Today at Woodpile Report
![MIA: Remus and the Woodpile Report [Updated 2] [Bumped 2]](https://americandigest.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Remus2-better-contrats-Mystery-and-legend--300x260.png "MIA: Remus and the Woodpile Report [Updated 2] [Bumped 2]")
Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Stone-cutters fighting time with marble, you foredefeated
Challengers of oblivion
Eat cynical earnings, knowing rock splits, records fall down,
The square-limbed Roman letters
Scale in the thaws, wear in the rain. The poet as well
Builds his monument mockingly;
For man will be blotted out, the blithe earth die, the brave sun
Die blind and blacken to the heart:
Yet stones have stood for a thousand years, and pained
thoughts found
The honey of peace in old poems.
— Robinson Jeffers
Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol. The sword: that is: the storms
and counter-storms of general destruction; killing
of men,
Destruction of all goods and materials; massacre, more or
less intentional, of children and women;
Destruction poured down from wings, the air made accomplice,
the innocent air
Perverted into assassin and poisoner.
The sword: that is: treachery and cowardice, incredible
baseness, incredible courage, loyalties, insanities.
The sword: weeping and despair, mass-enslavement,
mass-torture, frustration of all hopes
That starred man’s forehead. Tyranny for freedom, horror for
happiness, famine for bread, carrion for children.
Reason will not decide at last, the sword will decide.
His soul stretched tight across the skies
That fade behind a city block,
Or trampled by insistent feet
At four and five and six o’clock;
And short square fingers stuffing pipes,
And evening newspapers, and eyes
Assured of certain certainties,
The conscience of a blackened street
Impatient to assume the world.
I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:
The notion of some infinitely gentle
Infinitely suffering thing.
Wipe your hand across your mouth, and laugh;
The worlds revolve like ancient women
Gathering fuel in vacant lots.
— Eliot
The scientists are in terror
and the European mind stops
Wyndham Lewis chose blindness
rather than have his mind stop.
Night under wind mid garofani,
the petals are almost still
Mozart, Linnaeus, Sulmona,
When one’s friends hate each other
how can there be peace in the world?
Their asperities diverted me in my green time.
A blown husk that is finished
but the light sings eternal
a pale flare over marshes
where the salt hay whispers to tide’s change
Time, space,
neither life nor death is the answer.
And of man seeking good,
doing evil.
In meiner Heimat
where the dead walked
and the living were made of cardboard.
Even though a cloud’s white curtain in a far-off corner flashed
An’ the hypnotic splattered mist was slowly lifting
Electric light still struck like arrows, fired but for the ones
Condemned to drift or else be kept from drifting
Tolling for the searching ones, on their speechless, seeking trail
For the lonesome-hearted lovers with too personal a tale
An’ for each unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Starry-eyed an’ laughing as I recall when we were caught
Trapped by no track of hours for they hanged suspended
As we listened one last time an’ we watched with one last look
Spellbound an’ swallowed ’til the tolling ended
Tolling for the aching ones whose wounds cannot be nursed
For the countless confused, accused, misused, strung-out ones an’ worse
An’ for every hung-up person in the whole wide universe
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
So now it’s official?
It’s from somebody who has the keys to the page, so yes.
My apologies for sending you an e-mail earlier today – I had not scrolled down on your page far enough to see your posting. I’m sure you’ve gotten many from a lot of different sources.
We will all regret the passing of whoever “Ol’ Remus” was; I only hope that his heirs and assigns understand the breadth and depth of readership that he sustained in these strange times.
Sad. It seems like we are losing warriors on our side and the demons on the other side seem to live forever.
Coda, with a sad yet triumphant final chord. Remus mortuus est.
Hmmm..It only says that Ol Remus has met his demise…might it just be the death of the website and not the man behind it? One can only hope…
And that, Friends, is how you Come in from the Cold in the digital age.
Unlike Epstein, Remus won’t even need the facial surgery. Who knows, Remus might even be Khashoggi. Remember that guy? The Man who walked into an embassy and came out a Narrative of Death. No remains, no nuthin’ … but he’s deader’n hell, I’m here to tell you. And, those Saudi’s … tsk, tsk.
Good Ol’ Remus! May he rest in peace.
Terri says: “…the demons on the other side seem to live forever.”
No, the bullet for those demons is already, as they say in the artillery corps, “on the way,” and it will, in God’s time, find its mark.
I got misty over his first hiatus years ago, then the rejoice RETURN! Now…my gut tells me, I need a drink and a toast to his talent. Gerard, you are my first go-to everyday, now including Tuesdays. Keep up the great work!
Well, damn.
A D has been my home page for a long time. I wish it to stay my home page. Especially in the weird times we are experiencing currently. Please stay healthy Gerard.
Yes, what Terry said.
Ol Remus Marsilvia was a treasure. He was the voice of wisdom and wit. I shall forever recall his advise to ” avoid crowds, they attract ordinance”. I had the good fortune to exchange emails with Remus and found his personal emails written with the same witty and insightful banter he posted at woodpile report.
He shall be remembered as a patriot. God speed to his family
Spicewoodjoe