................................................................................................
................................................................................................The Watchman and Other Poems
................................................................................................................................................................................................
DEDICATION
""TO THE MEMORY OF THE GALLANT
CANADIAN SOLDIERS WHO HAVE LAID
DOWN THEIR LIVES FOR THEIR COUNTRY
AND THEIR EMPIRE.""
Lofty, only until before the third line.
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
The Watchman and Other Poems
The author's writing is poetic when she writes prose describing nature, which she does often. Her poetry, going by the first one, is another matter. Perhaps the waxing eloquent about beauty of nature comes in other poems, later.
But the first one is as obviously racist as the dedication, above, is obliquely so. One has to wonder, was the author aware her beliefs were not only racist, they were founded on false information too?
That first poem, as powerful as it is, destroys the idyllic world built in one's mind by having read the author - rest of the books in the Anne Stories compilation - until now, of a world so genteel, beautiful, safe and secure. It brings us back to the lies propagated by most churches, lies that led to a holocaust shortly after, the said holocaust not unknown to most of western powers but nevertheless not stopped when they could easily have done so.
But the rest are largely about the author's forte - beauty of nature, ocean and skies, stars and hills, and more. One wonders if she sat looking at a harbour, every day, inspired to write verses about the beauty of it all, so varied the verses about the scenes same every day and yet fresh. Then one reflects, Monet was a contemporary and painted various subjects over and over, and one is never tired of looking at them as and when one finds the possibility, and stand enraptured for hours. Montgomery has a similar quality when she writes about the ocean and skies, orchards and wildflowers, and in stories, people.
................................................................................................................................................................................................
It begins with a man asking his woman to love him, and then goes on to what he's been up to, what he's witnessed, becoming suddenly a powerful poem.
"Down in Jerusalem they slew a man,
"Or god— it may be that he was a god—
"Those mad, wild Jews whom Pontius Pilate rules.
"Thou knowest Pilate, Claudia— a vain man,
"Too weak to govern such a howling horde
"As those same Jews.
"This man they crucified.
"I knew nought of him— had not heard his name
"Until the day they dragged him to his death;
"Then all tongues wagged about him and his deeds;
"Some said that he had claimed to be their King,
"Some that he had blasphemed their deity;
"'Twas certain he was poor and meanly born,
"No warrior he, nor hero; and he taught
"Doctrines that surely would upset the world;
"And so they killed him to be rid of him—
"Wise, very wise, if he were only man,
"Not quite so wise if he were half a god!"
Discoveries later, of gospels supposedly destroyed by church centuries ago but had survived hidden in desert caves, and research leading to Holy Blood, Holy Trail that began by questioning various suppositions and teaching and events, was still in future when the lines above were written; but slavery had been banished, sympathy and horror regarding treatment of slaves in confederate states was not unknown in Canada, and yet the lines about Jews subjugated by Roman empire are entirely as devoid of any such sympathy as only the rulers of the then British empire could have regarding their subjects of non European ancestry. Rabbit proof fences were a fact, as were whitewashing of indigenous by force and destroying families thereby, and official preference under British for racist and other castes of British caste system, imposed throughout empire.
One only wonders, what kind of disgusting people go massacring a whole race, only because they worship one they - inheritors of Roman empire - murdered, and he belonged to that race? Well, as per knowledge that has since been exposed, they - the church - went after his descendants, too, attempting to murder every single one, so massacring the whole race must seem like a non sequitur.
The poem is powerful, speaks of a level of spiritual experience uncommon to say the least, and yet racism taught by church - church that is no more than Roman empire, after all - pervades on and on.
"Never was such a conqueror! Yet no pride
"Was in it— nought but love and tenderness,
"Such as we Romans scoff at; and his eyes
Bespake him royal. Oh, my Claudia,
"Surely he was no Jew but very god!"
Very god, all very well, but why the no Jew bit, that too with a surely? Because Jews being unholy must be the unwritten assumption of all that is civilised as per definition by Roman empire? And this, because Jews are after all an Asiatic race, like all those from India, China, ...... and in fact anything not of origin of ancestry from dark Nordic latitudes?
Oh, Montgomery! To destroy the idyllic world you created in your writings, making PE into a haven on earth, only to hit a reader with this hammer of a racist hatred so ingrained for centuries!
And yet it's civilisations of Egypt and India, China and Persia - and of Mayan and others - that far precede anything of Europe, including perhaps Greece but definitely Rome!
