What Dan Mcenroe Said.
The excerpted poem of WH Auden’s that he quotes:
All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie,
The romantic lie in the brain
Of the sensual man-in-the-street
And the lie of Authority
Whose buildings grope the sky:
There is no such thing as the State
And no one exists alone;
Hunger allows no choice
To the citizen or the police;
We must love one another or die.
Defenseless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
reminds me of one of my favorite folk songs by Shwana Carrol called "I Can Be Peace." She's no Auden, but the message of her song -- that in the face of all the horror of war and insanity, the one thing that each of us can do is to work to embody peace, to manifest and create peace in our own lives and for those around us -- makes the same point Auden makes when he prays to "show an affirming flame." I sometimes sing the song to myself when I let the asshole in the Jaguar cut in front of me during rush hour. Really. I do.
~Art found here.
2 comments:
I wish I had your peace. The Jag driver invariably gets flipped the bird by me. I had a cussing match with a dude who tried to run me and The Spare over about 2 weeks ago. I told him all the cute young chicks would still be at the bar when he got there, what was his f**** hurry? He told me to go **** myself, and I said I'd rather do that than do it with him.
All in front of The Spare.
Yeah, I could be a little less ... emm ... rowdy.
Anne, you should have gotten the tag...
Hecate, love that picture. I do wish I had more of that peace. I try to be a good soul on the road, and I do let the Jag driver in where he wouldn't have let me, but when the jerk forces himself into a hole too small, I lose it a little. Not to road rage lost, but to flipping off, flashing lights, honking horn (warning of danger, you know).
People die on these roads because of that crap. All for another 20 seconds...
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