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For the sake of a single poem, you must see many cities, many people and Things, you must understand animals, must feel how birds fly, and know the gesture which small flowers make when they open in the morning. You must be able to think back to streets in unknown neighborhoods, to unexpected encounters, and to partings you had long seen coming; to days of childhood whose mystery is still unexplained, to parents who you had to hurt when they brought in a joy and you didn’t pick it up (it was a joy meant for somebody else -); to childhood illnesses that began so strangely with so many profound and difficult transformations, to days in quiet, restrained rooms and to mornings by the sea, to the sea itself, to seas, to nights of travel that rushed along high overhead and went flying with all the stars, - and it is still not enough to be able to think of all that. You must have memories of many nights of love, each one different from all the others, memories of women screaming in labor, and of light, pale, sleeping girls who have just given birth and are closing again. But you must also have been beside the dying, must have sat beside the dead in the room with the open window and the scattered noises. And it is not yet enough to have memories. You must be able to forget them when they are many, and you must have the immense patience to wait until they return. For the memories themselves are not important. Only when they have changed into our very blood, into glance and gesture, and are nameless, no longer to be distinguished from ourselves - only then can it happen that in some very rare hour the first word of a poem arises in their midst and goes forth from them.
Rainer Maria Rilke
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Police action
john baker, June 15th, 2007. 5 comments. Filed under humour, miscellaneous, quotations.
In Vermont a woman was arrested and charged with staring at a police dog in a taunting/harassing manner.
Kelly Green, a public defender appointed by Vermont District Court in Orange County, to represent the woman, likened the act to giving a police officer the finger, apparently a form of expression protected by rights accorded under the First Amendment.
After watching a video of the incident, the State’s Attorney decided to drop all charges.
And so did the doggie have a problem with it all, John…
I need a holiday. 🙂
jb says: Hi Suzan. Real trauma involved, I imagine; and a life of crime.
Hanging is too good for such behaviour. I hope the dog has fully recovered from this trauma.
jb says: Alas, no, Andrew. They say all initial counselling has failed. Deep therapy next.
Ha-Ha, John! There’s no denying you have a real penchant for caustic wit. You’d be a winner at writing comic novels. Maybe you’ll review a few for us sometime. 🙂
jb says: I was just reading an interview with Kiran Desai. She reminds us: The best jokes come from very dark places.
The best jokes come from very dark places.
Very darkly humorous John.
John
Wow! what an idea ! What a concept ! Beautiful .. Amazing