tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33396512830330769422024-03-23T04:56:56.966-07:00Keith Shorrocks Johnson [ Wellington New Zealand ]'tis dearness only that gives everything its valueKeith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833noreply@blogger.comBlogger4031125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-51790880938555775652021-03-30T14:07:00.002-07:002021-03-30T14:27:57.967-07:00Love Lifts Me: Hafiz (1) Selected Verses for Meditation - Sufi Mystics<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/lIOQL7SOAuA" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/lIOQL7SOAuA/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOh-dcW75zOMXFLBrS0BX5910BlNsQAW0JECEjbuK5Go66j5VLIlsjLf_AKSVkcYY6z7HZ9ZqKgZDLG3jjwprIeTRWifD9q0y8lasbuN7fB_tCRjCJLAKo1JIi-e6fkCov3iTR6-tJbCD6/s650/vGp9Ogc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="432" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOh-dcW75zOMXFLBrS0BX5910BlNsQAW0JECEjbuK5Go66j5VLIlsjLf_AKSVkcYY6z7HZ9ZqKgZDLG3jjwprIeTRWifD9q0y8lasbuN7fB_tCRjCJLAKo1JIi-e6fkCov3iTR6-tJbCD6/w426-h640/vGp9Ogc.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><br />Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-81347913805642871782021-03-14T23:14:00.001-07:002021-03-14T23:14:32.109-07:00Another Bridge to Reconciliation?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigxOL7c-6AAEVIuSxDDwd8F9t04HyXwqWrklznTVFRn4drC9Hk21K3I9O3ourBHgj6wZY-vMzuKvF_ZgbyBA7_4YOtRtuU_r8J8nhUZCY8I2NzdtVvDeeOm6CoZip8UOBkd0jaarhShttB/s986/02147c65-bbb0-494f-81df-333773d645db-large16x9_EdJohnsonphoto3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="554" data-original-width="986" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigxOL7c-6AAEVIuSxDDwd8F9t04HyXwqWrklznTVFRn4drC9Hk21K3I9O3ourBHgj6wZY-vMzuKvF_ZgbyBA7_4YOtRtuU_r8J8nhUZCY8I2NzdtVvDeeOm6CoZip8UOBkd0jaarhShttB/w640-h360/02147c65-bbb0-494f-81df-333773d645db-large16x9_EdJohnsonphoto3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The lynching that Black Chattanooga
never forgot takes center stage downtown</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">By
Chris Moody, Washington Post, 12 March, 2021<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">CHATTANOOGA,
Tenn. — On a recent warm winter afternoon, hundreds of Chattanoogans flocked
downtown to stroll along the Walnut Street Bridge, a picturesque walking path
that towers over the Tennessee River.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-lynching-that-black-chattanooga-never-forgot-takes-center-stage-downtown/2021/03/11/67405b4e-7c27-11eb-85cd-9b7fa90c8873_story.html">https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-lynching-that-black-chattanooga-never-forgot-takes-center-stage-downtown/2021/03/11/67405b4e-7c27-11eb-85cd-9b7fa90c8873_story.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Dog
walkers look out toward the Tennessee River near the Walnut Street Bridge on
March 4. The bridge is a popular destination in Chattanooga, but it has a
history of being a site where lynchings took place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Once
a decrepit eyesore, today the refurbished bridge is a jewel of modern
Chattanooga and a symbol of progress for a city that has undergone an urban
renaissance. As part of a years-long effort to transform Chattanooga into an
outdoor destination, the bridge is now a popular backdrop for marriage
proposals, festivals and summer fireworks. Pictures of its bright blue beams
appear on the city’s tourism websites and brochures. There’s a rock-climbing
wall on one of the bridge’s pillars.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">“It’s
our Eiffel Tower,” said Mitch Patel, a businessman who owns a hotel at the
southern entrance of the bridge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">But
for many of Chattanooga’s Black residents, the city’s beloved pedestrian bridge
isn’t an architectural beacon of the New South, but a painful reminder of the
old: Before the Walnut Street Bridge became a tourist draw, it was a lynching
ground. In 1893 and again in 1906, enraged White mobs hanged Black men from the
bridge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">“A
lot of those people don’t know what happened on that bridge. In the White
community, it wasn’t spoke out in the open so much” said Eric Atkins, a local
activist who has worked to raise awareness of the killings and memorialize the
victims. “In the Black community, you never forget one of these atrocities. You
never forget a lynching.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Even
as the bridge became a central gathering place of the city, some Black
Chattanoogans who know its history have refused to cross it.</span><span style="font-size: 20px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 20px; text-align: justify;"><o:p></o:p></p><span style="font-size: large;">…<a data-id="1803544791671693347" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/09/death-on-long-bridge.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Death on the 'Long Bridge'</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=1803544791671693347&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyW9CtUA4cdoSnND6Rzy95UwmxQB6W34GqNryUmkh7Vnxf2VpcNVl9AYjiLTnlaTxalE9VtaQCtMvDofna1rYOa6DKAiS6-mnaY3vKgkCzchsjU-zHKM7PKLhdtFzdZ1h_gEELcnnk7OzJ/s768/greek+vase+finalish+YYY.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: Garamond; font-size: 24px; font-weight: 700; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="715" data-original-width="768" height="596" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyW9CtUA4cdoSnND6Rzy95UwmxQB6W34GqNryUmkh7Vnxf2VpcNVl9AYjiLTnlaTxalE9VtaQCtMvDofna1rYOa6DKAiS6-mnaY3vKgkCzchsjU-zHKM7PKLhdtFzdZ1h_gEELcnnk7OzJ/w640-h596/greek+vase+finalish+YYY.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border-color: initial; border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 / 9px / 0 stretch; border-style: none; border-width: 9px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></p><h2 style="font-weight: bolder; margin: 0.75em 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">DEATH ON THE LONG BRIDGE</span></h2><div style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">‘Bolt quick’ - sweet soul whose life they would suppress:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">You who knew no peace and very little love<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">Must take this chance for freedom’s slight caress -<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">Must run … and run … and call to God above!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">What men or ghouls are these? What deadening fright?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">What hue and cry? What wild and desperate flight?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">And you must run … and run … for freedom’s sake.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">Such truth is more than beauty needs to know<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif">And in your death the flow of time runs slow.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span face=""Calibri Light", sans-serif"><br /></span></p><h2 style="font-weight: bolder; margin: 0.75em 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;">On the escape of a Female Slave from the 'Yellow House' private prison in Washington D.C. in 1842, and her suicide by throwing herself into the Potomac River from the 'Long Bridge' to evade capture.</h2><br />'One dramatic escape attempt from the Yellow House was documented in 1842 by Seth M. Gates, an antislavery New York Whig in the U.S. House of Representatives. Writing as an anonymous “Member of Congress” in the pages of the New York Evangelist, Gates described an unnamed “smart and active” woman deposited in Williams’ private prison who, the evening prior to her scheduled departure from Washington for sale in the Deep South, “darted past her keeper,” broke jail, “and ran for her life.”<br /><br />She headed southwest down Maryland Avenue, straight toward the Long Bridge that spanned the Potomac and led to that portion of the District of Columbia ceded by Virginia. “It [was] not a great distance from the prison to the long bridge,” Gates observed, and on the opposite side of the river lay the Custis estate and its “extensive forests and woodlands” where she could hide.<br /><br />Her flight took the keeper of Williams’ jail, Joshua Staples, by surprise. By the time he secured the other prisoners and set off in pursuit, she had a sizeable head start. Also working in her favor, “no bloodhounds were at hand” to track her, and the late hour meant that Staples had no horses available. A small band of men at his immediate disposal would have to overtake her on foot.<br /><br />Although they “raised the hue and cry on her pathway” to summon the public’s aid, the woman breezed past the bewildered citizens of Washington who streamed out of their homes, struggling to comprehend the cause of all the commotion along the avenue. Realizing the scene unfolding before their eyes, residents greeted this act of protest in starkly different ways. Those who were antislavery prayed for her successful escape, while others supported the status quo by joining the “motley mass in pursuit.”<br /><br />Fleet of foot and with everything to lose, the woman put still more distance between her and her would-be captors. In this contest of “speed and endurance, between the slave and the slave catchers,” Gates related, the runaway was winning. She reached the end of Maryland Avenue and made it onto the Long Bridge, just three-fourths of a mile from the Custis woods on the other side.<br /><br />Yet just as Staples and his men set foot on the bridge, they caught sight of three white men at the opposite end, “slowly advancing from the Virginia side.” Staples called out to them to seize her. Dutifully, they arranged themselves three abreast, blocking the width of the narrow walkway. In Gates’s telling, the woman “looked wildly and anxiously around, to see if there was no other hope of escape,” but her prospects for success had suddenly evaporated.<br /><br />As her pursuers rapidly approached, their “noisy shout[s]” and threats filling the air, she vaulted over the side of the bridge and plunged into “the deep loamy water of the Potomac.” Gates assumed that she had chosen to take her own life.<br /><br />The unnamed woman who leaped from the bridge would not have been the first enslaved person imprisoned in the Yellow House to engage in a willful act of self-destruction. Whittier, the abolitionist, mentioned that among the “secret horrors of the prison house” were the occasional suicides of enslaved inmates devoid of all hope.<br /><br />One man in 1838 sliced his own throat rather than submit to sale. The presumed, tragic death of the woman who fled down Maryland Avenue, Gates concluded, offered “a fresh admonition to the slave dealer, of the cruelty and enormity of his crimes” as it testified to “the unconquerable love of liberty the heart of the slave may inherit.”<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">The Notorious ‘Yellow House’ That Made Washington, D.C. a Slavery Capital<br /></span><br />Washington, D.C. was a capital not just of the United States, but of slavery, serving as a major depot in the domestic slave trade. In the District, enslaved men, women and children from homes and families in the Chesapeake were held and then forcibly expelled to the cotton frontier of the Deep South, as well as to Louisiana’s sugar plantations.<br /><br />Slave dealers bought enslaved individuals whom owners deemed surplus and warehoused them at pens in the District of Columbia until they had assembled a full shipment for removal southward. Half a mile west of the U.S. Capitol, and just south of the National Mall (and today, across the street from the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden - land registered as Block 433), sat William H. Williams’ notorious private slave jail, known as the Yellow House.<br /><br />By Jeff Forret, Zócalo Public Square, Smithsonian Magazine 22 July 2020<br /><br />SEE:<br /><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-yellow-house-helped-make-washington-dc-slavery-capital-180975378/</a><br /><p style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSjZAwnHBPOk9pF6AqzdQ2IYulyXXrrfZtBf6H3DBx1Z4RNzOLm3En2BmwvTietk0x8oGcTozYctcRhBPzSpxE_Rj9GmCwHCT2lA7b4hdXTXq8Uqt_9h-ocXG8M8RXPm5lZI8cc0DCDO3i/s322/yELLOW+HOUSE.png" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="226" data-original-width="322" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSjZAwnHBPOk9pF6AqzdQ2IYulyXXrrfZtBf6H3DBx1Z4RNzOLm3En2BmwvTietk0x8oGcTozYctcRhBPzSpxE_Rj9GmCwHCT2lA7b4hdXTXq8Uqt_9h-ocXG8M8RXPm5lZI8cc0DCDO3i/w640-h450/yELLOW+HOUSE.png" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border-color: initial; border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 / 9px / 0 stretch; border-style: none; border-width: 9px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUhwpjj-JuzFGEyAuCmxt4_w6bNONAYcmUG8l0dDEqciJpk2CH61WD4CFWBbzBTcyotgfHrcKtvtJVwo5V6YLO_-Yp_vUda1A_qTk1H93Mh4Fc9Dknxz_I1vDDgLC60K3D1w95iMA6YAZa/s672/longbridgecivilwar.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="672" height="354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUhwpjj-JuzFGEyAuCmxt4_w6bNONAYcmUG8l0dDEqciJpk2CH61WD4CFWBbzBTcyotgfHrcKtvtJVwo5V6YLO_-Yp_vUda1A_qTk1H93Mh4Fc9Dknxz_I1vDDgLC60K3D1w95iMA6YAZa/w640-h354/longbridgecivilwar.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border-color: initial; border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 / 9px / 0 stretch; border-style: none; border-width: 9px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The 'Long Bridge' from the DC shore, looking towards the woods and swamps on the Custis Plantation where the Runaway hoped to hide.</span></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2020-09-18T03:19:00.009Z">18th September 2020</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div><div class="share-controls delay" data-defer="" data-delay="1000" style="display: inline-block; margin: 10px 5px; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="share-twitter twitter-share-button delay" data-count="" data-href="http://twitter.com/share" data-size="" data-text="Death on the 'Long Bridge'" data-url="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/09/death-on-long-bridge.html" style="background-position: left center !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; display: inline-block; height: 20px; margin: 0px; transition: width 0.3s ease 0s; width: 110px;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fkjohnsonnz.blogspot.com%2F2020%2F09%2Fdeath-on-long-bridge.html&count=horizontal&text=Death%20on%20the%20%27Long%20Bridge%27&size=medium" style="height: 20px !important;"></iframe></span> <span class="share-facebook delay" data-count="" data-layout="" data-text="Death on the 'Long Bridge'" data-url="http://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/09/death-on-long-bridge.html" style="background-position: left center !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; display: inline-block; height: 20px; margin: 0px; transition: width 0.3s ease 0s; width: 90px;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkjohnsonnz.blogspot.com%2F2020%2F09%2Fdeath-on-long-bridge.html&send=false&layout=button_count&action=like&show_faces=false&colorscheme=light" style="height: 20px !important;"></iframe></span></div></div><div class="comments" data-defer="" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 10px 0px 0px; min-height: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="comments-header toggle-switch" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="bubble comments-count " style="background-color: #666666; background-position: center center; border-radius: 3px; border: 1px solid rgb(102, 102, 102); color: white; cursor: default; display: inline-block; font-size: 12px; padding: 2px 0px; position: relative; top: -2px; transition-duration: 0.5s; transition-property: background-color, border-color; transition-timing-function: ease-in; width: 26px;" title="1 comment"><span class="bubble-content">1</span><span class="bubble-tail" style="border-color: rgb(102, 102, 102) transparent transparent; border-style: solid; border-width: 5px; bottom: -10px; content: ""; height: 0px; left: 13px; margin-left: -5px; position: absolute; transition: border-color 0.5s ease-in 0s; width: 0px;"></span></span> <h3 style="display: inline-block; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; position: relative;">View comments</h3></div><div class="comments-wrapper blogger-comments toggle-container" data-itemid="1803544791671693347" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="comments-content" style="background-color: whitesmoke; border-radius: 10px; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; outline: none; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.5s ease-in 0s;"><div id="bc_0_1C" kind="c" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div id="bc_0_1CT" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="comment-thread" id="bc_0_0T" kind="r" style="list-style-type: none; margin: 8px; outline: none; padding: 0px;" t="0" u="0"><ol id="bc_0_0TB" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><li class="comment" id="bc_0_2B" kind="b" style="border-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; outline: none; padding: 16px 0px 0px;"><div class="avatar-image-container" style="float: left; margin: 0px; max-height: 36px; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; width: 36px;"><img src="https://img1.blogblog.com/img/b36-rounded.png" style="border: none; max-width: 36px; width: 36px;" /></div><div class="comment-block" id="c7562996545742808887" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 48px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="comment-header" id="bc_0_2M" kind="m" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><cite class="user" style="color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/06452092259613588080" rel="nofollow" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Bronwyn Jones</a></cite><span class="icon user" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold;"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text" style="margin-left: 6px;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/09/death-on-long-bridge.html?showComment=1600553693724#c7562996545742808887" rel="nofollow" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">September 19, 2020 at 3:14 PM</a></span></div><p class="comment-content" id="bc_0_2MC" style="margin: 0px 0px 8px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;">The history that continues today under a different cloak. Tragic.</p></div></li></ol></div></div></div></div></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-27121561329897886922021-03-14T06:31:00.003-07:002021-03-14T06:31:23.032-07:00Prepping for St Patrick's Day<p> </p><h1 class="page-title" style="background-color: white; font-family: "PT Serif W01", serif; font-size: 3.375rem; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2025rem; line-height: 3.375rem; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;">Doireann Ní Ghríofa with LeAnne Howe</h1><article class="node node--event node--promoted node--full node--event--full" role="article" style="background-color: white; color: #494949; font-family: "Etica W01", sans-serif;"><h2 class="event-sub-title" style="color: black; font-family: "PT Serif W01", serif; font-size: 2.25em; font-weight: normal;"><div class="field field--name-field-event-sub-title field--type-text field--label-hidden"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even">In Collaboration with the Embassy of Ireland</div></div></div></h2><div class="small-event" style="font-size: 17px;"><div class="field field--name-field-featured-image field--type-image field--label-hidden"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><div class="file file-image file-image-jpeg" id="file-32924"><div class="content folger-image full" style="position: relative;"><div class="visible-content" style="font-size: 0.9375rem;"><img alt="" height="390" src="https://www.folger.edu/sites/default/files/Doireann%20N%C3%AD%20Ghr%C3%ADofa%20Banner%203%20v2.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; max-width: 100%; transform: translateZ(0px);" title="" width="1124" /></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="event-right" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: none; float: left; margin-top: 0px; padding-right: 47.3906px; width: auto;"><div class="field field--name-field-event-date field--type-datestamp field--label-hidden" style="font-size: 20.4px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em;"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><span class="date-display-single">Monday, March 15, 2021, 6:30 pm</span></div></div></div><div class="field field--name-field-event-location field--type-text field--label-hidden" style="background-image: url("../images/location.svg"); background-position: 0px 5px; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: 10px 15px; font-style: italic; margin: 0.6em 0px; padding-left: 15px;"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even">Virtual Reading 6:30pm-7:30pm ET</div></div></div><div class="event-price" style="margin: 0.6em 0px;"><span class="field-label" style="font-weight: 600;">TICKETS:</span> <div class="field field--name-field-event-price field--type-text field--label-hidden" style="display: inline;">$15 (suggested price) to $5 (minimum price)</div></div><div class="field field--name-field-event-tickets field--type-link-field field--label-hidden" style="margin: 0.6em 0px;"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><a href="https://events.folger.edu/7267/7270" style="background: rgb(204, 53, 53); box-sizing: border-box; color: white; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.928em; font-weight: 600; line-height: 2.53em; min-height: 2.53em; padding: 0px 15px; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Buy Tickets</a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><p style="font-size: 17px;">In collaboration with the Embassy of Ireland, the O.B. Hardison Poetry series welcomes poet and writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa to read from her work in both Irish and English. After the reading, she will be joined by poet LeAnne Howe, a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, for a conversation on the long-standing connection between the Irish and Indigenous communities.</p><p style="font-size: 17px;"><strong><img alt="" src="https://www.folger.edu/sites/default/files/Doireann%20author%20photo.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left; height: 100px; margin: 5px; max-width: 100%; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 100px;" />Doireann Ní Ghríofa</strong> is a bilingual Irish writer whose writing explores birth, death, desire, and domesticity. She has published six books of poetry, most recently <em>Lies</em>, a bilingual volume of her own translations and original Irish language poems. Her prose debut <em>A Ghost in the Throat</em> was awarded Book of the Year at the Irish Book Awards. Other awards for her writing include a Lannan Literary Fellowship, the Ostana Prize, a Seamus Heaney Fellowship, and the Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, among others.</p><p style="font-size: 17px;"><img alt="" src="https://www.folger.edu/sites/default/files/LeAnne-Howe%20Thumbnail%202.jpg" style="border: 0px; float: left; height: 100px; margin: 5px; max-width: 100%; transform: translateZ(0px); width: 100px;" /></p><p style="font-size: 17px;">Poet, fiction writer, filmmaker, and playwright <strong>LeAnne Howe</strong> is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Her lyrical poems engage Native American life. She is the author of the poetry collection <em>Evidence of Red: Poems and Prose</em>, which won the Oklahoma Book Award. Her honors include a Fulbright Scholarship to Jordan as well as residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ragdale, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.</p><p style="font-size: 17px;"><strong>The Honorable Daniel Mulhall</strong>, Ambassador of Ireland to the United States of America, will welcome the poets.</p><p style="font-size: 17px;"> </p><p><em><span style="font-size: large;">While Bleeding</span></em></p><p style="font-size: 17px;">In a vintage boutique on Sullivan’s Quay,<br />I lift a winter coat with narrow bodice, neat lapels,<br />a fallen hem. It is far too expensive for me,<br />but the handwritten label</p><p style="font-size: 17px;">[1915]</p><p style="font-size: 17px;">brings it to my chest in armfuls of red.<br />In that year, someone drew a blade<br />through a bolt of fabric and stitched<br />this coat into being. I carry it<br />to the dressing room, slip my arms in.<br />Silk lining spills against my skin. I clasp the belt<br />and draw a slow breath as a cramp curls again,<br />where blood stirs and melts. In glass,<br />I am wrapped in the weight of old red:</p><p style="font-size: 17px;">red pinched into girl cheeks<br />and smeared from torn knees,<br />lipstick blotted on tissue,<br />bitten lips, a rough kiss,<br />all the red bled into pads and rags,<br />the weight of red, the wait for red, that we share.</p><p style="font-size: 17px;">In the mirror, the old coat blushes.<br />This pocket may once have sheltered something<br />precious — a necklace, a love letter, or<br />a fresh egg, feather-warm, its shell brittle<br />around a hidden inner glow, held loosely<br />so it couldn’t crack, couldn’t leak through seams,<br />so it couldn’t stain the dress within.</p><p style="font-size: 17px;"> - by Doireann Ní Ghríofa</p><p style="font-size: 17px;"> </p><p style="font-size: 17px;"></p><div class="fluid-width-video-wrapper" style="font-size: 17px; padding: 533.25px 0px 0px; position: relative; width: 948px;"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" data-gtm-yt-inspected-1148819_100="true" frameborder="0" id="fitvid259071" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7kN59KAVsvk?enablejsapi=1&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.folger.edu" style="height: 533.25px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; width: 948px;"></iframe></div><p style="font-size: 17px;"></p></div></div></div><div class="field field--name-field-additional-text field--type-text-long field--label-hidden" style="font-size: 17px;"><div class="field__items"><div class="field__item even"><p> </p></div></div></div></article><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><a data-id="7180980589946664385" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2018/07/riders-to-avalon.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Riders to Avalon</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=7180980589946664385&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiETziPGimXy7vQpjhmwxnZVrg4cjUsY33YE7ZDJ4njSVBRk52SAjWE7GgpdOQdQwl9sGQVhl8UTOqXP3lcWjOlME0k-1BDDQpejoU5yFn7qdbslkLoquv59qKYlTLlucAHAcsDHlSx02U4/s1600/claudia-fontes-the-horse-problem-padiglione-argentina-biennale-2017-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiETziPGimXy7vQpjhmwxnZVrg4cjUsY33YE7ZDJ4njSVBRk52SAjWE7GgpdOQdQwl9sGQVhl8UTOqXP3lcWjOlME0k-1BDDQpejoU5yFn7qdbslkLoquv59qKYlTLlucAHAcsDHlSx02U4/s640/claudia-fontes-the-horse-problem-padiglione-argentina-biennale-2017-03.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border-color: initial; border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 / 9px / 0 stretch; border-style: none; border-width: 9px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="480" /></a></div><h4 style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bolder; margin: 1.12em 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">RIDERS TO AVALON </span></h4><div><span style="color: #494949; font-family: Etica W01, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 17px;"><b>Keith Shorrocks Johnson</b></span></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Beautiful flaxen-haired one<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Daughter of the Sea-King<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Riding alone from the beach<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Outlined on the hillside<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">As the sun sets westward.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Spindrift lady of the wave-crests<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">On your father’s white horse<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Chased inland by the deer hunters<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The protectors of the shores<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Brought to bay by their leader.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Too late in chastened hesitation<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">To break the encirclement<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Fascinated by the strangers<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">So much like and so much not<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">In the meeting’s enchantment.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Pale princess, fairy and bewitched<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">At the mercy of a love of the land<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Taken aback by the hero youth -<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The bright bronze bridle seized<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">That she should come to fastness.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">But her horse stalled and would not move<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">At which, while holding her gaze he<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Mounted the sure-swift steed<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">To take its reins and she for fear<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Grasped his waist as the stallion flinched.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Then the wondrous horse Enbarr,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Shaking his mane, free now of curb and rein<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Bolted abruptly, swiftly for the shore<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Galloping down to the broad, dry beach<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Thence into the sun-dipped shallows.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Until his furious hooves, plashing the surf<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Bore his prize of lovers to the open sea<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">And across its waves and wastes<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">To Avalon the Blossomed Isle of Apples -<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Home to the mares and fillies of his following.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">It was thus the riders were borne to Eden,<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Neve the pearl-pale high-born lady of the sea<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">And Oisin the land-guardian, hunter and hero -<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Set down at last on the gold-screed beach<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">All former longings faint and only scarce recalled.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">O treacherous and self-willed steed<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Tremulous, headstrong and untrammelled<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Bearing heedlessly, endlessly into the night<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Those lost to the ride’s enticements<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Amidst the sea-spray moonlit storm</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">How many others have you deceived<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Coupled by your breakneck homeward flight<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Thighs and limbs locked against your flanks<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Aching for release from clouded blissful pain<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">In the headlong riding of the tides of love?<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">[</span></span><i style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Art by Claudia Fontes</i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px;">]</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2018-07-03T11:17:00.000Z">3rd July 2018</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-59353211855541360732021-03-11T03:27:00.001-08:002021-03-11T03:27:25.800-08:00The Great Imperial Hangover<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsqrdh33d6uCW_j2nQqCL68DNISXRNY3Zc94B7Viy7_GCKagbtgGQNUowvVBS-nfVkQpCW9fG0iWV_oinD0YrfIFBwyQSwPT97Ili0L9bhDtg0nZ8UCKL2BtaVwkucJ50hpW5Vi2pRWhI6/s2048/Baghdad21Zakaria-superJumbo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1430" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsqrdh33d6uCW_j2nQqCL68DNISXRNY3Zc94B7Viy7_GCKagbtgGQNUowvVBS-nfVkQpCW9fG0iWV_oinD0YrfIFBwyQSwPT97Ili0L9bhDtg0nZ8UCKL2BtaVwkucJ50hpW5Vi2pRWhI6/w446-h640/Baghdad21Zakaria-superJumbo.jpg" width="446" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">British troops on the way to Baghdad, 1917.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How the Dead
Hand of Imperialism Continues to Influence World Politics</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">By
Fareed Zakaria, NYT, 8 March 2021 – Review of ‘The Shadows of Empire: How Imperial
History Shapes Our World’ by Samir Puri<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/books/review/the-shadows-of-empire-samir-puri.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/books/review/the-shadows-of-empire-samir-puri.html</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">We
are all in the throes of a hangover, Samir Puri writes, a “great imperial
hangover.” </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">He explains in “The Shadows of Empire” that we are living in the
“first empire-free millennium” in history and yet the legacy of these empires
still powerfully shapes our times. He is aware of the notion of informal
empires but makes a strong case that there was something distinct and notable
about formal empires, which existed from the days of the oldest human
civilizations until 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">This
juxtaposition — imperial legacies in a postimperial world — is an intriguing
idea that proves a clever prism through which to look at the world. Russia’s
annexation of Crimea, Britain’s exit from the European Union and the breakdowns
in Iraq and Syria all have deep roots in an imperial past that still casts
shadows on the present.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Once
you start to think along these lines, you see the shadows of empires
everywhere. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">The
day I began the book, I had been reading about a topic that Puri does not
discuss but is one more example of his thesis: the roiling debate about what to
do with the hundreds of thousands of artifacts that were, over the centuries,
taken from across the globe and now sit proudly in the great museums of the
West. In recent history, because of the reach of Western power, most countries
have either acted as imperialists or found themselves subjugated, and in both
cases their national identity was profoundly shaped by the experience.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Even
the United States has been deeply affected by imperialism, Puri says, arguing
that American slavery was an idea imported from Europe’s empires and was “the
ultimate manifestation of colonization, not of land but people.” In fact, the
MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes has described the historical circumstance of
African-Americans as “a colony within a nation.”<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Puri,
an expert on armed conflict who has worked in the British Foreign Office, makes
the case that Britain’s two pivotal decisions of the last several decades —
joining the United States in the Iraq war and Brexit — were both crucially
conditioned by the country’s imperial hangover. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Once
the world’s greatest imperial power, Britain clung to the idea that it had the
military strength, the diplomatic skill and above all the ambition to shape
far-flung parts of the globe. In addition, modern-day Iraq was a British
creation, cobbled together in 1920 out of three provinces of the collapsing
Ottoman Empire. London could once again decide Baghdad’s fate.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Brexit
was animated by a view that Britain was not a country defined by its proximity
to Europe. In fact, what had often characterized British nationalism was its
separation from the Continent. (In Shakespeare’s “Richard II,” John of Gaunt
gives voice to a deep-rooted English nationalism when he describes the island
nation as “this precious stone set in the silver sea / Which serves it in the
office of a wall / Or as a moat defensive to a house, / Against the envy of
less happier lands.”) <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">The
leading Brexiteers, including now-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, often spoke
about a “global Britain,” continuing its historical mission around the world,
forging closer ties in particular with its old colonies and dominions from
Canada to India to Australia.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">The
Russian case is in some ways even easier to make. Puri points out that “the
evolution of Russia was inextricably linked to its expansion, so much so that
it is unclear whether Russia created an empire or the process of imperialism
created Russia.” He dates the start of Russia’s European-facing empire to the
kingdom of Kievan Rus, which began in the ninth century in Kyiv, the
present-day capital of Ukraine. From those modest beginnings grew an empire
that at its height, after the Soviet Union’s victory in World War II, spanned
11 time zones and comprised almost 200 million people. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">When
you consider this history, Vladimir Putin’s remark that the collapse of the
Soviet Union was “a major geopolitical disaster of the century” makes sense,
especially if you listen to what he said immediately after: “Tens of millions
of our co-citizens and co-patriots found themselves outside Russian territory.
