Arranging the Sky (CTG)

Latest revision--

Arranging the Sky (Send in the Clouds)

The World, created,
we're told, by Your Hand,
exists for us to enjoy

or destroy on a whim.
Are you too busy
arranging the sky,

head in the clouds,
no matter how
loud we shout?

Is it you rejigging
those clouds, or is it
just Mother Nature?

Should we just enjoy
the shapes, no matter
what shape we're in?

O, Creator,
why do you
keep us waiting

like a waiter
with a dirty towel
and a bad attitude?

Christopher T. George

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1156/...9c7d5fdb_m.jpg

Original Version--

Arranging the Sky

The World, created,
we're told, by Your Hand,
exists for us to enjoy,
or else destroy, on a whim.

Are you too busy arranging the sky,
head in the clouds,
no matter how loud we shout?
When will the truth be out?

A simple question regarding
Cloud Art: Is it you arranging
the shapes, or is it
Mother Nature?

O, Creator,
why do you keep us waiting
like a waiter
with a dirty towel
and a dirty attitude?

Should we just enjoy
the shapes, no matter
what shape we're in?

Christopher T. George

Very good Chris. :handclap:

I hope you'll forgive me posting a classic here? But when in the company of clouds it's hard not to think of more clouds [and daffs].


I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed-and gazed-but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.


William Wordsworth.
[composed 1804]

Thanks, Dazza. I've always liked that Wordsworth poem so thanks for posting it. :D

Chris

Very good Chris,

It reminds me of zen poetry - along the lines of....

Does the sky know that it is beautiful?
or that it is reflected in the cold mountain lake?

Hi Dazza

Good thoughts there, Daz. Thanks for offering them. I do write a number of Oriental-type haiku and tankas, so that type of poetry is definitely an influence. Thanks as ever for your interest and support! :D

All the best

Chris

Ah yes, Wordsworth. A case of 'nominative determinism' if ever there was one. :)

He did of course, in his first draft, have as his first line...

"I wandered lonely as a cow"

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oudeis

Ah yes, Wordsworth. A case of 'nominative determinism' if ever there was one. :)

He did of course, in his first draft, have as his first line...

"I wandered lonely as a cow"

---

Thanks, Oudeis. Or else perhaps it was "I wandered lonely as a crow"!

I have read in one of Edgar Allan Poe's essays, that when he was composing the poem "The Raven" with the words spoken by the bird, "Nevermore," he originally thought of using a parrot as the speaking bird. Since Baltimore's NFL football team is the Baltimore Ravens, named after the Poe poem, it's interesting to speculate that they could have been the "Baltimore Parrots" :D I have also been told that the team has three mascots dressed as ravens, Edgar, Allan, and Poe.

Cheers

Chris

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1037/...77b5b042_o.jpg

Baltimore Raven on a debit card from M&T Bank.

Chris, I did have in my bookmarks one EAP site that contained his writings; I shall have to seek it out again, for this new hard drive.
I rad recently a short biography of him and through the site I did read some of his short stories. He is an interesting chap. (he was educated for a short time along the road from where I sit)

---------- Post added at 02:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:26 PM ----------

yippee!...

http://www.eapoe.org/works/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oudeis

Chris, I did have in my bookmarks one EAP site that contained his writings; I shall have to seek it out again, for this new hard drive.
I rad recently a short biography of him and through the site I did read some of his short stories. He is an interesting chap. (he was educated for a short time along the road from where I sit)

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Hi Oudeis

That's right, Poe was enrolled for a while in a school in Stoke Newington, the one and only time he was out of the United States, when his Scottish-born stepfather Richmond tobacco merchant John Allan brought him over to England and Scotland. The school stay helped form the basis for his tale "William Wilson."

Chris

...where would we be without the odd benevolent Scotsman? ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Oudeis

Ah yes, Wordsworth. A case of 'nominative determinism' if ever there was one. :)

---

In Gore's 1793 directory of liverpool, there is a sailmaking partnership called 'Lightfoot and Carefull' based at the Old dock.

Sails are somewhat akin to clouds.

On the subject of Edgar Allan Poe, and on a lighter note, here's a mystery befitting of one of his novels.

EAP has one eyebrow arch higher than the other, which makes for a very striking appearance, but can you answer me - is the high eyebrow over the left or the right eye? [Images copied straight from the internet.]

Attachment 17900

Sorry no prizes for correct answers, just for fun.

Ah yes Dazza, as are sheep? ;)

---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:08 PM ----------

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dazza

On the subject of Edgar Allan Poe, here's a mystery befitting of one of his novels.

EAP has one eyebrow arch higher than the other, which makes for a very striking appearance, but can you answer me - is the high eyebrow over the left or the right eye?

Attachment 17900

---

Is it not more likely that the negs have been inserted the wrong way round, here and there? :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dazza

On the subject of Edgar Allan Poe, and on a lighter note, here's a mystery befitting of one of his novels.

EAP has one eyebrow arch higher than the other, which makes for a very striking appearance, but can you answer me - is the high eyebrow over the left or the right eye? Images copied straight from the internet.

Attachment 17900

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Hi Dazza

Good question. I think possibly part of the problem is, as Oudeis says, that we are seeing photographs in some instances that have been reversed, or maybe also illustrations/paintings based on reversed illustrations.

Earlier portraits show him without the famous moustache, as in the following example.

Chris

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/...95a6f2934a.jpg

I'm sorry, no prizes yet. I can only take answers from actual visual contact with an original oil painting. Or negatives which show the frame number as well. Images of paintings can be flipped also. :)

Daz

Really good that Chris :handclap: I like it :PDT11

Thanks, Lindy!

Cheers

Chris :PDT_Aliboronz_24: