Rather than rearranging what I have scheduled to post, I shall delay #11, which will post on January 3rd, 2014. Number 12, which is not yet completed will most likely be done this morning(ish) and will therefore post on January 4th, 2014, or perhaps shortly thereafter.
Sorry to make all-y’all wait this long ; )
Today’s sonnet is, in fact a tribute to Turkish coffee, and was one of the drafts I had floating about the top of my post list, spoiling my view. My sweet wife laughed aloud when, after first telling her what the project was to be, I subsequently read her the result. I did warn her that it was quite severe considering the subject matter at hand. Her first coherent words were: “Celebrate the moments of your lives!” followed by another round of laughter. Continue reading
“Can you think of any problem [...] of human endeavour [...] whose long-term solution is [...] assisted [...] by further increases in population locally, nationally or globally?”This is an amazing statement to those who have made it a habit to study history in any significant way. Because its answer seems a glaring “yes, most definitely, in practically every conceivable instance.” With the possible exception of an instance wherein a large population is under a great degree of repression and control, as is the case in China. Such regimes ultimately undergo rapidly dwindling population, such as in the former Soviet Empire whether they engage in wholesale slaughter or not–as in the case of Europe, having to offer remuneration to couples to have adequate numbers of children.
Such regimes are in the business of removing impetus, and as history also shows us, it takes very little such removal to cause the rest of it to dwindle to nothing. It appears that once this process has begun it is, unfortunately, not reversible excepting the instance wherein–as history also shows–a very high price is paid for such a reversal. Most of that price has traditionally been paid in blood; and I am quite afraid, unless somehow the advent of technology has had some heuristic effect upon the way in which human beings interact in a crisis–which we may pray it has–that such continues to be the only currency in which the price for any such reversal in the future.must be paid.
Although I do hope that somehow this is not so.
[This was first published on 14 December 2011, and I want you to apply what you are reading here to the education article I published this morning, there will be more on this coming, because it is one of the most important issues we have.]
I’m going to draw heavily on Simon Black‘s Sovereign Man post today for this, it’s a guest post by Tim Price. The link is here, it’s also dead, sorry.
Albert Bartlett, emeritus Professor of Physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder has asked,
“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavour on any scale, from microscopic to global, whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted or advanced by further increases in population locally, nationally or globally?”
I can, actually, the long-term labor shortage that the United States has suffered for several hundred years, which has…
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I am not sure what this post is al about; I confess I am just relaxing, sitting back, watching quite random TV with my sweetheart, and absent-mindedly thumbing up posts in the reader, as do most of us here. But I’ am taking the time to reblog this because the photo is… well… cool….
contributed ” The Ice Queen” image to the Art Game’s Silent Night
Thanks so much for this image Wyrdpooka :)
to
by
and into
by
But now in this Art Game’s Silent Night there is
by
Luckily
is just on time to give that freezing chicken a lift! :)
by
And for the inverse, I offer up the following:
- C 1 (14
- A 1 (7
- B 1 (8
- A 2 (5
- C 2 (9
.- B 2 (6
- A 3 (2
- B 3 (3
- C 3 (4
.- E 1 (13
- D 2 (12
- D 2 (10
- E 1 (11
- C 4 (1
Interpret it as you will! No, I relent. As in the previous example, the columns are:
This… is evidently the way in which I avoid working on my poetry. As well, this is evidently the way in which I avoid working on my sonnet site. Am I the archetypal mismatcher–the quintessential oppositional personality? I shall let you be the judge.
In any event, I offer up the following for your consideration:
- C 1 (1
- A 1 (2
- B 1 (3
- C 2 (4
.- A 2 (5
- B 2 (6
- A 3 (7
- B 3 (8
- C 3 (9
.- D 1 (10
- E 1 (11
- D 2 (12
- E 2 (13
- C 4 (14
Recently I have experimented with Italian varieties wherein the lines numbered 9 and 14 rhyme. The above is an attempt to create a unique form specific to this idea rather than simply modifying the Petrarchan (Italian) scheme. My only quandary now, is what to call it…. “Northwestern” perhaps? “Portlandian?” “455,” as in “four five five?”
Gracious me! I do remember my first pair of Nikes! Sometime in the late 19708ies I believe it was. The lightweight, light blue, track style variety, were they–the ones with the square cleats if any one should remember.
I remember well from that first moment upon wearing them how, for the first time in my life, my feet felt as light as air.
Here are a couple of photos from Albany all the way to Texas with bright orange dreams and stuff.
So really, tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one precious and wild life?
travel? work? create? have fun? see things differently? sit in a pile of leaves?
life’s short. just do it already.
David Emeron: Sonnets 