Moreover the epidemic of disintegration infected Russia itself.” These deep
imperial ties with Ukraine help explain why Putin’s brazen annexation of Crimea
was broadly popular within Russia.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">We
enter the postimperial 21st century with an unusual geopolitical dynamic. The
two leading powers on the planet, the United States and China, both derive a
great deal of their internal legitimacy and purpose from the notion that they
are anti-imperial nations. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">In
America’s case, its identity is tied to its birth story of rebelling against
the British Empire. In China’s case, every schoolchild is taught that the
country’s modern history began with Western imperialism humiliating and
crippling the Middle Kingdom for over a century. And yet both countries have
informal empires. The American one is a vast network of economic alliances and
military bases scattered around the world. China, for its part, is trying to
develop something quite similar with its huge Belt and Road Initiative, which
may swell to 10 times the size of the Marshall Plan.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">How
will these two distinctive postimperial superpowers interact in the 21st
century? What will be the consequences of the imperial shadows cast in this
new, emerging bipolar era? Unfortunately, Puri does not have much to say about
any of this. Having provided a fresh perspective on all the issues I have
raised above, he offers brief and intelligent speculation, but mostly proceeds
to simply recount the imperial histories of major countries or parts of the
world. <o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">Much
of this is well written, comprehensive and judicious, but it is still potted
history. Having introduced a fascinating subject, Puri declines to fully engage
and explore his own thesis. He seems to imply that this task is left to the
reader, but that leaves too much to us, and lets the author of this stimulating
book off the hook too easily.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><a class="ribbon date " href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-centenary-of-death-of-rosenbergs-rat.html" itemprop="url" style="color: #eeeeee; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; float: left; left: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 5px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 35px;" title="1st February"><div class="top ribbon-piece" style="background-color: #666666; border-bottom: 1px solid rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6); border-radius: 1px 1px 0px 0px; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 5px; font-size: 11px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 4px 0px; position: relative; text-transform: uppercase; transition: background-color 0.5s ease-in 0s;">FEB</div><div class="bottom ribbon-piece" style="background-color: #666666; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 5px; font-size: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px; transition: background-color 0.5s ease-in 0s;">1</div><div class="tail" style="height: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><div class="left ribbon-piece" style="background-color: #666666; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 5px; height: 10px; left: -9px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: -10px; transform: rotate(-25deg); transition: background-color 0.5s ease-in 0s; width: 50px;"></div><div class="right ribbon-piece" style="background-color: #666666; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2) 0px 0px 5px; height: 10px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: -9px; top: -10px; transform: rotate(25deg); transition: background-color 0.5s ease-in 0s; width: 50px;"></div></div></a><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><a data-id="4903403594616330671" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-centenary-of-death-of-rosenbergs-rat.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">On the Centenary of the Death of Rosenberg’s Rat: 'there is only hope and imagination left'</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=4903403594616330671&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><p style="margin: 1em 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQBZDs6YUOyqgDye4-nVAgLQcDNOJGSet8aaBEA683KCmAf2SXb0Bb37y8IEwP3CrExctudV7CiXR5ANMqUVJ17Zkq1upTyfeElBc8Ra8vnvhuCmREYVy87Kqp8djiTJYFx854HrE-fzE/s1600/ratsrosenberg-1.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" height="492" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQBZDs6YUOyqgDye4-nVAgLQcDNOJGSet8aaBEA683KCmAf2SXb0Bb37y8IEwP3CrExctudV7CiXR5ANMqUVJ17Zkq1upTyfeElBc8Ra8vnvhuCmREYVy87Kqp8djiTJYFx854HrE-fzE/s640/ratsrosenberg-1.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></p><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 41.25pt; margin: 11.25pt 0cm 24pt; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="color: #141823; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 17.5pt;">On the Centenary of the Death of Rosenberg’s Rat<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.05pt; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #141823; font-size: 16pt;">I Cosmopolitan Sympathies</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #141823; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /><br />Being of follower of Tom Paine -<br />Like Rosenberg’s Rat<br />I have cosmopolitan sympathies.<br />No doubt Remy would have said:<br />‘The world is my country<br />To be a rat is my condition’<br />Though in its squeak<br />There would have doubtless been:<br />“Un peu de sarcasme – Monsieur”<br />[In an attempt to engage obliquely<br />We idealists feign the droll and sardonic].<br /><br />Across in the opposition trenches<br />A German Corporal of Austrian origins<br />Would not have approved of Remy or Rosenberg<br />As he said some very nasty things<br />About rats and Jews, purporting<br />Both to be scavengers<br />Who fought bloodily among themselves -<br />With the latter hell bent on world domination -<br />But Isaac wrote simply:<br />“Nothing can justify war.<br />I suppose we must all fight to get the trouble over."<br /><br />How the Gefreiter could have believed<br />What he did is hard to credit<br />Given that he was awarded the Iron Cross First Class<br />At the special intercession of his Regimental Adjutant<br />Leutnant Hugo Guttman who was also Jewish<br />And who personally pinned the award to his chest.<br />This he later wore as Führer und Reichskanzler.<br />Hugo had been awarded the Iron Cross First Class<br />Four years earlier to the day but was forced<br />Twenty-five years later to flee to St Louis<br />Where lived out his days as Henry G. Grant.<br /><br />The Regimental Runner’s life had been spared<br />At the Battle of St Quentin Canal in late 1918<br />When the most decorated private in the British Army<br />Henry Tandey had held his fire at Marcoing<br />After Adolf had tottered into his rifle sights<br />And as a sentiment the latter kept a copy<br />Of an English newspaper report of Henry<br />Being awarded his Victoria Cross<br />For carrying a wounded comrade under fire<br />And later acquired a copy of the painting by Matania<br />That depicted Tandey’s courage at the Kruiseke Crossroads<br /><br />Of which he commented to Chamberlain at the Berghof:<br />“That man came so near to killing me that<br />I thought I should never see Germany again;<br />Providence saved me from such devilishly accurate fire<br />As those English boys were aiming at us”.<br />Just a few short miles away my countryman<br />Wilfred Owen died crossing the Sambre-Oise Canal<br />Having won the Military Cross near Amiens<br />And two years later his mother wrote to Rabindranath Tagore<br />That Wilfred had said goodbye with:<br />“When I go from hence, let this be my parting word”.<br /><br />After the shrieking iron had stilled, the flames had cindered<br />And the poppy was lustrous red, free of the dust of war,<br />When the silence had come - the rats had a lean time<br />With the end of their fresh meat rations<br />But the trenches were filled, the borders opened<br />And eventually dismantled in many places<br />So people came and went as they pleased -<br />Under Schengen and EU acquis communautaire -<br />And scion Remy Ratatouille became a famous chef in Paris.<br />It would be sweet to have dessert and sit back at this juncture<br />But true stories are a movable feast and there is no separation.<br /><br /></span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #141823; font-size: 16pt;">II Small Horizons</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #141823; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /><br />Growing up as a country boy of small horizons<br />I was much in awe of old Edmond Tickle<br />Who lived in a cottage on Long Lane in Wettenhall<br />And worked then as a platelayer on the railways<br />But who had been with the Cheshire Regiment<br />In Iraq ‘chasing the Turks’ - with his comrade Charlie Dickens,<br />Who souvenired a copy of the Maude Proclamation in Baghdad:<br />“Our armies do not come into your cities and lands<br />As conquerors or enemies but as liberators -<br />In the hope and desire of the British people that the Arab race<br />May rise once more to greatness and renown...”<br /><br />Britain had fielded an army of half a million men<br />In the ‘Mes-Pot’ or Mesopotamia Campaign<br />Of whom three quarters were from British India.<br />Provisions and armaments for the sepoys were hugger-mugger<br />And there were 3-4 doctors for every 3-4 thousand wounded.<br />But conditions were not cushy for T. Atkins and E. Tickle either.<br />During a three week period in 1917, temperatures<br />Did not fall below 116 degrees Fahrenheit<br />And 423 British and 59 Indian troops died of heat stroke.<br />Though every effort was to be made to score as heavily as possible before the whistle blew<br />And in October 1918 General Cobbe broke the Armistice of Mudros and occupied Mosul.<br /><br />Outback of Townsville and up into Cape York<br />I got to know Jack Kelly who had been a trooper<br />With the Australian Light Horse in Palestine<br />No doubt Jack have concurred with his English comrade Bob Wilson<br />That, on crossing the border from Egypt, the land around Gaza<br />Was "delightful country, cultivated to perfection with chiefly barley and wheat<br />If not better looking than on most English farms.<br />The villages were very pretty – a mass of orange, fig and other fruit trees.<br />The relief of seeing such country after the miles and miles<br />Of bare sand was worth five years of a life."<br />The charges of the Light Horse and the Mounted Rifles became legendary.<br /><br />So in December 1917, General Allenby walked<br />Through the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem to show respect -<br />British Prime Minister Lloyd George having described its capture as<br />"A great morale boost and Christmas present for the Empire".<br />Allenby was the first Christian in many centuries to control Jerusalem.<br />In 1099, Godfrey de Bouillon and the Roberts II of Flanders and Normandy<br />Had taken Jerusalem from a Fatimid Garrison and<br />‘No one ever saw or heard of such slaughter of pagan people,<br />For funeral pyres were formed from them like pyramids,<br />And no one knew their number except God alone’.<br />And the Jews were incinerated in their synagogue refuge.<br /><br />But things had not always gone to plan.<br />Sir Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend’s 6th Poona Division<br />Had been besieged for five months at Kut-al-Amara<br />And surrendered with 13,164 soldiers being taken prisoner.<br />For the British, this humiliation was followed by another<br />Defeat in the Battle of Gallipoli four months later -<br />Leading Curzon and Chamberlain to renew the campaign<br />With greater vigour, arguing that ‘there would be no net saving<br />In troops if a passive policy in the Middle East<br />Encouraged Muslim unrest in India, Persia and Afghanistan’<br />So Jack and Edmond had to stick to the job.<br /><br />And finally, the Australians under Chauvel swept in a Great Ride<br />Spear-heading the capture of Homs, Damascus, Beirut and then Aleppo<br />Traversing 800 kilometres from the Palestinian coast<br />Across the plains of Armageddon and into Syria,<br />As thousands of Turks and Arabs died and 78, 000 were captured<br />And T.E. Lawrence snarled at the Aussies winning the race to Damascus<br />"Too sure of themselves to be careful... thin-tempered, hollow... instinctive"<br />Meanwhile Townsend was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath,<br />And given the use of a yacht by the Pashas in Istanbul,<br />Though they had executed, starved and brutalized his Indian troops.<br />And he eventually became Member of Parliament for The Wrekin in Shropshire<br /><br /></span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #141823; font-size: 16pt;">III What goes around, comes around</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #141823; font-size: 11.5pt;"><br /><br />And now in the Pas-de-Calais and Picardy<br />Come the summer, the rape seed will be gold<br />Kissed by the deep high sky and the noble sun<br />And the poplars will rustle in the light wind.<br />But in the ancient land of the two rivers<br />The crescent moon fades on barren land<br />With sheep unshorn and the wheat unsown<br />Shells, wrecks and sumps in the wilderness<br />The sun rising pitiless where the shade is cut:<br />So its sculptors rule with sneers of cold command<br />And hands that kill let children go unfed.<br /><br />And there will be wars and rumours of wars<br />Folk wanderings and escapes from bondage<br />Pillars of fire before, and writing on the wall,<br />Angered gods and stiff-necked supplicants,<br />Promised lands flowing with milk and honey<br />And homesick girls amid the alien corn.<br />That there is nothing new under the sun is sure<br />That we will wander following an empty ark<br />For a century living off the fat of the land<br />Or smitten by famine, plagued by boils and vermin<br />Visited with iniquity to the third and fourth generations.<br /><br />What goes around, comes around<br />And what goes over the horse’s head<br />Comes out under its belly or behind its arse.<br />So now we have thousands of dispossessed<br />Fleeing from Aleppo and Baghdad<br />The subject of a distant war and a want of peace<br />For the pity is in the hundreds drowned<br />And the thousands of fleeing children abducted:<br />Of small figures floated face-down<br />And brought to the shore and its pebbles<br />With their tiny faces posed for reportage.<br /><br />Higgledy piggledy - it starts again<br />Rats in a hamper, sheep in a pen<br />Flies in a bottle, frogs on the boil<br />Trusting to sieves in seeking safe soil,<br />Longing for harbour, haven and rest<br />Risking it all – the worst and the best:<br />Food for the waves, praying for land<br />Children now mute with mouthfuls of sand<br />Hist! Square shoulders, close up your gates<br />We’ll not let them in to our privileged states.<br /><br />Now the dispossessed are again like rats<br />For them the world is their country<br />And to do good for their own is their denomination -<br />With no place for them, they take their place<br />In forced marches, in queues at broken fences<br />Dashing, evading... on the look-out for scraps.<br />But then the sea did not part for our own children<br />As fired with portents and miracles<br />They crusaded and sought Jerusalem<br />But were sold Into slavery by cruel merchants<br />Or played to the deep by the Pied Piper<br /><br />“There must have been a moment when<br />There not being a war on went away -<br />How did we get from the one case of affairs<br />To the other case of affairs?”<br />“Do you mean "Why did the War start”?<br />“The war started because of the vile warmongers<br />And their villainous empire-building?”<br />“No - the real reason was that<br />It was too much effort not to have a war”.<br /><br />The logic remains the same.<br />There have been many villainies in pursuit of power<br />Many treacheries in pursuit of oil, land and resources<br />But the real reason is that life is not held sacred.<br />When a shepherd in Lemnos named Nasos<br />Milks his goats early to feed half-starved children<br />When a Croatian policeman turns away in tears<br />As a little girl embraces him for small kindnesses<br />When helpers who visit The Jungle in Calais conclude:<br />"Beneath the tragedy lies a painful, beautiful humanity of the most raw kind”<br />The world is still ours and doing some little good keeps faith.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.05pt; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #88816d; font-size: 10pt;">© 2016<o:p></o:p></span></div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2016-02-09T02:52:00.000Z">9th February 2016</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2021-01-31T23:56:00.002Z">1st February</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div><div class="share-controls delay" data-defer="" data-delay="1000" style="display: inline-block; margin: 10px 5px; outline: none; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; white-space: nowrap;"><span class="share-twitter twitter-share-button delay" data-count="" data-href="http://twitter.com/share" data-size="" data-text="On the Centenary of the Death of Rosenberg’s Rat: 'there is only hope and imagination left'" data-url="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-centenary-of-death-of-rosenbergs-rat.html" style="background-position: left center !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; display: inline-block; height: 20px; margin: 0px; transition: width 0.3s ease 0s; width: 110px;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets/tweet_button.html?url=https%3A%2F%2Fkjohnsonnz.blogspot.com%2F2021%2F01%2Fon-centenary-of-death-of-rosenbergs-rat.html&count=horizontal&text=On%20the%20Centenary%20of%20the%20Death%20of%20Rosenberg%E2%80%99s%20Rat%3A%20%27there%20is%20only%20hope%20and%20imagination%20left%27&size=medium" style="height: 20px !important;"></iframe></span> <span class="share-facebook delay" data-count="" data-layout="" data-text="On the Centenary of the Death of Rosenberg’s Rat: 'there is only hope and imagination left'" data-url="http://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2021/01/on-centenary-of-death-of-rosenbergs-rat.html" style="background-position: left center !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; display: inline-block; height: 20px; margin: 0px; transition: width 0.3s ease 0s; width: 90px;"><iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fkjohnsonnz.blogspot.com%2F2021%2F01%2Fon-centenary-of-death-of-rosenbergs-rat.html&send=false&layout=button_count&action=like&show_faces=false&colorscheme=light" style="height: 20px !important;"></iframe></span></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-6254452916812819902021-03-10T03:16:00.000-08:002021-03-10T03:16:03.040-08:00From the Past: 'Time cannot devour this bright circumstance' [Poetry commemorating NZ Poetry Day, August 2020]<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbXzdqfuRHfzZB5c_qk0PR_ZYFg7amd6Bvqbx8HiyeCMmrjbSzUPJmoBzXhnW-bOLRt2wr0kkb2lxLe7S2ZKgIxf0AD0jPfPSjFjxv3Q6AwCXKmKkOGmqJ5cY9eTdeAsXq_N7X62eSMc7/s640/ScorchingBay+n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="640" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbbXzdqfuRHfzZB5c_qk0PR_ZYFg7amd6Bvqbx8HiyeCMmrjbSzUPJmoBzXhnW-bOLRt2wr0kkb2lxLe7S2ZKgIxf0AD0jPfPSjFjxv3Q6AwCXKmKkOGmqJ5cY9eTdeAsXq_N7X62eSMc7/w640-h416/ScorchingBay+n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/08/time-cannot-devour-this-bright.html"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Time cannot devour
this bright circumstance</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 15.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 36.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">FOR NZ POETRY DAY 2020</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[It was a thoroughly
wonderful late morning today, here on the South Coast - with the brightest of
springtime sunshine available to relish brunch at the Scorch-O-Rama cafe.]</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 20pt;">Quietly I catch its Presence<br />
</span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;">The morning is one of
the most glorious:<br />
The sunlight is making surfaces shine<br />
Transmuting their forms to treasures<br />
Such that presence and beauty align.<br />
<br />
Do what you must restless relentless time<br />
To take away the lightness for shadow:<br />
This pure sunlit scene will always abide<br />
And I will protect it from foreshadow.<br />
<br />
Time cannot devour this bright circumstance:<br />
Aside the lion’s paws, the tiger’s jaws,<br />
Like the Phoenix it is immune from fears<br />
And will always signify existence.<br />
<br />
Quietly I catch its presence then<br />
And trace its beauty with a golden pen.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></span>
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<!--[endif]--></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And how fortunate I am
to live my life with poetry in mind - and still be able to write and celebrate
NZ National Poetry Day with some links to recent poems:</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All Shall Be Well</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/08/lady-julians-revelations-of-divine-love.html"><span style="color: #009eb8; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/08/lady-julians-revelations-of-divine-love.html</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lymph Massage</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/08/lymph-massage.html"><span style="color: #009eb8; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/08/lymph-massage.html</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Pain-Ridden</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/07/pain-ridden.html"><span style="color: #009eb8; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/07/pain-ridden.html</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Text for the Day</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/04/text-for-day.html"><span style="color: #009eb8; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/04/text-for-day.html</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let us Talk of Quiet
that We Know</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/08/already-dark-and-endless-ocean-of-end.html"><span style="color: #009eb8; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/08/already-dark-and-endless-ocean-of-end.html</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 24.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One Equal Temper</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/07/so-must-ship-seek-still-by-star-and.html"><span style="color: #009eb8; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/07/so-must-ship-seek-still-by-star-and.html</span></a><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica",sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-5785053411894495302021-03-08T21:02:00.001-08:002021-03-08T21:10:43.538-08:00International Women's Day - Giving Life No Less<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI0ZDQKf8wwgpeDDK7dq4pb0BWjWGt85MeEEemEdDUEp7YjrBYsJnMLgu9Ceq7RHdCSDABrO5GtQ5XJwLg70UBZHKvTluMrib0kZpCHC0hcPc1cWK6Aqoq1WoIOvQfMPsYRFwJpeTvw1iM/s566/HesVORd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI0ZDQKf8wwgpeDDK7dq4pb0BWjWGt85MeEEemEdDUEp7YjrBYsJnMLgu9Ceq7RHdCSDABrO5GtQ5XJwLg70UBZHKvTluMrib0kZpCHC0hcPc1cWK6Aqoq1WoIOvQfMPsYRFwJpeTvw1iM/w452-h640/HesVORd.jpg" width="452" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/international-womens-day"><span style="font-size: x-large;">International Women's Day</span></a></div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That there may be a Deep Human Ancestral Homology of Myth, concerning the Male and the Female Counterparts of Life and Death, is undeniable to many of us. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hence my delight at being reminded of extraordinary Folk Memories of the Power of Ancient Feminism in Western Europe [through the imagery of the Open Vulva / Transformative Vagina] - and of the opportunity to match this imagery to that of the Archetype some 20,000 km distant, as exemplified by 'the regular encounter with the Sacred Vagina' at Maori Meeting Places or 'Marae' here in New Zealand:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSebkgraVttJDNXAA9v9HvCQW4G3lEQn0g7kTfoGr7p0qEPYdgjdb7eeWL7B4c7BeCKtHxGo2wPl9mirg4cRGjc1rddH4x4Hy_PgBeMh6Nzw7X6HvV55UEHwADNcVlS-1thlQlTuK-yAd4/s300/SHIELA+NA+GIG.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="180" data-original-width="300" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSebkgraVttJDNXAA9v9HvCQW4G3lEQn0g7kTfoGr7p0qEPYdgjdb7eeWL7B4c7BeCKtHxGo2wPl9mirg4cRGjc1rddH4x4Hy_PgBeMh6Nzw7X6HvV55UEHwADNcVlS-1thlQlTuK-yAd4/w640-h384/SHIELA+NA+GIG.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: #ab0613; font-size: 24pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Big vagina energy: the return of the Sheela
na Gig<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #c70000; font-size: 12pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/jenny-stevens">Jenny
Stevens</a>, </span></b><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/08/big-vagina-energy-the-return-of-the-sheela-na-gig" style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/08/big-vagina-energy-the-return-of-the-sheela-na-gig</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.twitter.com/jenny_stevens"><b><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #767676; font-size: 12pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">@jenny_stevens</span></i></b></a><b><i><u><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #767676; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">, The Guardian, </span></u></i></b><span style="color: #767676; font-size: 12pt;">8 Mar 2021</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Some say the explicit medieval carvings were fertility
symbols; others that the figures were meant to ward off evil. Now a group of
Irish feminists are bringing them back – as a reminder of women’s struggles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Carved into stone, these women squat, naked, sometimes
cackling, pulling open their enlarged labia: it’s no wonder Victorian clergymen
attempted to destroy or hide the glorious, mysterious figures known as sheela
na gigs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">The carvings are found on medieval churches, castles and
even gateposts in Ireland, the UK and much of mainland Europe. They seem to
have their origins in the 11th century; the oldest discovered in the British
Isles so far dates back to the 12th century, the youngest to the 16th. Yet
their beginnings are an enigma.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;"> Early theories from
art historians claimed they were grotesque hag figures to warn against the sins
of lust – a way of keeping the minds of churchgoers and monks pure. Others
suggest they are a talisman against evil: the act of women flashing their
genitals has been believed to scare off demons as far back as the ancient
Greeks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">More recently, researchers have leaned towards the idea that
the sheela is a pre-Christian folk goddess and her exaggerated vulva a sign of
life-giving powers and fertility. Even her name is an enigma – although one
theory is that “sheela” could mean an old woman or crone, and “gig” was slang
for genitals.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">If there ever was such a thing as “big dick energy”, the
sheela na gig is the embodiment of big vagina energy. She has long fascinated
and inspired academics and artists alike – a PJ Harvey song is devoted to her:
“You exhibitionist!” Harvey sings on her 1992 single Sheela-Na-Gig; Sarah Lucas
has also incorporated them into her work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">And now, the sheela is being given another lease of life. In
Dublin this week, new sheelas crafted in clay with 22-carat gold-lustred labia
and beautifully glazed vulvas will be covertly placed in sites that are
significant to women’s struggle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">“Irish feminists have reinterpreted the concept of the
sheela,” says the ceramicist behind Project Sheela, who has asked to remain
anonymous. “Some scholars thought the sheela was an image of evil, or the
embodiment of sin, but we see the sexuality of the sheela as positive and
empowering,” she says.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">The scandal of Irish mother and baby homes, where thousands
of unmarried mothers and their young children were subject to horrific cruelty
and abuse by a network of institutions run by the state and the Catholic
church, is still coming to light - as are the mass graves where neglected
babies were buried in secret. Last year, Project Sheela placed one of its
sheelas outside one of the former homes – or Magdalene laundries, as they were
known – on Sean MacDermott Street in Dublin, the last laundry to close when it
shut its doors in 1996.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">“We wanted to honour the women who suffered there,” says the
project’s spokesperson. “The reason women were sent to these laundries was
because of the Catholic church seeing women’s sexuality as dangerous and sinful
– the women were punished and abused by the nuns, who believed they were evil.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">The sheela, she says, is an important “symbol against
misogyny – one of unapologetic female empowerment and sexuality”. The two
artists behind Project Sheela – one a ceramicist, the other a street artist –
want the project to “be independent from us as artists”, hence their anonymity.
