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Monday, 15 December 2008

All Saints (Shattuck Avenue, Early New Depression) -- by Beyond the Pale

.

6.432 How things are in the world is a matter of complete indifference for what is higher. God does not reveal himself in the world.
6.4321 The facts all contribute only to setting the problem, not to its solution.
6.44 It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists.
6.45 To view the world sub specie aeterni is to view it as a whole--a limited whole. Feeling the world as a whole--it is this that is mystical.
-- Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus


*

a'bject. A man without hope; a man whose miseries are irretrievable.
"But in mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together; yea, the abjects gathered themselves together against me, and I knew it not. They did tear me, and ceased not." Psalms XXX, 15.
- -Johnson's Dictionary


*

I've found all saints lost at midnight in the rain
Seek shop doorways fit to lay their bodies down
And dwell upon the sins that have expelled them:
Those sins, O Friend, which they perceive as wounds

Inflicted they know neither why nor by whom,
Nor in defiance of what remorseless laws.
The wind that rakes the street is unforgiving,
Warmth but a memory, winter coming on,

The concrete cold, the cardboard pallet sodden,
God far away, but unfortunately not Man,
Who motors past to get to bars or home,
Completely unaware they're bedding there,

Splashing sheets of grey water out of puddles
That wash over them in chill waves they may
If they so choose trust to wash their sins away,
Dimly aware at last they're given something.

.

246 comments:

1 – 200 of 246   Newer›   Newest»
Anonymous said...

Beautiful and sad, BTP. Here's hoping none of us ends up among the Abject as the credit crunches around the world...

Anonymous said...

Thanks Zeph--and yes, it's both sad and scary to see, six weeks after this poem was written, more and more of those human doorway-bundles every night, as the year grows darker, colder, wetter...and, as you suggest, that distance between the exposed and the secure diminishes until it's necessary to realize that perhaps, just perhaps, we might in the end all turn out to be, more than we might once have so blithely believed, "in it together" after all.

Anonymous said...

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ieYQKS9-Is0&feature=related


"Il me semble que la misère
serait moins pénible au soleil"

Anonymous said...

Offie--You Tube's search trolls claimed they couldn't find that clip, though when they do that I suspect they are on strike because we aren't grateful enough for their many (?) favors. And perhaps, were the sun to shine in our back door some day (as the song goes), we'd no longer even need them. (And as far as BTP's concerned, on this dark morning of intermittent rain and hail, with its concomitant dire economic forecasts, that day can't come too soon.)

Zephirine said...

It's there now, BTP. Youtube does that sometimes. Beautiful Aznavour song, I had to look up the words - They're here.

And BTP's poem made me think of this lovely song too.

Anonymous said...

If I may borrow BtP poetry's platform to sneak in a reading suggestion, I'll throw in "Le soleil des mourants" by Jean-Claude Izzo. It's a novel about, as you can guess, the growing numbers of those that have been crunched, crushed and spat out on the streets. I have no idea whether there is an English translation out there.

http://www.amazon.fr/Soleil-mourants-Jean-Claude-Izzo/dp/229031000X

Zephirine said...

ApOffstrophe - this looks like it

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Zeph, I would have googled it myself, if only I had access to the Internet...

Anonymous said...

I can see they have also translated the Marseilles Trilogy by Izzo, which is even better (but has nothing to do with our subject, it's a crime story). I'd be curious to know how that reads in English, as the original is very, well, marseillais.

Zeph, if you haven't, you should read the original.

DoctorShoot said...

wow Beyond...
what a spin-out... great poem thank you.. and almost at the season of peace and love and happiness to all...

and is it the risk takers who mistimed their leap,
down there huddled under the thin ice mouthing things..?

and if wittgenstein is correct, and the gods simply don't care who skates over the pond and who falls in, then ought one not take risks at all perhaps..?

darn it...
I may have been playing this game all wrong, and now I am out on the VERY thin ice going too fast... and no way back...

my skates are made of siddartha wood and tied with iron wire of Satre, and I am bound to cut a path now which will disappear tomorrow,
(and one hopes the briefly visible trail ends at the other side, not midway at some unnamed hole in the ice devoid of meaning...) I search for a rope, and a whisky.. and skate harder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WETxvnyiOSU

and if one reaches the other side, then perhaps a net to fish out some abject humans to help celebrate one's one mighty risk...

"come out come out the ice is thin but luck may be on our side..."

Anonymous said...

Zeph, Offie, Doc-- Thanks, and in gratitude to exchange a little winter/summer night music from and for the relief of all our saints and souls:

gaetano veloso:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AA6G0Fq7d5U

marisa monte:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb2fHIUOuTQ

Anonymous said...

Careful, Doc, don't go trying any triple lutzes or anything like that...

