Montaigne’s Tower

Tags

Essays, folk wisdom, Montaigne, Montaigne's Tower, Philosophy

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart  All Rights Reserved

He who fears he shall suffer already suffers what he fears: Michel de

Montaigne

or, as my granny used to admonish:  If ye fear a fear, it’ll come

upon you.

I doubt she had read Montaigne, but folk wisdom is

watered-down philosophy and not always diluted!

Shadows

Tags

Autumn, Emerson, shadows, Sweeney Erect, T S Eliot

 

                        Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

 

                         (The lengthened shadow of a man

                        is History, said Emerson

                        who had not seen the silhouette

                        of Sweeney straddled in the sun).

 

From Sweeney Erect by T S Eliot

Christ Church, Oxford Today

Tags

Alice in Wonderland, Alice Liddell, Christ Church, Henry Liddell, Lewis Carroll, Oxford, Peter Eugene Ball

 

Peter Eugene Ball’s Madonna and Child; statue of Henry Liddell

(father of  Alice, as in ‘Wonderland’)

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart

Mr Brocklehurst’s Catechism

Tags

catechism, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, Mr Brocklehurst, orphanage, Paradise, Pharisee

I have always liked this dialogue from ‘Jane Eyre’

but I have put it into metre and expanded it a little.

 

Where do the wicked go when their death knell

has been tolled, you insignificant child?

Good sir, I believe that they go to Hell.

Describe this place reserved for those not mild,

nor meek.

Sir, it is a pit full of fire.

Should you like to fall into such a place?

(Then you would not join the Heavenly choir.)

I hope to reach Paradise, by God’s grace.

So, how might you avoid a dark decree?

I must try to keep in the best of health;

I must not listen to a Pharisee,

nor to those who slavishly amass wealth.

In short, I must take care never to die.

My God is Truth and yours, Sir, is a Lie.

Christ Church, Oxford

Tags

Christ Church, fan vaulting, Oxford, Peter Eugene Ball, Sculpture, St Frideswide

This gallery contains 6 photos.

Christ Church, Oxford – today

Tags

Christ Church, herbaceous borders, Oxford, Tom Quad, waterlilies, Wolsey

This gallery contains 5 photos.

Photos by Candia Dixon-Stuart.

Ashmolean, Oxford – yesterday

Tags

Ashmolean Museum, Classical architecture, Oxford museums

I like the top middle one as it makes it look HOT- and it was 29 degrees!

                              Photo copyright candiacomesclean.wordpress.com

Edward Bawden mural, Blackwell’s, Oxford

Tags

Blackwell's, Edward Bawden, mural, Oxford

Learning to Play

Tags

Christ Church Meadow, cricket

Mata Ninos

Tags

abortion, Assumption, El Salvador, Las 17, Mata Ninos, miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth

My friend suggested that I write a poem addressing the

subject of the women in El Salvador who have been imprisoned

after being accused of self-terminations- sometimes when they

allegedly have just had stillbirths. I was unaware of this until I

researched the topic and discovered material on the group Las 17.

The prison terms are in the region of decades.

MATA NINOS

In El Salvador, there’s an assumption,

in many cases, that a miscarriage

is the consequence of an abortion.

Girls who have been raped can lose their freedom.

A premature, or unviable birth

can result in a forty year sentence.

How can a country of that name sentence

women when it reveres the Assumption

of a Virgin? Supernatural birth

protected Mary from a miscarriage

when she experienced threats to her freedom:

state infanticide, worse than abortion?

Las 17, accused of abortion –

each subjected to a lengthy sentence,

in a land whose motto includes ‘Freedom.’

Youngsters, trafficked, can face an assumption

which might lead to judicial miscarriage,

as ‘Mata Ninos.’ They’re victims from birth.

After civil war there should be re-birth,

with an enlightened view of abortion

and understanding that a miscarriage

is, for women, a kind of life sentence.

And why should the state make an assumption

that stillbirth expresses woman’s freedom?

Accused of homicide, denied freedom,

because of complications to a birth –

to disregard is to make assumption

and logic itself suffers abortion.

The powerful deliver the sentence

and fear itself can induce miscarriage.

There’s no calculation in miscarriage.

It’s spontaneous – there is no freedom

expressed. Those women uttered no sentence:

I now intend to sabotage this birth,

nor ‘Drinking this will promote abortion.’

Blame’s an ignorant assumption.

Restricting freedom; pronouncing sentence

on those who endure miscarriage, stillbirth:

abortion of innocence assumption.