Due to Covid, they have been confined to Dublin, but they want to spread the
sheelas to other cities too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Whatever its origins or meaning, there is something
entrancing and alluring about the image of the sheela. Dr Barbara Freitag, a
former lecturer in intercultural studies at Dublin City University and author
of the 2004 book Sheela Na Gigs: Unravelling an Enigma, was the first to put
academic muscle behind the idea of the sheela as a goddess or talisman. She
became fascinated by sheelas in the 1980s after reading about a US academic who
had been denied access to see some that were “hidden away” in the National
Museum of Ireland in Dublin. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">What could possibly be so frightful, she thought. “And, of
course, the prevailing theory at the time was that these were portraying the
evil of lust – and that they were put up on churches as warnings – which is
absurd.” Why? “Because they’re so high up,” she says. “You’d almost need
binoculars to see some of them!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Freitag travelled widely through England and Ireland and
found that “they were obviously figures that had nothing to do with the church
originally. They were found predominantly in rural areas, and we have quite a
lot of documents showing that people there guarded these sheelas with their
lives against the priests, in particular here in Ireland, who were trying to
destroy them – and did destroy them. There are various decrees from bishops
saying they should be hacked off walls.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">When Freitag visited communities where sheelas were present,
“fertility was always the first word that came up”. One of the women she spoke
to told her that, at lambing time, farmers still present a ewe to the sheela in
the hope that it would lead to a fertile spring. They are rural phenomena,
because those people “relied on life-giving powers”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">The notion of sympathetic magic – that you can touch an
object and receive its power – is key to understanding the sheelas, Freitag
believes. “In medieval times, there was such a high maternal mortality rate
that you wanted a big vulva to ensure the child came out as quickly as
possible, because a long, protracted birth could well mean the death of the
child and the mother.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Medieval childbirth aids “were about making the vulva flabby
and big – such as putting butter in the vagina to help the baby slide out
quicker,” she says. So it makes sense that the sheelas would act as a talisman
to aid childbirth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Ireland has by far the highest concentration of sheela na
gigs, with more than 100 of them, as documented by enthusiast Jack Roberts and
his Sheela Na Gig project. But they have also been found as far and wide as
England, Wales, Scotland, Italy, France, Spain and Norway.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">“There is a great variety in the ways sheelas are
presented,” says Prof Georgia Rhoades, who published a paper on sheela na gigs
in 2010. “We don’t have to lock them down with just one possible
interpretation.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Rhoades points to the sheelas’ similarities with other
figures, such as the ancient Greek goddess Baubo, who was depicted with her
vulva showing. “I really hope that people are beginning to see the joy in some
of them,” says Rhoades, pointing to several sheelas that clearly look like
depictions of masturbation. “There is one in Oaksey in Wiltshire and her vulva
is right down to her knees and she’s grinning, like she’s celebrating something
– and I like to think she’s celebrating female sexuality. And she’s really the
only decoration in the church.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">One thing that most of these figures have in common is that
the upper parts of their bodies belong to elderly women. This fascinated
Freitag. Why were these figures of fertility also so reminiscent of mortality?
“The answer is, of course, because life and death go hand in glove,” she says.
In Church Stretton, in Shropshire, a sheela na gig sits above the door that the
dead would be brought in and out of. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">“The ideas of birth and death are essential to thinking
about the vulva,” says Rhoades. “To me, the Church Stretton, Sheela is saying
that you come out of the earth, you return to the earth, you come out of me and
you return to me … You can ignore death as much as you want to, but death is
going to come.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrdRSjxz5phzLPhQ_QSbAU34asJaALsE6ZUdxyfTFHdlUD0tjbzmHYnIKYyCOAoliyxD9N7Y-QrX1zI3h-OGAFx1xnsPCIkMnFIFs28oOcBro6EzqyF8AV02lnJElQwL231ICBS2VkTliP/s637/SACRED+VAGINA+fd99ff_68a6bfb37c474305a569b1700b99ffe1_mv2.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="637" data-original-width="360" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrdRSjxz5phzLPhQ_QSbAU34asJaALsE6ZUdxyfTFHdlUD0tjbzmHYnIKYyCOAoliyxD9N7Y-QrX1zI3h-OGAFx1xnsPCIkMnFIFs28oOcBro6EzqyF8AV02lnJElQwL231ICBS2VkTliP/w362-h640/SACRED+VAGINA+fd99ff_68a6bfb37c474305a569b1700b99ffe1_mv2.webp" width="362" /></a></div><br /><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: large;">A FEMINIST ENCOUNTER WITH THE ARCHETYPE IN AOTEAROA</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: medium;">An Encounter with the Sacred Vagina</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.serendipitousencounters.com/single-post/2018/05/14/An-Encounter-with-the-Sacred-Vagina">https://www.serendipitousencounters.com/single-post/2018/05/14/An-Encounter-with-the-Sacred-Vagina</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQMPx0dkKKSQFByo6gEr200TyNbX3wLFTg3Sagwt0Al4y1fexoFQj6QxTgmiQY-_tp8ZxAQcHWihqqnXuMnnu3mDSx224mIpuAJc4JplobGvMzQAdJrlkEnaptrIxzEzrQL_yESfjRc3K/s78/VULVA.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="78" data-original-width="78" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCQMPx0dkKKSQFByo6gEr200TyNbX3wLFTg3Sagwt0Al4y1fexoFQj6QxTgmiQY-_tp8ZxAQcHWihqqnXuMnnu3mDSx224mIpuAJc4JplobGvMzQAdJrlkEnaptrIxzEzrQL_yESfjRc3K/w400-h400/VULVA.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">As I enter the marae-atea, the sacred open space in the
front of the wharenui, the traditional Maori meeting house, I feel already the
process of transformation taking place. I hear the voice of our haukainga,
Maori host, inviting us to come together in preparation for the karanga - the
ceremony of calling to the guests, to welcome us onto the marae. He is inviting
us to leave behind any mis/pre/conceptions we have of the indigenous ways of
seeing the world around us, and dive deep into another space, full of symbolism
of the sacred feminine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">It is a delicate, early spring afternoon, after days of
non-stop rain. The large yellow flowers of the Kōwhai tree, heralding spring,
add a tint to the translucent, timid almost light that surrounds us. I am
standing on the grass, in bare feet, listening to our host requesting us to
acknowledge nature, whenua, the elements and I instinctively place my hands in
a triangle shape just below my belly button, attuning myself to whatever it is
that is happening around me, through this man’s invocation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">I am drawing energy from Papatūānuku, mother earth, the
sacred dragon, inviting the serpent to climb up into my body through my legs. I
am mystified. Where are these thoughts and the obeying of the body coming from?
I am in some kind of cosmic flow.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="font-size: large;">Te-noho-kotahitanga-marae</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">The haukainga’s voice acts both as an anchoring presence and
a guiding force to something new… he is now talking about the nearby Wairaka
stream, its sacredness and its ability to nurture and heal people. I am drawn
more and more into another dimension that is opening up to me like a
revelation. How is it possible that what I already know is felt like a new
experience? Perhaps it’s ‘the feeling’ that makes the difference rather than
just ‘the knowing’?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">We are all now walking in formation towards the Wharenui.
The kaikaranga’s voice acts as a compass:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Karanga ra ki nga ope tūārangi Kua eke nei Ki te marae e te
iwi e<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">The young Maori woman in dreadlocks leading us into the
Wharenui is visibly emotional, tears streaming down her face, making an effort
to contain her sobbing. I feel what she feels, the connection with the
ancestors bringing up, from deep in the subconscious, our need to belong, to be
part of a continuum that gives meaning to our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">I, the visitor, become a guest on the marae. I am given
birth into my new status, but only because the vagina---represented by the
carved entrance to the Wharenui--- “aggressively, lovingly and soulfully--
earthily and spiritually”- strips me of all remaining tapu from my accumulated
life to that moment.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">“Transformed by the ancestor’s digestive and sexual
orifices, people grow into new relationships and therefore new people.”
Entering this beautifully carved building is like entering the vagina, where
the masculine---represented here by the procession led by the kaikaranga and us
the guests--- meets the feminine and gives birth to a new self, a rebirth or
recreation of the self. Once I go through the doors and into this space, I hear
our host say, I am expected to come out transformed, in the manner of “I will
not be the same again.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">I love this metaphor and it amuses me somewhat when I
realize the synchronicity, involved in this unexpected ceremony. For just the
night before, I had fallen asleep listening to a piece of music by Neonymus,
recorded in the Neanderthal Cave of San Pelayo, after spending my evening
reading a chapter from a book on the Healing Power of the Sacred Woman that
talked about the need for women and humanity to reclaim the sacred vagina, the
mother earth, the feminine, subjugated by patriarchy for thousands of years.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 20pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Te-noho-kotahitanga-marae</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Neonymus’ music was very evocative with sounds coming from
deep within the earth, echoing the planetary womb. I was reminded then that
just a few days earlier, while traveling abroad, I had bought an agate crystal,
cut in a big round thin sliver that brought out translucent rich reds and
oranges and yellows, all in a concentric formation resembling a sperm like
looking head entering the egg in the uterus. I bought it because of its colours
but also because of its symbolism, the coming together of the feminine and the
masculine forces of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Could this be one of those synchronicity cases Jung talked
about, where our subconscious seems to attract situations that on the outside
they look arbitrarily thrown together but upon close inspection you discover a
linking thread that makes the events part of the same story; a story that is
still unfolding and where serendipity comes to play a role?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">The voice of our host brings me back. The process of
transformation is complete, I hear him saying, with the mingling of breath,
when tangata whenua - the people of the land - and us, the manuhiri (guests)
hongi (press noses together); and when we share food after entering the body of
the shared tipuna via the ancestral mouth/vagina represented by the meeting
house. “We eat having been eaten!”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">The visualization of this cannibalistic sounding act is so
powerfully earthy that I long to be taken in by the ancestral mouth, devoured
by mother earth, enclosed by the deep dark inner sanctum of the sacred feminine
and being transformed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Welcome to Aotearoa, I whisper to myself. In a few days, I
am going to be at another ceremony, a civic one this time that will confirm my
New Zealand citizenship. But I feel this spiritual ceremony is what binds me
now to Aotearoa and the tangata whenua; the day I experience my own entry into
the ancestral vaginal mouth and reclaim my own sacred feminine power.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626;"><span style="font-size: large;">Post Script</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Three days after this symbolic and deeply affecting event, I
agreed to an impromptu day trip to Bethells Beach, an iconic seascape near
Auckland. It was a wet spring day. While at the beach the weather held dry but
still moody and heavy cast with a light breeze. We walked towards the far end
where there is a big cave. My friend turned to me to ask if I was “ready to
brave it.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">I was not sure. A few years back – it must have been three
years ago - she had taken me there knowing that I have a natural dislike to
enclosed spaces, especially caves. Although I had reluctantly agreed to follow
her in, it was with a terrible sense of uneasiness and once inside I fought an
overwhelming sense of claustrophobia that was almost nauseating. This time, she
let me brave it on my own, perhaps sensing that I can do it myself, without
holding my hand as she did the first time. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">I walked all the way into the far lower end of the cave and
sat in the darkness feeling completely at ease with my surroundings. I felt
cocooned and protected, the silence surrounding me a natural, empty and yet
pregnant with energy space. Could it be that by entering the sacred vagina at
the Marae, I symbolically acknowledged my feminine side and made amends with
it? Perhaps the haukainga was right, once you enter the Marae’s vagina you are
never the same again. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">***<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Three months later, I went back to the Marae to talk to
Whaea L about my looming operation. She is known to be a wise Maori elder, well
respected for her indigenous grounded spirituality and healer’s touch. I
started talking about my Marae experience and the exploration of the indigenous
concept of the vagina and femaleness, crucial elements I felt to my
health-related issues. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">She abruptly stood up, asked me to wait for her for a few
minutes while she went to her car to bring something she felt it was meant to
be shared with me. What she brought back was a gray blanket she was given to as
a child full of personal and collective symbolism. I was perplexed, a blanket?
Once she unfolded it, I understood. I saw photos of landscapes pinned to the
fabric. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">Perhaps it was our talk about vaginas but that's all I could
see in them. The entry and exit point of a tunnel into a mountain that indeed
looked like the opening of a woman’s body. Whaea L explained that this was of
part her childhood’s landscape, the photos were taken from her ancestral land.
The tunnel was carved by her great-great uncle for the women of his iwi, a
place to perform their monthly ritual passage through the darkness of mother earth,
Papatūānuku, and into the light and the sea for cleansing on the other side.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">***</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">I felt drawn to this landscape, wishing I could have
performed that passage myself when I most needed it, remembering with regret
how my own passage to womanhood went unnoticed, filled first with fear and then
apprehension at the appearance of that first blood through my legs. My eldest
sister gave me a sanitary pad while providing kindly but with the briefest of
explanations, “Ah, that! You just got your first period.” </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">And that’s what my
passage to womanhood was all about, an uneventful moment that did not even
merit a chat with my mother who feeling exhausted by her demanding job was, I
am sure, relieved to hear that the ‘incident’ was dealt with by her eldest
daughter. No ritual passage, no ceremony, no celebration in a household full of
women. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;">And what followed was years of the convenience store woman wrapping up
the sanitary pads in newspaper so the men sitting in the little town’s square
would not see what I was carrying. Years of being excused from going to church
or having holy communion on those Sundays blood run through my legs, always
wondering why God created women if ‘HE’ disliked them so much. But that was a
male God and that explained it all.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 4.5pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-themecolor: text1; mso-themetint: 217;"><br /></span></p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><a data-id="5214262307301958257" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-maori-legend-concerning-permanence.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The Maori Legend concerning the Permanence of Death: Tane and Hine-nui-te-Po</span></a></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLA3do-SjIkunTsdfUSSJB2zsIS9xHadEKkIZq0jcNp2e7vWmmGEIGdo5r8E-Tl8VityzdL1B93O1rnc-j4YJer33WGRViWOr2WokbDA1z7YSbu1Ef3xkFZZxsu6Qdu_8LRGpxj86tdSx/s1600/Hine.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirLA3do-SjIkunTsdfUSSJB2zsIS9xHadEKkIZq0jcNp2e7vWmmGEIGdo5r8E-Tl8VityzdL1B93O1rnc-j4YJer33WGRViWOr2WokbDA1z7YSbu1Ef3xkFZZxsu6Qdu_8LRGpxj86tdSx/s640/Hine.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="634" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: #f9f7f4; font-family: georgia, palatino, "palatino linotype", times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-small;">Painting by Danny Ngene Ngene </span><br /><span style="background-color: #f9f7f4; font-family: georgia, palatino, "palatino linotype", times, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 18px;"><br /></span><br /><div style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 21.5pt;">Tane and Hine-nui-te-Po<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">May verse seed hope in death,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Being spent in bliss of love,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Into that great darkness<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Where Tane came in dread<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">To seek redemption and redress.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Formed from the earth<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">His wife gave birth<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">And their daughter<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The girl of the flashing dawn<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Was born in sunlit splendor<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">But he took this daughter<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">As his slave and plaything<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Until shame caught her<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">And she fled and sought<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">The spirit world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">And at its gate<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">She stopped her lover-father<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Bidding him return<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">To care for their children<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Saying: ‘I will see them again<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">They will come to me in due time”<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">So death itself was born<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">And she became the night.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">But Tane grew angry,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">As those he loved were claimed,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Hating the Dark Child-Mother<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">But lusting for her still<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Then he sought to enter her,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">A once and final act,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">This time to claim her forever,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Becoming a penis for the task,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Penetrating so deep<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">He would leave through her mouth<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">To void the curse.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">But vain as he was,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">He had summoned the birds<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">To watch his vengeance<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">And the little pied tumbler<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Or pi’waka’waka laughed,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Waking Hine-nui-te-Po<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Who slew Tane with her thighs<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">And she appointed<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Thenceforth the tiny fantail<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">As her messenger.<o:p></o:p></span><br /><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"></span><br /><div style="border: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Then was mankind lost.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Now as we seek release<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Each little death quietens<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">To an after-silence<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Sacred to the dark daughter<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">And only poetry betrays<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Our longings and regrets<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">For that ever-risen dawn<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;">Still misted from her breath.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"><br /></span></div></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;">----------------------------</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0in;"><a href="http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/28776/hine-nui-te-po" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: georgia, serif;"></span></a><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span lang="EN" style="color: blue; font-family: georgia, serif;"><a href="http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/28776/hine-nui-te-po" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/28776/hine-nui-te-po</a></span><span style="font-family: "times new roman", serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/ogden-nashs-australasian-bestiary.html" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.co.nz/2012/12/ogden-nashs-australasian-bestiary.html</a><o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3pt; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2017-02-19T23:30:00.000Z">20th February 2017</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-44307733562757143272021-03-08T03:37:00.002-08:002021-03-08T03:38:09.297-08:00New Zealand Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy finally clarified!<p><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtcIY-AHrD2GhrP3TauT3akCoBIzOLqLsqXETGMZyG-28gtZAXKV7gf9nGX4NQEQk1NW2ZRzTcTDPxMKYa1co-qCZdQ-o6G3j2z8xkOs5Nbit-Luw27J6HB5qdic-RkGFI3wBtQ_SxvXs/s916/Covidimrs+%25281%2529.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="916" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwtcIY-AHrD2GhrP3TauT3akCoBIzOLqLsqXETGMZyG-28gtZAXKV7gf9nGX4NQEQk1NW2ZRzTcTDPxMKYa1co-qCZdQ-o6G3j2z8xkOs5Nbit-Luw27J6HB5qdic-RkGFI3wBtQ_SxvXs/w640-h426/Covidimrs+%25281%2529.webp" width="640" /></a></span></p><span><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span color="var(--color-ui-gray-darkest)" style="font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">New Zealand</span><a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-reveals-enough-pfizer-vaccines-for-every-new-zealander/BDEO4HPUGMPKKYO6A2FN4TIJHU/" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); color: #3d73d5; font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"> is tailoring its vaccination strategy </a><span color="var(--color-ui-gray-darkest)" style="font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, moving away from its</span><span color="var(--color-ui-gray-darkest)" style="font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><a href="https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/science-and-innovation/international-opportunities/covid-19-vaccine-strategy" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); color: #1955a5; font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">prior plans</a><span color="var(--color-ui-gray-darkest)" style="font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span><span color="var(--color-ui-gray-darkest)" style="font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">that relied on various manufacturers and products.</span></span></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/08/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/#link-WUUA44HRN5D6TC2N2SUCHNOPSQ">https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/03/08/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/#link-WUUA44HRN5D6TC2N2SUCHNOPSQ</a><o:p></o:p></p><div style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);">The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-newzealand/new-zealand-to-buy-enough-pfizer-covid-19-vaccines-for-entire-population-idUSKBN2B008J" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); color: #1955a5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">change was announced </a>by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday, who said her government had purchased an additional 8.5 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses, bringing the country’s total supply this year to 10 million. The additional doses mean that New Zealand expects to be able to vaccinate all of its about 5 million inhabitants with the same product, similar to the efforts that are already underway in Israel which are also <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/israels-clever-coronavirus-vaccination-strategy/a-56586888" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); color: #1955a5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">primarily centered</a> around the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.</p><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);"><br /></p></div><div style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);">“The decision to make Pfizer New Zealand’s primary vaccine provider was based on the fact the Pfizer vaccine has been shown to be about 95 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic infection,” Ardern said, <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-reveals-enough-pfizer-vaccines-for-every-new-zealander/BDEO4HPUGMPKKYO6A2FN4TIJHU/" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); color: #1955a5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">according to the New Zealand Herald.</a></p><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);"><br /></p></div><div style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);">Ardern said that previously struck deals with other companies would remain in place, indicating that the country could donate excess supply.</p><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);"><br /></p></div><div style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);">The additional Pfizer-BioNTech doses are expected to be delivered in the second half of the year.</p><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);"><br /></p></div><div style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);">The country’s vaccine rollout has been slower than in the United States or Europe, but New Zealand has so far recorded <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/mapping-spread-new-coronavirus/?itid=lk_inline_manual_44" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); color: #1955a5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">only 26 deaths</a> from covid-19. Ardern’s efforts to stamp out the virus within the country have won widespread acclaim around the world.</p><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);"><br /></p></div><div style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);">Recent virus outbreaks have prompted warnings that the country may still face challenges in the coming months, however, as enthusiasm about the vaccine rollout may result in waning compliance with coronavirus restrictions.</p><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);"><br /></p></div><div style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);">The country’s most populous city, Auckland, on Sunday <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-digest-auckland-emerges-from-weeklong-lockdown/a-56797195" style="border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213); color: #1955a5; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">ended a week-long </a>local lockdown that was introduced following the discovery of a cluster of new cases there late last month.</p><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);"><br /></p></div><div style="font-family: Franklin, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);">The expected vaccine deliveries bring the country “one step closer to moving away from restrictions to manage covid-19,” Ardern said Monday.</p><p class="font--body font-copy gray-darkest ma-0 pb-md" data-el="text" style="color: var(--color-ui-gray-darkest); font-family: georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: var(--font-size-small); line-height: 1.75; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: var(--md);"><br /></p></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-49753787165230515122021-03-06T23:20:00.003-08:002021-03-06T23:20:53.055-08:00Some of My Earliest Poetry - from 2012<p> </p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a data-id="174104573208525061" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2012/07/at-bookshop-having-coffee.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">At Quilter's Bookshop having Coffee</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=174104573208525061&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5fMiUmjd3WoSKqTqCIVKP5gAGkKL68XwWG6NOJqaczQpQ9ZH1k4V5v5GoBnlca6-yX-7KHAblH2heVoxFlHYPCs7tiXEyZkfKx9XGwTZFa8EPP7sv5b4N3mXT0f6IpG7uiXwQLWRHD4Y/s1600/CoffeeimagesCAO5VMSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" height="493" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5fMiUmjd3WoSKqTqCIVKP5gAGkKL68XwWG6NOJqaczQpQ9ZH1k4V5v5GoBnlca6-yX-7KHAblH2heVoxFlHYPCs7tiXEyZkfKx9XGwTZFa8EPP7sv5b4N3mXT0f6IpG7uiXwQLWRHD4Y/w640-h493/CoffeeimagesCAO5VMSM.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">With maturity comes freedom?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Rubbish.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">With an absence of choice</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Have I ceased to be a man?</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Reading Antony Burgess on morality</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">In the New Yorker,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">I wrestled with predestination -</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Nowt so queer as a clockwork orange.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">As far as I could tell, things you think are OK –</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Action makes it predestined.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">I squeezed a glance at the twenty-or-so blonde</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Bending over a second-hand book,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Wellington all the way – black and grey –</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">But great legs, dark tights.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Pity the haunches are hidden under a shift.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">And then back to Burgess –</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Maybe skins are choice –</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">It’s just peeling that’s wrong.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">A very late middle-aged man having a coffee</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Looking hopefully conspicuous –</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Fruit for thought.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The girl barista is also personable,<br />As well as making a great trim flat white.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">‘Girl, I’m goin to make you sweat’, the song has it.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Not in my case, I don’t have options –</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">They are just lookers.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Time was when the blush would bloom above the breasts</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">And heads would roll back –</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Now sin is passing me by.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Good has been imposed upon me.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">I never had to contend with mind control –</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">All the girls knew what I was thinking -</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Some tossed their curls, some bit lips - some smiled.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Most just practiced being admired - and were dismissive.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">But in the round</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Sad-to-say, I have lost free will -</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Now destined to an absence of choice</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">By unreciprocated zest.