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=XZb5lzURzFs

Anonymous said...

Nice riff, Doc.

BTP, that Veloso is fab. I know the song of old, but not that version, must be the best.

Offie, I've ordered some Izzo and will let you know what I think.

Anonymous said...

Hope,
I still believe in Santa Claus, may be not exactly a surprise, but I still hope-
"to be in it together" that's a blessing, a chance for humanity for renewal..

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful way to remember Jethro Tull! As a child in the 70s, I remember taking them very seriously and now quite disturbed to find that while remembering most of the words of Skating Away, I laughed out loud at the clip.

I wanted to (in revenge) bring you a clip from Rick Wakeman's Arthur on Ice (wonderful anecdote from Rick on Mayo's show this week) but sadly everything on youtube is useless!

Instead I bring you my Winter Song of Joy - only came upon it today courtesy of said Mayo and the Good Doctor.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ssa_56NzKOM&feature=related

Anonymous said...

These interesting comments and clips remind me again that Other Stuff is currently my best source for reliable news of our currently fraught human moment. Gui, Hope would indeed seem to me too be the relevant theme. For some reason I don't fully understand (but maybe you would?) I sometimes find it in these enlightening dark moments from
another tale of being up against the wall:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg5vcflKq5k

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bHA2d6XmbUc

Anonymous said...

Those are very Kermodian clips. Dark and cinematically intensely interesting.

Hum [scratches chin] do we have ourselves a "film fan" ici, perchance?

Anonymous said...

film fan? Duno one busy around one on the making right now -from Paris to L A to Louisiana back to Paris it's better be good.

Anonymous said...

btp
From this remote place I don't have access at the right techno tools to fwd YouTube but your "enlightening dark moments" have a perfect musical background
If I may:
Autumn leaves-errol Garner- priceless-
The other version,
Les feuilles mortes-laura Fygi-
Not bad at all for sentimental journey.

Anonymous said...

Mimi--Glad you enjoyed that bit of dark cinematic enlightenment--perhaps it's because I'm old, but I do love these slow dark dances that remind us we move with and on the earth and not just in the aether (though of course we're there/here too). Try this one (and be sure to turn out the lights and click on full screen so you get the full eclipse effect):


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VFmu7BYbthY

Anonymous said...

BtP did enjoy and it reminded me of one of my favourite films.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi8sYY0pCdE

Anonymous said...

Mimi--Thanks for reminding me: the angel recalling all the words and thoughts everyone's ever had, aswirl in the celestial music of the infinite library...where indeed it may be we too, if we are fortunate, are finding ourselves, and each other, in each passing moment. (Is this what "eternity" means?)

Zephirine said...

May I recommend 'Russian Ark' to you both, if you don't know it? No good clips on youtube, I'm afraid, anyway you need to see the whole thing.... the Hermitage instead of the Library... it's dream-like and hypnotic.

Anonymous said...

And to offend all of you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vh-wEXvdW8

Anonymous said...

Mimi--Amused certainly, offended not at all.
Zeph--Lovely to be reminded of the magnificent Russian Ark at this time of year, remembering in particular the breathtaking moment when the dazzling dance in the Winter Palace ends and the partygoers exiting the ball descend the grand staircase and emerge into the frozen mists of Petersburg as the long take ends and the long day closes.
("Everyone can see the future but no one remembers the past," someone remarks. And who can forget that?)

Anonymous said...

Glad that humour wins out. But strangely, living in Scotland, as a Welshwoman, I do often think about not having bishops! And I do know that my dearly beloved late father did sing far too often, far too loud and often flat!

Anonymous said...

And you know Mimi, since we're being personal (I'm sure no one's listening), in truth we found the Flanders & Swann bit doubly inoffensive over here: the disparagement of Americans I find entirely called for though I'm one, and as Madame B is a Kiwi by upbringing, her good people escaped entirely unoffended because (and I listened closely) they didn't even rate a mention. (I can't think of a single anti-Kiwi slur for that matter, though I'm sure our Aussie readers, if any of them happens to be listening, could help us out here.)

file said...

most interesting M.Pale, have long been fascinated by Wittgenstein's take on this tho have only ever wandered in the foothills of Tractatus

this juxtaposition works really well and the poem is poignant and sad, a timely reminder of how lucky we are and not just how unlucky we might seem to be

intrigued by the 'I' at the beginning of the poem which doesn't reappear as if the perspective shifts...

many thanks for this

Anonymous said...

I have easy access to a Kiwi slur! It rolls off my tongue and from my memory without a second thought. "Watch Mr Laidlaw put the ball in Ref". Iffley Road in the 70s, Chris Laidlaw, an All Black playing for Oxford. He cheated, a lot! Mind you, he won us a lot of games.

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