Verse three Exiled Thucydides knew All that a speech can say About Democracy, And what dictators do, The elderly rubbish they talk To an apathetic grave; Analysed all in his book, The enlightenment driven away, The habit-forming pain, Mismanagement and grief: We must suffer them all again. September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden…
Verse two Accurate scholarship can Unearth the whole offence From Luther until now That has driven a culture mad, Find what occurred at Linz, What huge imago made A psychopathic god: I and the public know What all schoolchildren learn, Those to whom evil is done Do evil in return. September 1, 1949 by…
The house is decorated. Certainly to a dispassionate observer the splendor, the glory of light and color is equal to any years past. Yet it is not Christmas time existentially for me. My spirit is more akin to the sharp edge of the air temperature that sinks toward the single digits, and the cold,…
Is there any up and down left? Has it not become colder? Have we not killed him and now,——- Shall we console ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games, ought we to have invented? Have we not ourselves become gods? I threw my lantern to the ground. It broke and went out. The…
IMAGINING WORLD In my dream, the angel shrugged and said if we fail this time it will be a failure of imagination and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand. –by Brian Andreas 1994
A few years ago I fed my interest in the American Civil War by a lot of reading, and by visiting a number battlefields. I have more than a shelf of books. I’ve spent time at Gettysburg, Petersburg, and Fort Fisher. In that day the preparation for battle meant forming a “line of battle,”…
I drove past my local polling place this morning. The parking lot was full. Campaign signs crowded the lawn on both sides of the drive way. Now, at Starbucks customers come in with the conventional hint of a smile on their faces. If they are like me they carry a suppressed sense of foreboding…
Today is Friday, do I dare call it “Good Friday?” The election is scheduled for Tuesday. From the vitriol, the accusations that have filled electronic media, and particularly the breathless panic with which the network anchorman “reports” the latest outrageous incrimination,—this feels a lot like a gathering mob to me. I just don’t know…
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry Love the quick profit, the annual raise, vacation with pay. Want more of everything ready-made. Be afraid to know your neighbors and to die. And you will have a window in your head. Not even your future will be a mystery any more. Your mind…
Coda [ˈkoːda] (Italian for “tail”, plural code) is a term used in music primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. When you begin to understand the previous post, the quotation from Paul Virilio, you will shudder. The consequences for life and well being are dark. A counter point, an…