<br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">An orange that just ticks.</div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2012-07-04T07:49:00.001Z">4th July 2012</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Labels: <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Anthony%20Burgess%20and%20Predestination" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Anthony Burgess and Predestination</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Coffee%20Poetry%20in%20Wellington" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Coffee Poetry in Wellington</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Keith%20Johnson%20Poetry" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Keith Johnson Poetry</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Keith%20Johnson%20Wellington%20Poet" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Keith Johnson Wellington Poet</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Quilter's%20Bookshop" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Quilter's Bookshop</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Unreciprocated%20Zest%20and%20the%20Clockwork%20Orange" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Unreciprocated Zest and the Clockwork Orange</a></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><div class="article-header" style="color: black; display: table; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a data-id="3300599119780102068" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2012/09/jill-clayburgh-1944-2010.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Jill Clayburgh (1944 - 2010)</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=3300599119780102068&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzFchpaJnK25OOKP81lyD431k23_YQry52ShBMbsAtLHEDwUTn6WLGXSY8-yrMH-cQx8ubSyEmEKlH2eulSXgbdniMt_BggntpeDxZMHnwJsPP2Uh4KXWQOxBMxY4CvCxixofhs4KdAI/s1600/clayburgh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFzFchpaJnK25OOKP81lyD431k23_YQry52ShBMbsAtLHEDwUTn6WLGXSY8-yrMH-cQx8ubSyEmEKlH2eulSXgbdniMt_BggntpeDxZMHnwJsPP2Uh4KXWQOxBMxY4CvCxixofhs4KdAI/s320/clayburgh.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">FOR AN OLD LOVE</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Hey Jill, I still love you gal – dance again!</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">I used to joke about my ballet career</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">And splitting my tights with the Junior Kirov,</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">On my pas de deux debut in Omsk -</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">But we never met and my lifts are dodgy</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Though an entrechat might have easily disappeared</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Between your broken smile and mine,</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Entre chats with a coffee and bagel.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Few watch now as you swan Odette</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">And, as a clod with encroaching klutz</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">My dancing days are curtain-called</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">By a sore spot on my right foot.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">You were born in April, I in June</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Under Von Rundstedt’s spell -</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">And as the children of Operation Overlord</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">I could have spun a line to be your Siegfried.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">You could have swooned or swanned -</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Thighs caressed by the dark webs,</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Held in my arms or wings</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Quivering to the feathered glory.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Or then again, we could have walked and laughed</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">And watched the ducks in Central Park</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">And you could have sashayed your curls</span><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">And tippy-toed a deux or quatre avec moi.</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ecUHFT9ezIk?wmode=opaque" style="display: inline-block; max-width: 100%;" width="560"></iframe><br /><br /><br /></div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; color: black; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2012-09-19T02:11:00.001Z">19th September 2012</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Labels: <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Born%20in%201944" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Born in 1944</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Jill%20Clayburgh%20'An%20Unmarried%20Woman'" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Jill Clayburgh 'An Unmarried Woman'</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Jill%20Clayburgh%20Poem" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Jill Clayburgh Poem</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Jill%20Clayburgh%20remembered" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Jill Clayburgh remembered</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Leda%20and%20the%20Swan%20and%20Swan%20Lake" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Leda and the Swan and Swan Lake</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Operation%20Overlord" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Operation Overlord</a> <a class="label" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/search/label/Von%20Runstedt" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;" target="_self">Von Runstedt</a></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div></div></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><div class="article-header" style="color: black; display: table; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><a data-id="4191003159197413716" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2012/07/more-remarkable-occurrences-in-south.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">More Remarkable Occurrences in the South Seas</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=4191003159197413716&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkowJFNE0ASBdWfnQiYXDDnAg9mKukvESZ44sIWn3eXYf6-W8t2NmCqCLs2gX2vLEXLxpyHUjHHuGEiMiSxmUnfk5tvXixdTtLvy65Q0Rq0JRnYf6Phw3IbppgjH4wn1HVQMGq6tC_i0/s1600/AucklandPoleDancer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwkowJFNE0ASBdWfnQiYXDDnAg9mKukvESZ44sIWn3eXYf6-W8t2NmCqCLs2gX2vLEXLxpyHUjHHuGEiMiSxmUnfk5tvXixdTtLvy65Q0Rq0JRnYf6Phw3IbppgjH4wn1HVQMGq6tC_i0/w417-h640/AucklandPoleDancer.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="417" /></a></div><span style="font-size: 14px;">FROM STUFF TO SKY NEWS AND THE HUFFINGTON POST</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">July 16, 2012 linked the New Zealand and international media [including the Huffington Post] in exploring the intersection between the Transit of Venus and Polar Circumnavigation in South Auckland.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: 14px;">Otara-Papatoetoe Local Board representative Donna Lee says the culprits who are bending and breaking street signs are local prostitutes who pole-dance around the signs like strippers in a dance club.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">HELLO BOYS</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">I, Krystal-Stace on high-heels totting</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">This dawn the Johns besotting</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Living the high life turning tricks -</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">One of Auckland’s dancing chicks</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Have been arching til I’m numb</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Wiggling stop signs round my bum.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">What better way to flush a punter</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Than inside-leg a flash eye-opener</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">I live a full life – no better than I should</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Sustained by poles of steel or wood</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Risking burns to arse and nipple,</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The balm of love must keep me supple.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">But if my spiral gets upended</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">With these words I’d be appended</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">None should pull a fireman fairy-spin</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Where the Slow Down signs have rusted thin.<br /><br /><br /></div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; color: black; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2012-07-22T14:55:00.000Z">23rd July 2012</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div></div></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="labels" itemprop="keywords" style="color: grey; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-91892026175815508432021-03-06T21:52:00.002-08:002021-03-06T21:54:23.656-08:00Some of My Poetry from 2016<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8KqHeAHyqwilrK6Lt9T4YB6xvjGaVMaDktmEH_GhiKmBA-XUwmqaXuQTxVhHVv_pXBpnraxzAho_PK1KTcTt1Zg-1elrkVLQGJD59BkDCzYNv2JUOxeUiT4_DGE_N0DzT5y4FkLOSSHo0/s1200/2016pics-5762.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="772" data-original-width="1200" height="412" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8KqHeAHyqwilrK6Lt9T4YB6xvjGaVMaDktmEH_GhiKmBA-XUwmqaXuQTxVhHVv_pXBpnraxzAho_PK1KTcTt1Zg-1elrkVLQGJD59BkDCzYNv2JUOxeUiT4_DGE_N0DzT5y4FkLOSSHo0/w640-h412/2016pics-5762.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><h1 style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;">No Separation<o:p></o:p></span></h1><h1 style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;"> </span></h1><h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;">When sun has set and night has come<br />The road not taken leaves no trace<br />Of journeys once so near begun<br />All thought to part now left in place.<br /><br />But all roads cross and come to ground<br />As dark paths shift and circle back<br />There is no loss there is no found<br />Thorns and flowers will edge each track.<br /><br />And deep within the wily wood<br />Other lanes will branch in offering<br />Promises which are best withstood<br />Though such is neither bad nor good.<br /><br />No difference then to choose<br />The high road or the low<br />No use to fear to gain or lose<br />If way there be, the dawn will show</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: 400; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page;" /></span><span style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9pt;"><b><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;">The Last Word?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9pt;"><b><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;"> </span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;">They may never come again who knew the joy<br />Of youth among the mountains there<br />As time and use degrade and then destroy<br />All but the memories those hearts alone still bear.<br />But yet the hillsides graft a gentle scar<br />To bind the happenings of those who care<br />So that neither time nor loss can mar<br />The roots that land and lives forever share. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 21.4667px;"><br /></span></p></h1><h1 style="background: white; margin: 0in 0in 9pt;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20pt;">Daramoolen and The Dreamtime<o:p></o:p></span></h1><h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; line-height: 10.8pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;">[For the Ngunnawal people - traditional custodians of the Monaro Plains and the Canberra region]<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400; line-height: 10.8pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 9pt;"><span class="apple-converted-space"><br /></span></span></p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;">DARAMOOLEN AND THE DREAMTIME<br /><br /><br />Then there was no man<br />Or even woman<br />And the sky was clear<br />Only the sun<br />And beneath the sun<br />Lay the snake.<br /><br />So the snake slept<br />For long<br />Alone and inert<br />Until it awoke<br />Hungry and thirsty<br />Ready.<br /><br />Then the snake<br />Made a woman<br />From the moonlight<br />And when she<br />Had grown<br />He drank from her.<br /><br />After the snake had<br />Tasted the blood<br />The rain came<br />And the land came to life<br />With many creatures<br />And the snake became a rainbow.<br /><br />Then the woman said<br />‘Daramoolen<br />Make me a man<br />So that I can give birth’<br />And the Rainbow Snake<br />Made a man<br />And the woman was glad.<br /><br />So people came to the world<br />And children played.<br />And as the children grew<br />The mother told them:<br />‘With blood and rain<br />The snake made you.’<br /><br />But the man was curious<br />And when the moon came<br />He tasted the blood<br />From the woman<br />And cut himself<br />So that he too could bleed.<br /><br />Then the man<br />Mixed her blood with his<br />And the Rainbow snake<br />Became very angry<br />Saying: ‘these children<br />Are mine’.<br /><br />Then the snake went along<br />Far away<br />And drought<br />Covered the land<br />So that the people<br />Had no food and were afraid.<br /><br />So the woman<br />Sent her two eldest sons<br />To find Daramoolen<br />And they found him<br />Coiled cold against a<br />Great mountain.<br /><br />And the boys said:<br />‘Our mother has sent us<br />Open your mouth<br />And give us hope<br />That blood can<br />Bring the rain again’.<br /><br />And Daramoolen<br />Ate the boys<br />And they were gone<br />But he said to the woman:<br />‘Here is Jedinbilla -<br />Where boys become men’.<br /><br />And the snake made<br />Murra bidgee mullangari<br />[To keep the pathway<br />To the ancestors alive]<br />Saying: ‘Now the boys<br />Are colours on my skin<br /><br />Ngunna yerrabi yanggu<br />[So you are welcome<br />To leave footprints on the land]<br />Where your people<br />Will see the rain again<br /><br />And the man must dream’.</span></h1><div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium; font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></div><h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;">An Abandoned Farmhouse Garden in South Wairarapa <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;">FOR ANNIE GRANT<br />
<br />
She was a heavy, red and freckled lassie<br />
Shipped from Greenock as a serving maid<br />
But women were few in the colony<br />
And Jack stumped up with her passage paid.<br />
<br />
He was older, with money, but she was strong<br />
And she loved the work in making a farm:</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><br />
This was a place where she might belong<br />
Weary at dusk with a bairn on her arm.<br />
<br />
So they passed, the aching treasured years<br />
As the orchard in golden fullness bore<br />
A bounty of apples, peaches and pears<br />
Sweet and tart to the homestead kitchen door.<br />
<br />
But seasons came when the fruit just fell<br />
And who was the gardener none could tell.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">For England 2016 <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">You were so beautiful my own country<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Your fields and fells the honest sun
received<br />
And under open skies the air was free<br />
As all were equal and all bonds redeemed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
My place of birth you have grown sour and old<br />
Uplifting hate to heart with evil lies<br />
And now I find a touch that's coarse and cold<br />
With devilment in hard deceiving eyes.<br />
<br />
No longer does the land I loved seem green: <br />
Three scores and ten to ashen grey have turned<br />
The sparkling summer's days that once were seen<br />
When truth glowed bright as lamps of justice burned.<br />
<br />
For fear of which, I cannot leave unsaid<br />
My dread thy beauty's summer is forever dead. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div><br /></div><br /><p></p>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;">Kamchatka Lilies <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;">LET US ACCEPT<br />
<br />
To begin with, let us accept the following:</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><br />
Poetry is love. Now we can continue:</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><br />
So in Kamchatka lilies are blooming<br />
In their naranja zest / burnt-gold hue<br />
<br />
More beautiful than the russet curls<br />
Of the youngest and most loved prince,</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><br />
A scion of the Tsarskoye Selo world<br />
From times that have passed to legend long since.<br />
<br />
See the little boy gathered by the Tsarina<br />
Her hair dressed with a dark diamante tiara,</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><br />
Less in loveliness with all its arcane power<br />
Than the Sarana's purpure-petalled flower.<br />
<br />
So I gift with awe the verse that nature writes<br />
In startling suns and jet-tipped star delights.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;">We Are Surrounded By Ghosts – Now We Have To Live With Them <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<p style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Watching
you, I felt chill winds of springtime blow<br />
Among white cherry trees and purple sprays -<br />
Saw the lost gardens amid the scents of long ago<br />
Of the last lands whose lids are closed in final days.<br />
<br />
Pressing flowers into the leaves and loneliness</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
Kneeling to the mud or delving for the sand<br />
Quiet frames of countenance and loveliness<br />
I longed to comfort you and take your hand<br />
<br />
And catch your eyes and gaze at you my lost girl<br />
In wonder at the years now left in beauty’s stead<br />
And you would laugh and say ‘Kind Sir’ and twirl -<br />
Tossing bemusedly your wise angelic head.<br />
<br />
Only time divides our souls – and time is on our side<br />
And those who went before will leave the window wide.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><div><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span></b>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;">The Copper Beech <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<p style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><i>[A
visit to the family graves at St Mary's Churchyard, The Barony, Nantwich]</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Home to haven, thanksgiving and prayer<br />
Where earth had settled the ferryman's fare:</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
Safe from the crossing, at refuge from care,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
Rows of skiff-kists beached to memory there.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
<br />
Guarding the landing where they had come home</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
A grand copper beech resurges the graves<br />
Tumbling gently both kerbing and headstone<br />
In quiet relentless insistent waves.<br />
<br />
Magnificent homeward-harbour tree<br />
Channeling blood and bone, both tide and quay<br />
Swelling your crowning bronze to ecstasy<br />
At one with the slipway and the sea<br />
<br />
Brimming and breaking and welcoming me<br />
My loved ones at one in your majesty.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-NZ; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">High Country Hymn <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; mso-outline-level: 1;"><b><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;">High the mountains rise in spur and
summit<br />
Headed up to frozen tracts and recent snows<br />
Clear to the blistering ice-blue sky<br />
Ringing bluffs and cliffs and ragged flumes<br />
Hard country gullies topped to waterfalls<br />
Drop to native beech and sweet short pasture.<br />
<br />
Into the easy country, the creeks are bound<br />
By rubble walls spilled from tussock heights<br />
Each fissure with its self-built stop-banks<br />
Breaking through to foothill flats and meadows<br />
And below the river laces braids with willows<br />
Stilled to lakeside once among the poplar stands. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div><br /></div><br />
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;">One Equal Temper <o:p></o:p></span></h1>
<h1 style="background: white; margin-bottom: 9.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"><span style="color: #f96600; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 20.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h1>
<p style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I
Ulysses have seen much and I repent.<br />
Always when the storms cease, the horizon<br />
Flattens and the circumference returns.<br />
So must the ship seek still by star and lode<br />
That at least there is some hope of harbour<br />
Come to ground in calm clear waters.<br />
<br />
Do not tell me again of mystery islands<br />
Or the sirens seductive in their melody<br />
Or empires to be conquered come the dawn.<br />
Let me simply find a sand shore and footfall<br />
Set down and landed on the ocean's edge<br />
And feel again the particles of broken shells.<br />
<br />
I will not be so foolish as to think of home<br />
Or finding hearth and solace in an ancient hall<br />
Or dream of sons to carry name and blazon.<br />
My only thought is that the storms are done<br />
And that the line is drawn so clear and straight<br />
That sets the lesser and the greater blue.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 10.8pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="color: #333333; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-NZ;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-15247377634874882622021-03-06T02:30:00.001-08:002021-03-06T02:30:12.325-08:00Suspicious Poet Threat<img src="https://static01.nyt.com/images/2021/03/05/multimedia/05xp--gorman/merlin_183375228_b848c6e7-ec28-41c0-b86d-c565b4bb178c-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale" /><br /><span style="font-size: x-large;">Amanda Gorman Says Security Guard Confronted Her, Saying She Looked ‘Suspicious’</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Ms. Gorman, who recited a stirring poem at President Biden’s inauguration, said the guard had followed her as she walked home.</i></span><br /><br />By <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/michael-levenson">Michael Levenson</a>, NYT, March 5, 2021<br /><br />Amanda Gorman, who became a national sensation when she delivered a stirring poem at President Biden’s inauguration in January, said on Friday that a security guard had followed her home and told her she looked suspicious.<br /><br />“A security guard tailed me on my walk home tonight,” Ms. Gorman <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAmandaGorman/status/1368010884111421440?s=20">wrote</a> on Twitter. “He demanded if I lived there because ‘you look suspicious.’ I showed my keys & buzzed myself into my building. He left, no apology. This is the reality of black girls: One day you’re called an icon, the next day, a threat.”<br /><br />Ms. Gorman <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAmandaGorman/status/1368016803553710082?s=20">said</a> in another tweet: “In a sense, he was right. I AM A THREAT: a threat to injustice, to inequality, to ignorance. Anyone who speaks the truth and walks with hope is an obvious and fatal danger to the powers that be.”<br /><br />Ms. Gorman, 22, who is from Los Angeles, did not immediately respond to a message sent through her website on Friday night. She is the youngest inaugural poet ever in the<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/03/style/amanda-gorman-first-youth-poet-laureate.html"> United States and was named the United States’ first youth poet laureate </a>in 2017, when she was a student at Harvard.<br /><br />At Mr. Biden’s inauguration, she drew widespread acclaim when she recited, in a voice filled with clarity and emotion, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/21/books/amanda-gorman-biden-inauguration-poet-performance.html">“The Hill We Climb”</a> in front of the sunlit Capitol, just days after a violent mob of Trump supporters had laid siege to the building as Congress met to certify the results of the presidential election.<br /><br />In the poem, Ms. Gorman spoke of “striving to forge a union with purpose, to compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.” She described her background as a “skinny Black girl, descended from slaves and raised by a single mother,” who can dream of being president one day, “only to find herself reciting for one.”<br /><br />After the inauguration, IMG Models, which represents supermodels including Alek Wek, Paloma Elsesser and Joan Smalls, <a href="https://twitter.com/IMGmodels/status/1354110297678770177?s=20">announced</a> that it<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/27/style/amanda-gorman-img-super-bowl.html"> would represent Ms. Gorman for fashion and beauty endorsements</a>.<br /><br />And “Good Morning America” broke the news that Ms. Gorman <a href="https://twitter.com/betsy_klein/status/1354408261433352195">would perform</a> at the Super Bowl preshow, which she did in February.<div><br /></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-32578084558357502092021-03-05T08:31:00.007-08:002021-03-05T08:57:03.707-08:00Marita Solberg 'Solveig's song' Edvard Grieg Peer Gynt [Norwegian and English]<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHuiXlKwLAa-uHAzWrVxF1jTF_jeLdKUMrCnCnQvn5MYpHRPlYHAETRGO6Iap1qmcrj66oI504JkBzDQMRz1-yG8yWqzRS2C4VmfHVGeJKFdEL4JgSL5GE5Sg2EoeQzMmjw8j83yM8ivv/s480/solveig.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHuiXlKwLAa-uHAzWrVxF1jTF_jeLdKUMrCnCnQvn5MYpHRPlYHAETRGO6Iap1qmcrj66oI504JkBzDQMRz1-yG8yWqzRS2C4VmfHVGeJKFdEL4JgSL5GE5Sg2EoeQzMmjw8j83yM8ivv/w640-h480/solveig.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Kanskje vil der gå både Vinter og Vår<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Maybe it will take both winter and spring;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Og naeste Sommer med, op det hele År<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And also next summer, and the whole year too;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Men engang vil du komme, det ved jeg visst.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">But one time you will come, I know for sure;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Her skal jeg nok vente, for det lovte jeg sidst<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Here shall I wait,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>'cause I promised you 'ere.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI Symbol",sans-serif" style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Segoe UI Symbol";">♫♪♫♫♫♪♪</span> [interlude]<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Gud styrke dig, hvor du i Verden går<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">God give strength to thee, you who walk in the world;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Gud glaede dig, hvis du for hans fodskammel står<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">God pleasure thee, for whom his footstool stands;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Her skal jeg vente till du komme igjen<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Here I shall wait for you 'till your next coming;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Og vente du hisst oppe, vi traeffes der, min Ven!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And wait up here, 'till we meet again, my friend!</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></span></p><div><br /></div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/R8AD75_sNJM" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/R8AD75_sNJM/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe></span></p>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-1445501356440265242021-03-04T02:13:00.004-08:002021-03-04T19:49:35.365-08:00The Phoenix and the Turtle-(Dove) by Shakespeare - a Buddhist Interpretation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8DioklyCuHteKhlVIlOl5fN0ZJIMn-Kb0BREsJD2UH_sTuLO0oRLoTKfoe-ajjEOACrRt9szwsX8wsRhi6b7r-UTzFT3TKHaNNZE9MnyknNXScrpBKHuKhK3CsGcMF1zFNFUA3knp5etK/s236/Phoenix+Turtle%2528Dove%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="236" data-original-width="214" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8DioklyCuHteKhlVIlOl5fN0ZJIMn-Kb0BREsJD2UH_sTuLO0oRLoTKfoe-ajjEOACrRt9szwsX8wsRhi6b7r-UTzFT3TKHaNNZE9MnyknNXScrpBKHuKhK3CsGcMF1zFNFUA3knp5etK/w580-h640/Phoenix+Turtle%2528Dove%2529.jpg" width="580" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/HdG-l81mYE0" width="480"></iframe></p><p> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large; font-style: inherit;">The Phoenix and the Turtle</span></p><div class="c-feature-sub c-feature-sub_vast" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 33px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="c-txt c-txt_attribution" style="border: 0px; color: #494949; display: inline-block; font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: 1.4px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; vertical-align: baseline;">BY <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-shakespeare" style="border: 0px; color: black; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.25s cubic-bezier(0.215, 0.61, 0.355, 1) 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE</a></span></div></div><div class="c-feature-bd" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="o-poem isActive" data-view="PoemView" style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Let the bird of loudest lay<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">On the sole Arabian tree<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Herald sad and trumpet be,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">To whose sound chaste wings obey.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">But thou shrieking harbinger,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Foul precurrer of the fiend,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Augur of the fever's end,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">To this troop come thou not near.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">From this session interdict<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Every fowl of tyrant wing,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Save the eagle, feather'd king;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Keep the obsequy so strict.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Let the priest in surplice white,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">That defunctive music can,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Be the death-divining swan,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Lest the requiem lack his right.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And thou treble-dated crow,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">That thy sable gender mak'st<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Here the anthem doth commence:<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Love and constancy is dead;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Phoenix and the Turtle fled<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">In a mutual flame from hence.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">So they lov'd, as love in twain<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Had the essence but in one;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Two distincts, division none:<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Number there in love was slain.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Hearts remote, yet not asunder;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Distance and no space was seen<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">'Twixt this Turtle and his queen:<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">But in them it were a wonder.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">So between them love did shine<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">That the Turtle saw his right<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Flaming in the Phoenix' sight:<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Either was the other's mine.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Property was thus appalled<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">That the self was not the same;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Single nature's double name<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Neither two nor one was called.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Reason, in itself confounded,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Saw division grow together,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">To themselves yet either neither,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Simple were so well compounded;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">That it cried, "How true a twain<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Seemeth this concordant one!<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Love has reason, reason none,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">If what parts can so remain."<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Whereupon it made this threne<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">To the Phoenix and the Dove,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Co-supremes and stars of love,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">As chorus to their tragic scene:<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"> <span class="sm-caps" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">threnos</span></span><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Beauty, truth, and rarity,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Grace in all simplicity,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Here enclos'd, in cinders lie.