29 Wednesday Mar 2017
Posted in Arts, Celebrities, Humour, Literature, News, Poetry, Social Comment, Writing
(Bob Dylan onstage at Azkena Rock Festival, 26/6/10
Alberto-Cabello: image Creative Commons)
Bob Dylan,
why were you so unwillin’
to accept your Nobel Prize for Literature, in Stockholm?
Maybe you believe Blowin’ in the Win’ ain’t that great a pome?
29 Wednesday Mar 2017
Tags
Atonement, Church of the Flagellation, Gethsemane, John Paul II, Joseph of Arimathea, Judas betrayal, Last Supper, Lune poetic form, myrrh, Peter Denial, Pilate, Roman Catholic, Simon the Cyrenian, Stations of the Cross, The King of the Jews, Veronica, Via Crucis
(Church of the Flagellation- 20/9/2010;
photo by Berthold Werner)
I have produced my own Stations of the Cross– fourteen in number,
which is traditional. However, I have omitted the three ‘stumblings’
and Veronica. I think I follow recent Roman Catholic editing on
some of this.
The Atonement is my focus and so I have not made the last Station
into a Resurrection. I think that would be more of a Via Lucis.
( I am not a Roman Catholic, so feel that I can be more independent in
my artistic endeavour.) I don’t start with Gethsemane, or The Last
Supper, or Judas’ betrayal, or Peter’s denial. My idea was to concentrate
on 14 episodes in the narrative and I tried to find the quintessence of
the moment by creating 14 lunes, a variation on a poetic form invented
by Robert Kelly, which I have read about. I use 3-5-3 syllables, so my stanzas
are very condensed and intense. ( Kelly uses 5-3-5)
Anyway, see what you think:
I
Then Pilate
delivered Jesus
to the crowd.
II
The soldiers
stripped Him; mocked Him with
a thorn crown.
III
And Simon,
the Cyrenian,
bore His cross.
IV
He walked:
two malefactors
beside Him.
V
O Daughters
of Jerusalem,
weep no more.
VI
He refused
wine, mingled with myrrh,
though thirsty.
VII
Pilate placed
‘King of the Jews’
above Him.
VIII
Chief priests,
scribes and elders mocked
Him: Come down!
IX
His clothing
was divided up,
into lots.
X
Jesus said:
John, take good care of
my mother.
XI
He then drank
vinegar and gall
from a sponge.
XII
His head bowed;
He gave up the ghost.
It’s over.
(Jesus on the cross, St Raphael’s Cathedral,
Dubuque, Iowa. Feb 2006. Jesster 79- Commons Wiki)
XIII
His side, once
speared, issued forth blood
and water.
XIV
Taken down,
Joseph had Him placed
in his tomb.
28 Tuesday Mar 2017
(The Arrest of Christ: Simon Bening (Flemish)
c1525-30 lido.getty.edu-gm-obj4307
Source:LgHwog18kmephw@google Cultural Institute)
Hands bound;
neck in a halter-
overkill?
28 Tuesday Mar 2017
(Isabella Breviary. St Barbara.
Image: M Moleiro, Editor Barcelona Spain)
Martyrdom?
I just lose myself
in a book.
27 Monday Mar 2017
Posted in Animals, art, Humour, Literature, Nostalgia, Poetry, Psychology, Relationships, Romance, Writing
(MS 24098 British Library- Golf Book of Hours)
Storks mating…
She’s lapping this up,
like my dog.
26 Sunday Mar 2017
(September from ‘Book of Golf’, British Library. Book of Hours for Use of Rome)
Some people
muck about; play games
while we work.
26 Sunday Mar 2017
Posted in Architecture, art, Bible, History, Literature, mythology, Poetry, Social Comment, Writing
(Wikipaedia. Image British Library)
Reach the sky!
Speak in many tongues,
future king!
(a gift for the 9 year old future Henry VI
from The Duchess, in 1430)
25 Saturday Mar 2017
Posted in art, History, Literature, Poetry, Relationships, Religion, Writing
(Wikimedia Commons
from British Library)
The Duchess
kneels, surrounded by
three husbands.
25 Saturday Mar 2017
Posted in Architecture, art, Arts, Bible, Poetry, Psychology, Religion, Writing
Most lovely
Mehun-sur-Yevre:
so tempting.
22 Wednesday Mar 2017
Posted in Architecture, art, Crime, Literature, News, Poetry, Religion, Social Comment, Writing
March 22nd,2017
Earth has not shown anything more evil;
traumatised all those who would stumble by
a sight so shocking in its travesty.
This city, plunged in darkness, drew a veil
on those who ventured out to breathe, to live:
now still on bloodied pavements. Strangers try
to open airways; paramedics cry.
Parliament questions what it can achieve.
Daylight was to rise on a new carnage.
Someone denied his humanity
yet, as has been said, in the old adage:
there’s nothing new at all. Profanity
ever explodes in pointless destruction,
but somehow, with more violence, in our age.