Here's clinching finale -
"I cannot even hate those Jews; my lips
"Speak harshly of them, but within my heart
"I feel a strange compassion; and I love
"All creatures, to the vilest of the slaves
"Who seem to me as brothers! Claudia,
"Scorn me not for this weakness; it will pass—
"Surely 'twill pass in time and I shall be
"Maximus strong and valiant once again,
"Forgetting that slain god! and yet— and yet—
"He looked as one who could not be forgot!"
Surely it's slaveowners that must be vile?
August 31, 2020.
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
SONGS OF THE SEA
................................................................................................
................................................................................................RAIN ALONG SHORE
Lovely contrast between storming seas and winds that force fishing villages to perforce enjoy a respite with their loved ones.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................
IN AN OLD FARMHOUSE
SEA SUNSET
Beautiful description of a sunset on ocean! The author has given similar descriptions, albeit a tad briefly, all through her PE stories.
September 01, 2020. ........................................................
WHEN THE DARK COMES DOWN
Nicely correlated, the darkening of skies with fishing boats returning to shore, homes lighting up, and more.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................HARBOR MOONRISE
Another favourite of the author, often lyrically described in her stories, here she gives it a free rein.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................BEFORE STORM
Well put, the concerns of those at home with someone dear still on sea.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................ON THE BAY
Very beautifully written, about seas and shore, boats and skies, from dawn to dark.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................SHORE TWILIGHT
"Oh, what a poignant rapture thus to be
"Lingering at twilight by the ancient sea!"
Indeed.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................
MY 'LONGSHORE LASS
SONG OF THE SEA-WIND
"I scatter the dawn across the sea
"Like wine of amber flung
"From a crystal goblet all far and fine
"Where the morning star is hung;
"I blow from east and I blow from west
"Wherever my longing be—
"The wind of the land is a hindered thing
"But the ocean wind is free!"
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................MORNING ALONG SHORE
"Who would drowze in dull devotion
"To his ease when dark is done,
"And upon its breast the ocean
"Like a jewel wears the sun?"
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................OFF TO THE FISHING GROUND
"We are the heirs of its tingling strife,
"Its courage and liberty.
"Sing as the white sails cream and fill,
"And the foam in our wake is long,
"Sing till the headlands black and grim
"Echo us back our song!
"Oh, 'tis a glad and heartsome thing
"To wake ere the night be done
"And steer the course that our fathers steered
"In the path of the rising sun."
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................IN PORT
"Shipmates, furl we our sails— we have left the seas behind us,
"Gladly finding at last our homes and our loves once more."
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................THE GULLS
Nice.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................SUNRISE ALONG SHORE
"Across the ocean, wan and gray,
"Gay fleets of golden ripples come,
"For at the birth-hour of the day
"The roistering, wayward winds are dumb.
"The rocks that stretch to meet the tide
"Are smitten with a ruddy glow,
"And faint reflections come and go
"Where fishing boats at anchor ride."
Beautiful.
"One boat alone beyond the bar
"Is sailing outward blithe and free,
"To carry sturdy hearts afar
"Across those wastes of sparkling sea;
"Staunchly to seek what may be won
"From out the treasures of the deep,
"To toil for those at home who sleep
"And be the first to greet the sun."
Really nice.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................THE SEA SPIRIT
Here said in verse form, this thought recurs through the writings of the author, quite often.
"And if one for love of me
"Gives to my call an ear,
"I will woo him and hold him dear,
"And teach him the way of the sea,
"And my glamor shall ever over him be;
"Though he wander afar in the cities of men
"He will come at last to my arms again."
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................HARBOR DAWN
"There's a hush and stillness calm and deep,
"For the waves have wooed all the winds to sleep
"In the shadow of headlands bold and steep;
"But some gracious spirit has taken the cup
"Of the crystal sky and filled it up
"With rosy wine, and in it afar
"Has dissolved the pearl of the morning star."
Really beautiful, followed by more -
"With the first red sunlight on mast and spar
A ship is sailing beyond the bar,"
And
"Fortune and favor the ship shall win
"That crosses the bar when the dawn comes in."
The author makes it come alive.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................MY 'LONGSHORE LASS
Difficult to believe this was written by a woman, not a sailor waxing eloquent, about his girl's bright eyes and other charms, comparing them with the light, wind, stars and ocean.
But then again, women notice beauty of other women, of course, and feelings of the men - and while a sailor may feel it, it takes a poet to pen it, so skilfully wielding her words forming verses and rhymes, so variant.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................
AN APRIL NIGHT
................................................................................................
