The Last Rose of Summer -- photo copyright Kyi May KaungI took this photograph in DeKalb IL. in the Fall of 2004. During a tea break in the late afternoon, while I was attending the Burma Studies Conference, I took my camera and went for a walk, and was taken by this lone rose left alone in the bare bed, and the way the evening light fell on it.
The Burma Studies Center of Northern Illinois University is based in DeKalb, IL. You can take a taxi or limo from Chicago's O'Hare Airport to get there. I have stories from the limo ride, but they belong in fiction.
"Rest, rest is not a word of free peoples
Rest is a monarchical word."
Carl Sandburg
The Burmese military junta now admits that it still has 1000 people (Monks) under arrest.
Previously, it said only 10 people died -- but then Rangoon residents said they saw 35 corpses piled up there, eight in another place.
The dead are now estimated at 200.
To move away from all this -- for just a moment, I typed in "antique roses" into Google, which brought up rose grower David Austin's site, where I saw a China Rose, which has been identified as the The Last Rose of Summer of Thomas Moore's poem --
Here is the rendition of the song which I like best --
Two hundred monks who escaped the clampdown in Burma by making their way through many hazards to Thailand, vow they will return as change can only be effected from inside, they said.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Burma, but for now, "rest" if you can --
Kyi May Kaung