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Death is now the Phoenix' nest,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And the Turtle's loyal breast<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">To eternity doth rest,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Leaving no posterity:<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">'Twas not their infirmity,<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">It was married chastity.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Truth may seem but cannot be;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Beauty brag but 'tis not she;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Truth and beauty buried be.<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">To this urn let those repair<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">That are either true or fair;<br /></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">For these dead birds sigh a prayer.</span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">MARVELOUS, ENIGMATIC, CHALLENGING:</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">-----</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i>A strictly Buddhist interpretation is possible, with the death and resurrection/enlightenment/reincarnation of the Phoenix seen as illustrating the 4 Noble Truths - the immolation of the Self.</i></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i>Hence, ' reason (is) in itself confounded' - 'love has reason, reason none'. The dying and reinstatement of the Phoenix is inherently 'unreasonable' but a prelude to Enlightenment and Compassion. </i></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i>Meditation is the vehicle - it is the Way to Non-Separation. To where there is 'no other', 'no mine' and 'neither two nor one' is relevant - the point at which the love of the Turtle Dove for the Phoenix is both absolute and harmonious.</i></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>So between them love did shine<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>That the Turtle saw his right<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Flaming in the Phoenix' sight:<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Either was the other's mine.<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Property was thus appalled<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>That the self was not the same;<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Single nature's double name<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Neither two nor one was called.<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Reason, in itself confounded,<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Saw division grow together,<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>To themselves yet either neither,<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Simple were so well compounded;<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>That it cried, "How true a twain<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Seemeth this concordant one!<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>Love has reason, reason none,<br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i>If what parts can so remain."</i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><br /></i></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="background-color: #00cc99; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="color: #ccffcc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;">The Four Noble Truths</span></b><span style="background-color: #00cc99; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0px;"></span><p align="justify" style="background-color: #00cc99; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><img align="left" alt="Four Noble Truths" border="0" height="130" src="https://www.pbs.org/edens/thailand/images/buddhism_pic2.jpg" width="170" />The Four Noble Truths comprise the essence of Buddha's teachings, though they leave much left unexplained. They are the truth of suffering, the truth of the cause of suffering, the truth of the end of suffering, and the truth of the path that leads to the end of suffering. More simply put, suffering exists; it has a cause; it has an end; and it has a cause to bring about its end. The notion of suffering is not intended to convey a negative world view, but rather, a pragmatic perspective that deals with the world as it is, and attempts to rectify it. The concept of pleasure is not denied, but acknowledged as fleeting. Pursuit of pleasure can only continue what is ultimately an unquenchable thirst. The same logic belies an understanding of happiness. In the end, only aging, sickness, and death are certain and unavoidable. </span></p><p align="justify" style="background-color: #00cc99; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The Four Noble Truths are a contingency plan for dealing with the suffering humanity faces -- suffering of a physical kind, or of a mental nature. The First Truth identifies the presence of suffering. The Second Truth, on the other hand, seeks to determine the cause of suffering. In Buddhism, desire and ignorance lie at the root of suffering. By desire, Buddhists refer to craving pleasure, material goods, and immortality, all of which are wants that can never be satisfied. As a result, desiring them can only bring suffering. Ignorance, in comparison, relates to not seeing the world as it actually is. Without the capacity for mental concentration and insight, Buddhism explains, one's mind is left undeveloped, unable to grasp the true nature of things. Vices, such as greed, envy, hatred and anger, derive from this ignorance. </span></p><p align="justify" style="background-color: #00cc99; font-size: medium; text-indent: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">The Third Noble Truth, the truth of the end of suffering, has dual meaning, suggesting either the end of suffering in this life, on earth, or in the spiritual life, through achieving Nirvana. When one has achieved Nirvana, which is a transcendent state free from suffering and our worldly cycle of birth and rebirth, spiritual enlightenment has been reached. The Fourth Noble truth charts the method for attaining the end of suffering, known to Buddhists as the Noble Eightfold Path. The steps of the Noble Eightfold Path are Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Moreover, there are three themes into which the Path is divided: good moral conduct (Understanding, Thought, Speech); meditation and mental development (Action, Livelihood, Effort), and wisdom or insight (Mindfulness and Concentration).</span></p></div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDpBoC_21yyLcfsU2L5yH62g_pahPUfZiEjW2Yrgn9JQs4Gs1Wxva7DULEUWZpaAvWZqgu8-lN3KCdI1U7lWLbs6guIkD5-JkqENHPeRBK6HEcg5WpyilTxidAA_nUoKnKlEEvmpUre_sq/s958/800px-SophieAnderson_TheTurtleDoveSmall.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="958" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDpBoC_21yyLcfsU2L5yH62g_pahPUfZiEjW2Yrgn9JQs4Gs1Wxva7DULEUWZpaAvWZqgu8-lN3KCdI1U7lWLbs6guIkD5-JkqENHPeRBK6HEcg5WpyilTxidAA_nUoKnKlEEvmpUre_sq/w334-h400/800px-SophieAnderson_TheTurtleDoveSmall.jpg" width="334" /></a></div><br /><i><br /></i></div></div></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-40476522550553987802021-03-02T06:16:00.004-08:002021-03-03T09:04:55.984-08:00Celebrating the Northern Hemisphere Spring 2021<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie3oiWfFj0AtC3MPruhx4Um8kk-kqehFsxbcwqsxAPPuqtD4zSR659QpG3h-_WaAn_qntOyUlQ8bL2FBxlM0uhvSWOYETPLTudJetrRcwiP4fPn_xychm4abfNXUbpKqVmG4JNPxSyugiA/s1450/Lenten+Rose.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="967" data-original-width="1450" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie3oiWfFj0AtC3MPruhx4Um8kk-kqehFsxbcwqsxAPPuqtD4zSR659QpG3h-_WaAn_qntOyUlQ8bL2FBxlM0uhvSWOYETPLTudJetrRcwiP4fPn_xychm4abfNXUbpKqVmG4JNPxSyugiA/w640-h426/Lenten+Rose.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="card-header pb-2 pt-3 bg-white" data-v-101110cb="" style="background-color: white; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #343434; font-family: "Founders Grotesk", -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0.6rem !important; padding-left: 3.25rem; padding-right: 1.25rem; padding-top: 1.2rem !important; padding: 1.2rem 1.25rem 0.6rem 3.25rem;"><div data-v-101110cb="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="d-flex poem__title mb-1" data-v-101110cb="" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: horizontal; -webkit-box-pack: justify; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: space-between; margin-bottom: 0.3rem;"><h1 class="card-title" data-v-101110cb="" itemprop="name" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra Roman No 2"; font-size: 2.5rem; font-style: italic; font-weight: 500; line-height: 3rem; margin-bottom: 0.75rem; margin-top: 0px;">Ode to the West Wind</h1></div><span class="card-subtitle" color="var(--black)" data-v-101110cb="" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: -0.375rem;"><a data-v-101110cb="" href="https://poets.org/poet/percy-bysshe-shelley" itemprop="author" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #007ab3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_self">Percy Bysshe Shelley</a><span class="dates" data-v-101110cb="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"> - 1792-1822</span></span></div></div><div class="card-body" data-v-101110cb="" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; box-sizing: border-box; color: #343434; flex: 1 1 auto; line-height: 1.5; padding: 1.25rem;"><div class="poem__actions vertical dark" data-v-101110cb="" data-v-66c151a4="" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; box-sizing: border-box; flex-grow: 1; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; left: -3rem; margin-bottom: 2.4rem; position: absolute; width: 689.984px;"><ul class="poem__actions__social d-flex flex-wrap" data-v-66c151a4="" style="-webkit-box-direction: normal; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-flow: column wrap; flex-wrap: wrap !important; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><li class="pr-2" data-v-66c151a4="" style="box-sizing: border-box; list-style: none; padding-right: 0.6rem;"><a data-v-66c151a4="" href="https://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fpoets.org%2Fpoem%2Fode-west-wind&t=Ode%20to%20the%20West%20Wind" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #007ab3; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"><img data-v-66c151a4="" src="https://poets.org/social/facebook.svg" style="border-style: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 6px; vertical-align: middle;" /></a></li></ul></div><div class="poem__body px-md-4 font-serif" data-v-101110cb="" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-left: 1.8rem; padding-right: 1.8rem;"><blockquote style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212b36; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 1.2rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">I</span></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Each like a corpse within its grave, until</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air)</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">With living hues and odours plain and hill:</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere;</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Destroyer and Preserver; hear, O hear!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><blockquote style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212b36; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 1.2rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">II</span></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Loose clouds like Earth's decaying leaves are shed,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">On the blue surface of thine airy surge,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Like the bright hair uplifted from the head</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Of the horizon to the zenith's height,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Of the dying year, to which this closing night</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Vaulted with all thy congregated might</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: O hear!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><blockquote style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212b36; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 1.2rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">III</span></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The blue Mediterranean, where he lay,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">And saw in sleep old palaces and towers</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Quivering within the wave's intenser day,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">All overgrown with azure moss and flowers</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">For whose path the Atlantic's level powers</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The sapless foliage of the ocean, know</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Thy voice, and suddenly grow grey with fear,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">And tremble and despoil themselves: O hear!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><blockquote style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212b36; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 1.2rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">IV</span></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear;</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee;</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The impulse of thy strength, only less free</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Than thou, O Uncontrollable! If even</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">I were as in my boyhood, and could be</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Oh! lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><blockquote style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212b36; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 1.2rem;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bolder;">V</span></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">What if my leaves are falling like its own!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The tumult of thy mighty harmonies</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Drive my dead thoughts over the universe</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">And, by the incantation of this verse,</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">Be through my lips to unawakened Earth</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,</span><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;">If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;"><br /></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="long-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin-left: 32px; text-indent: -32px;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.6pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: x-large;">FROM THE WASHINGTON POST</span><span style="font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 12.6pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 12.6pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/03/01/lenten-rose-how-to-grow/?arc404=true">https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/03/01/lenten-rose-how-to-grow/?arc404=true</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.25rem; line-height: 12.6pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/03/01/meteorological-spring-2021/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/03/01/meteorological-spring-2021/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv6LpSmUkv5ZXQbRtWNWNYAvHjR68yklzD6ryPvsMml0pAo1Ym0jX1MOC-CDrB86F3aahQrxkRqMqxzM2w4XOrgO9LiKGQrVaxZBYb0iRmbfsCwtOz1GjYA92r46Q8tfMF1EKzZH0nQdUy/s900/Lenten+Rose+5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv6LpSmUkv5ZXQbRtWNWNYAvHjR68yklzD6ryPvsMml0pAo1Ym0jX1MOC-CDrB86F3aahQrxkRqMqxzM2w4XOrgO9LiKGQrVaxZBYb0iRmbfsCwtOz1GjYA92r46Q8tfMF1EKzZH0nQdUy/w640-h426/Lenten+Rose+5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuybTUxB9Cn9I4vhW3NYeVvue0a3HHy_LI65c-g3gJ9p1C14Is3zhEJAbzH0xBspmFGpx_hmCA4by7KNCp1GJ65lEOB5dFtoE_SRTDLYpbUCrmgBhiVK1D18ry-ouLJGZEaB_N_QPbi740/s900/Lenten+Rose+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuybTUxB9Cn9I4vhW3NYeVvue0a3HHy_LI65c-g3gJ9p1C14Is3zhEJAbzH0xBspmFGpx_hmCA4by7KNCp1GJ65lEOB5dFtoE_SRTDLYpbUCrmgBhiVK1D18ry-ouLJGZEaB_N_QPbi740/w640-h426/Lenten+Rose+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKa5RuAjw64jIIolQ9-J6UdgjTs_PBMbLJFoj2fDYLjUfTgwhdn-x6JFAayuqtiHhMOfLO-V4zTOlCjUzjN48OW5t4aAtseDZf4O-lXVK7chtuY7I9lsmlgH6zr4LTpuq5TrDATQHoIAty/s900/Lenten+Rose+4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="900" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKa5RuAjw64jIIolQ9-J6UdgjTs_PBMbLJFoj2fDYLjUfTgwhdn-x6JFAayuqtiHhMOfLO-V4zTOlCjUzjN48OW5t4aAtseDZf4O-lXVK7chtuY7I9lsmlgH6zr4LTpuq5TrDATQHoIAty/w640-h426/Lenten+Rose+4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgdkBvwxS8Msz_o-1kpKfLvyEul7iSMPXt_pDswdwqcCuh3EfB5x8E1fVRCWk4VMUJElF0VS0MCk6WBHbGbfJZBj20Z_WEEJTzfqhMc2-zf6ieGo0JdpKtXhBX3JtFm8OPDBszIfRgvAj/s916/Lenten+Rose+o.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="916" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdgdkBvwxS8Msz_o-1kpKfLvyEul7iSMPXt_pDswdwqcCuh3EfB5x8E1fVRCWk4VMUJElF0VS0MCk6WBHbGbfJZBj20Z_WEEJTzfqhMc2-zf6ieGo0JdpKtXhBX3JtFm8OPDBszIfRgvAj/w640-h428/Lenten+Rose+o.webp" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9e-AePkX8MXR0FYQgVcm7oW1WQO6-8k_AcgQvTLd08nrDsaCn95pDlSEXztFMsBxRHSmwE5hTY6vG27VB8piT31tdKXNNJefMBSTa-5ITOUQpTjYDVdjXuzFuxzPpzW1tWiYpj2QGwaZ1/s916/Lenten+Rose+m.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="916" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9e-AePkX8MXR0FYQgVcm7oW1WQO6-8k_AcgQvTLd08nrDsaCn95pDlSEXztFMsBxRHSmwE5hTY6vG27VB8piT31tdKXNNJefMBSTa-5ITOUQpTjYDVdjXuzFuxzPpzW1tWiYpj2QGwaZ1/w640-h394/Lenten+Rose+m.webp" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJrrzp18OEYdzmhEGPEnY-v3qxUPDR_R228ZXBQxong7-mSJytxZNYnwycQXVTbWPypZHrjW-CmASw2QeNASU4yPk9d6gmmK96_pDay-RwmJHaVhRKSAd9L1VE-diFJJ4qHpObqO7kAm_b/s916/Lenten+Rose+n.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="916" height="428" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJrrzp18OEYdzmhEGPEnY-v3qxUPDR_R228ZXBQxong7-mSJytxZNYnwycQXVTbWPypZHrjW-CmASw2QeNASU4yPk9d6gmmK96_pDay-RwmJHaVhRKSAd9L1VE-diFJJ4qHpObqO7kAm_b/w640-h428/Lenten+Rose+n.webp" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiflvaiBLjfyjKd2_6O7lEB0bIioFGycgAzZ9Rkp9fBNuZh7h_TgjkaBeTNkw5R3bLMQiDK0OuaBdYc9jbmPRVbxQQlqwxwQOaYGASoqqaw9sQh9zRYu3uyLgKnvwBd9J-6C_eXhHZusfpO/s916/lenten+imrs+%25282%2529.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="916" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiflvaiBLjfyjKd2_6O7lEB0bIioFGycgAzZ9Rkp9fBNuZh7h_TgjkaBeTNkw5R3bLMQiDK0OuaBdYc9jbmPRVbxQQlqwxwQOaYGASoqqaw9sQh9zRYu3uyLgKnvwBd9J-6C_eXhHZusfpO/w640-h426/lenten+imrs+%25282%2529.webp" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZxpMFxylfRIJFMYdyRlqJP54LWRdsM9A_8klLFxnhCAuCi78UmgZS-3JRzkz60DXVhNZhiSZ_tNIH_ADhWjrxIODCgrY_ea3ynSjj0Pe4VNncdytQ4hdOpkKoEKniCjYfkZgDdM7urvD/s1372/lenten+imrs+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1372" data-original-width="916" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZxpMFxylfRIJFMYdyRlqJP54LWRdsM9A_8klLFxnhCAuCi78UmgZS-3JRzkz60DXVhNZhiSZ_tNIH_ADhWjrxIODCgrY_ea3ynSjj0Pe4VNncdytQ4hdOpkKoEKniCjYfkZgDdM7urvD/w428-h640/lenten+imrs+%25281%2529.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p style="font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"></p></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="card-body" data-v-101110cb="" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; box-sizing: border-box; color: #343434; flex: 1 1 auto; line-height: 1.5; padding: 1.25rem;"></div></blockquote><div class="card-body" data-v-101110cb="" style="-webkit-box-flex: 1; box-sizing: border-box; color: #343434; flex: 1 1 auto; line-height: 1.5; padding: 1.25rem;"><br /></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-10966160356382747052021-03-01T15:05:00.004-08:002021-03-04T02:17:52.032-08:00In appreciation of and commemorating Black Cop Martinus Mitchum gunned down in White Supremacist Myth and Mayhem<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrwrf0OSaMFPZaAyqvQCvy0vebequWqVlQ2AwIb1_6MgzlARde1hJl4Sz06hPjJJ8F95GVlN0tXdJ8XYppMdb1r3Gf-WiisPo6N3JMJGYgmZvKq2XWkCJxpgLbf8hzkwUtjs1Cy8wgeLx/s1200/Martinus+Mitcham.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglrwrf0OSaMFPZaAyqvQCvy0vebequWqVlQ2AwIb1_6MgzlARde1hJl4Sz06hPjJJ8F95GVlN0tXdJ8XYppMdb1r3Gf-WiisPo6N3JMJGYgmZvKq2XWkCJxpgLbf8hzkwUtjs1Cy8wgeLx/w640-h360/Martinus+Mitcham.webp" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="display: table-cell; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 107%;">Anti-masker
murders police officer who was escorting him away from basketball game</span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: justify;">Travis Gettys, RawStory, March 01, 2021</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/martinus-mitchum/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6686">https://www.rawstory.com/martinus-mitchum/?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=6686</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">A police officer was shot and killed in New Orleans during a dispute over mask requirements at a high school basketball game.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Police said 35-year-old John Shallerhorn tried to enter George Washington Carver High School's gymnasium Friday about 6:15 p.m. for a playoff game against Warren Easton High when he was stopped by an employee who was checking temperatures and enforcing a mask mandate, reported NOLA.com.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Shallerhorn fought with the school employee before Martinus Mitchum, a Tulane University police officer and 2nd City Court deputy constable who was working for the school as a security guard, tried to break up the altercation.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">The 38-year-old Mitchum was escorting Shallerhorn off the campus when the man allegedly pulled out a gun and shot the officer twice, police said.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Shallerhorn then placed his gun on the ground, police said, and Orleans Parish sheriff's deputies who were at the school arrested him.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Mitchum was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Before the shooting, Shallerhorn also robbed a medallion chain at gunpoint from a 39-year-old man sitting in a parked car.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Shallerhorn could potentially face the death penalty on charges of first-degree murder of a police officer and armed robbery.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><span style="color: #333333; font-size: x-large; font-weight: normal;"><a data-id="3332670809373717610" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/07/policing-while-black-remembering.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Policing while Black: Remembering Montrell Jackson</a> </span><span class="blog-admin" style="color: #333333; display: inline; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=3332670809373717610&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMj0BB_y9nNl9IS6-huUa4eFVIGxz9H8dImFEk0v-AB07wor9hlisMQ1F7MXKcjOyejZs0Wp9hlWkmG7jtLzEJXwZ93YJofblEy3bpjnHofZyDC6fF-7nD9Dh2hvLJbvvRFq05ve-OETh/s1600/montrellJackson.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcMj0BB_y9nNl9IS6-huUa4eFVIGxz9H8dImFEk0v-AB07wor9hlisMQ1F7MXKcjOyejZs0Wp9hlWkmG7jtLzEJXwZ93YJofblEy3bpjnHofZyDC6fF-7nD9Dh2hvLJbvvRFq05ve-OETh/s640/montrellJackson.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;"); border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="479" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-wkaf6Q1zknt-Rq1XSZ5GQY0ndCDc6zV3fHdprjEvxKxLAC-cLdaPlhHLFyXLCqIBnY5gMpUPPUwxyNPAuRAZZ03NqWII0ygbhBHR2hj9HJEmfuxHtDt9m3OT9tut-5AAcYlVeYSSFwyg/s1600/Montrell.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-wkaf6Q1zknt-Rq1XSZ5GQY0ndCDc6zV3fHdprjEvxKxLAC-cLdaPlhHLFyXLCqIBnY5gMpUPPUwxyNPAuRAZZ03NqWII0ygbhBHR2hj9HJEmfuxHtDt9m3OT9tut-5AAcYlVeYSSFwyg/s400/Montrell.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;"); border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="300" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">DECENCY BEYOND MEASURE</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"></div><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="display: table-cell; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><div style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><a data-id="2534023313020627554" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2016/07/for-montrell-jackson-with-immense.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">For Montrell Jackson - with Immense Respect</a> </div><span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=2534023313020627554&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png; background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;"); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"><div style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div></a></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"></div></div></div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">CORNERSTONE<br /></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">I was tired physically</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">And emotionally:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Disappointed by the reckless comment</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Hurting at heartlessness that wouldn’t relent</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Disappointed by the hate we couldn’t prevent</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Entrusting my heart in the prayers I sent.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">I swear to God</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">I loved this city</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Those who cared were much appreciated</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">But I wondered that few in the city reciprocated</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Out of uniform I was a threat that colour created</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">In my uniform my own people were alienated.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Look at my actions</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">And how they speak</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">I was guarding the streets to keep you free</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">A gentle giant and protector that sure was me:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Questioning my integrity, can’t you see</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">You’ll tear us apart indefinitely, it’s a tragedy.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">This city must get better</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">This city will get better:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Love my baby son Mason with all your might</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Give him the hugs that are his birthright</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Get together and build a citadel of light</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Let him see his old man was right</span></div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><br /></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">That we go nowhere when we hate and fight.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px 0px 0cm; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><div style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2016-07-23T16:28:00.001Z">24th July 2016</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a><br /><br /></div><div style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /><br /></div><span style="background-color: whitesmoke; color: #2c2c2c; font-family: freighttext, georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“My heart is heavy, but the admiration and pride I feel gives me the strength I need to carry on,”</span></span></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh0XjY2wSLe4PlCi1400Sl7STaSKytcTQY-o0V99yC8M5oBCafUDuSK6CquKx87_HDvoXJ1vVAJ-o0pk_ghCOxux32sBivPQY4yIMNGEqCj-Nz_n-zn9u4hEdnM2TB8XwVfMc9-cLvBcJb/s1600/biden+montrell.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="400" height="375" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh0XjY2wSLe4PlCi1400Sl7STaSKytcTQY-o0V99yC8M5oBCafUDuSK6CquKx87_HDvoXJ1vVAJ-o0pk_ghCOxux32sBivPQY4yIMNGEqCj-Nz_n-zn9u4hEdnM2TB8XwVfMc9-cLvBcJb/s400/biden+montrell.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://apnews.com/e123fbf8761b40518f6dbee0fc88ac25" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">https://apnews.com/e123fbf8761b40518f6dbee0fc88ac25</a></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">by Michael Kunzelman, AP News, Baton Rouge, La. 29 July 2016</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">The gunman's bullets that killed three law enforcement officers in Baton Rouge also targeted the country and "touched the soul of the entire nation," Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday at a memorial service for the fallen officers.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">"We need to heal," said Biden, who was joined at a Baton Rouge church by Attorney General Loretta Lynch, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, the officers' widows and hundreds of others.<o:p></o:p><br /><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Biden spoke directly to the three officers’ relatives from the stage. He promised them that a day will come when the memory of their loved ones will “bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">“They were defined by their courage,” he said. “It matters who they were, and it matters who we are as a country.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Baton Rouge police officers Matthew Gerald, 41, and Montrell Jackson, 32, and sheriff’s deputy Brad Garafola, 45, were shot and killed by Gavin Long, an Army veteran from Kansas City, Missouri, outside a convenience store on July 17.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Authorities say the gunman was targeting police officers.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">“When that assassin’s bullet targeted our heroes — and he was an assassin — he not only targeted them, he targeted the city. He targeted his country, and it touched the soul of the entire nation,” Biden said.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-size: large;">Long, 29, also wounded three other officers before a SWAT officer gunned him down. Long killed the officers less than two weeks after protests erupted in Baton Rouge over the death of Alton Sterling, a 29-year-old black man who was shot and killed during a scuffle with two white police officers. The killing was captured on cellphone video and circulated widely on the internet.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Biden said he heard that Sterling’s aunt embraced the father of one of the slain officers during a chance encounter after the shooting. He said they prayed together because “loss is loss is loss.”</div><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Lynch said it can feel as if the world is “broken beyond repair” after tragedies like the deadly shootout in Baton Rouge. But she said the gathering shows the community is united by “collective heartache” and a “common humanity.”<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="podcast-episode-date frame" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: FranklinITCProLight, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><time style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Friday, July 24, 2020</time></div><h1 class="podcast-episode-title frame" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: PostoniWide, Georgia, serif; font-size: 34px; font-weight: bolder; line-height: 40px; margin: 24px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Policing while black</h1><div class="podcast-episode-player frame" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: FranklinPro, FranklinITCProLight, "Franklin Gothic Medium", "Franklin Gothic", "ITC Franklin Gothic", "Apple SD Gothic Neo", "Myriad Set Pro", "Helvetica Neue", "Helvetica Neue Light", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 24px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 14px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="poda-player-container" data-org="washpost" data-skin="flex" data-slug="policing-while-black" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="play-share-bar" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 886px;"><div class="play-button-container clickable" style="align-items: center; background: rgb(25, 85, 165); border-radius: 100%; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-flex; font-size: 12px; height: 32px; justify-content: center; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; transition: all 0.1s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline; width: 32px;"><svg fill="#fff" height="16" viewbox="0 0 16 16" width="16" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg"><path d="M3 2 13.182 7.819 3 14z" fillrule="nonzero"></path></svg></div><br /><div class="play-directive lang-en-us" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1955a5; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; left: 5px; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -10px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 40px;">Listen</div><br /><div class="progress-bar-container" style="background: rgb(233, 233, 233); border-radius: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 4px; left: 15px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; top: -12px; vertical-align: baseline; width: calc(100% - 210px);"><div class="podcast-progress-bar" id="progress" style="background: rgb(25, 85, 165); border-radius: 2px; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; height: 4px; left: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 1000;"></div></div><br /><div class="podcast-duration" data-duration="1159" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; font-family: FranklinITCProLight, HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue Light", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; right: -16px; top: -10px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="podcast-elapsed" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">19:19</span></div></div></div></div><div class="podcast-episode-short-descr frame" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; margin: 24px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As a black police officer in Plainfield, N.J., Martesse Gilliam thought he could change policing from the inside — until he ended up on the outside. </span></div><h3 class="podcast-episode-descr-title frame" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: FranklinITCProBold, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-weight: bolder; line-height: 28px; margin: 24px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">In this episode</h3><div class="podcast-episode-descr frame" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #2a2a2a; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; margin: 24px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-duty-and-burden-of-the-black-police-officer/2020/07/05/6508b9bc-b570-11ea-aca5-ebb63d27e1ff_story.html" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; box-sizing: border-box; color: #1155cc; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; vertical-align: baseline;">The duty and burden of the black police officer</a></div><div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2020-07-24T23:33:00.003Z">25th July 2020</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-77311956135501592582021-03-01T10:03:00.007-08:002021-03-01T10:26:49.211-08:00Valedictory Manila Hash House Harriers' Run for 'Tyke', 1st March 2021<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikvOvyyE0KgosDK2NW4-0me9bHKlrS16EJvElCF4ZbxVlSCv5traBXAK1teg1R30_3kJfY60_DbSO4hyphenhyphenKDdGNz1fkeVGtow2JZ9mpliuZol00h88Xac8SZCDJ4KoGJniGnT93j3iamMr-a/s539/Tyke+1n+n.