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Stan had eaten too much pizza because he was extremely ravenous from doing the washing. and hanging it up on the mulberry tree in his long garden Now he felt lazy and haphazardly dim and other worldly and liable to have visions..
Now and then he saw an angel whom he called Yael in his home.But having looked up Yael on a website he realised she was not a very nice woman unlike his dear wife Mary.So he was planning a new name for the angel with her permission -
Do you mind if I change your name,he enquired gently when Yael came in through the French window.
Well,what to? Yael asked him familiarly
How about Ysabel? Stan offered.It’s got just an extra b and s.
Or how about,Sybael?
You seem fond of b and s, the angel answered in confusion.
It was just mere chance,said Stan somewhat defensively.
Ok I’ll take Sybael,the angel said loudly .I want to change my name too, said Emile the cat of Stan.
How about Mebiles or Melibes or Eimbles….
I don’t know, pouted the cat haughtily.
How about Semile,said Stan.T
hough it has no letter b in it, he bragged.
They all pondered quietly as the sun shone in through the window and made a lovely lacy pattern on the wall.In came Mary,Stan’s sweet old wife and his computer aided extension too.
You are very quiet,she murmured.What’s going on here ?
We are trying to find a new name for Emile,Stan told her as Sybael waved her wings about.
It seems very draughty in here,Mary said.
And Emile can’t change his name because it will change his personality.
I didn’t know I had a personality,the little cat purred.
It is what is most characteristic of you.For example, if you always hurt those you love then you have a cruel personality or you have got diabetes.Some people want love but they are too harsh and demanding.
So true,Stan added pensively.
Anyway,I have some awfully strange news,Mary went on.
You just won’t believe this but Dorothy Grey who lives at the bottom of the hill has just had a heart attack.
How come?
She had an online love relationship with a rather peculiar but intriguing and clever elderly man who turned out to be a sadist in disguise.So when she ended the affair he flew over and attacked her with an air gun and some cat’s claws which he had bought from a cat market
Is he a wizard,asked Emile.
No, he flew on a stolen magic carpet from Persia.
Persian carpets,I’d love one here said the cat greedily
Actually it’s a kind of plane,said Stan.
How boring ,said Mary angrily.
Anyway Dorothy was so shocked her arteries spasmed and she is in A and E now on morphine,she added…
What a shame that she got that instead of a spasm elsewhere….Stan muttered thinking of Freud.
But who’d have sex with such a horrible old man? Mary asked.
An equally horrible old woman,maybe? Stan riposted.
Any way it all goes to show the dangers of online love, he informed the room.
It’s not real love,is it, because in real love the other person is as important to you as yourself.Mary said theologically.
Well. now Eros is a kind of love,too.But many old men just want their washing done and a companion.Eros has departed from their world.
Sybael smiled and then flew out of the window.What was that noise, said Mary anxiously.
Just an angel’s wings,said Stan quietly
If only Dorothy had seen an angel instead of that harsh old man she might be much better now.Mary mused.But not everyone can see them.Their world seems full of horrible old men and beautiful young women
Emile winked at Stan and then ran out to chase a butterfly amongst the scented tulips.. there were lots of angels there every day but only he knew.
Angels don’t like big modern cities but they like old abbeys and cathedrals and places where such things used to be before post modernist architecture took over.
And cat’s claws are not meant for scratching your loved ones either.And online dating should be avoided except with atheists and agnostics.They are less judgemental about women’s place and roles.It’s strange how harsh many religious people are.Harsh and unforgiving.
Day: November 30, 2019
Come to Oxford
From the Guardian newspaper
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/27/class-war-conservatives-taxes-middle-class
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We’re not supposed to say
You know the widow’s sad and can mourn and grieve all day
But the anger and the hatred,she’s not supposed to say
She can cry upon the duvet, she can scream under the stairs
But the rage and irritation are not to be declared
She can order man size tissues in boxes multiplied
But the venomous ,vindictive imply that love had died
She can be dissociated, she can be without affect
But if she says how well she hated him, everybody’s vexed
Who can live so closely for forty and five years
Without needing a dressmaker to sew up all the tears?
Who can be accepting when money and time’s scarce
There’s a war inside the heart of us, everybody knows
Scratched and bitten daily, struck by falling stars
Who knows what we’re feeling . what is out too far?
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His love was all too clear
I am angry he has died and left me here
He hated my intelligence unwise
Yet while he lived our love contained our fear
He loved whiskey even more than beer
He loved my skin and even my great eyes
I ‘m angry he has died and left me here
He did not have much money that was clear
But oh he sees a bigger car, then buys
Yet while he lived our love contained our fear
He drove too fast when angry, I was scared.
He brought me lovely gifts as a surprise
I ‘m angry he has died and left me here
He woke before he died and uttered here
You are a brilliant presence,Katherine, wise
And while he lived his love contained my fear
I was a trophy wife, what will men try?
He liked my looks but not how bright my mind
I ‘m angry he has died and left me here
Though while he lived he drank my nectar dear
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He is in the dark
I have nightmares, is that a surprise?
The time is coming for the new bright Ark
What one might love another one might hide
My husband drags me out so we can fly
To where he chooses,I have made no mark
I have nightmares, is that a surprise?
I resist,I fear more UTIs
I’m unwell but he is in the dark
Where one might live another one might die
Some fiend attacks us, danger is no lie
I cannot fight, my weapons are too sparse
I have nightmares, is that a surprise?
Another night, it’s insects dark, malign
Then my husband leaves me ,won’t converse
What one might show another one might hide
Is my life a list of times adverse?
Of sleeping and of waking, which is worse?
I have nightmares, is that a surprise?
Where one might laugh another one might cry
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The Second Coming
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming
The Second Coming
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Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
n/a
Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)
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Yeats’ most famous poems
#1 THE SECOND COMING
Published: 1920
This poem was written at the end of the First World War and the beginning of the Irish War of Independence. In it Yeats uses Christian imagery regarding the Apocalypse and Second Coming to describe the atmosphere of post-war Europe. The speaker first gives an account of anarchy and violence in the world; and then uses it as a sign to indicate that “the Second Coming is at hand.” He concludes with the prophesy that a rough beast is on its way to Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ, to be born into the world. The Second Coming is regarded as one of the most important works of Modernist poetry. It is one of the most influential poetic works of the 20th century and the most famous poem by William Butler Yeats.
Excerpt:-
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
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United in Bravery
Photo by Mau00ebl BALLAND on Pexels.com
Photo by Oleg Magni on Pexels.com
The horror of the London Bridge attack where 2 people were killed brought out the best in some men nearby as they tackled the man before the police and prevented him stabbing anyone else
After Brexit, let’s be grateful for our brave people, who risked their own lives and stop the civil war of words and actions
Extract
Three members of the public, including one armed with a fire extinguisher and another a 5ft narwhal tusk, grappled with and eventually grounded the London Bridge knife attacker before police arrived.
Footage has emerged showing people at the scene surrounding the attacker, who is eventually pinned to the ground. One man sprays him with a fire extinguisher before trying to hit him with it, while another approaches him with a narwhal tusk, lunging at him. It is believed the item was pulled from the wall of Fishmongers’ Hall.
How my heart sings 