Wednesday, October 05, 2016
Tuesday, October 04, 2016
Wednesday Haiku Bonus Tuesday Edition
Calling and beating
Rocket arches wings to glide,
Mallard descending.Monday, October 03, 2016
Wednesday Haiku Bonus Monday Edition
Leaden sky over
A sea of rippling pewter.
Autumn comes in gray.
Sunday, October 02, 2016
Wednesday Haiku, Bonus Sunday Edition
Walking in drizzle
Not fun like summer downpour
At least no lightning
Not fun like summer downpour
At least no lightning
Saturday, October 01, 2016
Wednesday Haiku - This Is Getting Ridiculous
I plumb forgot to post on Wednesday night. I planned to post on Thursday night and failed. Friday went back into the "plumb forgot" category. To make amends, I might just declare each of the next three days a Wednesday and put up a new haiku each day. The benefit to the "plumb forgetting" was that I read the final chapter of Eugene Peterson's book Tell It Slant : A Conversation on the Language of Jesus in His Stories and Prayers. Peterson's discussion on praying in the name of Jesus and the sacredness of language inspired this haiku.
Lofty speech in prayer
Concealing our hearts and shame,
Praying fig-leaf words.
Lofty speech in prayer
Concealing our hearts and shame,
Praying fig-leaf words.
Saturday, September 24, 2016
Tolkien Week Day Seven
The quote for day seven of Tolkien Week comes from the conclusion of Tolkien's 1938 lecture, "On Fairy Stories" (here from p.389 of Tales from the Perilous Realm).
"But in God's Kingdom the presence of the greatest does not depress the small. Redeemed Man is still man. Story, fantasy, still go on, and should go on. The Evangelium [Gospel message]has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the 'happy ending'. The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know.
Today's musical selection is Annie Lennox singing "Into the West" from Howard Shore's soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King.
"But in God's Kingdom the presence of the greatest does not depress the small. Redeemed Man is still man. Story, fantasy, still go on, and should go on. The Evangelium [Gospel message]has not abrogated legends; it has hallowed them, especially the 'happy ending'. The Christian has still to work, with mind as well as body, to suffer, hope, and die; but he may now perceive that all his bents and faculties have a purpose, which can be redeemed. So great is the bounty with which he has been treated that he may now, perhaps fairly dare to guess that in Fantasy he may actually assist in the effoliation and multiple enrichment of creation. All tales may come true; and yet, at the last, redeemed, they may be as like and as unlike the forms that we give them as Man, finally redeemed, will be like and unlike the fallen that we know.
Today's musical selection is Annie Lennox singing "Into the West" from Howard Shore's soundtrack for The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Tolkien Week Day Six
The quote for day six of Tolkien Week comes the story "Smith of Wootton Major" (in this case from pp. 257-258 of the collection Tales from the Perilous Realm).
"In Faery at first he walked for the most part quietly among the lesser Folk and gentler creatures in the woods and meads of fair valleys and by the bright waters in which at night strange stars shone and at dawn the gleaming peaks of far mountains were mirrored. Some of his briefer visits he spent looking only at one tree or one flower; but later in longer journeys he had seen things of both beauty and terror that he could not clearly remember nor report to his friends, though he knew that they dwelt deep in his heart. But some things he did not forget, and they remained in his mind as wonders and mysteries that he often recalled."
Tolkien wrote "Smith of Wootton Major" in 1965 and 1966 and it was published in 1967, about six years before his death. In many ways it is a bookend to "Leaf by Niggle" as a fictional exploration of Tolkien's imaginative life, but where Niggle focuses on the frustration and futility of work here redeemed by its consummation in Heaven, Smith focuses on the goodness and wonder of the imagination, and the entering into another world in this life, and on its inevitable fading and receding before time and a new generation. Smith is a deep, sad, and joyful tale and is probably my favorite of Tolkien's non-Middle Earth works.
Today's musical selection is "As I Walked Tiredly Toward the West" from The Middle Earth Album by Glass Hammer.
"In Faery at first he walked for the most part quietly among the lesser Folk and gentler creatures in the woods and meads of fair valleys and by the bright waters in which at night strange stars shone and at dawn the gleaming peaks of far mountains were mirrored. Some of his briefer visits he spent looking only at one tree or one flower; but later in longer journeys he had seen things of both beauty and terror that he could not clearly remember nor report to his friends, though he knew that they dwelt deep in his heart. But some things he did not forget, and they remained in his mind as wonders and mysteries that he often recalled."
Tolkien wrote "Smith of Wootton Major" in 1965 and 1966 and it was published in 1967, about six years before his death. In many ways it is a bookend to "Leaf by Niggle" as a fictional exploration of Tolkien's imaginative life, but where Niggle focuses on the frustration and futility of work here redeemed by its consummation in Heaven, Smith focuses on the goodness and wonder of the imagination, and the entering into another world in this life, and on its inevitable fading and receding before time and a new generation. Smith is a deep, sad, and joyful tale and is probably my favorite of Tolkien's non-Middle Earth works.
Today's musical selection is "As I Walked Tiredly Toward the West" from The Middle Earth Album by Glass Hammer.
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