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Through the wild cathedral evening the rain unraveled tales
For the disrobed faceless forms of no position
Tolling for the tongues with no place to bring their thoughts
All down in taken-for-granted situations
Tolling for the deaf an’ blind, tolling for the mute
Tolling for the mistreated, mateless mother, the mistitled prostitute
For the misdemeanor outlaw, chased an’ cheated by pursuit
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
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
— Bob Dylan
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.
Gerard Van der Leun
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The look on that kids face as dad passes the tree. Dad will appreciate the hell out of that video in about 30 years or so. Lucky dawg. We didn’t get a video camera til the kid was about 12, in 1991. Fucker cost more’n a grand. Still have it somewhere, I think.
I miss my dad! is good news, I know I’ll be with him again someday! Happy Fathers Day, REW
Dirk
Just one reason why fathers are needed. I am truly sorry for those that don’t have one.
Thanks for everything, Dad. How is it possible that, you will have been gone physically 34 years, come this August. Yet, you live on in my memories and how you taught me to conduct myself as a man. You’re still the greatest man I’ve ever known, and I’m positive you’ll go unchallenged for that title. I was so incredibly blessed.
It took five years to find all the peach pits my father hid around the house Each time resulted in rueful smiles and occasional tears.
Remembering how sharp and smart my dad was when I was young,
& how dumb and stupid he became when I hit my teens,
& how amazed I was at his acumen when I hit my twenties,
& how now, sixty years later, life lessons learned from him
still put me in good stead.
Weekly if not daily I still have a question pop in my head and say, Dad would know the answer. Same with my oldest brother and Mom as well. I do miss them and did not know how good I had it till Dad was gone. May God bless all fathers each and every day and welcome them into His kingdom when that day comes.
Part of the continuing downward spiral of “disadvantaged” families is the lack of fathers therein.
Sheer,unbridled joy in that little guy’s face. Dad knew his sprout would love it,just as he did.
Dads envision things that Moms just don’t. Even better,they act upon them.
Thank You,Lord,for men who care about their children. Even if they are’nt.