Word & Question

Leave all gardens unguarded, all woods yielding,
but put a circuit round the gutted mall:
a last surveyor, turning, in the night,
like one to watch a ship that's done with sail days,
now yarded in the weedy dark - hulled, unpraised,
waiting to be water-sealed, out of star-sight.

One witness, pert, this official vacancy
beside the zoning fence, make midnight strides,
that none may have the fun of breaking panes,
and wrest from demolitioners their first dig-in,
ruining what projected contract ruin
stands, as stood for years, now its fallow claim:

Beams to be bitten, walls to give way
to further sight; the roof no more a roof.
Rain, birds, air and light, making of the refuse-
the sudden letting of the elements,
water down the sliced front in many singing threads-
a song of a momentary end to use.

Whatever palpitates is for plough's harrowing.
Even hectic creatures as we, draw the stars
together of infinity, size them to suit
the rotting pages of an earthbound book.
How much more our pulsing lots, for plough, who look
in at zones, up at slate, map out routes;

our lots brought low: all world's a homeless sea.
Vast messengers above our heads wage war,
we trust through breakage, though not seeing far.
Cling to waking anguish, relinquish bed's drowse,
for the home of your heart is a falling house:
turn out - leap from the grave in your own heart.


Word: Turning

Question: What is the one thing needful? (At least I think that was the question.)


Was it love at first sight?


Word and Question


Alternate words for lines: Hoisted for yarded, and 'Have him witness' for 'One witness, pert'.

Medium: Pencil crayons and there might be 2B and 2H pencils

Government Priorities

hikoo

Condolence flowers,
arranged in jars with water,
soon will wilt and die.



Tobacco blooms done:
bulked wombs, with fine seed, where bees
crawled dutifully.

Furball

Zing goes the kitten - zat!
"Why don't you want to play with me
twenty four seven?"

Two Icons

My iconography instructor has chided me for not showing my icons to more people. So here are two recently completed ones. When you show someone the icon you have painted and tell that person about it, you are not simply showing; you are evangelizing, in whatever "small" way - make no mistake. And who am I to block that from happening due to a false modesty?

They are rather shoddy photos of the Archangel Michael the Great Taxiarch, and Christ the Pantocrator. Click to enlarge.

Max Monday

Here's a documentary on Max Beckmann which I found here. It's a BBC documentary, so some groans and eye rolls are to be expected. But for simply getting a big boatload of Beckmann, it's enjoyable to watch.
















Update: Though it may be true that Beckmann sought to "compete" with the likes of Picasso and Matisse, when the host says that Beckmann rethought his original position on their work, it is not true. He despised their work to the end of his days.

Medium: Pencil 2B and I'm pretty sure 5B

Medium: Pencils HB and 2B

Medium: Pencils 2B and 2H

Medium: Charcoal

Now summer is gone
And might never have been.
In the sunshine it's warm.
But there has to be more.

It all came to pass,
All fell into my hands
Like a five-petalled leaf,
But there has to be more.

Nothing evil was lost,
Nothing good was in vain,
All ablaze with clear light
But there has to be more.

Life gathered me up
Safe under its wing,
My luck always held,
But there has to be more.

Not a leaf was burnt up
Not a twig ever snapped...
Clean as glass is the day,
But there has to be more.


Arseniy Tarkovsky
(Translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair)

Medium: 2B Pencil

Medium: Pencils 2H, HB and pencil crayons

Medium: 2B Pencil

Christ is arisen, O people rejoice!

Refrain: Mary, cease thy weeping, Christ is arisen.

When Christ re-appeared the sky and the armies of darkness vanished.

David said unto him: 'Arise thou conqueror in war!'

The nights of mourning have gone, happiness has returned.

The outskirts of Jerusalem announce peace unto you.

Peace unto you, courage, your watchman sleeps not.

His resurrection is proclaimed like fire on the banners.

Medium 2B Pencil

GSF

Surely you can smell it through your monitor?

Medium: 2B Pencil

Medium: Pencils 5B and 2H

Raw Milk: The New Prohibition

"Total diarrheal episodes annually USA -------> 217,973,045

Total foodborne illnesses annually USA -------> 48,000,000

Annual confirmed foodborne infections from the four "pathogens" (all foods) -------> 1,937,561

Average number of illnesses attributed to consuming raw milk (Dr. Beals, 1999–2011) -------> 42

Average number of illnesses attributed to consuming raw milk (Drs. Oliver and others, 2000–2008) -------> 27


From the perspective of a national public health professional looking at an estimated total of 48 million foodborne illnesses each year; or from the perspective of a healthcare professional looking at a total of 90,771 (data from Healthy People 20204) confirmed bacterial foodborne infections each year (about 0.2 percent), there is no rational justification to focus national attention on raw milk, which may be associated with an average of 42 illnesses maximum among the more than nine million people (about 0.0005 percent) who have chosen to drink milk in its fresh unprocessed form.

Using this average of 42 illnesses per year, we can show, using government figures, that you are about 35,000 times more likely to become ill from other foods than you are from raw milk.

It is irresponsible for a senior national government administrator to testify that because of those forty-two people, raw milk is inherently hazardous, parents should not be allowed to decide which foods they serve their children and milk should be banned across the nation unless it has been pasteurized.

...In no way do I wish to trivialize the personal impact of these illnesses. However, all activities have risk. Consumption of any food has some risk of illness or adverse reaction. And the consequence of basing public policy on horrific personal experiences is that all foods will ultimately be banned, and we will not be able to participate in any activity."

--Ted Beals, MS, MD, Those Pathogens, What You Should Know

H/T: The Justice Report

Medium: Can't recall which pencils

Medium: Pencils H and B

Medium: B Pencil

Medium: Pencils

Divine Orbit

Webcast from July 12

Prairie Forge

Prairie Forge
By Arthur Stilwell


Sudden shout of the at-last spring, with flowers;
Later the hot all-ruling sun filling skies of summer;
Then autumn's harvest sounds rattling amid lengthening shadows;
Last the beautiful tyranny of blizzard-whizzing winter.

And from that the people, whose faces and hearts
Take openness and salutation from their vast sky
And fields; from that presence eternal, compassionate,
That haunts all space and land and so here is everywhere.

Medium: 2B Pencil

Medium: Pencils H and 2B

Medium: Pencils 3H and B

Medium: Can't remember what pencils

Medium: Pencils HB and B

Sight grows dim - my power,
Two invisible diamond shafts;
Hearing fails, full of long ago thunder
And the breath of my father's house;
Tough knots of muscle sag
Like grey oxen on the plough-field;
And behind my shoulders at night
No longer shine two wings.

I'm a candle burnt out at the feast.
Gather my wax up at dawn,
And this page will tell you the secret
Of how to weep and where to be proud,
How to distribute the final third
Of delight, and make an easy death,
Then, sheltered by some chance roof,
To blaze, word-like, with posthumous light.


Arseniy Tarkovsky
(Translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair)

Photo: Nostalghia

Medium: Pencils B and 2H