I wrote this up and sent it to some friends last April 2, when the Fukushima disaster was still in its earliest stages. It doesn’t seem any less appropriate a year later.
Of poetry and power
We don’t hear much about poetry and power these days. Here is a 15-minute recording of John F. Kennedy, in the final days of his life, addressing Amherst College and speaking not only of Robert Frost but of the larger issue of politics, power and poetry.
http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/80308LXB5kOPFEJqkw5hlA.aspx
To cite the accompanying blurb:
Audio recording of President John F. Kennedy’s address during a ceremony at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. In his speech President Kennedy explains the importance of public service from educated citizens, and describes the role of an artist in society, noting Frost’s contributions to American arts, culture, and ideology. The President discusses the nature of strength and power, famously stating, “When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man’s concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.”
Global Perspective interview
Did an interesting interview Friday night with Ken Jackson, host of Global Perspective, a blogtalk show on Freedomizer Radio.
Freedomizer Radio appears to specialize in pursuing conspiracy theories, which is not exactly at the center of what I spend my time talking about. And yet, perhaps it wasn’t such a misfit, either. People who are unwilling to consider conspiracy theories are often unwilling to consider that things may be different than they appear on the surface. And if that isn’t true in psychic exploration, I don’t know what is. We talked a good deal about the process of communicating with the other side. Ken Jackson asked interesting questions, and we had a good time. Find the interview here: http://blogtalk.vo.llnwd.net/o23/show/2/940/show_2940209.mp3. My segment begins 7:35 into the link, and ends about half an hour before the end.
MacLeish — “Conversation in a Belfry”
Empires are not created — and do not decline — in a day or two. Neither are free republics lost so quickly. It takes time. Years ago, in going through old journals, I found this poem copied out, by Archibald MacLeish, titled “Conversation in a Belfry,” from Ten Conversations, written post-Watergate. Each passing year only goes to show how truly he saw.
Conversation in a Belfry
Centennial bell that will not ring,
Tell me why your iron tongue
Rusts in the rain, your mouth is dumb.
Why are you silent, bell?
For shame.
You are not shamed.
Not I but you.
We? With all we’ve done and do?
We’ve ruled ourselves two hundred years.
No name on earth is proud as ours.
It was your fathers’ pride that ruled:
Their sons are tricked and lied to, fooled
As Lincoln said no people could be –
All of them – always – for their good!
But still we’re free. Ring out, O ring!
What man is free when fraud is king?
Our souls are ours: our minds our own.
While someone listens on the telephone?
This is John Adams’ holy land…
John Adams would have seen you damned!
When Jefferson’s immortal word…
Jefferson’s immortal word
Is yet to hear. It will be heard
But not by those who sell his soul.
You ring now, bell.
I toll, I toll.
One year on, ‘ghosts’ stalk Japan’s tsunami city
This doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I remember seeing a similar story after the Indonesian tsunami a few years ago that killed so many people so suddenly. Of course many dismiss perception of ghosts as superstition, and fear of ghosts often is superstition. Nonetheless, some perceive more than others, and it would be well not to dismiss these reports too lightly, just because “science” says they can’t be true. In fact, they can be, and sometimes are.
original story: http://news.yahoo.com/one-ghosts-stalk-japans-tsunami-city-073229608.html
One year on, ‘ghosts’ stalk Japan’s tsunami city
By Miwa Suzuki | AFP – Tue, Feb 28, 2012
A year after whole neighbourhoods full of people were killed by the Japanese tsunami, rumours of ghosts swirl in Ishinomaki as the city struggles to come to terms with the awful tragedy.
Continue reading One year on, ‘ghosts’ stalk Japan’s tsunami city
Communities of individuals
This article interests me chiefly because it seems to correlate with what the guys upstairs have been telling me for some time now: We are not individuals so much as communities. That’s not what the authors of this study would say, of course, but it seems to me that their study indirectly supports what you’ll find in The Cosmic Internet, not to mention so many posts on this blog. Like so many articles of interest, this one came to my attention via the daily SchwartzReport.
[ Link removed ]
But you’ll have to go there to see the two graphics, which I was unable to paste in here.
Physical and non-physical
By way of Intuitive Linked Communication (ILC), this discussion with Carl Jung earlier this week. Sometimes you play with an idea for some time, thinking you understand it, and suddenly realize (with a little help from your friends) that it’s bigger and more important than you had thought it.