to the foaming sea,
To the uplands of New Hampshire,
To the green-haired forest free. Ralph Waldo Emerson, The World-Soul
If we meet someone who owes us thanks, we right away remember that. But how often do we meet someone to whom we owe thanks without remembering that? Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, Elective Affinities
To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do. Victor Hugo, L'Homme qui rit
i thank you god for this most amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes e e cummings, I thank you god for this most amazing
Thank you. You are a very pleasant person.
Thank you. You are too. John Ashbery, My Erotic Double
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. T S Eliot, The Waste Land
I thank you. I am not of many words, but I thank you. William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, act 1, scene 1
My desk, most loyal friend
thank you. You've been with me on
every road I've taken.
My scar and my protection. Marina T
We are not come to wage a strife
With swords upon this hill,
It is not wise to waste the life
Against a stubborn will.
Yet would we die as some have done.
Beating a way for the rising sun. Arna Bontemps, The Day-Breakers
My black hills have never seen the sun rising,
Eternally they look north towards Armagh. Patrick Kavanagh, Shancoduff
The sun may set and rise:
But we contrariwise
Sleep after our short light
One everlasting night. Sir Walter Raleigh, From Catullus V
It is morning, Senlin says, and in the morning
When the light drips through the shutters like the dew,
I arise, I face the sunrise,
And do the things my fathers learned to do.
Stars in the purple dusk above the rooftops
Pale in a saffron mist and seem to die,
And I myself on a swiftly tilting planet
Stand before a glass and tie my tie. Conrad Aiken, Senlin: a Biography
It's election time in Japan. There will be a few weeks of incessant election noise. People making speeches outside railway stations. Trucks with blaring loudspeakers driving up and down the streets.
Japanese politics are mysterious. There are a few new political parties in Japan this year. One is the Sunrise Party. The leader is Shintaro Ishihara. He is an author and politician. When he was a university student he won the Akutagawa Prize for his novel Season of the Sun. The name of the new party deliberately echoes that title. Shintaro's younger brother Yujiro st
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Think what was there but now's gone.
Black suit with the black Ray Ban's on.
Walk in shadow, move in silence Will Smith, Men in Black
He recollected his initiation,
And one especially of the rites.
For on his shoulders they had put tattoos:
The group's name on the left, The Knights,
And on the right the slogan Born to Lose. Thom Gunn, Black Jackets
We're doing mighty fine I do suppose
In our streak of lightning cars and fancy clothes
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back
Up front there ought to be a man in black Johnny Cash, Man in Black
The other day in Tokyo I saw a young man wearing a black uniform. It was unusual because it had a letter embroidered on the back in black thread. It was black on black so it was easy to miss.
The black uniform is called a gakuran. It's a military-style uniform. Black uniforms all look the same so some students or groups add subtle individual details in the shape or the stitching. In the video below the band is wearing long jackets and baggy trousers like hakama. They look like a gang from the 1970s or 80s.
I wear a black hakama to do aikido. When I get a new one I get the name embroidered on the hip in Japanese kanji. Usually in grey or silver or dark yellow thread. But once I did get it in black. Black on black.
11-27-2012 06:54 AM 
