Re: On the need for Poets and Poetry after TSHTF. was Re: Common Criminals or Enemy Combatants?
- From: Sue <sebrady@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:26:47 -0700
On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 20:40:16 -0700, "Billzz"
<billzzstring@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"pyotr filipivich" <phamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:v1pt6499k8o7ggbioasclr0860abgbc1ro@xxxxxxxxxx
[Default] I missed the Staff Meeting but the Minutes record that
Gunner Asch <gunner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> reported Elvis on Sun, 23
Sep 2007 15:44:35 -0700 in misc.survivalism :
On Sun, 23 Sep 2007 21:38:53 +0100, "William
Black"><william.black@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Gunner Asch" <gunner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:kmedf3hj21mlgqdariqv34n9tepioib7ka@xxxxxxxxxx
Tell me..what you you rather have in your village, a proven jack of
all trades with all his tools, or a someone with a degree in
Elizibethian poetry..and an utter inablity to pour warm piss out of a
boot, even with clear instructions on the soles?
We need both.
The poetry expert perhaps may be hitched to a plow, though they tend
to die in harness.
Without poets, why bother?
Blink blink...poetry is for those with the leisure time to enjoy it.
Same as appreciation with fine art. When you are busy trying to
gather or grow enough to eat, or keep from freezing to death..only the
lowest limericks and ditties survive...
I'll agree that most lit majors aren't worth the effort. They
know little and understand less, and have no grasp of the reality of
oral tradition.
But if all that survives is limericks and low ditties, you are
losing a great deal. We in the West, particularly in the last forty
years, place more emphasis on the written word, than the oral
tradition. But it is the oral tradition, the memorized 'story' that
does a culture good.
"Hardly a Man is here alive
Who remembers that day in '75.
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the Midnight ride of Paul Revere."
"Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth on
this continent, a new Nation."
"Our Father, who art in Heaven ..."
Mine Eyes have seen the Glory of the Coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage
where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He has loosed his fateful lightening,
and his terrible swift sword.
His Truth is Marching On!
...
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free!
I sing the wrath of Achilles...
"There are strange done neath the midnight sun,
by the men who moil for gold.
the Aortic trails have their secret tales
that would make your blood run cold
The Northern Lights have seen strange sights
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge,
When I cremated Sam Magee."
"As I wandered out,
On the streets of Miami."
Oh Eddie Boy, the Bod, the Bod is calling.
At prime time rates,
Across the great state line.
they ass is grass,
And we're all branded traitors.
You know , it seemed a good idea at the time.
Queen for a Day, but only for the day-o ...
It is the memorized texts, in poetry as much as prose, which
transmit the culture from one generation to the next. Memorized -
learned by heart. All part and parcel of the person, trained up as a
child and when they are old, it will not leave them. How many kids
(under forty) have a clue as to what I was quoting above?
How much of our current cultural (and societal) problems can be
laid at the lack of children learning the basic texts as children?
Having not learned the Gettysburg address, the Preamble to the US
constitution, and others, they are cut off from their heritage.
And after the shit hits the fan, those who can "talk story" will
be welcomed wherever they go. And parents will"talk story" too. How
they met, what the family did. How my grandpa was a school principal
at seventeen; when asked how old he was, he'd said he was 'going on
twenty one.'. That story is around a hundred years old, if I have
grand kids to tell that when they are old, it will be two hundred
years old. I heard tell of a family story, which "everybody" in the
family knew, of the uncle who had been stabbed in one of the
massacres, but played dead, survived and eventually made it to the US.
And eighty years later, one part of the family found another part,
because they had the same story / ancestor.
"No shit, this really happened. They were in the line in Korea,
and they got a new 2LT, and almost the first thing he said was
'Sergeant, I don't know a thing about combat, what do I do." I have
that story from two people who were there, Sgt Armstrong, and a
corporal, Jess by name. There really are, or was once, a smart Second
LT.
Anyway, what most people think of when they hear the word
"poetry", I'll agree, ain't worth the saliva to spit on. But there is
a lot of the good stuff which ought to be remembered, and taught -
orally - so that people can both learn the story, as well as the power
of words.
tschus
pyotr
In order, for those who went to a public school in the last thirty
years;
Longsworth's "the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere"
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on the dedication of the national
cemetery there.
The Lord's Prayer
Battle Hymn of the Republic. (More warmongering.)
Homer's opening to the "Iliad"
Robert Steven's "Cremation of Sam Magee"
Alan Sherman's "Streets of Miami" (set to the tune "Streets of
Laredo", it can also be sung to "Whiskey in the Jar")
"Eddie Boy" - a song of the Late Great An Tir Rebellion, way back in
AS single digits, me thinks.
--
pyotr filipivich
"Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement
of the obvious." George Orwell
Good stuff. Except Robert Steven's "Cremation of Sam Magee" should be
Robert Service.
Thank you. That's what I thought and hadn't yet looked it up.
Sue
.
http://www.potw.org/archive/potw22.html
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