Wednesday, March 2, 2011

"The Second Coming"

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 Spritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in the 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?

-- W. B. Yeats

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish poet who many consider to be amongst the best from that poetic land.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Butler_Yeats

14 comments:

OrbsCorbs said...

Apropos for our time? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqmBdI74huw

Anonymous said...

I think the sky has been falling for as long as humanity has existed. There are always big turns of events, that somehow fits into the profited end of days. Better to live one day at a time, and if the end of days is actually near understand that there is nothing we could do about it.

Anonymous said...

why not again..

kkdither said...

I only wish BOTH sides could talk. I only wish instead of rhetoric and hype we heard the truth. I wish there wasn't so much bullying.

I believe people can work together. I believe that people want solution instead of turmoil. I believe that common ground and compromise that is acceptable, can exist.

Is it human nature to combat, to puff ones self up at the cost of others? Are we really that bored or self involved that much ado has to be made over everything? Does it all have to be so deceitful?

Sassa said...

Oh Oh Oh I have a poem..not as inspirational but thought provoking:
I walked a mile with Pleasure
She chattered all the way.
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow
And ne'er a word said she;
But oh the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me.

OrbsCorbs said...

That's a great poem, Sassa.

I agree, Marie, about the doomsayers. They've always been around. 11 years ago it was Y2K. Next year is the dreaded 2012.

Indeed, Christianity was born out of doomsayers who were expecting God to come to Earth and blow away their enemies. Instead, they got Jesus.

hale-bopp said...

There are many in my circle who say they will be relieved on December 22nd, 2012 when they don't have to put up with that nonsense. I see that date as the start of the next round of crap.

kkdither said...

Sounds like time for more Danish bakery? If we all croak from clogged arteries, we might at least go out with a smile on our faces?

OrbsCorbs said...

We could make that a JTI thing. Whenever one of us dies, the others put pastry in the casket to show our respect.

SER said...

Far out man........

Sassa said...

I just got a call from 'Joe the Plumber'. He wants me to be at a meeting in Green Bay. I think Obama gave him my name. LOL I'll have to send my regrets. After all I have a part time job!!!

OrbsCorbs said...

I got that call, too. As soon as the recording started, I hung up. Damn robo calls! :-X

Why Not? said...

WHAT??? what is that about?

Anonymous said...

Hale, is there is any idea of what the next one will be?? Have you heard anything?