late night larking

Late nights and cloudy skies. Words, words, words.

[latenightlarking]

are you the one that i've been waiting for?

I've felt you coming, girl, as you drew near I knew you'd find me, 'cause I longed you here Are you my destiny? Is this how you'll appear? Wrapped in a coat with tears in your eyes? Well take that coat, babe, and throw it on the floor Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

As you've been moving surely toward me My soul has comforted and assured me That in time my heart it will reward me And that all will be revealed So I've sat and I've watched an ice-age thaw Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

Out of sorrow entire worlds have been built Out of longing great wonders have been willed They're only little tears, darling, let them spill And lay your head upon my shoulder Outside my window the world has gone to war Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

Oh, we will know, won't we? The stars will explode in the sky Oh, but they don't, do they? Stars have their moment and then they die.

There's a man who spoke wonders though I've never met him He said, "He who seeks finds and who knocks will be let in." I think of you in motion and just how close you are getting And how every little thing anticipates you All down my veins my heart-strings call Are you the one that I've been waiting for?

-- Nick Cave

[latenightlarking]

frühlingsglaube

Die linden Lüfte sind erwacht, Sie säuseln und wehen Tag und Nacht, Sie schaffen an allen Enden. O frischer Duft, o neuer Klang! Nun, armes Herze, sei nicht bang! Nun muß sich alles, alles wenden. Die Welt wird schöner mit jedem Tag, Man weiß nicht, was noch werden mag, Das Blühen will nicht enden. Es blüht das fernste, tiefste Tal: Nun, armes Herz, vergiß der Qual! Nun muß sich alles, alles wenden.

-- Johann Ludwig Uhland

[latenightlarking]

jeu d’eau du rêve

Sur le rivage la marée vient soulevant ses seins Et s’en retourne avec ses vagues déchiquetées dentelle d’eau salée sur nos poitrines meurtries

nous apprenons avec la mer à respirer comme on ouvre et ferme les yeux sur un visage aimé ou un amour détruit

et viendra l’accalmie

nos rêves un jour ne nous quitteront plus dès le matin ne nous quitteront plus nos enfantins châteaux de cartes le valet de coeur ne servira plus le roi la reine entrera nue dans le bois la dame suivra le carreau s’ouvrira rouge et le trèfle noir reprendra la clef des champs

je pique en plein coeur et voici le lit où naîtra le printemps.

-- Roland Giguère

[latenightlarking]

the bridge at the end of the world

In our journey down the path between two worlds, we are fast approaching a place where the path forks. We got to this fork through a long history dominated by two great and related struggles -- the struggle against scarcity and the struggle to subdue nature. To win in these struggles we created a powerful technology and forged an organization of economy and society to deploy that technology extensively, rapidly, and if need be ruthlessly. And we succeeded at subduing nature and ceasing wealth far beyond our ancestor’s imaginings. So successful were these systems and accomplishments that we were swept up in them, mesmerized by them, captivated, even addicted. We thus continued pell-mell ahead -- ever grander, ever-larger, ever-richer, doing what once made sense but no longer did. There were warning signs along the way, but we did not notice them, or when we did, we paid them no heed. These signs said things like:

being, not having giving, not getting needs, not wants better, not richer community, not individual other, not self connected, not separate ecology, not economy part of nature, not apart from nature dependent, not transcendent tomorrow, not today

We ignored these warnings to the point that, as we now approach the fork ahead, we are perilously close to losing the most precious things of all. We are rapidly hollowing out nature, ourselves, and our society.

Beyond the fork, down either path, is the end of the world as we have known it. One path beyond the fork continues us on our current trajectory. Presidential science adviser John Gibbons used to say with a wry smile that if we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're headed. And right now we're headed toward a ruined planet. That is one way the world as we know it could end, down that path and into the abyss.

But there is the other path, and it leads to a bridge across the abyss. We have been examining this bridge at the end of the world and what is required to cross it. Of course, where the path forks will be the site of another struggle, a struggle that must be won even though we cannot see clearly what lies beyond the bridge. Yet in that struggle and in the crossing that will follow, we are carried forward by hope, a radical hope, that a better world is possible and that we can build it. “Another world is not only possible. She is on her way,” says Arundhati Roy. “On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”

-- James Gustave Speth

[latenightlarking]

pour faire un poème dadaïste

Prenez un journal.  Prenez des ciseaux. Choisissez dans ce journal un article ayant la longueur que vous comptez donner à votre poème.  Découpez l'article. Découpez ensuite avec soin chacun des mots qui forment cet article et mettez-le dans un sac.  Agitez doucement.  Sortez ensuite chaque coupure l'une après l'autre dans l'ordre où elles ont quitté le sac.  Copiez consciencieusement.  Le poème vous ressemblera.  Et vous voilà un écrivain infiniment original et d'une sensibilité charmante, encore qu'incomprise du vulgaire.

-- Tristan Tzara

[latenightlarking]

quotes from martin luther king

"World peace through nonviolent means is neither absurd nor unattainable. All other methods have failed. Thus we must begin anew. Nonviolence is a good starting point. Those of us who believe in this method can be voices of reason, sanity, and understanding amid the voices of violence, hatred, and emotion. We can very well set a mood of peace out of which a system of peace can be built."