WHEN THE FISHING BOATS GO OUT
"Salt is the breath of ocean slopes and fresher blows the breeze,
"And swifter still each bounding keel cuts through the combing seas,
"Athwart our masts the shadows of the dipping sea-gulls float,
"And all the water-world's alive when the fishing boats go out."
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................THE BRIDAL
"Last night a pale young Moon was wed
"Unto the amorous, eager Sea;
"Her maiden veil of mist she wore
"His kingly purple vesture, he.
"With her a bridal train of stars
"Walked sisterly through shadows dim,
"And, master minstrel of the world,
"The great Wind sang the marriage hymn.
"Thus came she down the silent sky
"Unto the Sea her faith to plight,
"And the grave priest who wedded them
"Was ancient, sombre-mantled Night."
Exquisite!!!
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................THE SEA TO THE SHORE
"Tell me how I may win thee, tell me how I must woo.
"Shall I creep to thy white feet, in guise of a humble lover?
"Shall I croon in mild petition, murmuring vows anew?
"Shall I stretch my arms unto thee, biding thy maiden coyness,
"Under the silver of morning, under the purple of night?
"Taming my ancient rudeness, checking my heady clamor—
"Thus, is it thus I must woo thee, oh, my delight?
"Nay, 'tis no way of the sea thus to be meekly suitor—
"I shall storm thee away with laughter wrapped in my beard of snow,
"With the wildest of billows for chords I shall harp thee a song for thy bridal,
"A mighty lyric of love that feared not nor would forego!
"With a red-gold wedding ring, mined from the caves of sunset,"
Amazing!
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................THE VOYAGERS
"We shall launch our shallop on waters blue from some dim primrose shore,
"We shall sail with the magic of dusk behind and enchanted coasts before,
"Over oceans that stretch to the sunset land where lost Atlantis lies,
"And our pilot shall be the vesper star that shines in the amber skies."
"And at last, on some white and wondrous dawn, we shall reach the fairy isle
"Where our hope and our dream are waiting us, and the to-morrows smile;
"With song on our lips and faith in our hearts we sail on our ancient quest,
"And each man shall find, at the end of the voyage, the thing he loves the best."
So true to the spirit of voyages!
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................................................................................................................
SONGS OF THE HILLS AND WOODS
In this section, especially in the very first poem, it's another recurring theme, much loved of the author, familiar to a reader who's read her prose.
................................................................................................
................................................................................................TWILIGHT AND I WENT HAND IN HAND
"I could have lingered now and then
"By gates of moonrise that might lead
"To some forgotten, spiceried mead,
"Or in some mossy, cloistered glen,
"Where silence, very still and deep,
"Seemed fallen in enchanted sleep.
"But Twilight ever led me on,
"As lovers walk, until we came
"To hills where sunset's shaken flame
"Had paled to ashes dead and wan;
"And there, with footsteps stolen-light
"She left me to the lure of night."
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................COME, REST AWHILE
Takes one to that other world!
"The wayward chimes of memory's pensive bells,
"Wind-blown o'er misty hills and curtained dells.
"One step aside and dewy buds unclose
"The sweetness of the violet and the rose;
"Song and romance still linger in the green,
"Emblossomed ways by you so seldom seen,"
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................AN APRIL NIGHT
This one is bound to remind one of a young Anne.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE WIND
RAIN ON THE HILL
Lovely.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................FOR LITTLE THINGS
Nice.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................SPRING SONG
Beautiful.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................A DAY OFF
If one could....
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................THE WIND
Of life, love and death.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................
AT NIGHTFALL
THE WOOD POOL
Another favourite theme, known to those familar with Anne.
September 01, 2020.
................................................................................................DOWN STREAM
"While the world's tired children sleep we bend to our oars with faces
"Set in our eager gladness towards the morning's gate;
"Lo, 'tis the sweet of the day! On, comrades mine, for beyond us
"All its dower of beauty, its glory and wonder, wait."
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................ECHO DELL
One could quote much of this poem that paints a lovely picture, one that is like a caleidoscopic combination of several that are familiar to readers of Anne series, of a discovered dell and echo and woods and hills and more. But quoting a part won't do.
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................THE ROVERS
"Other delights may pall, but the joy of the open never"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................AMONG THE PINES
"If it be night, the moonlight will wander winsomely with us,
"If it be hour of dawn, all heaven will bloom,
"If it be sunset, it's glow will enfold and pursue us.
"To the remotest valley of purple gloom.
