"Everyone Sang"

Random Poetry List LXVI

Everyone suddenly burst out singing;
And I was filled with such delight
As prison'd birds must find in freedom
Winging wildly across the white
Orchards and dark-green fields;
    on; on; and out of sight.

Everyone's voice was suddenly lifted,
And beauty came like the setting sun.
My heart was shaken with tears; and horror
Drifted away... O but every one
Was a bird; and the song was wordless;
    the singing will never be done.

Siegfried Sassoon (English, 1886-1967)

Originally e-mailed on Wednesday, August 16, 2000 @ 8:07 PM.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 08/16/06 06:19:47 PM
Categorized as Literary & Random Poetry List.

"London-to-D.C. Flight Diverted for Unruly Passenger With 'Note Referencing Al Qaeda' (Update: Reports of Note Denied)"

A fine example of what's wrong with minute-by-minute blogging as well as minute-by-minute TV reporting.

With all due respect to Michelle Malkin and to her guest blogger Mary Katharine Ham.... what good does it do anybody to blog the barest of details of a breaking story, some (most?) of which turn out to be false, but maybe they'll turn out to have been true, unless they were really false or... or... or... what?

Do we really need the worst aspects of maniacal round-the-clock TV news transmogrified into a weblog?

Good grief.

P.S. Six updates across 6 hours & 46 minutes to make sure we know that makeup won't hurt anybody. Thanks a lot!

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 08/16/06 05:59:28 PM
Categorized as Media.

"A Very Immodest Open Letter"

By E. Nough @ Thinking Meat:

Dear Israel,

.... Yes, I know, you want to be viewed as a respectable, "normal" country, part of a community of nations. The feeling is understandable, especially in people who have been shunned and spit upon by other nations for centuries. But here's the thing — "normal," respectable countries don't go around begging others to respect them. You don't get respect by begging for it — you get respect by showing that you respect yourself, and will take no crap from those who don't share that view. That's why China can mow down demonstrators on CNN, and get respect. It's why Iran can execute teenage girls for being raped, and get respect. It's why Saudi Arabia can be a privately owned backwards hellhole whose sole contribution to the world is Wahhabist terorrism, whose religious police shove girls into burning schools, and whose laws enshrine religious bigotry — and they still get more respect than you. They don't ask for respect, they assume it, even though they hardly deserve it. You, on the other hand, permit yourself to be judged by a group 99% of which isn't fit to be in the same room with decent nations. Well, if you don't respect yourself, don't expect it from others. That's just life....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 08/16/06 05:47:30 PM
Categorized as More Than Blogworthy.

"The Lens Of History"

By Cassandra @ Villainous Company:

When thinking about current events I find the greatest challenge is to place the overwhelming flow of news in proper perspective; to sift through the chatter for significant facts which, pieced together, lead to some meaningful conclusion. It's easy to get lost in the moment, to become distracted by the hype; to forget that things will look quite different in a month, six months, two years. That the lens of history provides a vastly different view of events is a theme I've touched on frequently in my writing....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 08/16/06 05:38:01 PM
Categorized as More Than Blogworthy.

"Suspended Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth"

By Robert Godwin @ One Cosmos:

What did Oscar Wilde say? “Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.” That’s how I feel about politics. Too many posts about politics leave me wanting to join a monastery to get away from it all. Sometimes I do wish I could withdraw from the world altogether, but I believe that doing so represents a false spirituality just as much as its opposite: “To darkness are they doomed who devote themselves only to life in the world, and to a greater darkness they who devote themselves only to meditation,” says the Isha Upanishad.

If one is lucky, a moment comes in one’s life when one makes the conscious decision to move closer to God, to know reality to the fullest, and to establish a permanent relationship with what is permanent. In so doing, we become what we are and what we were always meant to be. We become a true individual, but we also become a human being as such, for there is no humanness without divinity, only exalted animality....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Wed. 08/16/06 05:28:48 PM
Categorized as More Than Blogworthy.