Our unquenched urge to ascend persists
And fills stone seats with ghosts of mists.
Below in the center, the gold-glimmered pool
Where once they drenched these stones with slaughter
Stands revealed by the moon to be pure still water.
Tonight Our son will slay again
(Offstage) Our father’s killer,
And carry out Our mother slain,
Wrapped in rags wound tight by twine,
And lay her down, Our unburnt offering,
As the chorus, shuffling slowly, chants
The deathless moral of Our play,
Our daughter, raped and bloodied, screams
Words We hear but do not now know
That frame Our ancient and endless show.
Above these shadows that glaze our sleep
Bats through a maze of moonlight sweep,
Leap, reap in their gyres, free of time’s yoke
Snatching gnats from the smoke
Of Sophocles’ speech.
Epidaurus, Greece, 2000 / Chico, California, 2022
Gerard Van der Leun
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What do you think Nick Offerman would make of you, if he knew who you were? Even Ron Swanson would find you contemptible. He was a libertarian, not a seething, nutbag fascist. He also evolved over the course of his life, as opposed to doing the precise opposite.
Anyway, just doing my periodic check to see if you are somehow still alive. And somehow, you are, in a way.
You just keep thinking, Butch, that’s what you’re good at. I keep wondering which one of the ten thousand cowards I’ve flamed into oblivion but you obviously aren’t that memorable.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Poetry is hard –
Dumb little sh*t that I am, for some reason, I have committed myself to the thought that if I didn’t know anything at all about Electra, I would still be OK?
If your domestic arrangements are pretty mundane and vanilla you might get away with it. Or you might not.
“I keep wondering which one of the ten thousand cowards I’ve flamed into oblivion”
Yes. A lifetime of accomplishment. You must be very proud.
Gee, biff, here all this time I thought you had already faded into oblivion. I guess Back to the Future II got it wrong. You’re still an idiot.
Don’t bother biff , he’s the living proof of the French saying, “Les chiens ne reçoivent pas de blagues.”
biff also thinks I don’t know who she is but I do my darling J.
https://youtube.com/shorts/yH6KgxjvsAQ?feature=share
“The lessons that we learn through pain we seldom have to learn again.”
I wish it hadn’t taken me most of my (painful) life to learn this:
Being biological creatures, we avoid pain and seek pleasure.
“Attacking” others whom we see as hurting us gives us a few seconds/minutes of “pleasure”/satisfaction, but accomplishes nothing. Others may “attack” us (from “microaggressions” to attempted murder) because it gives them some temporary pleasure/satisfaction at the time. What we need to do, and what works, in time, is to avoid them as much as possible and to ignore them otherwise. What they want is our attention. Don’t give it to them; that is their satisfaction. I think “turn the other cheek” means, not so much, “suffer their abuse in silence” as it does “ignore them by not responding in kind” (the latter of which “works” by frustrating them). Over time, the benefit to us is that we are not wasting our precious time and energy in retaliating, and the aggressions may dwindle and end as counterproductive. “Life’s too short.” People don’t usually change; you can’t change them. Their problems are their problems (not yours). It may “feel good” temporarily to respond, but resist that temptation, and put something positive (pleasurable to you) in its place, like a short walk, some music, a change of scenery. Then use your time and energy to make your own life better. “You’re worth it.”
Sound advice.
Please to quit typing with your chancred scrotum. Thanking you in advance.
Muscular Christianity in action. This is why I pay extra for the good seats.
(Sotto voce) Please, Sir.. May I have some more?
All of those poems, songs, book passages, they will serve you well when Clown World goes Mad Max.
They will too. Everything old and eternal is new again.
OK, show of hands here:
Be honest, y’all.
Who else had to go to Wiki to look up the plot of Electra?
JWM
Me after I saw it because I saw it in Greek. Fortunately, they gave you a program.