"...I believe that the potential destructiveness of modern weapons totally rules out the possibility of war ever again achieving a negative good. If we assume that mankind has a right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war and destruction."

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction."

"Don't ever let anyone pull you so low as to hate them. We must use the weapon of love. We must have the compassion and understanding for those who hate us. We must realize so many people are taught to hate us that they are not totally responsible for their hate. But we stand in life at midnight; we are always on the threshold of a new dawn."

"We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity. The 'tide in the affairs of men' does not remain at the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in her passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic words: 'Too late.'"

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.

[latenightlarking]

quotes from nelson mandela

"I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society, in which all persons will live together in harmony, and with equal opportunities. It is an idea for which I hope to live and to see, but if it need be, it is an idea for which I am prepared to die."

"It always seems impossible until it's done."

"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended."

"There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered."

"No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite."

— Nelson Mandela (18 July 1918 - 5 December 2013)

[latenightlarking]

mi último adiós

If over my tomb some day, thou wouldst see blow, A simple humble flow'r amidst thick grasses, Bring it up to thy lips and kiss my soul so, And under the cold tomb, I may feel on my brow, Warmth of thy breath, a whiff of thy tenderness.

Let the moon with soft, gentle light me descry, Let the dawn send forth its fleeting, brilliant light, In murmurs grave allow the wind to sigh, And should a bird descend on my cross and alight, Let the bird intone a song of peace o'er my site. ...

And when my grave by all is no more remembered, With neither cross nor stone to mark its place, Let it be ploughed by man, with spade let it be scattered And my ashes ere to nothingness are restored, Let them turn to dust to cover thy earthly space. ...

Farewell, parents, brothers, beloved by me, Friends of my childhood, in the home distressed; Give thanks that now I rest from the wearisome day; Farewell, sweet stranger, my friend, who brightened my way; Farewell to all I love; to die is to rest.

— José Rizal

[latenightlarking]

success

To laugh often and love much; to win the respect of intelligent persons and the affection of children; to earn the approbation of honest citizens and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give of one’s self; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived— this is to have succeeded.

-- Attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, but may be an interpretation of Bessie Stanley's "What Constitutes Success?"

[latenightlarking]

lake isle of innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made; Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow, Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings; There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow, And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore; While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray, I hear it in the deep heart's core.

-- William Butler Yeats

[latenightlarking]

ballad of the londoner

Evening falls on the smoky walls, And the railings drip with rain, And I will cross the old river To see my girl again.

The great and solemn-gliding tram, Love's still-mysterious car, Has many a light of gold and white, And a single dark red star.

I know a garden in a street Which no one ever knew; I know a rose beyond the Thames, Where flowers are pale and few.

-- James Elroy Flecker

[latenightlarking]

the love song of j. alfred prufrock

Let us go then, you and I, When the evening is spread out against the sky Like a patient etherized upon a table; Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets, The muttering retreats Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells: Streets that follow like a tedious argument Of insidious intent To lead you to an overwhelming question…. Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit....

And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, Asleep … tired … or it malingers, Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me. Should I, after tea and cakes and ices, Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis? But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed, Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter, I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter; I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker, And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker, And in short, I was afraid.

And would it have been worth it, after all, Would it have been worth while, After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets, After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor— And this, and so much more?— It is impossible to say just what I mean! But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen: Would it have been worth while If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl, And turning toward the window, should say: “That is not it at all, That is not what I meant, at all.”

...

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.

-- T.S. Eliot

[latenightlarking]

sonnet 50

How heavy do I journey on the way, When what I seek, my weary travel's end, Doth teach that ease and that repose to say, 'Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!' The beast that bears me, tired with my woe, Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me, As if by some instinct the wretch did know His rider lov'd not speed being made from thee. The bloody spur cannot provoke him on, That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide, Which heavily he answers with a groan, More sharp to me than spurring to his side; For that same groan doth put this in my mind, My grief lies onward, and my joy behind.

-- William Shakespeare

[latenightlarking]

the old astronomer

Reach me down my Tycho Brahé, -- I would know him when we meet, When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet; He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how We are working to completion, working on from then to now.

Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete, Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet, And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true, And the obloquy of newness may fall bitterly on you. ...

I "have never failed in kindness"? No, we lived too high for strife,-- Calmest coldness was the error which has crept into our life; But your spirit is untainted, I can dedicate you still To the service of our science: you will further it? you will! ...

I must say Good-bye, my pupil, for I cannot longer speak; Draw the curtain back for Venus, ere my vision grows too weak: It is strange the pearly planet should look red as fiery Mars,-- God will mercifully guide me on my way amongst the stars. ...

[Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light; I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.]

-- Sarah Williams

[latenightlarking]

the echoing green

They laugh at our play, And soon they all say, Such, such were the joys, When we all, girls & boys, In our youth time were seen, On the Ecchoing Green.

-- William Blake

[latenightlarking]

haiku

sun streams through window morning begins, i get up and eat some oatmeal.

[latenightlarking]

the bas bleu

Our intellectual ore must shine, Not slumber, idly in the mine. Let Education’s moral mint The noblest images imprint; Let taste her curious touchstone hold, To try if standard be the gold; But ‘tis thy commerce, Conversation, Must give it use by circulation; That noblest commerce of mankind, Whose precious merchandise is mind!

— Hannah More