This week’s essay of the week calls to mind this bit of poetry from The Modern Traveller by Hilaire Belloc. I have to admit that I find it impossible to separate the irony implicit in the Modern Traveller from Belloc’s debates with H. G. Wells.
Mr. Dueck has a new poem up. Not his best ever, but we like to encourage new work.
Today I made some attempt at cleaning up, my constant struggle, and found a lot of clippings I had meant to comment on. It seems only fitting to start with the review I ripped out of The Economist (January 6th, 2007). The book under the microscope is called A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Click Here to continue reading.
Since it is going on 15 million views, most people have probably already seen this clip of a sad little bird. If you listen carefully, you can here the thud at the end.
This week’s essay of the week brought to mind A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London by Dylan Thomas. Most people see this poem as a heroic defiance of the Nazi regime. But I see the refusal to “murder the mankind of her going with a grave truth” to be the essence of why Europe is sick and dying.
In other words, the logic that seems to govern Europe is the logic that says “After the first death, there is no other” and consequently cannot bring itself to care about anything except the certainty that can be made in this life.
Over at my Ape Man blog, I have discussed New Urbanism on occasion (largely because I read Architecture + Morality and I sometimes desire to contribute to the discussion). I am generally sympathetic to the aesthetics of New Urbanism, but I doubt current American values will ever enable it to work.
I am not happy Click Here to continue reading.
This week’s poem of the week is Animal Satisfaction. Andrew latter revised it and called Animal Sensation. Comparing the two is educational.
The video montage is played a little too closely to the lyrics, I think, and it would have been a little closer to character to use Aragorn, but I still like this music video.
Stairway to Heaven is the most popular rock song ever written. Like most things that are wildly popular, it is a little over rated. But if you believe that good poetry has a religious function it is worth paying attention to. For it is an expression of the religious sensibilities of most of the boomer generation. It is the Catechism of America’s secular religion.
You can read the lyrics here or you can listen to it below.
Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “Tommy” is this week’s poem of the week. It is more of a rant then a poem. But it is what came to mind this week.