"Lo! the pine wood is a temple where the days meet to worship,"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................A DAY IN THE OPEN
"Where the sea evermore
"Surgeth over the gray reef, and drowns
"The fierce rocks with white foam;
"It is ours with untired feet to roam
"Where the pines in green gloom of wide vales make their murmuring home,
"Or the pools that the sunlight hath kissed
"Mirror back a blue sky that is winnowed of cloud and of mist!"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................MIDNIGHT IN CAMP
"Beyond the lake, white, girdling peaks uplift
"Untroubled brows to virgin skies afar,
"And o'er the uncertain water glimmers drift
"Of fitful cloud and star."
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................THE HILL MAPLES
"Down in the valleys beneath us is wooing and winning and wedding,
"Down in the long, dim valleys earth-children wail and weep;
"But here on these free hills we grow and are strong and flourish,
"Comrades shoulder to shoulder our watch of the years to keep."
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................A SUMMER DAY
"Adown the golden sunset way
"The evening comes in wimple gray;
"By burnished shore and silver lake
"Cool winds of ministration wake;
"O'er occidental meadows far
"There shines the light of moon and star,
"And sweet, low-tinkling music rings
"About the lips of haunted springs."
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................SEPTEMBER
"Lo! a ripe sheaf of many golden days
"Gleaned by the year in autumn's harvest ways,"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................IN LOVERS' LANE
Familiar from Anne series, here in verse form -
"There slender harebells nod and dream,
"And pale wild roses offer up
"The fragrance of their golden hearts,
"As from some incense-brimméd cup.
"It holds the sunshine sifted down
"Softly through many a beechen screen,
"Save where, by deeper woods embraced,
"Cool shadows linger, dim and green."
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................ON THE HILLS
"We passed by woods where the day aside
"Knelt like a pensive nun and tender,
"We looked on valleys of purple pride
"Where she reigned a queen in her misty splendor;
"But out on the hills she was wild and free,"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................AN AUTUMN EVENING
Beautiful verses, but - why begin autumn of Northeast (of US and Canada) with an evening, instead of the glorious days with beauty matched nowhere else?
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................NOVEMBER EVENING
"Silent the woods are and gray; but the firs than ever are greener,"
Lucky you, if you have the evergreens around in Nordic latitudes!
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................OUT O' DOORS
"Hope within us like a questing bird upsoars,
"And there's room for song and laughter out o' doors."
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................IN THE DAYS OF THE GOLDEN ROD
"In this latest comer the vanished summer
"Has left its sunshine the world to cheer,
"And bids us remember in late September
"What beauty mates with the passing year.
"The days that are fleetest are still the sweetest,"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................A WINTER DAY
"Wide, sparkling fields snow-vestured lie
"Beneath a blue, unshadowed sky;
"A glistening splendor crowns the woods
"And bosky, whistling solitudes;"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................TWILIGHT
"The fair, wild Night,"
Fair? Night?
"Crowned with her chaplet of out-blossoming stars,"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................THE CALL OF THE WINDS
"I whistle gaily on starry nights
"Through the arch of the elfin northern lights,
"But in long white valleys I pause to hark
"Where the ring of the home-lights gems the dark."
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................A WINTER DAWN
Trust Montgomery to see, and tell of, beauty in winter dawn in Nordic latitudes!
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................THE FOREST PATH
Familiar, from Anne series.
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................AT NIGHTFALL
Wonder if the author realised this might be allegorical, right up to the final line? Her outward consciousness would probably not permit her that final line to be understood as reality in the allegorical sense, and wonder if she was familiar with works of Herman Hesse, specifically one that might open her mind in this context.
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
THE TRUCE O' NIGHT
From fairy tale and elves to mystical.
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................................................................................................................
MISCELLANEOUS
................................................................................................
................................................................................................TO MY ENEMY
"And thus, while all the world may laud
"The gifts of love and loyalty,
"I lay my meed of gratitude
"Before thy feet, mine enemy!"
Hm!!!!!!!
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................AS THE HEART HOPES
"Can any exquisite, unearthly morn,
"Silverly breaking o'er a starry plain,
"Give to your soul the poignant pleasure born
"Of virgin moon and sunset's lustrous stain
"When we together watch them?
"Oh, apart A hundred universes you may roam,
"But still I know— I know— your only home
"Is here within my heart!"
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................TWO LOVES
"Let us together drain the wide world's cup
"With gladness brimméd up!""
"And I would count it all the wide world's gain
"To spare or share thy pain!""
