ophelia

I

On the calm black water where the stars are sleeping
White Ophelia floats like a great lily;
Floats very slowly, lying in her long veils...
- In the far-off woods you can hear them sound the mort.

For more than a thousand years sad Ophelia
Has passed, a white phantom, down the long black river.
For more than a thousand years her sweet madness
Has murmured its ballad to the evening breeze.

The wind kisses her breasts and unfolds in a wreath
Her great veils rising and falling with the waters;
The shivering willows weep on her shoulder,
The rushes lean over her wide, dreaming brow.

The ruffled water-lilies are sighing around her;
At times she rouses, in a slumbering alder,
Some nest from which escapes a small rustle of wings;
- A mysterious anthem falls from the golden stars.

II

O pale Ophelia! beautiful as snow!
Yes child, you died, carried off by a river!
- It was the winds descending from the great mountains of Norway
That spoke to you in low voices of better freedom.

It was a breath of wind, that, twisting your great hair,
Brought strange rumors to your dreaming mind;
It was your heart listening to the song of Nature
In the groans of the tree and the sighs of the nights;

It was the voice of mad seas, the great roar,
That shattered your child's heart, too human and too soft;
It was a handsome pale knight, a poor madman
Who one April morning sate mute at your knees!

Heaven! Love! Freedom! What a dream, oh poor crazed Girl!
You melted to him as snow does to a fire;
Your great visions strangled your words
- And fearful Infinity terrified your blue eye!

III

- And the poet says that by starlight
You come seeking, in the night, the flowers that you picked
And that he has seen on the water, lying in her long veils
White Ophelia floating, like a great lily.

Arthur Rimbaud

women in sufism

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message in a virtual bottle

googled myself and found this mysterious post addressed to me on a forum i've never visited.

"The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and staunch he stands;
The little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.
"Now don't you go till I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue--
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!
Aye, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place,
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face;
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue
Since he kissed them and put them there.
--Eugene Field
* * * * * * * * *
Comrades of our past were they,
Of that unreturning day.
Changed and aging, they and we
Dwelt, it seemed, in sympathy.
Alway from their presence broke
Somewhat which remembrance woke
Of the loved, the lost, the young--
Yet they died, and died unsung...
Fare thee well, companion dear!
Fare for ever well, nor fear,
Tiny though thou art, to stray
Down the uncompanion'd way!
We without thee, little friend,
Many years have not to spend;
What are left, will hardly be
Better than we spent with thee.
--Matthew Arnold
* * * * * * * * *
Aionía aftís e mnéme--May his memory be eternal.
--from the Eastern Orthodox requiem service
. "

the end is nigh!

"for those of you still in denial about the collapse of not only our nation’s, but the world’s, economy, I offer you the following undeniable evidence:
HOMELESS ELEPHANTS." BWE

kids

the god delusion

Atheism and rationalism


Dawkins lecturing on his book The God Delusion, June 24, 2006.
Dawkins is an outspoken atheist and a prominent critic of religion. He is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society,[54] a vice-president of the British Humanist Association (since 1996),[13] a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland,[55] a Humanist Laureate of the International Academy of Humanism,[56] and a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.[57] In 2003, he signed Humanism and Its Aspirations, published by the American Humanist Association.[58]
Dawkins believes that atheism is the logical extension of understanding evolution[59] and that religion is incompatible with science.[60] In his 1986 book The Blind Watchmaker, Dawkins wrote:
An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume: "I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn't a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one." I can't help feeling that such a position, though logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty unsatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.[61]
In his 1991 essay "Viruses of the Mind" (from which the term faith-sufferer originated), he suggested that memetic theory might analyse and explain the phenomenon of religious belief and some of the common characteristics of religions, such as the belief that punishment awaits non-believers. According to Dawkins, faith − belief that is not based on evidence − is one of the world's great evils. He claims it to be analogous to the smallpox virus, though more difficult to eradicate.[62] Dawkins is well-known for his contempt for religious extremism, from Islamist terrorism[63] to Christian fundamentalism; but he has also argued with liberal believers and religious scientists, from biologists Kenneth Miller[64] and Francis Collins[65] to theologians Alister McGrath and Richard Harries.[66] Dawkins has stated that his opposition to religion is twofold, claiming it to be both a source of conflict and a justification for belief without evidence.[67] However, he describes himself as a "cultural Christian",[68] and proposed the slogan "Atheists for Jesus".[6

yet we are the movers and shakers

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy (March 14, 1844–January 30, 1881) was a British poet, born in London to Irish parents[citation needed].
At the age of seventeen, in June 1861, he received the post of transcriber in the library of the British Museum, reportedly through the influence of Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. Two years later, at the age of nineteen, he became an assistant in the natural history department, where he specialized in Ichthyology. However, his true passion was for literature. He published his first collection, Epic of Women, in 1870, and published two more collections of poetry in 1872 and 1874. When he was thirty he married and did not produce any more volumes of poetry for the last seven years of his life. His last volume, Songs of a Worker, was published posthumously in 1881.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Ode (O'Shaughnessy)
By far the most noted of any his works are the initial lines of the Ode from his book Music and Moonlight (1874.) The first two lines of his poem have even been used in the screenplay, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
We are the music makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems.

Horrorshow

the Libertines a lament. poised to be the first great band of the new millennium, a revolution of sound with deep roots in punk and sixties mod culture, yet unafraid to compose soft poetic ballads with earnestness  rarely seen in an age of sarcasm. but just as it began it ended shattered like an unstable meteorite ripped apart by their own divergent gravity. peter doherty the poet and carl barat the musician balanced against one another perfectly too perfectly in an imperfect world and it just had to come crashing down.  this is the song that should have made them a household name. and given birth to the new wave of brit pop. instead today the biggest band in england is the milktoast Coldplay with weak lyrics and weaker sound. pale shadows of the vibrant british scene that shocked everyone awake 8 years ago.