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="485" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikvOvyyE0KgosDK2NW4-0me9bHKlrS16EJvElCF4ZbxVlSCv5traBXAK1teg1R30_3kJfY60_DbSO4hyphenhyphenKDdGNz1fkeVGtow2JZ9mpliuZol00h88Xac8SZCDJ4KoGJniGnT93j3iamMr-a/w576-h640/Tyke+1n+n.png" width="576" /></a> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTOizVqHX122nKP3OXp0EcUh0TmdGTQN5qkNNSFUXZVC8snMsQvYbH9pkpIOfYHQesVy-EMTyBOreqDcw8oFN1XfyHfbK32Azg0yQsGQJQbQufYmLmeuQqGVWjU_xbWSiDs6FiyVkw5dCb/s581/Tyke+2n+n.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="436" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTOizVqHX122nKP3OXp0EcUh0TmdGTQN5qkNNSFUXZVC8snMsQvYbH9pkpIOfYHQesVy-EMTyBOreqDcw8oFN1XfyHfbK32Azg0yQsGQJQbQufYmLmeuQqGVWjU_xbWSiDs6FiyVkw5dCb/w480-h640/Tyke+2n+n.png" width="480" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFgiupKDxGNeyRCS2Ko4MZvGPmtOEJYFQRfcFy5eAqqYtfLCs6q71ZMGvINH3y0Q9FZFOOu80Sa_IjM78HB3GkuoHVm6UYy5Q5soUQjaR1nxhikKrSZLUwJ3Sf3syuK56SmarpjDruyncX/s521/Tyke+3+n+n.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="521" data-original-width="414" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFgiupKDxGNeyRCS2Ko4MZvGPmtOEJYFQRfcFy5eAqqYtfLCs6q71ZMGvINH3y0Q9FZFOOu80Sa_IjM78HB3GkuoHVm6UYy5Q5soUQjaR1nxhikKrSZLUwJ3Sf3syuK56SmarpjDruyncX/w508-h640/Tyke+3+n+n.png" width="508" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="display: table-cell; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">I was awed and brought to close to tears this morning on learning that I had been commemorated with a Special Run by 'Manila's Finest' - the Manila Men's Hash House Harriers. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">My most heartfelt thanks to the Lads - especially the MH3 scribe 'Squatta' [Tom Crouch] who has been a friend since 1983. </span></div><br /><a data-id="2225393733943435036" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2018/04/crossing-to-island-to-be-young.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Crossing to the Island Where the Blessed Belong</a></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQY5I3OtgG16sLC52s8pWlSget-77B5asn0evhmMOyyGk_Ii7P99rEx1yLBtmcYITuPhXvWQeZxO8ZTzPci5sPlHJot43narZyPg7UnjghfBQIs_VUHs4mBBvLLfpRMtuzq7oTsYhIWua/s1600/Taalscan0001+%25282%2529.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="942" height="463" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHQY5I3OtgG16sLC52s8pWlSget-77B5asn0evhmMOyyGk_Ii7P99rEx1yLBtmcYITuPhXvWQeZxO8ZTzPci5sPlHJot43narZyPg7UnjghfBQIs_VUHs4mBBvLLfpRMtuzq7oTsYhIWua/w640-h463/Taalscan0001+%25282%2529.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></div><span face=""Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">CROSSING TO THE ISLAND WHERE THE BLESSED BELONG<br /></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Drink too quick as though this drink’s the last<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Drink up from what is past and taste regret<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Drink down through what is left and what has passed<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Drink deeper still - drink deeper to forget.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">From dregs and froth the recollections pour<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">In loss and bitterness their flavours found<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The thirsts of youth grown old and sour<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">A glass most-empty or a potion downed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">But think of when the glass was bright and full<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">A brimming bowl with zest and lust to rim,<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">With warmth that love, delight and friendship mull </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Sweet draughts and quaffs that headiness makes trim.<o:p></o:p><br /><br />With age the vintage grows too tart or strong -</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Blend it with freshness savoured by the young -<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And steer a middle course to best times wrong<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Crossing to the island where the blessed belong.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div></div><br /><br /><span face=""Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14px;">[</span><i style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">photograph: crossing to the volcanic island at the centre of Lake Taal in the Philippines with the Manila Men's Hash House Harriers for a trail run around 1990</i><span face=""Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14px;">]</span><br /><br /><br /></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2018-04-18T05:41:00.000Z">18th April 2018</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-17567416037661692202021-03-01T04:25:00.004-08:002021-03-01T04:30:46.142-08:00'All that you've loved is all you own'. Solveig Slettahjell - Take It With Me<iframe frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://youtube.com/embed/Q60YUnpbbHQ" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Q60YUnpbbHQ/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><i>Solveig Slettahjell - Take It With Me (live, Til Radka, 2009)</i></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">Take It with Me </span><br /><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Tom Waits</a> <br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Garamond;">The phone's off the hook, no one knows where we are<br /> It's a long time since I drank champagne<br /> The ocean's blue, as blue as your eyes<br /> I'm gonna take it with me when I go <br /><br />Old long since gone, now way back when<br /> We lived in Coney Island<br /> There ain't no good thing ever dies<br /> I'm gonna take it with me when I go <br /><br />Far, far away a train whistle blows<br /> Wherever you're goin', wherever you've been<br /> Waving goodbye at the end of the day<br /> You're up and you're over, and you're far away <br /><br />Always for you, and forever yours<br /> It felt just like the old days<br /> We fell asleep on Beaula's porch<br /> I'm gonna take it with me when I go <br /><br />All broken down by the side of the road<br /> I's never more alive or alone<br /> I've worn the faces off all the cards<br /> I'm gonna take it with me when I go <br /><br />The children are playing at the end of the day<br /> Strangers are singing on our lawn<br /> It's got to be more than flesh and bone<br /> All that you've loved is all you own <br /><br />In a land there's a town, and in that town there's a house<br /> And in that house there's a woman<br /> And in that woman there's a heart I love<br /> I'm gonna take it with me when I go <br /><br />I'm gonna take it with me when I go. <br /></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Source: <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">LyricFind</a></i></span><div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />Songwriters: Kathleen Brennan / Thomas Alan Waits <br />Take It With Me lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group</i></span></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-19528760905047334072021-02-28T14:27:00.001-08:002021-02-28T14:28:52.947-08:00Mary Oliver: 'Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds ...'<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOvue30eBIJZqE0vxT9zJwDox8Xnn-ew2jySN5_MIvWXwNmPVkGKIH3ZahF2q-9cac7c07VFZ13CLyDN2zs1fIsmSKM7ipGKZjtiw-gjoPZEFiyyo3uytS51_sA_2Kasp4cLva-4Y1XjEZ/s225/MARY+OLIVERimages_%252831%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOvue30eBIJZqE0vxT9zJwDox8Xnn-ew2jySN5_MIvWXwNmPVkGKIH3ZahF2q-9cac7c07VFZ13CLyDN2zs1fIsmSKM7ipGKZjtiw-gjoPZEFiyyo3uytS51_sA_2Kasp4cLva-4Y1XjEZ/w640-h640/MARY+OLIVERimages_%252831%2529.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #f26522; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 26px; margin: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 0px;">Mary Oliver & The Witchery of Living</h1><p><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">--by <a href="https://www.dailygood.org/search.php?op=auth&name=Mary%20Oliver" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Mary Oliver</a>, </i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i>https://www.dailygood.org/story/2694/mary-oliver-and-the-witchery-of-living-mary-oliver/</i></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12px;"><i><br /></i></span></span></p><div id="reset_style" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 itemprop="name" style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 20px; margin: 0px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;"><img alt="" src="https://www.servicespace.org/inc/ckfinder/userfiles/images/dgood/images_(31).jpeg" style="border: 1px solid; float: right; height: 225px; margin: 7px; padding: 0px; width: 225px;" />"To Begin With, the Sweet Grass"</h3><p style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px; margin: 10px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;">Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat<br /> of the sweet grass?<br />Will the owl bite off its own wings?<br />Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or<br /> forget to sing?<br />Will the rivers run upstream?<br /><br />Behold, I say—behold<br />the reliability and the finery and the teachings<br /> of this gritty earth gift.<br /><br /> 2.<br />Eat bread and understand comfort.<br />Drink water, and understand delight.<br />Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets<br /> are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds<br />who are drinking the sweetness, who are<br /> thrillingly gluttonous.<br /><br />For one thing leads to another.<br />Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.<br />Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.<br /><br />And someone's face, whom you love, will be as a star<br />both intimate and ultimate,<br />and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.<br /><br />And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:<br />oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two<br />beautiful bodies of your lungs.<br /><br /> 3.<br />The witchery of living<br />is my whole conversation<br />with you, my darlings.<br />All I can tell you is what I know.<br /><br /><br />Look, and look again.<br />This world is not just a little thrill for the eyes.<br /><br /><br />It's more than bones.<br />It's more than the delicate wrist with its personal pulse.<br />It's more than the beating of the single heart.<br />It's praising.<br />It's giving until the giving feels like receiving.<br />You have a life—just imagine that!<br />You have this day, and maybe another, and maybe<br /> still another.<br /><br /> 4.<br />Someday I am going to ask my friend Paulus,<br />the dancer, the potter,<br />to make me a begging bowl<br />which I believe<br />my soul needs.<br /><br />And if I come to you,<br />to the door of your comfortable house<br />with unwashed clothes and unclean fingernails,<br />will you put something into it?<br /><br />I would like to take this chance.<br />I would like to give you this chance.<br /><br /> 5.<br />We do one thing or another; we stay the same, or we<br /> change.<br />Congratulations, if<br /> you have changed.<br /><br /> 6.<br />Let me ask you this.<br />Do you also think that beauty exists for some<br /> fabulous reason?<br /><br />And, if you have not been enchanted by this adventure—<br /> your life—<br />what would do for you?<br /><br /> 7.<br />What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.<br />Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.<br />That was many years ago.<br />Since then I have gone out from my confinements,<br /> though with difficulty.<br />I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart.<br />I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.<br />They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment<br />somehow or another).<br /><br />And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.<br />I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.<br />I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,<br />I have become younger.<br /><br />And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?<br />Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.</p><p style="border: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin: 10px 0px 16px; padding: 0px;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><i>- Mary Oliver</i></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif; font-size: 15px;"> </span></p><br /><br /><hr noshade="" style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 15px;" /><span style="border: 0px; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Text of the above poem is reproduced as it appears in "Evidence:Poems", published by Beacon Press, 2010</em> </span></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-54884335145264342362021-02-27T20:25:00.005-08:002021-02-28T14:46:43.859-08:00As alertness ebbs and presence fails<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWMdy5v0naNM8rd6nbly13WAXrcDAE4AgRDRd2ggPtbPXbaDiFiUZ9moGEzJ39U0AILIcB8Olm2RZ9EVJdTH800TVBNohn1Vm2jb0jGVZ8AhMImof92gv6qfXsM5SdEMvQKNcJIGO-axip/s1600/finaal+sovereignty07-Yu-Chen-The-Old-Man-1985-drawing-95%25C3%259770cm.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="234" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWMdy5v0naNM8rd6nbly13WAXrcDAE4AgRDRd2ggPtbPXbaDiFiUZ9moGEzJ39U0AILIcB8Olm2RZ9EVJdTH800TVBNohn1Vm2jb0jGVZ8AhMImof92gv6qfXsM5SdEMvQKNcJIGO-axip/s640/finaal+sovereignty07-Yu-Chen-The-Old-Man-1985-drawing-95%25C3%259770cm.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="372" /></a></div><p></p><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"></div><div class="article-header" style="display: table; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><a data-id="4849485046551671759" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/06/living-on-to-dissolution.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Living on to Dissolution</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=4849485046551671759&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"></div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.0001pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.0001pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 18pt;">ROUGH TIMES TO FINALITY</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.0001pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span></div>I had a pretty rough night the other night with nerve and bone pain and am becoming more sceptical about my ability to keep writing and publishing on this Website - I'll just have to follow the advice of my wonderful step-father Horace Darlington (1917-1968): 'Do your best in the circumstances - angels can do no more!'</div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Kindly forgive the inadequacies of writing and publication!</div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">And my cockamamie statistics from last year which now seem far too optimistic!<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.0001pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 18pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.0001pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 18pt;">LUCKY FOR SOME?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.0001pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><br /></div><span style="color: #333333;">When I celebrated my 70th birthday back in 2014, I wrote a poem under the title 'Final Sovereignty' imagining what might happen moving towards to my statistically estimated demise at 87-88 years of age. And I took some heart from the lives that were still being led by many of my older friends and relatives.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #333333;">Ah Man Proposes - God Disposes!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #333333;">It now looks as though I will be extremely fortunate to live to 77-78 years of age - and I have become increasingly aware that very few make it into Older Old Age seriously unscathed.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: #333333;">Back in mid-February, I presented at the Emergency Department of Wellington Hospital and finally got catheterised after failing to pee for around 8 hours. And, after an X-ray of my pelvis, it was confirmed that I had a worst case scenario for Prostate Cancer of 5:5 on the Gleason Scale, my advanced and aggressive tumour having metastasized to the point of threatening my spinal column.</span><br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #333333; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.0001pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: middle;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><br /></span></div><h1 class="bNg8Rb" style="background-color: white; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; height: 1px; margin: 0px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; position: absolute; white-space: nowrap; width: 1px; z-index: -1000;">Search Results</h1><span style="color: #333333;">I had passed the normally reliable Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Test on a number of occasions, being a highly aberrant 'No Response' case - and months had passed exploring other options for my symptoms - such is life.</span><br /><div style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br />Anyhow, I now find myself having undergone the 4th of 6 chemo treatments at our excellent Blood and Cancer Day Clinic, after having been given a modal or most likely initial survival of 3 weeks. Following holding treatments to slow the cancer - and surviving - I started my chemo course on the 21st April.<br /><br /><div style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">[<i>My treatment is being based on the results of the STAMPEDE (Systemic Therapy in Advancing or Metastatic Prostate Cancer: Evaluation of Drug Efficacy). 'This is a large clinical trial that aims to assess new treatment approaches for people affected by high-risk prostate cancer. The trial has been open since 2005 and has tested many different ways of treating prostate cancer and some results are now already known. </i></div><br /><i></i><i></i><div style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><i><i>Each new or alternative treatment is compared with the current standard approach, referred to as a "comparison". More than 10,000 people have joined STAMPEDE so far with answers becoming available throughout the trial as information on life expectancy and disease control rates are gathered and compared. A full description, with explanatory and illustrative videos is available at: </i><a href="http://www.stampedetrial.org/participants/about-stampede/" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">//www.stampedetrial.org/participants/about-stampede/</a>]</i><br /><i><br /></i></div><i></i></div><div style="color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span face=""Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">The modal or most likely initial survival period during this second phase is 3 months. Successful completion of the course and follow-up suggest this moving out to 18 months at end March 2022, if all goes well - with an eventual possible extension [very unlikely and no doubt dependent on other interventions] to August 2023, given the Poisson Distribution that I have employed:</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><div data-async-context="query:antigen%20psa" eid="c-fyXremCcq6rQGK4aHYBA" id="rso" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 6px 0px 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk0pZISmXJmtlpLTAvo-Bjzc0vPgsZzeLY7USAyGeqknADG2dNbrBf1b2YNkr4-D4sYnYp6EXdJ1CPM9eEDY7L_gk9Xd5pIT1j08Z2jLRyLJ0yRZ3wpZ9mdu8WYD0geusXJExmT8tBfajQ/s1600/Treatment+Probabilities+N.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="590" data-original-width="687" height="547" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk0pZISmXJmtlpLTAvo-Bjzc0vPgsZzeLY7USAyGeqknADG2dNbrBf1b2YNkr4-D4sYnYp6EXdJ1CPM9eEDY7L_gk9Xd5pIT1j08Z2jLRyLJ0yRZ3wpZ9mdu8WYD0geusXJExmT8tBfajQ/s640/Treatment+Probabilities+N.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmvtVnZc3qZYXfOSPaPAIs5Tkk5LusE_U-YYS9uFw9XWodLs8LzQGV-7m8S3s_YyAjdv5QD5VOhZqKoXhg8X4YNZYAu0k75mWvxCHPgh4ZbR1OFp4dpi_tWg6m4JgZiG8kTb8UVLSfhYcM/s938/Life+expectancy+March+2021+n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="709" data-original-width="938" height="484" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmvtVnZc3qZYXfOSPaPAIs5Tkk5LusE_U-YYS9uFw9XWodLs8LzQGV-7m8S3s_YyAjdv5QD5VOhZqKoXhg8X4YNZYAu0k75mWvxCHPgh4ZbR1OFp4dpi_tWg6m4JgZiG8kTb8UVLSfhYcM/w640-h484/Life+expectancy+March+2021+n.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></div>My statistics is more than a bit rusty so I don't guarantee my interpretations but I think the overall drift is right.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Which brings me back to my reflections of 2014.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Since then I have become more observant and more conscious of the uncertainties faced as people move into Older Old Age - noting the presence of chronic and intractable conditions like heart failure and dementia. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">I have also seen a number of colleagues and friends die over the last six years - sometimes of extraordinary events like allergies to jelly-fish stings by a very fit 68-year old long-distance sea swimmer; one from a more predictable lung cancer death by a heavy smoker of my age; and in another case the stretch from diagnosis to death from pancreatic cancer well within my diagnosis-to-current-survival window [again my age].</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">And my 16-year old son is currently in the After Hours Clinic having a wrist X-ray [fine now thanks] after having had to take avoiding action on his moped in heavy traffic!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">All of which reinforces the realisation that we all wish to avoid - life is tenuous.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Especially as I have lived this last four and a half months in an extraordinary situation in which coming close to 10 million people have faced premature death worldwide as a consequence of the Covid-19 Pandemic. It has been so strange to follow the international catastrophe as it mirrored my very personal challenges.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">And I am not of course immune to earlier impending accidents and additional medical events, even though I can play with survival profiles for my apparent disease.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">But having thought things over though through the last four and a half months, I have to say that I am reasonably reconciled to being bracketed with some sort of deadline - as someone who is increasingly entering Older Old Age - rather than being faced with an open-ended but much more debatable final obsolescence.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">But always hoping for a longer tail, of course!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"><br /></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 24pt;"><span style="color: #333333; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><a href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2015/07/final-sovereignty.html" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Final Sovereignty</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 24pt;"><br /></span></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Now a second testing adolescence</span></span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">Beckons with its trials and pitfalls</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">Of rage and loss and acquiescence</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">As alertness ebbs and presence fails.</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">Seventy now - immaturity ahead -</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">I look to my elders for consolation</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">On how ten or twenty years are shed</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">Purposefully to dissolution.</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">Across the threshold of obsolescence</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">I pay court in admiration</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">To those who deny decay deference</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">And live on with quiet determination</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">Their indignities suffered and withstood,</span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">In sovereignty the end makes good.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0in; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3.75pt; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 3.75pt; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><i><span face="helvetica, sans-serif">Posted 1st August 2015 by </span><span face="helvetica, sans-serif"><span style="color: #009eb8;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></i><br /><span face="helvetica, sans-serif" style="font-size: 16pt;"><br /></span></div><div class="article-header" style="background-color: white; display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="display: table-cell; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a data-id="6837323134249041684" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2020/02/aware-of-transience-of-life-he-lives.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s;">Aware of the transience of life, he lives obliviously ...</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=6837323134249041684&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png; background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;"); background-position: 50% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_VBl-Fi7bXTwmVsIXqUAG_ygAdY-MC7Hmp2T_8BDdhlaJIKZ0DQSQqpOhxk4rhU4xAVS8N7h2-m2lOAuPmQs9pPypJkPb-ab4gC24czLvZ4lhDziieS4H0U_VV6eqdO1GSGMKkGIECia/s1600/Marshak84332164_1551224208352323_1342248310169141248_n.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="564" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY_VBl-Fi7bXTwmVsIXqUAG_ygAdY-MC7Hmp2T_8BDdhlaJIKZ0DQSQqpOhxk4rhU4xAVS8N7h2-m2lOAuPmQs9pPypJkPb-ab4gC24czLvZ4lhDziieS4H0U_VV6eqdO1GSGMKkGIECia/s400/Marshak84332164_1551224208352323_1342248310169141248_n.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;"); border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="387" /></a></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">Everything on earth and in the sea dies.<br />But man is more severely condemned:<br />He knows about this death sentence,<br />It was signed when he was born.<br /><br />But, aware of the transience of life,<br />He lives obliviously - contrary to everything -<br />As if his life is forever<br />And this world belongs to him.</span><br /><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;">Samuil Marshak [Russian Poet 1887-1964]</div><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /><div style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="background-color: white; clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2020-02-08T00:36:00.003Z">8th February</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div></div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-12330707403121503772021-02-27T15:25:00.004-08:002021-02-28T05:40:32.829-08:00Lawrence Ferlinghetti - the 'Lyric Escape'<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8lLWfltaeYUIpdvQ3uT2zx2vFbGQmnk3NdKARZabLNMfGdMTqrJjHZHrNnfl_vm0BPuhyphenhyphenhQ8wS7zy2sPJP4Tpbs-YyJu4OZPMrCX1rUarssHmFt2sMi39SFKp-WqQA0v4_ZiNflVZGbTY/s1280/ferlinghetti+compage+N.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8lLWfltaeYUIpdvQ3uT2zx2vFbGQmnk3NdKARZabLNMfGdMTqrJjHZHrNnfl_vm0BPuhyphenhyphenhQ8wS7zy2sPJP4Tpbs-YyJu4OZPMrCX1rUarssHmFt2sMi39SFKp-WqQA0v4_ZiNflVZGbTY/w640-h360/ferlinghetti+compage+N.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div><div><span style="font-size: x-large;">Remembering Lawrence Ferlinghetti Through His Poetry</span><br /><br /><br />February 27, 2021<br />Heard on <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Weekend Edition Saturday</a><br />LISTEN· 2:302-Minute Listen. Add toPLAYLIST<br /><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Download</a><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#">Transcript</a><br /><br /><br />Lawrence Ferlinghetti, who died Feb. 22 at age 101, wrote a string of verses called "What is Poetry." We remember him by excerpting some lines.<br /><br /><br />SCOTT SIMON, HOST:<br /><br />Lawrence Ferlinghetti died this week. He was 101 and one of the founders of the Beats, those poets who put the beat of streets, the wings of birds and the pulse of jazz into poetry. When Ferlinghetti was 80 years old, he wrote a long string of verses called "What Is Poetry?" so he would never have to address the question again. Here are some of his answers.<br /><br />(SOUNDBITE OF THEO ALEXANDER SONG, "RE; WAITING")<br /><br />SIMON: (Reading) Poetry is news from the frontiers of consciousness. Poetry is what we would cry out upon awakening in a dark wood in the middle of the journey of our life. Poetry is white knights and mouths of desire. Poetry is the street talk of angels and devils.<br /><br />(SOUNDBITE OF THEO ALEXANDER SONG, "RE; WAITING")<br /><br />SIMON: (Reading) Poetry is the anarchy of the senses making sense. Poetry is all things born with wings that sing.<br /><br />(SOUNDBITE OF THEO ALEXANDER SONG, "RE; WAITING")<br /><br />SIMON: (Reading) A poem should rise to ecstasy somewhere between speech and song. Poetry is a voice of dissent against the waste of words and the mad plethora of print. Poetry is what exists between the lines. Poetry is made with the syllables of dreams. Poetry is far, far cries upon a beach at nightfall. Poetry is a lighthouse moving its megaphone over the sea. Poetry is a picture of mom in her Woolworth bra looking out a window into a secret garden. A poem can be made of common household ingredients. It fits on a single page, yet it can fill a world and fits in the pocket of a heart.<br /><br />(SOUNDBITE OF THEO ALEXANDER SONG, "RE; WAITING")<br /><br />SIMON: (Reading) A poet is a street singer who rescues the alley cats of love. Poetry is the real canary in a coal mine, and we know why the caged bird sings. Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations. The poet should be a dark barker before the tents of existence. Poetry is the real subject of great prose. Like a bowl of roses, a poem should not have to be explained. Poetry should still be an insurgent knock on the door of the unknown.</div><div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 1; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><i><span style="color: #121212; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 24pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Poet Who Nurtured the Beats,
Dies at 101<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">An unapologetic proponent
of “poetry as insurgent art,” he was also a publisher and the owner of the
celebrated San Francisco bookstore City Lights.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 36pt; margin-bottom: 10.5pt; mso-outline-level: 2; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 30pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Last Word: Lawrence Ferlinghetti</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 30pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.5pt; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; mso-outline-level: 4; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For more than 50 years, the poet Lawrence
Ferlinghetti kept the bohemian and beat spirit alive at his City Lights
Bookstore in San Francisco. In 2007, he spoke to The Times about his life and
legacy.</span></b><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“The
scene shows fewer tumbrils, but more spaced-out citizens in painted cars. And
they have strange license plates and engines that devour America.” Lawrence
Ferlinghetti was a poet, a painter, a publisher and a ceaseless political
provocateur. “And I am waiting for Voznesensky to turn on with us and speak
love tonight. And I am waiting for Aphrodite to grow live arms at a final
disarmament conference.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He
penned one of the single most popular books of poetry in print, served as San
Francisco’s first poet laureate and won the National Book Award. Perhaps most
famously, Ferlinghetti became the spiritual godfather of the Beat movement when
he opened City Lights Books on a gritty hillside of San Francisco in 1953. “I
had no idea of any poetry scene here or anything like that. But then when you
have a bookstore, that’s a place where poets naturally fall into and hang out.”
