Birth

by **professorpan** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:39 am

<img src="http://www.charm.net/~profpan/uploaded_images/condiflames-760374.jpg" style="border:0;"/> Condi's hegemonic remark (above) calls to mind The Second Coming, the iconic and oft-quoted poem by the legendary poet, dramatist, and occultist, William Butler Yeats: Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? What rough beast, indeed.

by **Rigorous Intuition** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 12:48 am

Thanks pp. Been thinking of Yeats' words lately myself. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/JeffWells/subalbum1/beirut-bombs.jpg" style="border:0;"/> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v226/JeffWells/subalbum1/beirut-ruins2.jpg" style="border:0;"/> Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=rigorousintuition>Rigorous Intuition</A> at: 7/25/06 10:49 pm

by **Moddey Screbbagh** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:08 am

one can never quote yeats often enough, in my opinion. <blockquote>Quote:<hr>The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.<hr></blockquote> that about sums it up, doesn't it.

by **professorpan** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:16 am

I can't think of another poem that grows more potent as its secrets unfold in real-time. Prescient and prophetic. The lines that always get me are: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.<hr></blockquote> And (Cue Al Gore's slideshow): <blockquote>Quote:<hr>A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun<hr></blockquote> But the kicker, of course: <blockquote>Quote:<hr>. . . But now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?<hr></blockquote> Births, as anyone who has ever witnessed one can attest, are bloody affairs.

by **thurnandtaxis** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:03 am

As if we should be suprised that a prominent member of the Golden Dawn was able to infuse his craft with such...um..."prescience"?

by **professorpan** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:19 am

THE HOST OF THE AIR by: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) O'DRISCOLL drove with a song The wild duck and the drake From the tall and the tufted reeds Of the drear Hart Lake. And he saw how the reeds grew dark At the coming of night-tide, And dreamed of the long dim hair Of Bridget his bride. He heard while he sang and dreamed A piper piping away, And never was piping so sad, And never was piping so gay. And he saw young men and young girls Who danced on a level place, And Bridget his bride among them, With a sad and a gay face. The dancers crowded about him And many a sweet thing said, And a young man brought him red wine And a young girl white bread. But Bridget drew him by the sleeve Away from the merry bands, To old men playing at cards With a twinkling of ancient hands. The bread and the wine had a doom, For these were the host of the air; He sat and played in a dream Of her long dim hair. He played with the merry old men And thought not of evil chance, Until one bore Bridget his bride Away from the merry dance. He bore her away in his arms, The handsomest young man there, And his neck and his breast and his arms Were drowned in her long dim hair. O'Driscoll scattered the cards And out of his dream awoke: Old men and young men and young girls Were gone like a drifting smoke; But he heard high up in the air A piper piping away, And never was piping so sad, And never was piping so gay.

by **professorpan** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 2:21 am

In Just- spring when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles far and wee and eddieandbill come running from marbles and piracies and it's spring when the world is puddle-wonderful the queer old balloonman whistles far and wee and bettyandisbel come dancing from hop-scotch and jump-rope and it's spring and the goat-footed balloonMan whistles far and wee e.e. cummings

by **Bismillah** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:46 am

'Let It Go' It is this deep blankness is the real thing strange. The more things happen to you the more you can't Tell or remember even what they were. The contradictions cover such a range. The talk would talk and go so far aslant. You don't want madhouse and the whole thing there. -- William Empson

by **4911** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:56 am

Hang on - thats the cradle of civilization theyre bombing. How can you give birth to your own mother?

by **Bismillah** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:39 am

"Hang on - thats the cradle of civilization theyre bombing. How can you give birth to your own mother?" God can do anything, Professor Pan. Le Colonel Chabert: "I am sure that line was written for her, and for her specifically - she is being the delphic wisewoman, speaking from the womb of the earth, the womb of time - all is necessary, do not grieve - deploying this code of spiritualisms but also placing herself, and the junta for which she speaks, in the clouds, above time and human affairs, godlike surveyors of the trials of the petty human insects below. Like Madeleine Albright with her 'I think it was worth' it, but much more so, more confident, unquestioning, sure of mastery and of the mere ephemeral insignificance of life on earth. And this use of the 'natural process' for the metaphor - Our Middle East Is Being Born! It's like they have a pet earth, a pet human race, a little terrarrium-acquarium-zoo they are managing, which they are *charitably supporting* because they themselves are the sources of all life and wealth, deciding which beasts to feed and which to put down." <a href="http://lecolonelchabert.blogspot.com/2006/07/last-reich.html#comments">lecolonelchabert.blogspot...l#comments</a>

by **greencrow0** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 10:42 am

Did Bush tell Condi to say that business about birth? Her that never bore a child? Only Condi could blaspheme the act of birth in such a way. GC

by **bvonahsen** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:30 pm

Not Bush, Rove. The GOP has a wednesday meeting every week on the weeks' news. Everyone gets on message and is expected to spin or promote the particular meme that they agree on. They all know who their base is and that they are expecting the imminent return of Christ. So of course they send a message that says "Yes, we are on your side, we are in tune with you and your beliefs."

by **Et in Arcadia ego** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 1:37 pm

I think she's eating her own words right about now: <img src="http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/WORLD/meast/07/26/mideast.romeconf/newt1.rice.03.ap.jpg" style="border:0;"/> ____________________ Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.

by **OpLan** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:00 pm

I wanted to post a picture of the red cross ambulance that was struck a few days ago,but its proven elusive.Anyone got it?It was parked up with its blue lights on and the missile scored a bullseye -smack in the middle of the big red cross on the roof. I guess it affected me because it can't be 'excused' as an 'unfortunate consequence' of shelling hizbollah bunkers in civilian areas.They spotted the ambulance and hit it. Any of you care to explain the psychological or the strategic point they're making?Same with the U.N. obs post they struck. Shelling a buffer zone free of human life is hideous enough..but why do they risk further international condemnation by targeting the U.N and Red Cross presence?

by **thurnandtaxis** » Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:15 pm

<img src="http://img53.imageshack.us/img53/8808/ambulancehitaf5.jpg" style="border:0;"/>

Birth

Birth

Re: Birth

Re: Birth

Re: Yeats

Re: Yeats

The Host of the Air

balloonMan

Empson

Re: Empson

mysterious ways

Re: Empson

Re: Empson

Re: Birth

why target international innocents?

red crosshairs

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