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................THE CHRISTMAS NIGHT
"And every thought in her soul was a prayer;
"While under the dome of the desert sky
"The Kings of the East from afar drew nigh,
"And the great white star that was guide to them"
Wonder if she was aware that he wasn't born the day celebrated as his birth, of course - it was Saturnalia, the harvest festival celebrated through Europe, that church sought to make people forget, by changing mere label, so to speak.
September 02, 2020.
................................................................................................IN AN OLD FARMHOUSE
"From the clutch of the cities and paths of the sea
"We have come again to our own roof-tree,
"And forgetting the loves of the stranger lands
"We yearn for the clasp of our kindred's hands."
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
A REQUEST
Between eerie and gruesome.
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
MEMORY PICTURES
Nice.
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
DOWN HOME
"Beside the open kitchen door
"My mother stands all lovingly,
"And o'er the pathways of the dark
"She sends a yearning thought to me."
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE CHOICE
"I would share widely, Life,
"In all thy joy and strife"
Was that written before the wars?
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
MY LEGACY
TWILIGHT IN THE GARDEN
"In the dewy shade
"Of the tall, dark poplars whose slender tops
"Against the sunset bloom are laid,
"And a robin is whistling in the copse
"By the dim spruce wood."
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
MY LEGACY
"My friend has gone away from me
"From shadow into perfect light,
"But leaving a sweet legacy."
"A faith of unstained purity,
"A thought of beauty for delight—
"These did my friend bequeath to me;"
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
GRATITUDE
"Deep in the life of my soul it has wrought
"With its own rare essence to ever imbue me,
"To gleam like a star over devious ways,
"To bloom like a flower on the drearest days—"
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
FANCIES
"Oh! surely the blossoms of all the springs
"Must be the souls of beautiful things."
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
ONE OF THE SHEPHERDS
Here the author returns to Bethlehem -
"Was it the dawn that silvered and broke
"Over the hill?
"Each at the other looked in amaze,
"And never a breathless word we spoke.
"Fast into rose and daffodil
"Deepened that splendor; athwart its blaze
"That pierced like a sword the gulf of night"
The light, usually referred to as a star, was a supernova, chronicled in Chinese history and thereby reckoned by scientists of West as to its timing, which wasn't December, but spring.
"The light died out as the sunset dies
"In the western skies;
"Swift went we to the Bethlehem khan,"
Khan? She couldn't have meant they were Mongols, and another abrahmic religion that uses that title was still over half a millennium in the future! The dictionary gives another meaning, saying it's a Persian word for a caravanserai. But did Judea use Persian terms? Israel was then under Roman subjugation. In any case, an average reader - especially in U.S., or generally in West, is far from likely to think or ask as much, and is far more likely to simply infer that she means that Israel was (and thereby Jews are) Mongol hordes.
Is it only when it comes to religion that this author, or West in general, suddenly become indistinguishable from nazis? What does that say about preaching of church?
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
IF MARY HAD KNOWN
"If Mary had known
"When she held her Babe's hands in her own—
"Little hands that were tender and white as a rose,
"All dented with dimples from finger to wrist,
"Such as mothers have kissed—
"That one day they must feel the fierce blows
"Of a hatred insane."
Again, this author in particular, and West in general, persis in this strange confusion, where simultaneously, Jews are seen as non "white", while Mary - and more so this one son - are seen as unquestionably "white"! It points to a psychological deep confusion, between skin colour that results from exposure to light, not merely immediately but also over centuries, and supposed inner virtues of mind and heart!
If there were any truth in that, wouldn't nazi war criminals be easy to know, simply because they had faces black as shoe polish for black shoes?
But the crucifixion was decreed, and every part thereof carried out, by the occupying military rulers, Romans. The insane hatred was what emanated from them towards all non Europeans, still reflected in racism, including this author when she mentions those of different ancestry, even of Italy!
Here's more of that same racism and confusion -
"As she held him so closely, her own,
"Cradling his shining, fair head on her breast,
"Sunned over with ringlets as bright as the morn"
Why assume he wasn't dark or black haired? Most of Jews are. Church falsified much, but this assumption is ridiculous.
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
AT THE LONG SAULT
The explanation before the poem says little that could identify precisely which war this is about, and one might mistakenly assume it was WWI, specifically France, even till the end -
"My spirit must to-morrow go
"To seek my comrades; but I bear
"The tidings that our desperate stand
By the Long Sault has saved our land,
"And God has answered Daulac's prayer."
But the assumption isn't satisfactory enough, and then google tells us about 1660 Canadian history.
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE EXILE
The first stanza doesn't clarify the specific origin of the exile.
