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Previous post: Strange Daze
Home is where one starts from. As we grow older
The world becomes stranger, the pattern more complicated
Of dead and living. Not the intense moment
Isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.
There is a time for the evening under starlight,
A time for the evening under lamplight
(The evening with the photograph album).
Love is most nearly itself
When here and now cease to matter.
Old men ought to be explorers
Here or there does not matter
We must be still and still moving
Into another intensity
For a further union, a deeper communion
Through the dark cold and the empty desolation,
The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters
Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning.
When all Earth’s seas shall Levitate,
Dark shawled within the skies,
Upon our eyes will Starfish dance
Their waltz of Blind surprise.
The sun will Rise within wine Dark
As Argonauts imbibed,
Whose drunken arms embrace that sleep
Where Phaeton’s horses Stride.
Upon all of Earth’s wind-sanded shores,
As dolphins Learn to soar,
All we once were on the land
Shall be sealed behind the door
Of Ivory and Chastened Gold,
That the Mystery solved complete
Shall never til the seas’ Long fall
Wake mariners from their sleep.
— Van der Leun
I CELEBRATE myself, and sing myself,
And what I assume you shall assume,
For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this
air,
Born here of parents born here from parents the same, and their
parents the same,
I, now thirty-seven years old in perfect health begin,
Hoping to cease not till death.
— Walt Whitman
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think that they will sing to me.
I have seen them riding seaward on the waves
Combing the white hair of the waves blown back
When the wind blows the water white and black.
We have lingered in the chambers of the sea
By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown
Till human voices wake us, and we drown.
— The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
Just what we fuckin’ need…
JWM
I had a similar feeling as JWM.
I have nothing against people of other religions or ethnicities coming here if they wish to assimilate.
Having said that, it appears that two, possibly three of the new citizens are Muslim. If we scrutinize the teachings of Islam, it is clear that Muslims do not wish to assimilate to any nation which has allowed them entry. Muslims have a long history of killing not only, Jews and Christians, but also Buddhist, Hindus, Zoroasters, atheists and they even kill each other over differences in sect. In areas where they gain political power within our system they are advocating for Sharia law. I understand that politics is much about optics and the holy name of diversity is a selling point in the minds of many Americans, but do we really need more Muslims here?
ALL new foreign citizens should be required to have a bond in the amount of $10,000.00 for a period of 10 years and be banned from any sort of welfare during that period. If, after 10 years, they can prove they are an asset to the country, have commited no felonies, and know how to read, speak and write conversational english the bond will be returned to them. Otherwise you’ll just end up with “poor, tired, huddled masses” on every kind of welfare they can sink their claws into, kinda like what you have now.
Unfortunately that’s one thing with which I disagree with our President. We need a complete moratorium on immigration. Yesterday.
Now we’re gonn’a hate on legal immigrants…???
I’ll take most of them over than what is currently burning our cities right now.
Fine. They can all live on your street.
Fine. They can all live on your street.
I’ll take them on my street.
I doubt Gerard’s purpose in posting this was to invite half a dozen comments decrying legal immigration. If I was him, I’d be disappointed in all of you, but chalk it up to the fact that you can’t control who reads your site and as long as they maintain the barest hint of civility, a decent respect for the “energizing contest of freedom,” as Samuel Adams put it, means you don’t silence people even when they’re tactless and crass.
Honestly, if you watch a naturalization ceremony where people from all points of the globe choose to forsake their home country to become American citizens and you don’t get a little choked up, then you have lost something important. You have lost an essential American-ness. We natural-born citizens didn’t have to do what those people did. We didn’t have to take a test (that most high schoolers would probably fail), we didn’t have to jump through endless hoops, and most of all, we didn’t have to take an oath. Because we didn’t, we admire those who do. I do, anyway.
Tim,
I said nothing about hate. I asked a question. Perhaps you should do your own research about Islam – “the religion of peace”….and again, I ask, Do we really need more Muslims in our country?
Mitchell,
Pity your “disappointment” in the commentariat here. Perhaps you might answer the question.
Allow me to assist both of you with a link to begin your edification. https://www.billionbibles.org/sharia/america-sharia-law.html
On my street???!!
Hell, a few representatives of all of that diverse group already live IN MY APARTMENT COMPLEX. Had a taco supper with them last night. See them when I walk around and go to the pool.
If you become an American through the right channels as set down in law you are my equal as a citizen. In fact, considering what you go through to become a citizen, you are probably better than I am in many ways.