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Thread: Arranging the Sky (CTG)

  1. #1
    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Default 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



    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
    Christopher T. George
    Editor, Ripperologist
    Editor, Loch Raven Review
    http://christophertgeorge.blogspot.com/
    Chris on Flickr and on MySpace

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    Senior Member dazza's Avatar
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    Very good Chris.

    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]
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."... ... ... Mark Twain.

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    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Thanks, Dazza. I've always liked that Wordsworth poem so thanks for posting it.

    Chris
    Christopher T. George
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    Senior Member dazza's Avatar
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    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?
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."... ... ... Mark Twain.

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    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    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!

    All the best

    Chris
    Christopher T. George
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    Came fourth...now what? Oudeis's Avatar
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    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"

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    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oudeis View Post
    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" I have also been told that the team has three mascots dressed as ravens, Edgar, Allan, and Poe.

    Cheers

    Chris



    Baltimore Raven on a debit card from M&T Bank.
    Christopher T. George
    Editor, Ripperologist
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    Came fourth...now what? Oudeis's Avatar
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    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/

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    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oudeis View Post
    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)
    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
    Christopher T. George
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    Came fourth...now what? Oudeis's Avatar
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    ...where would we be without the odd benevolent Scotsman?

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    Senior Member dazza's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oudeis View Post
    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.
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."... ... ... Mark Twain.

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    Senior Member dazza's Avatar
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    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.]

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Allan Edgar Poe.jpg 
Views:	231 
Size:	89.2 KB 
ID:	17900

    Sorry no prizes for correct answers, just for fun.
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."... ... ... Mark Twain.

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    Came fourth...now what? Oudeis's Avatar
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    Ah yes Dazza, as are sheep?

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

    Quote Originally Posted by dazza View Post
    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?

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Allan Edgar Poe.jpg 
Views:	231 
Size:	89.2 KB 
ID:	17900
    Is it not more likely that the negs have been inserted the wrong way round, here and there?

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    Senior Member ChrisGeorge's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by dazza View Post
    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.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	Allan Edgar Poe.jpg 
Views:	231 
Size:	89.2 KB 
ID:	17900
    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

    Christopher T. George
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    Senior Member dazza's Avatar
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    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
    "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."... ... ... Mark Twain.

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