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">City
Lights became a proving ground for bohemian and Beat writers and artists.
Ferlinghetti soon expanded his reach by starting City Lights Press, which
published the Pocket Poets Series. The first book was his own, “Pictures of the
Gone World.” “The dog trots freely in the street and sees reality, and the
things he sees are bigger than himself.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
fourth was Allen Ginsberg’s explosive poem “Howl,” which would shock the
civilized world. “Allen Ginsberg laid his manuscript of ‘Howl’ on me one day. I
told him I’d like to publish it, but we didn’t have any money. Once I heard it
aloud, I realized this was going to cause a revolution in American poetry.” “I
saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical,
naked, dragging themselves through the Negro streets at dawn looking for an
angry fix.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It was
a little like with the rock revolution that happened in the ’60s. When Allen
Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ came along, you didn’t hear any more about the old academic
poetry for a long time.” ‘Howl’ swept Ferlinghetti into a landmark First
Amendment fight. “We were selling it at City Lights Bookstore, and two officers
from the juvenile department bought a copy from Shigeyoshi Murao, who was my
manager at that time. Shig was arrested, and I was indicted as the publisher
and bookstore owner.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
charges? “Willfully and lewdly” publishing obscene writings. “The trial went to
court. We had a marvelous lineup of witnesses on our side, the most impressive
literary figures in the West. When the judge brought in his decision, he said
that a book cannot be judged obscene if it had the slightest redeeming social
importance or social significance. And that precedent, even though this was
just in the municipal court, it held up all these years. It’s still very hard
to convict someone of obscene literature these days.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When
The Times spoke with Mr. Ferlinghetti in 2007, he was 88 years old and still actively
provoking. “I’m waiting for the next revolution. As a publisher, I always say,
you can’t publish a revolution when there isn’t any.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lawrence
Ferlinghetti was born in 1919 in Yonkers, just north of New York City. His
mother was ill, and his father died before he was born. He was raised by an
aunt who worked as a servant in the home of Presley Bisland, a Southern
gentleman who sparked a literary interest in the troubled boy. “He was very
much like Mark Twain. He was very witty and very literate. He would get me to
recite poems at the dinner table, and I would get a silver dollar if I could
recite the poem perfectly. And I would start out, ‘The Syrian came down like’ —
‘No, no, young man, not like that.’ And then he would thunder forth
dramatically. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As I
say, I had an unhappy childhood, quote, unquote, so I escaped by lyricism. When
present-day life gets too awful, there’s the lyric escape. You can write a
lyric poem, or you can go out and look at the moon. Or you can shack up with
your best girlfriend or whatever. That’s the lyric escape.” Ferlinghetti
studied journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After
graduating in 1941, he joined the Navy. [explosions] On D-Day, Ferlinghetti was
commanding a ship that provided protection for the invasion fleet at Normandy. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“We
were an antisubmarine screen around the beaches. We didn’t have to land. And we
could look through our binoculars and see these poor G.I.’s getting shot up on
the beaches.” After the carnage in France, Ferlinghetti was transferred to
Japan, arriving soon after the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. “In the
towering mushroom, Japan could read its doom. This was more than a routine
bombing.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“As
soon as I saw the devastated landscape, this burned, scorched landscape, where
human flesh and teacups were melded together, and bones and fingers and faces
sticking out of mud and not an erect building in sight.” “Before the blast,
these were modern buildings, constructed like our own American factories.”
“That made me an instant pacifist.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ferlinghetti
decided to forge one of his lyric escapes from the Navy and use the G.I. Bill
to earn advanced degrees from Columbia University and the Sorbonne in Paris. In
1951, he went west to San Francisco. “I see San Francisco from my window through
some old Navy beer bottles. The glass is dark. What’s it all about? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Right
after the Second World War, there’s so many people who had been uprooted, it
was as if the whole continent had tilted up, and the population slid westward.
It’s still the last frontier. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I had
an old second-hand car, and I was driving up Columbus Avenue. And I looked
across the street at Columbus and Broadway, and there was this guy putting up a
sign ‘Pocket Book Shop.’ I said, are you opening a bookstore?” Ferlinghetti
decided to join forces with that man, Peter Martin, to open up a shop
specializing in a new type of cheap softcover book, the paperback. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Up
till then, the only paperbacks you could get were murder mysteries and some
science fiction. So Peter Martin had this brilliant idea to start a paperback
bookstore where you could find these books, which you couldn’t find anywhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Right
from the beginning, we had poets and writers dropping in because there was
nothing else like this. If you walked into any other bookstore in town, you
couldn’t just sit down and read. They wanted — the clerk would be on top of you
asking you what you wanted or could I help you. We actually ignored the
readers. We ignored the customers. You practically had to hit the clerk over
the head to buy the book.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ferlinghetti
went solo when Martin left town after a couple of years, and the shop became
the literary meeting place for Beat writers like Allen Ginsberg, Michael
McClure, Gary Snyder, Jack Kerouac, and the hero of his classic “On the Road,”
Neal Cassady. “Neal Cassady would dash in. He left his jalopy out front with
the motor running and the door open. He would rush in and get a copy of — and
rush out. Of course, these are all free books we gave the poets.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“It’s
already too late. Pentagon is taking care of it all, and we’re doing this
deliberately, as far as that goes.” “The Pentagon? Tell me what —” “Well, I
don’t know who’s running the country. Do you?” “The bookstore from the
beginning had this anarchist position, which wasn’t a bomb-throwing position.
It was a pacifist position.” “Oh.” [chanting] “I mean, I remember I was at the
Human Be-In in Golden Gate Park in 1967.” [chanting] “Peace in San Francisco.
Peace in Hanoi.” “And I was sitting next to Allen Ginsberg on stage, and at one
moment he turns to me and he says, ‘What if we’re all wrong?’” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">[chanting]
“I wrote a poem called ‘Tentative Description of a Dinner to Impeach President
Eisenhower,’ and now I realize that Eisenhower, compared to today’s leaders in
federal government — Eisenhower was an angel.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“You
know, one shouldn’t put down all the things that the Beats and the hippies
stood for. The expansion of consciousness, this is something completely new in
poetry. Religious consciousness — they’re turning toward the Far East, for
instance. The first articulation of an ecological consciousness. So many things
in our culture now, which we take for granted, came out of that rebellion, that
youth rebellion.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 21pt; margin-left: 39pt; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 13.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In
2001, City Lights was placed on the list of San Francisco’s historic landmarks.
“Does poetry still matter today?” “What did you put the word ‘still’ in there
for? Yeah, does poetry still matter today? It’s still — it’s a ‘still.’ All the
disparate elements of the new civilization, the new culture of the 21st century
is in this ‘still.’ And one of these days, the brew is going to coalesce into a
marvelous, new, intoxicating liquor.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: white; display: none; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hide: all;">00:00<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="color: white; display: none; font-size: 9pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hide: all;">11:11<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: black; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #f7f7f7; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 16.5pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">The
Last Word: Lawrence Ferlinghetti</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #666666; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">For
more than 50 years, the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti kept the bohemian and beat
spirit alive at his City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. In 2007, he spoke
to The Times about his life and legacy.</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Credit</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #888888; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Credit...Brian Flaherty for The New York Times</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; vertical-align: baseline;"><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #333333; font-size: 12pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">By <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/jesse-mckinley"><span style="color: #333333;">Jesse
McKinley</span></a></span></b><b><span face=""Helvetica",sans-serif" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Feb. 23, 2021</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a poet,
publisher and political iconoclast who inspired and nurtured generations of San
Francisco artists and writers from City Lights, his famed bookstore, died on
Monday at his home in San Francisco. He was 101.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The cause was interstitial lung
disease, his daughter, Julie Sasser, said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The spiritual godfather of the Beat
movement, Mr. Ferlinghetti made his home base in the modest independent book
haven now formally known as City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. A
self-described “literary meeting place” founded in 1953 and located on the
border of the city’s sometimes swank, sometimes seedy North Beach neighborhood,
City Lights, on Columbus Avenue, soon became as much a part of the San
Francisco scene as the Golden Gate Bridge or Fisherman’s Wharf. (The city’s
board of supervisors designated it a historic landmark in 2001.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While older and not a practitioner of
their freewheeling personal style, Mr. Ferlinghetti befriended, published and
championed many of the major Beat poets, among them Allen Ginsberg, Gregory
Corso and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/06/books/michael-mcclure-dead.html?timespastHighlight=genzlinger"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">Michael McClure</span></a>, who died in May. His connection to
their work was exemplified — and cemented — in 1956 with his publication of
Ginsberg’s most famous poem, the ribald and revolutionary <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">“Howl,”</span></a> an act that led to Mr. Ferlinghetti’s
arrest on charges of “willfully and lewdly” printing “indecent writings.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a significant
First Amendment decision, he was acquitted, and “Howl” became one of the 20th
century’s best-known poems. (The trial was the centerpiece of the 2010 film
“Howl,” in which James Franco played Ginsberg and Andrew Rogers played Mr.
Ferlinghetti.)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In addition to being a champion of the
Beats, Mr. Ferlinghetti was himself a prolific writer of wide talents and
interests whose work evaded easy definition, mixing disarming simplicity, sharp
humor and social consciousness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Every great poem fulfills a longing
and puts life back together,” he wrote in <a href="https://www.poetrysociety.org/psa/awards/frost_and_shelley/frost_medal_lectures/lawrence_ferl%3Ctempdel%20style%20=%20'visibility:hidden;'%3Ei%3C/tempdel%3E%3Ctempdel%20style%20=%20'visibility:hidden;'%3En%3C/tempdel%3Eghetti/" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">a “non-lecture” </span></a>after
being awarded the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal in 2003. A poem, he
added, “should arise to ecstasy somewhere between speech and song.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Critics and fellow poets were never in
agreement about whether Mr. Ferlinghetti should be regarded as a Beat poet. He
himself didn’t think so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“In some ways what I
really did was mind the store,” he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/01/featuresreviews.guardianreview10" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">told The Guardian</span></a> in
2006. “When I arrived in San Francisco in 1951 I was wearing a beret. If
anything I was the last of the bohemians rather than the first of the Beats.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Still, he shared the
Beats’ taste for political agitation. Poems like “Tentative Description of a
Dinner to Promote the Impeachment of President Eisenhower” established him as
an unapologetic proponent of, as the title of one of his books put it, “poetry
as insurgent art.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He never lost his zeal for provocation.
“You’re supposed to get more conservative the older you get,” he told The San
Francisco Chronicle in 1977. “I seem to be getting just the opposite.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His most successful collection, “A
Coney Island of the Mind” (1958), attracted attention when <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42860/sometime-during-eternity-" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">one of the poems</span></a> was
attacked as blasphemous by a New York congressman, Steven B. Derounian, who
called for the investigation of a state college where it was being taught,
saying the poem ridiculed the crucifixion of Christ. The poem, “Sometime During
Eternity …,” begins:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Sometime during eternity</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">some guys show up</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">and one of them</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">who shows up real late</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">is a kind of carpenter</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">from some square-type place</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">like Galilee</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">and he starts wailing</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">and claiming he is hip</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Despite the controversy it generated —
or perhaps, at least in part, because of it — “A Coney Island of the Mind” was
a sensation. It became one of the most successful books of American poetry ever
published. It has been translated into multiple languages; according to City
Lights, more than a million copies have been printed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A life as a provocateur would have been
hard to predict for Lawrence Monsanto Ferling, the youngest of five sons born
in the placid environs of Yonkers, N.Y., on March 24, 1919, in the wake of
World War I. His father, an Italian immigrant who had built a small real estate
business, had shortened the family name; as an adult, Lawrence would change it
back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">His parents had met in Coney Island — a
meeting he later fictionalized as happening in bumper cars — but the veneer of
normalcy quickly deteriorated. His father, Charles, died before Lawrence was
born, and his mother, Clemence Mendes-Monsanto Ferling, was admitted to a state
mental hospital before he was 2.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Lawrence was taken in
by a relative — he called her his Aunt Emily, though the family connection was
complicated — and she took him to Strasbourg, France, where he learned French,
speaking it before he did English. When they returned to the United States,
hardships returned as well. He was briefly placed in an orphanage while Aunt
Emily looked for work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A turning point came when she began
working as a governess for Presley and Anna Bisland, a wealthy couple who lived
in nearby Bronxville, N.Y., and who saw promise in the boy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Left in their care, Lawrence bloomed.
According to “Ferlinghetti: The Artist in His Time,” <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ferl%3Ctempdel%20style%20=%20'visibility:hidden;'%3Ei%3C/tempdel%3E%3Ctempdel%20style%20=%20'visibility:hidden;'%3En%3C/tempdel%3Eghetti-Artist-Time-Barry-Silesky/dp/0446514918" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">a 1990 biography</span></a> by
Barry Silesky, he became a voracious reader, devouring classics in the Bisland
library and earning silver dollars for memorizing epic poems. When he dabbled
in juvenile delinquency — he was arrested and charged with shoplifting about
the same time he made Eagle Scout — he was sent to Mount Hermon, a strict
private high school for boys in Massachusetts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“I was getting too wild,” Mr.
Ferlinghetti recalled in a 2007 interview with The New York Times. “Or
beginning to.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">That sense of abandon informed his
taste in literature. Among his favorite books was Thomas Wolfe’s coming-of-age
novel “Look Homeward, Angel”; Mr. Ferlinghetti applied to the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he said later, because Wolfe had gone there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He graduated from
North Carolina with a degree in journalism — “I learned how to write a decent
sentence,” he said of the impact that studying journalism had had on his poetry
— and then served as a naval officer during World War II, spending much of the
war on a submarine chaser in the North Atlantic.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #666666; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Mr.
Ferlinghetti in 1970. He lived in the North Beach section of San Francisco for
most of his adult life.</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #888888; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Credit...Sam Falk/The New York Times</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">After the war he
enrolled in graduate school at Columbia University, where he earned a master’s
degree in English literature, writing his thesis on the art critic John Ruskin
and the artist J.M.W. Turner, which fostered a lifelong love of painting. After
Columbia, he headed to Paris, the classic breeding ground for postwar
bohemians, where he received a doctorate in comparative literature from the
Sorbonne.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr. Ferlinghetti went west in early
1951, landing in San Francisco with a sea bag and little else. After months in
a low-rent apartment he found North Beach, even as San Francisco itself was
fast becoming fashionable among intellectuals and a generation of young people
for whom “establishment” was a dirty word.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“This was all bohemia,” he recalled.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">He was surrounded by a politically and
artistically charged circle, but he did not buy into the Beat lifestyle. “I was
never on the road with them,” he said, noting that he was living “a respectable
married life” after marrying Selden Kirby-Smith in 1951. They had two children,
Julie and Lorenzo; the marriage ended in divorce.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In addition to Ms. Sasser, Mr.
Ferlinghetti is survived by his son and three grandchildren.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Mr. Ferlinghetti’s life changed in
1953, when he and Peter Martin opened the City Lights Pocket Book Shop, which
originally carried nothing but paperbacks at a time when the publishing
industry was just beginning to take that format seriously. The store would soon
became a kind of repository for books that other booksellers ignored and a kind
of salon for the authors who wrote them — a place “where you could find these
books which you couldn’t find anywhere,” he said, crediting Mr. Martin with the
concept. Each man put in $500, and City Lights opened.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“And as soon as we got the door
opened,” Mr. Ferlinghetti later remembered, “we couldn’t get it closed.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 1955 Mr. Ferlinghetti, by then the
sole owner of City Lights, started publishing poems, including his own. In his
first collection,<a href="http://www.blogcitylights.com/2013/07/01/pictures-of-the-gone-world-25/" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> “Pictures of the Gone
World,”</span></a> his style — “at once rhetorically functional and
socially vital,” in the words of the critic Larry R. Smith — emerged fully
formed in stanzas like this:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">The world is a beautiful place</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">to be born into</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">if you don’t mind happiness</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">not always being</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">so very much fun</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">if you don’t mind a touch of hell</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">now and then</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">just when everything is fine</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">because even in heaven</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">they don’t sing</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">all
the time. </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #666666; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Lawrence
Ferlinghetti in 1993 in his bookstore. Age brought him honors; in 1998, for
instance, he was named the first poet laureate of San Francisco.</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #888888; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Credit...Jim Wilson/The New York Times. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A year later his City Lights imprint
published Ginsberg’s “Howl and Other Poems,” and before long he was in court
defending poets’ free-speech rights and helping to make himself — and the Beats
he had adopted — famous in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Over the years he would work in other
mediums, including painting, fiction and theater; a program of three of his
plays was produced in New York<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> </span>in 1970. But poetry
remained the art form closest to his heart.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">San Francisco remained close to his
heart as well, especially North Beach, the traditionally Italian-American
neighborhood where he lived for most of his adult life. In his 1976 poem “The
Old Italians Dying,” Mr. Ferlinghetti spoke to both the city he loved and the
changes he’d seen:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">The old anarchists reading L’Umanita Nova</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">the ones who loved Sacco & Vanzetti</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">They are almost gone now</span></i><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">They
are sitting and waiting their turn.</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #666666; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">City
Lights bookstore, on Columbus Avenue, has become as much a part of San
Francisco as the Golden Gate Bridge or Fisherman’s Wharf.</span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #888888; font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 0.1pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Credit...Jason Henry for The New York Times</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For Mr. Ferlinghetti, age brought
honors. In 1998 he was named the first poet laureate of San Francisco;<a href="http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2005_dcal_literarianpr.html#.WfoikFtSzmg" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;"> in 2005 the National Book
Foundation</span></a> cited his “tireless work on behalf of poets and the
entire literary community for over 50 years.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Age did not slow him down; he continued
to write and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/travel/lawrence-ferlinghettis-enduring-san-francisco.html"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">give</span></a> <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/7368/the-art-of-poetry-no-104-lawrence-ferlinghetti" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">interviews</span></a>. In 2019,
Doubleday published Mr. Ferlinghetti’s “Little Boy,” a book he had been working
on for two decades, which he <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/books/lawrence-ferl%3Ctempdel%20style%20=%20'visibility:hidden;'%3Ei%3C/tempdel%3E%3Ctempdel%20style%20=%20'visibility:hidden;'%3En%3C/tempdel%3Eghetti-poet-novel.html"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">characterized</span></a> as the closest thing to a memoir he
would ever write: “an experimental novel” about “an imaginary me.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Its publication
coincided with Mr. Ferlinghetti’s 100th birthday, which San Francisco’s mayor,
London Breed, proclaimed Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day. A choir <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-gift-of-lawrence-ferlinghettis-100th-birthday/" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">serenaded</span></a> the
writer from below his apartment with “Happy Birthday” and “Take Me Out to the
Ballgame,” while <a href="https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/26/at-lawrence-ferlinghettis-hundredth-birthday-party/" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">at City Lights</span></a>,
poets like Robert Hass and Ishmael Reed read aloud from Mr. Ferlinghetti’s
works.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In the early months of the Covid-19
pandemic, City Lights closed and started an online fund-raiser in which they
announced that they might not reopen. The store received more than $450,000 in
four days. Its chief executive, Elaine Katzenberger, <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bookselling/article/83029-fundraiser-buys-city-lights-time-to-plan.html" target="_blank"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">told Publishers Weekly</span></a> that
the money gave City Lights the ability to plan for the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Even at the end of his life, Mr.
