Loosely Speaking

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Everything Else

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Of Theseus and the Minotaur

LABYRINTH What is this, that you are seeking, Hero, here among the reeking passages that twist around, and lead you into cul-de-sacs, hemmed in by walls marked with the axe, double-headed and two-faced...? Once upon a time you raced-- in sunlight gleaming off the sea you sweated in your lissome grace, by the age-twisted cypress tree, stood tall and young and full of years and watched the galleys tribute-full-- of youths, of maids, of parting tears and carrying a nation's fears-- with black... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:21 AM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, June 27, 2011

Venus Rising...

On The Half-Shell Out of the sea on rising foam Venus emerges, makes herself at home, and the Gods all pause a moment to look and admire and plan... and their canny brains cook... The Goddesses, too-- they look and they see a sister to them and a rival-to-be... For the proper attentions, there must always be, to Wisdom, and to Fidelity. And Discord smiles to see this birth Her job's secure forever on Earth! Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 2:27 PM | add or view comments (2) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, June 26, 2011

And then there were the wax wings...

Icarus in the Sky Icarus, Icarus, foolish lad! It's the worst idea you've ever had and there were others I thought were bad! To soar to the stars, you demented bird, takes more than wax wings, or hadn't you heard? My lad, you have flown to the height of absurd! And yet, and yet, the impulse was grand, though you never considered you'd have to land... Yet, to be with the gods, lad...? I do understand! Those of us with our feet on the ground usually have something harsh to say about those who... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 3:19 PM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Another ancient theme: The Ilyad

Ashes in the Oracle’s Mouth Helen, oh Helen! You silly git! You pretty face, You great lack-wit! Paris, perspective was never your strength Just please yourself at any length! Menelaus, big as a bull your heart pumps blood and that is all. Agamemnon, greed for power cuts at your life line hour by hour. Achilles, as honest as killers come-- kill and be killed is your personal sum. Hector, oh Hector, where else could you end but dragged beyond death your mouth full of sand. Homer, great Homer,... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 8:40 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

For GypsyButterfly who mentioned Ma'at

MEDUSA O maid, you once were lovely, full of grace, and named for Wisdom in eternal female form-- Metis, Ma'at, Medha the names you bore... But the passing generations, reshaping and restructuring the norm, made you over as a thing to fear, no longer Maid, but monstrous with a deadly, stony gaze; Men made you cruel and cold and perilous to life in latter days, forgetting that the peril in your eyes is Truth too true for them to see, and live. Grim-faced now, the Gorgon who is wise, whose... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 10:42 PM | add or view comments (2) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Sunday, May 22, 2011

*looking around* Who left on the Rapture Train...? Anyone you know?

I guess if the train came and went yesterday, whoever is left... was left. Or maybe it was never meant to be translated as a religious event, this Rapture that has been a feature of fundamentalist Christianity for only about 200 years anyway. Consider what has changed in just the past six months, the past year in the world: revolution on so many levels, on such grand scales! And small ones, too. A lot of apocalypse for those in the center of it, whatever the size. What I observe in all of them... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 9:27 AM | add or view comments (5) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, May 13, 2011

A response to TAPS comment

TAPS, I bow to your wisdom in many things, but this time, I have to disagree. There are people who make it their whole work to control what other people think. They arrange juries, garner votes, and sell anything that can be sold. Every day, casually, we choose our words to create an impression, or guide belief in a direction we prefer. We leave out, we lie, we embroider, we get... creative. Sometimes we only mean to entertain, to make a story better... Other times, it is to get someone else... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 10:20 AM | add or view comments (7) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

How would you feel in a world where everyone defined Christianity

by the Inquisition, the forced conversion of tribal peoples in times and places of conquest, and the ethics of the Borgia Popes, and others no less venal? Or by the rules and orders of extremist sects that have always been part of the Christian landscape? Or where everyone defined dark-skinned Africans by the Mau-Mau? Or all African Americans by the stereotypic pimped-out pimp? Or all South Americans as drug-lords and their minions? Discrimination. Every living creature has to learn to... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 9:44 AM | add or view comments (4) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Monday, May 2, 2011

So, many are singing and dancing in the streets

their arms and voices uplifted in celebration of "justice done" which is another term for vengeance. I find I cannot dance or sing about the death of Bin Laden: I feel a weary kind of relief that he at last is out of the picture as an active nexus of creative force turned to destruction as its artform. But I also can't help but wish he had been taken alive. Alive, to face the judgment of law, of the people he has injured, to have his nose rubbed in himself... To spend years alive in prison...... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 11:19 AM | add or view comments (2) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

Friday, April 8, 2011

If you can't get it right, just shut up...

Okay, here they go again... partisan politickers holding the economic well-being of the People hostage over idealogical differences, though 'well-being' may be an over optimistic term... Still, it is heartening to see that the 'journalists' of the day are still getting their exercise, repeating and rerunning and basically milking the situation for every penny--because it is about the pennies--they can get. Okay, that's a lie. I am fed up with the idea that this kind of crisis is the only thing... Sign in to see full entry.

posted by Ciel at 1:15 PM | add or view comments (3) | leave calling card | link to this | view only this entry

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