Skip to content
EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING

EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING

Duino Elegies–Ranier Maria Rilke

Day Begs The Night For Mercy

Day Begs The Night For Mercy

August 22, 2019 Jerry King Comments 1 comment

Unsure of what to write this morning.  I thought of posting some recently taken photos of a Porsche GT2RS.  The photos of the exotic car which I greatly admired on the day the photos were taken, seem a bit obscene this morning.  Showing a $350,000 sports car would be a radical disjunction with my mood about the state of the world, and our country in particular. 

The front page of the NY Times sums up my dismay.  A feature article photo shows veterans applauding the President at the 75th Amvets convention in Louisville Ky.  Trump, a conman, carnival barker, pied-piper draws regularly on the tropes of patriotism to elicit adulation. 

There is unavoidable tragedy to the story of humanity.  All is not darkness though, as we would not know the darkness as darkness,  without the light. 

So, I offer this photo of the horizon of Lake Michigan taken from the Michigan side, looking west at the last moment of sunset.  The dark surface of the lake offers an apt foreground to the sliver of light of the sinking sun.  Yes, that’s a point of view.  But perspective is what we have and all that we have.

I also offer this magnificent song by U2.  One Tree Hill was the nineth track on the Joshua Tree Album released in 1987.  The inspiration for the lyric came on the occasion of a funeral for a friend.

We turn away to face the cold, enduring chill
As the day begs the night for mercy
Your sun so bright it leaves no shadows, only scars
Carved into stone on the face of earth
The moon is up and over One Tree Hill
We see the sun go down in your eyes
You ran like river to the sea
Like a river to the sea
And in our world a heart of darkness, a firezone
Where poets speak their hearts, then bleed for it
Jara sang his song, a weapon, in the hands of love
You know his blood still cries from the ground
It runs like a river to the sea
Like a river to the sea
I don’t believe in painted roses or bleeding hearts
While bullets rape the nights of the merciful
I’ll see you again when the stars fall from the sky
And the moon has turned red over One Tree Hill
We run like a river to the sea
Like a river to the sea

40

SHARES
Share on Facebook
Post on X
Follow us

Like this:

Like Loading…

Related


Uncategorized

Post navigation

PREVIOUS
A Citizen Of The Universe Or Of One Walled City At War
NEXT
If You Are Offended

One thought on “Day Begs The Night For Mercy”

  1. Jeff says:
    August 22, 2019 at 2:56 PM

    Really beautiful southwestern Michigan photo of the lake and the sunset.

    Jeff

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • He Made His Own Kind of Music
  • The Goal
  • No Place Left To Hide
  • Tomato Juice & Celery Salt
  • Complete Devotion

Recent Comments

  • Just a car guy on He Made His Own Kind of Music
  • Jerry King on Your Own Kind of Music
  • That old guy - the one on Your Own Kind of Music
  • Just a car guy on Your Own Kind of Music
  • The One on Your Own Kind of Music

Archives

Categories

  • Good/Evil
  • Guest Post
  • Humor
  • Life and Death
  • Love
  • Metaphor/language
  • Music
  • Photos
  • Poetry
  • Politics/War
  • Quotations
  • Stories
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Get new posts by email:

© 2026   All Rights Reserved.
Follow by Email
RSS
Facebook
fb-share-icon
Twitter
Tweet
%d