Beautiful poem...

I came across it while looking for something else, and it's such a beautiful poem, albeit sad. I particularly like the two last stanzas.

W. H. Auden

Funeral Blues

(Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone)

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Poetry

The fire is out, and spent the warmth thereof,

(This is the end of every song man sings!)

The golden wine is drunk, the dregs remain,

Bitter as wormwood and as salt as pain;

And health and hope have gone the way of love

Into the drear oblivion of lost things,

Ghosts go along with us until the end;

This was a mistress, this, perhaps, a friend.

With pale, indifferent eyes, we sit and wait

For the dropt curtain and the closing gate:

This is the end of all the songs man sings.

Ernest Dowson

Dregs

1899

Picture taken from here: http://adalheit.deviantart.com/art/Face-au-vent-255445053

On fb categories/ qualities.

After long conversations with some of my swappers, I decided to post photos of some examples of friendship book categories. Please keep in mind that this post illustrates my opinion. It is not a universal guide and is not meant to make people feel bad. Categorisation is done strictly based on the amount of time and the degree of complexity. To say that an fb is Nice and Neat it does not make it ugly, or worse than a High Quality one. Just less complex and with less decoration.

Let me begin by showing what I would categorise as 'neat', one step up from regular fbs. Neat fbs are in booklet form but the cover is either kept undecorated, or decoration is very minimal. Usually stapled, but sometimes held together by ribbons. Sometimes they are taped (covered with plastic), sometimes they aren't.

Neat fbs:

Next category are the nice and neat. They are in booklet form, with decorated cover. There usually have at least two to three layers of decoration. The cover of the fb is one layer, the picture a second and any additional decoration (glitter, confetti, border stickers, ribbons etc) a third. They are taped and they can either be stapled, held together with ribbons, or eyelets.

Nice and Neat fbs:

The next category is an awkward one. The lines are very foggy. Most swappers don't see a category between High Quality and N&N but I (being OCD) have one. I call those fbs high neat. They are more decorated than N&N but still not HQ. Again, booklet form, taped, at least three layers of decoration, may be held together by staples, ribbons or eyelets. The majority of people does not see that category;  they consider anything more complex than N&N to be High Quality. Also, two different people may have different opinions on what the same fb is, depending on their decorative style and personal ability.

Halfway between N&N and HQ:

Next category is High Quality. We're talking about taped fbs in booklet form, pages strictly tied by ribbons or eyelets. No staples in HQ fbs. Also, the decoration is at least four plus layers of material, including mulberry flowers, different papers, border stickers, ribbons and so on.

(Sometimes I see fbs that the owner has decorated the cover enough to cater for HQ but has used staples. Personally I have no problem with staples, but all the yahoo! groups that swap HQ fbs do. Any objections should be discussed with them and not with me. :D)

High Quality:

Heyyyy! Wait, don't go yet. There is one more category in the game, what I call VERY High Quality. Those ones are created by lunatics like me. Take the definition of HQ and take the madness one step further.

Very High Quality:

Some of them have six or more layers of material. People are crazy. I am crazy, too, but it's harmless, and they are like little works of art. You really have to admire that.

All fbs shown here are taken from swaps I received recently. None of them is something I have made.

Usually to avoid arguing with my swappers on what is or what isn't HQ and why I just make sure to match their swaps in quality and quantity. This pretty much keeps everyone happy and me away from pointless argumentation. :)