"We told her that her far off shore was bleak and dour to view,
"And that her sky was dull and mirk while ours was smiling blue.
"She only sighed in answer, "It is even as ye say,
"But oh, the ragged splendor when the sun bursts through the gray!""
One assumes England, until later when she says -
"We bade her listen to the birds that sang so madly sweet,
"The lyric of the laughing stream that dimpled at our feet;
""But, O," she cried, "I weary for the music wild that stirs
"When keens the mournful western wind among my native firs!""
One might wonder if it's Ireland. But then the final lines
"We prayed her take the fresher loves, we prayed her be of cheer;
""Oh, ye are kind and true," she wept, "but woe's me for the grace
"Of tenderness that shines upon my mother's wrinkled face!""
And it's about every exile, every migrant.
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE THREE SONGS
THE THREE SONGS
Nice.
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
IN AN OLD TOWN GARDEN
"Upgathering to themselves the breath
"Of wide-blown roses white and red,
"The spice of musk and lavender
"Along its winding alleys shed."
Musk? It isn't a flower or a plant, it's a specific deer, only in Himaalayan heights, and rare to find, that it originates from!
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE SEEKER
Nice.
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE POET'S THOUGHT
Nice.
September 03, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE CALL
Surely Andrew isn't a name common to Israel, Judea, Jews, then or now?
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE OLD HOME CALLS
"I keep for you all your childhood dreams, your gladness and delights,
"The joy of days in the sun and rain, the sleep of carefree nights,
"All the sweet faiths ye have lost and sought again shall be your own,
"Darlings, come to my empty heart— I am old and still and alone!"
Always heartbreaking!
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................
LOVE'S PRAYER
GENIUS
Nice.
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................
LOVE'S PRAYER
"Beloved, this the heart I offer thee
"Is purified from old idolatry,"
???????
Beneath contempt, the underlying assumptions and attitude nurtured by abrahmic cultures.
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................
THE PRISONER
Nice, except for the assumed association of lions with heat, sand and deserts. Lions are fine with tropical forests too, including in India where it was British hunting that brought them to brink of extinction.
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................
COMPANIONED
Nice.
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................
YOU
Nice.
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................
UNRECORDED
"No evangelist's golden pen
"Wrote them for us—
"The words of the Master to those he might meet
"By the carpenter's bench or in Nazareth street—
"But in them I think there well might be—
"It is surely sweet to fancy thus—
"All of the benediction for men
"All of the tender humanity,
"That leaven the words of his later age
"On the holy page."
It's easy to forget that he was one of them, belonged to them as a rabbi and a king by his heritage, and god or not, perceived as great solace by many, still, the idolatry that permeates this poem in particular and West in general is a product of centuries of efforts by church, not only via preaching but also - and definitely chiefly so - via centuries of inquisition, formal or otherwise, burning to death not only every independent thought but every possessor - outside ordained members of church - of any bit of knowledge, so the authority of church over minds of Europe was as absolute as that of nazis over Germany.
September 04, 2020.
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WITH TEARS THEY BURIED YOU TO-DAY
WITH TEARS THEY BURIED YOU TO-DAY
Nice.
September 04, 2020.
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IN MEMORY OF "MAGGIE"
"Many we know of human-kind
"Are not so fond and true;"
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................
REALIZATION
Between romantic and surreal.
September 04, 2020.
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THE GARDEN IN WINTER
"In the summer days of blue
"All its dreamings will come true."
Blue? Aren't summers green and gold?
September 04, 2020.
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THE DIFFERENCE
Probably true of all love separated by necessity, such as a parent and child.
September 04, 2020.
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THE POET
Nice.
September 04, 2020.
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THE MOTHER
Does the mother see the baby, not as a baby, a child, but as a male or female?
September 04, 2020.
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TO ONE HATED
Surely hatred isn't merely a matter of a different path?
September 04, 2020.
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WHILE THE FATES SLEEP
Does the concept exist elsewhere, or did this author invent it?
September 04, 2020.
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THE FAREWELL
About WWI?
September 04, 2020.
................................................................................................THE OLD MAN'S GRAVE
Hm.
September 04, 2020.
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FOREVER
This must have been personal.
September 04, 2020.
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BY AN AUTUMN FIRE
BY AN AUTUMN FIRE
Why does one get the impression that Montgomery was less than appreciative of the glorious beauty that's autumn of Northeast US and Canada?
September 04, 2020.
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August 31, 2020 - September 04, 2020.
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August 31, 2020 - September 04, 2020.
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