Ferlinghetti still composed poetry — “In flashes, nothing sustained,” <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/books/lawrence-ferlinghetti-poet-novel.html"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #326891; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">he told The Times</span></a> in 2018. The anthology
“Ferlinghetti’s Greatest Poems,” published in 2017, included new work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“My newest poems,” Mr. Ferlinghetti
once told an interviewer, “are always my favorite poems.”<o:p></o:p></span></p></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-59874975290323902782021-02-27T12:15:00.002-08:002021-02-27T12:45:03.396-08:00Don't Pay the Ferryman<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCamVX_cDZcV-tpoDHNjOBb9so_LU6a8SgA6YNaDvKl5iiSv1Uaqk_qy6OT075Eaf-M7D1vhGJesC3FTEJYHWtz_52Q0EYXfPf_1PYlE1ZUJIa646FkEimA_pwDNnH4tmdiDD9oIwHIVoS/s614/FERRYMAN.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="481" data-original-width="614" height="502" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCamVX_cDZcV-tpoDHNjOBb9so_LU6a8SgA6YNaDvKl5iiSv1Uaqk_qy6OT075Eaf-M7D1vhGJesC3FTEJYHWtz_52Q0EYXfPf_1PYlE1ZUJIa646FkEimA_pwDNnH4tmdiDD9oIwHIVoS/w640-h502/FERRYMAN.png" width="640" /></a></div> <p></p><p> <a href="https://youtu.be/lqZEp4Fb6qw" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">https://youtu.be/lqZEp4Fb6qw</a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background: white; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="adn ads" data-legacy-message-id="177e4b09b6dd4b35" data-message-id="#msg-f:1692873015032630069" style="background-color: white; border-left: none; display: flex; padding: 0px;"><div class="gs" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 20px; width: 1560px;"><div class="kp-header" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQ3z4oAHoECAoQAQ" style="color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div class="kp-hc" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-top: 12px; position: relative; width: 650px;"><div class="Hhmu2e wDYxhc NFQFxe viOShc LKPcQc" data-hveid="CAcQAA" data-md="16" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQhygwAHoECAcQAA" style="border-radius: 8px; clear: none; overflow: inherit; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="Ftghae iirjIb" style="margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 16px; position: relative;"><div class="SPZz6b"><h2 class="qrShPb kno-ecr-pt PZPZlf mfMhoc EaHP9c" data-attrid="title" data-local-attribute="d3bn" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQ3B0oADAAegQIBxAB" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); display: inline; font-family: "Google Sans", arial, sans-serif !important; font-size: 30px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; position: relative; transform-origin: left top;">Don't Pay the Ferryman</h2><div class="wwUB2c PZPZlf" data-attrid="subtitle" style="color: #70757a; margin: 4px 0px; overflow: hidden;"><span data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQ2kooATAAegQIBxAC"><a data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQMTAAegQIBxAD" href="https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1GGRV_enNZ751NZ751&sxsrf=ALeKk02T50jXtGTv8LAsgTpQYGNHIiYYpQ:1614457045347&q=Chris+de+Burgh&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgVuLSz9U3MCwrrjRPX8TK55xRlFmskJKq4FRalJ4BAD0TYfwfAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQMTAAegQIBxAD" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); color: #1a0dab; text-decoration-line: none;">Chris de Burgh</a></span></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SALvLe farUxc mJ2Mod" style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(235, 235, 235); color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-top: 12px;"><div class="i4J0ge"><div class="siXlze yp1CPe wDYxhc NFQFxe" data-attrid="kc:/music/recording_cluster:lyrics" data-md="113" style="border-radius: 8px; clear: none; padding-bottom: 16px; padding-top: 0px;"><div data-hveid="CAgQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQsEwwAXoECAgQAA"><div class="uHNKed" style="margin-top: 12px;"><div class="Oh5wg" style="margin: 0px 16px;"><div class="PZPZlf" data-lyricid="Musixmatch302667"><div class="bbVIQb" jsname="Vinbg"><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">It was late at night on the open road</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Speeding like a man on the run</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">A lifetime spent preparing for the journey</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">He is closer now and the search is on</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Reading from a map in the mind</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Yes there's the ragged hill</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">And there's the boat on the river</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">And when the rain came down</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">He heard a wild dog howl</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">There were voices in the night, ("Don't do it")</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Voices out of sight, ("Don't do it")</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Too many men have failed before</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">"Whatever you do</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't even fix a price</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Until he gets you to the other side"</span></div><div class="ujudUb" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">In the rolling mist then he gets on board</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Now there'll be no turning back</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Beware that hooded old man at the rudder</span></div></div><div class="bbVIQb" jsname="WbKHeb"><div class="ujudUb u7wWjf" data-mh="-1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">And then the lightning flashed, and the thunder roared</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">And people calling out his name</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">And dancing bones that jabbered and a-moaned</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">On the water</span></div><div class="ujudUb xpdxpnd" data-mh="110" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px; max-height: 110px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">And then the ferryman said</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">"There is trouble ahead</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">So you must pay me now, " ("Don't do it")</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">"You must pay me now, " ("Don't do it")</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">And still that voice came from beyond</span></div><div class="ujudUb xpdxpnd" data-mh="110" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px; max-height: 110px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">"Whatever you do</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't even fix a price</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Until he gets you to the other side"</span></div><div class="ujudUb xpdxpnd" data-mh="22" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px; max-height: 22px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Yeah!</span></div><div class="ujudUb xpdxpnd" data-mh="88" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px; max-height: 88px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't even fix a price</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Until he gets you to the other side</span></div><div class="ujudUb xpdxpnd" data-mh="88" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 12px; max-height: 88px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't even fix a price</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Until he gets you to the other side</span></div><div class="ujudUb WRZytc xpdxpnd" data-mh="110" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 0px; max-height: 110px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't even fix a price</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Until he gets you to the other side</span><br /><span jsname="YS01Ge">Don't pay the ferryman</span></div><div class="ujudUb WRZytc xpdxpnd" data-mh="110" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 0px; max-height: 110px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><span jsname="YS01Ge"><br /></span></div><div class="ujudUb WRZytc xpdxpnd" data-mh="110" data-mhc="1" jsname="U8S5sf" style="line-height: 1.58; margin-bottom: 0px; max-height: 110px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><span jsname="YS01Ge"><br /></span></div></div></div><div class="j04ED" style="color: #70757a; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 13px;">Source: <a data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQ5s4FKAAwAXoECAgQAQ" href="https://www.musixmatch.com/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.musixmatch.com/&ved=2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQ5s4FKAAwAXoECAgQAQ" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); color: #70757a;">Musixmatch</a></div><div class="xpdxpnd PZPZlf" data-lyricid="Musixmatch302667" data-mh="42" data-mhc="1" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQycMBKAEwAXoECAgQAg" style="max-height: 42px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><div class="auw0zb" style="color: #70757a; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 13px;">Songwriters: Chris De Burgh</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><div class="hi" style="background: rgb(242, 242, 242); border-bottom-left-radius: 1px; border-bottom-right-radius: 1px; color: #222222; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: auto;"></div></div></div><div class="ajx" style="clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></div></div><div class="gA gt acV" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border-bottom-left-radius: 0px; border-bottom-right-radius: 0px; border-top: none; color: #222222; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: auto;"><div class="gB xu" style="border-top: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="ip iq" style="border-top: none; clear: both; margin: 0px; padding: 16px 0px;"><div class="kp-header" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQ3z4oAHoECAoQAQ" style="color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><div class="kp-hc" style="display: inline-block; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 12px; padding-top: 12px; position: relative; width: 650px;"><div class="Hhmu2e wDYxhc NFQFxe viOShc LKPcQc" data-hveid="CAcQAA" data-md="16" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQhygwAHoECAcQAA" style="border-radius: 8px; clear: none; overflow: inherit; padding-top: 0px;"><div class="Ftghae iirjIb" style="margin-top: 0px; padding-left: 16px; padding-right: 16px; position: relative;"><div class="SPZz6b"><h2 class="qrShPb kno-ecr-pt PZPZlf mfMhoc EaHP9c" data-attrid="title" data-local-attribute="d3bn" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQ3B0oADAAegQIBxAB" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.87); display: inline; font-family: "Google Sans", arial, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; overflow: hidden; position: relative; transform-origin: left top;"><div aria-hidden="true"><a class="aQy aZR e aZr" data-tooltip-align="t,c" data-tooltip-class="a1V" data-tooltip="Chris de Burgh - Don't Pay The Ferryman" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNwvIEQsg0&authuser=0" id=":ox" rate="1" role="link" style="color: #222222; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, RobotoDraft, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; height: 120px; outline: none; overflow: hidden; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; white-space: nowrap; width: 180px; z-index: 0;" tabindex="0" target="_blank"><div class="aSH" style="inset: 1px; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; z-index: 1;"><div class="aYy" id=":p4" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4); border-top: none; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; position: absolute; right: 0px;"></div></div></a></div></h2></div></div></div></div></div><div class="SALvLe farUxc mJ2Mod" style="border-top: 1px solid rgb(235, 235, 235); color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; margin-top: 12px;"><div class="i4J0ge"><div class="siXlze yp1CPe wDYxhc NFQFxe" data-attrid="kc:/music/recording_cluster:lyrics" data-md="113" style="border-radius: 8px; clear: none; padding-bottom: 16px; padding-top: 0px;"><div data-hveid="CAgQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQsEwwAXoECAgQAA"><div class="uHNKed" style="margin-top: 12px;"><div class="Oh5wg" style="margin: 0px 16px;"><div class="PZPZlf" data-lyricid="Musixmatch302667"><div class="bbVIQb" jsname="WbKHeb"></div></div><div class="xpdxpnd PZPZlf" data-lyricid="Musixmatch302667" data-mh="42" data-mhc="1" data-ved="2ahUKEwjOl8WV8YrvAhXuxzgGHQaFCKwQycMBKAEwAXoECAgQAg" style="max-height: 42px; overflow: hidden; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s;"><div class="auw0zb" style="color: #70757a; font-size: 12px; line-height: 16px; margin-top: 13px;"><br /></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-40814620996638360212021-02-22T14:06:00.002-08:002021-02-22T14:06:42.934-08:00Do you hear the dragon howl in the dead tree?<p> </p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><a data-id="4492839513771774266" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2018/03/desolate-dragon-raging-lion.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Desolate Dragon Raging Lion</a></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxV5A9hlJbzR1iqaUXknM75n4C1ZVww9ux7k_3Sx1uT972WFQYGz1rvnFrY3QG7qquejt6RWz8qxTLvkpUDEX8ea9_o6cL4GCdzXOm-J7ckVY4sjDQtLzUv2cmNiEL5D7IJBey3PC-0Zx1/s1600/BodhidharmaYo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="370" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxV5A9hlJbzR1iqaUXknM75n4C1ZVww9ux7k_3Sx1uT972WFQYGz1rvnFrY3QG7qquejt6RWz8qxTLvkpUDEX8ea9_o6cL4GCdzXOm-J7ckVY4sjDQtLzUv2cmNiEL5D7IJBey3PC-0Zx1/s640/BodhidharmaYo.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="436" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">DESOLATE DRAGON RAGING LION<br /></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Do you hear the dragon howl in the dead tree?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Listen to the lion’s roar within a dry skull?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Is there joy after the death of awakening?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">A dragon will not bide stagnant water<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The still pond cannot contain the dragon’s coils.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The warmth of spring will still touch the tree<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Non-moving, non-living, non-attached.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">At the water’s edge, the ocean has dried up<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">But the moon is unhindered by the waves.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Mountain, ocean and sky forests lie inert<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">In each tip, each fork of deadwood<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">There is the sound of the dragon wailing.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Nothing can be grasped or attained -<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">In the dry broken branches there is only emptiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">If the dragon moans, even then nothing may be realized<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">When there is a lion roar in the skull, something may arise:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The dragon plays joyfully and the lion watches -<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Roots and branches must return to the source </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The bark falls but the root-stock remains<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Does anybody hear?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">There is no one in the world who does not hear!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Deep nature is everywhere. Who does not have it?<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">No grudging, not clinging - joy without greed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Knowing when to kill and when to give life to thought<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Knowing when to comfort the dragon and calm the lion.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">A thousand, ten thousand melodies still reverberate<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The writing has grown faint and all sounds are one</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Text and score have been erased and come to silence.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><br /><br /></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2018-03-05T16:50:00.000Z">6th March 2018</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-24406503337114837762021-02-21T03:29:00.004-08:002021-02-21T21:07:41.088-08:00For Christchurch - ten years past<p></p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5BRm1hfODzeB87PuQRaAupXrlQqn-FqrnQFPa2xPtZiiTlpETiK0XuIeeyFNSIwHyG8rzzAJa8ZmPZEqNH6ttccKJE0CPmlwgkhKekYSMypFxr2q_w4oq-b6CdgdOag8_uYiLHd8hKuic/s1600/Christchurch.JPG" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576993230158332978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5BRm1hfODzeB87PuQRaAupXrlQqn-FqrnQFPa2xPtZiiTlpETiK0XuIeeyFNSIwHyG8rzzAJa8ZmPZEqNH6ttccKJE0CPmlwgkhKekYSMypFxr2q_w4oq-b6CdgdOag8_uYiLHd8hKuic/s400/Christchurch.JPG" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: 299px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative; width: 400px;" /></a></blockquote></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">A CITY FROM THE HILLS<br /><br />There lies our city folded in the mist<br />Like a great meadow in an early morn<br />Flinging her spears of grass up through white films,<br />Each with its thousand, thousand tinted globes<br /><br />Above us such an air as poets dream<br />The clean and vast wing-winnowed clime of Heaven.<br /><br />Each of her streets is closed with shining Alps,<br />Like Heaven at the end of long plain lives.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />WHAT NOW UNFOLDS<br /><br />The city lies stripped to tightening skin<br />Still-born in the meadow’s dark recess<br />Ridging her bones among the shifting leaves<br />Stark-misted eyes glaze with the birth undone.<br /><br />Above us such despair as nightmares bring<br />The empty plains sing siren-chimes of hell.<br /><br />Her carers’ life-long husbandry for nought<br />A weeping outline left to stain the Fall.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdvNk7c-EHRpYzHLAcQNLpkBizEXreyT-Xqk23Za_UvDTTzp52imX8b78NYEg2fOa2vaJ2goqbdBcodBbEprkLMtlwC7tfakX-Rf8M71qTLtntFhkUeFgMuffhrne-cDhuH-lp6y1Tkxh/s1600/christchurchsmalltop.jpg" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5576993698904535970" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdvNk7c-EHRpYzHLAcQNLpkBizEXreyT-Xqk23Za_UvDTTzp52imX8b78NYEg2fOa2vaJ2goqbdBcodBbEprkLMtlwC7tfakX-Rf8M71qTLtntFhkUeFgMuffhrne-cDhuH-lp6y1Tkxh/s400/christchurchsmalltop.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 299px; margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative; width: 393px;" /></a><br /><span face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 14px;">[First stanza from Arnold Wall, 1900]</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2011-02-23T20:47:00.000Z">24th February 2011</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><div class="post-header" style="background-color: #fcfcf4; color: #603000; font-family: verdana, arial, free-sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.44px; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: start;"><div class="post-title" style="background-color: #f2f2d2; font-size: 15pt; padding: 0.25em 60px 0.25em 10px;"><h2 style="font-size: 15pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Tuesday Poem: The Sparrows</h2></div><div class="post-author" style="font-size: 8pt; padding-right: 60px;"><span class="post-cetegory">Posted in <a href="http://helenlowe.info/blog/category/earthquakepoems/" rel="category tag" style="color: #992020; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Earthquake Poems</a>, <a href="http://helenlowe.info/blog/category/poetry/" rel="category tag" style="color: #992020; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Poetry</a> </span>by <a href="http://helenlowe.info/blog/author/admin/" style="color: #992020; font-weight: bold; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Helen Lowe</a></div><div class="post-date" style="border: 1px solid rgb(230, 223, 208); height: 4.7em; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; right: 5px; top: -5px; width: 50px; z-index: 1;"><span class="post-month" style="background-color: #e6dfd0; color: #333333; display: block; font-weight: bold; height: 1.25em; left: 1px; line-height: 1.25em; position: absolute; text-align: center; top: 1px; width: 48px;">Aug</span><span class="post-day" style="display: block; font-size: 29.568px; font-weight: 900; height: 1em; letter-spacing: -0.1em; line-height: 1em; position: absolute; text-align: center; top: 0.625em; width: 48px; z-index: 10;">02</span><span class="post-year" style="background-color: #f2f2d2; bottom: 1px; color: #992020; display: block; font-size: 10.08px; font-weight: bold; height: 1.25em; left: 1px; line-height: 1.25em; position: absolute; text-align: center; width: 48px;">2011</span></div></div><div class="post-body" style="background-color: #fcfcf4; color: #603000; font-family: verdana, arial, free-sans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.44px; letter-spacing: 0.01em; text-align: start; width: 620px; word-spacing: 0.05em;"><h3>The Sparrows</h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;">I meant it to be a poem about sparrows<br />and how the silence that followed<br />the February 22nd earthquake<br />included their absent voices —<br />& not just sparrows but the starlings<br />and blackbirds, the finches and wax-eyes<br />that normally fill the day with their bustle<br />about the business of living …<br /><span style="color: white;">…………………………….</span> all fallen silent,<br />hidden away, or gone further to find food<br />since half the city was covered<br />in a slick of water and mud. I threw<br />old bread onto the island of grass<br />in our own grey sea and waited …<br /><span style="color: white;">…………………………..…</span> and waited.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 1em;">And then, finally, they came<br />their wings clouding the sun.<br />.<br />.<br />© Helen Lowe, 2011</p></div></div><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;"><br /></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-32178129498369102352021-02-20T11:30:00.002-08:002021-02-20T11:46:32.638-08:00This is my heaven, making all things new<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdBfCKDv5D8RPni35pY51fNxsRCaFrE5wN0QQU-iJPSdiT-cAFcRrM4bQRJTtkJlPL5iOCg4NX_3Tg35d61YWKZPDA0AUOWqZmnsrFupvPeRV7tL4Vo7vcScF-k_R9gd26T00uqdGWNBt/s620/sunset+song+2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="620" height="384" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIdBfCKDv5D8RPni35pY51fNxsRCaFrE5wN0QQU-iJPSdiT-cAFcRrM4bQRJTtkJlPL5iOCg4NX_3Tg35d61YWKZPDA0AUOWqZmnsrFupvPeRV7tL4Vo7vcScF-k_R9gd26T00uqdGWNBt/w640-h384/sunset+song+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><em><span style="background: white;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">What if I should come to trust more of love</span></span></em></p><p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The summer is loveliness foregone, <o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Leaving its glories in sunset glow,<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And now its deep-felt warmth is almost done,<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Which autumn’s excess tints for show.<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The beauty of the land still burns in light,<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">But the joys of lovely things grow cold,<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">As the wail of the wind sets sharp and bright<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And longer, wintry days grow coarse and old.<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">What if I should come to trust more of love<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Stretching metre to a joyful future song -<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Finding never-ending summer dawn above,<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">That I might broach new summers and belong.<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"> </span></o:p></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">This is my heaven, making all things new,<o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="background: white; color: black;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">That nature will enlighten and renew.</span><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></span></em></p><p class="MsoNormal"><em><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black;"><br /></span></em></p><p class="MsoNormal"><em><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: white; color: black;"><br /></span></em></p>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-67210022226532542372021-02-18T12:18:00.002-08:002021-02-18T12:18:49.089-08:00The story will fall short - forget regret<p> </p><div class="article-header" style="display: table; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center; width: 750px;"><h1 class="title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="color: #333333; display: table-cell; font-size: 20px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 40px 0px 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 670px;"><a data-id="5011673735960497817" data-item-type="post" href="https://kjohnsonnz.blogspot.com/2018/06/feel-pulse-of-life.html" itemprop="url" rel="bookmark" style="color: #333333; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Feel the Pulse of Life</a> <span class="blog-admin" style="display: inline;"><a class="edit" href="https://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=3339651283033076942&postID=5011673735960497817&from=pencil" style="background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABUAAAAVCAYAAACpF6WWAAAA+UlEQVR42s3U2QmDQBAG4JRgKZbio4qieIAniniiYgkpwRIsISVYQkqwhMlMiHkIhITNhGRgYNeHz/1xncPhn0pV1dkwjNW2bYkNRAzCMIQ4jj+HdzBJEmiaBtq2hSzLxOFHcBgGGMcRuq4Tg5+Be9/gmQ2kxmdrnucSG9j3/TxNEy/IGvl3oKIokqZpC+sJdV1fHceBNE2vl5oDlC3LInBjAakw9tF13TPeNRljbwh8BlKZpnnGAXGkdRRFclEUd1gIpOj0cQijPa6VIAhOdV2LgXt03/cBoy8Ib57n0QvWsixz4XFG0XEuQlVVC8a23/6HX6A80DfrAlIMSJorw8fYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"); background-position: center center; background-repeat: no-repeat; color: #333333; cursor: pointer; display: inline-block; height: 21px; opacity: 0.8; outline: none; position: relative; text-decoration-line: none; top: 3px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; width: 21px;" target="_self" title="Edit"></a></span></h1></div><div class="article-content entry-content" itemprop="articleBody" style="clear: both; color: #333333; line-height: 1.4; margin: 10px auto 5px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: justify;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHnSJguFmxNLS44oXNzBGsyP_mdO0dQVRShFLHWMDJVnmleKHX-UpgefwEWkj4N-l4ourFLIipeaETzDn66_fo4OniJWPVaNFNCxxgH-SoJX3_MO2nkQsv-5YYWD3V7ZUt9BEagoAsNVh/s1600/RipplesRobertson300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #009eb8; display: inline; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="300" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfHnSJguFmxNLS44oXNzBGsyP_mdO0dQVRShFLHWMDJVnmleKHX-UpgefwEWkj4N-l4ourFLIipeaETzDn66_fo4OniJWPVaNFNCxxgH-SoJX3_MO2nkQsv-5YYWD3V7ZUt9BEagoAsNVh/s400/RipplesRobertson300.jpg" style="-webkit-border-image: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAABQAAAAUCAMAAAC6V+0/AAAAOVBMVEUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD///+8yHYvAAAAEnRSTlMAAgEDBAUJBwYzCw0UChARDghnBteEAAAAhElEQVR4XnWRSxJDIQgEEx1Axd/L/Q8bKCuuyOzsohHxdZLS25LSOV2ULQdflgEiIDu9KqiIFILXXpeEx2ChXwdnKNxUGxc4dZbNfXjPufkp5H0Nwtymq/dltUIweNy9qmXt08EgydDZ6+dT+9Qh9AeGenhROFI0fPjMaCHx6uIlh9/xBSJuB3l0A/6JAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC") 9 fill / 9px stretch; border: 9px none; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 10px auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 8px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">FEEL THE PULSE OF LIFE<br /><br /></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The arc of character’s a simple myth<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The arrow of time will find no target -<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">No bow is drawn that brings a point to life<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The story will fall short - forget regret.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">The waves that ripple to the waiting shore<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Will play at making runnels in the sand<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">But tides erase them to what went before<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Re-scribing palimpsests that know no end.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Nature is indifferent to age or youth<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And beauty’s parallel is constant change<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Time's industry erodes each laid down truth:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Its endless task to shift and rearrange.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">Watch each moment then and every breath<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;">And feel the pulse of life - neglecting death.</span><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><br /></div></div><div class="article-footer" style="clear: both; font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light", HelveticaNeue-Light, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: center;"><div class="publish-info" style="color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 5px 0px;">Posted <abbr class="time published" itemprop="datePublished" style="border: none; color: #333333; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; text-decoration-style: initial;" title="2018-06-13T12:57:00.000Z">14th June 2018</abbr> by <a class="url fn" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14699580856484738833" itemprop="author" rel="author" style="color: #009eb8; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s;">Keith Shorrocks Johnson</a></div></div>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3339651283033076942.post-36630161029042643082021-02-17T16:58:00.001-08:002021-02-17T16:58:30.405-08:00My Son Theo's 17th Birthday <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1pJ6mTsceKXRA-KE9KYM-1daFATYA3yPuJSxyerz3GXWWSV-X6R_ioWNYAJCHfos-9LeCTkKzMB-EmpgCI5EJPj2zH6eN0XQI96fDHgt1TkFL0sfg6DkN5UChnJpEoDRiK_dLjXVTshAV/s640/sera+20.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1pJ6mTsceKXRA-KE9KYM-1daFATYA3yPuJSxyerz3GXWWSV-X6R_ioWNYAJCHfos-9LeCTkKzMB-EmpgCI5EJPj2zH6eN0XQI96fDHgt1TkFL0sfg6DkN5UChnJpEoDRiK_dLjXVTshAV/w480-h640/sera+20.jpg" width="480" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Garamond; font-size: large;">On the Occasion of my son Theo's 17th Birthday - Shakespeare's Sonnet 17</span><p></p><p><br /></p><h1 class="title" id="sonnetXVII" style="background-color: white; font-family: Alegreya, serif; font-variant-caps: small-caps; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: 100; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: center;">Sonnet XVII</h1><p id="sonnettext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Alegreya Sans", "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto; padding-left: 1em; width: 22em;"><em>Who will believe my verse in time to come,</em><br /><em>If it were filled with your most high deserts?</em><br /><em>Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb</em><br /><em>Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.</em></p><p id="sonnettext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Alegreya Sans", "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto; padding-left: 1em; width: 22em;"><i><br /></i><em>If I could write the beauty of your eyes,</em><br /><em>And in fresh numbers number all your graces,</em><br /><em>The age to come would say 'This poet lies;</em><br /><em>Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.'</em></p><p id="sonnettext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Alegreya Sans", "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto; padding-left: 1em; width: 22em;"><i><br /></i><em>So should my papers, yellowed with their age,</em><br /><em>Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,</em><br /><em>And your true rights be termed a poet's rage</em><br /><em>And stretched metre of an antique song:</em></p><p id="sonnettext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Alegreya Sans", "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto; padding-left: 1em; width: 22em;"><i><br /></i> <em>But were some child of yours alive that time,</em><br /> <em>You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.</em></p><p id="sonnettext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Alegreya Sans", "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto; padding-left: 1em; width: 22em;"><em><br /></em></p><p id="sonnettext" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Alegreya Sans", "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 1em auto; padding-left: 1em; width: 22em;"><em><br /></em></p>Keith Shorrocks Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01231441544864325663noreply@blogger.com0