I'll put you all in a story by and by...

I finally signed up for Shelfari (www.shelfari.com/awdylanis) and have been obsessively digging through my bookshelves to fill out my read list. I happened across my battered copy of Eight Stories by Dylan Thomas and have not been able to get "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" out of my head. The way it's been bashing around up there, you'd think it was some top 40 pop song. I'm sharing it in hopes that it sparks in someone else head and leaves mine alone.

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

When I was searching for the poem, I came across this site, which has a pretty awesome reading of the poem.

Normally, I prefer his short stories. He has this crazy way of describing things that twists my mind in all kinds of wonderful ways. It is amazing how a few bound pages with their familiar cover, type, and excessive highlighting can make my heart and head feel so full.

"We were both the same age: too young and too old."

"He wished that the light would fail. In the darkness he and Lou could creep
beneath the clothes and imitate the dead."

"There was a welcome, then. The clock struck twelve as she kissed me, and I stood among the shining and the striking like a prince taking off his disguise."

Oh, sigh.