another YouTube

Five minutes of jazz with the Scola Tristano trio, featuring Fr Stan Fortuna CFR on (I think) bass guitar.

Go, meat!

from "H. Baptisme (I)"

You taught the book of life my name, that so,
    Whatever future sinnes should me miscall,
    Your first acquaintance might discredit all.

George Herbert (1593-1633)

Experimental

Discussing the knockout over a beer and a beer.

Walking toward the apothecary of sensations, synæsthesia at sunset.

Sleep during the day, brief winter's holiday's luxury.

For your soul's health's sake, contemplation and music.

Is everything hunky-dory with the ham radio?

Modern art, O triumphant banality! the iconography of cynical cool.

In wine you find wisdom, in beer strength, in water bacteria.

The sun's cold disk, composed of snow as yet unfallen.

During the night, we check the clock, and sleep, and check the clock.

Trivial music, auditory junk food, ephemeral masterpieces.

Everything will be well, and all manner of thing will be well.

Slant-rhymed reflections on the season's art, the alternating solstices.

The People's President Speaks

Thanks to the resolute measures
we took ten years ago,
we enjoy stability today.
We are free
from impure ideologies
and from dangerous doctrines
which undermine
the safety of the State.
Gone are the days
of archaic theocracies
and outdated value-systems.
We flourish
because we are united
in the task of building
a better land
for our posterity.
There are, however, a few
recalcitrant souls --
loners, reactionaries --
who focus on the supposed
sins of our Republic,
but we are intent on
educating the populace
to enhance appreciation
of all the positive actions
we have undertaken.
We have opened
an Enlightenment Center
in every major city,
and it is our sincere hope,
our firm expectation,
that these Enlightenment Centers
will benefit those
who might lack a proper sense
of our nation's great history.
It is the aim to remedy
any darkness of mind
that might have befallen
our citizens.

We remain
a peace-loving people,
resolute and optimistic.
But let no one doubt
our fortitude,
our clarity of purpose.
In that connection,
we beg your indulgence
as we conclude our remarks
with the words of our predecessor
(may he rest in peace):
the ones who are not with us
are against us;
the ones who do not
gather with us,
scatter.

1998

Zinging a cable through the ether

Où sont les moptop d'antan?

One wonders.

Poem of the Day

Dante to Beatrice.

A beautiful Pentecost prayer

posted at Enbrethiliel's.

And just in time for the semi-centennial ...

A Telegraph article about former Smiths frontman Morrissey : does he write poetry or lyrics? The writer argues that song lyrics aren't really poetry.

Via, oddly enough, poetryfoundation.org.

Watching the Scripps National Spelling Bee

I have to work the word "geusioleptic" into conversation sometime!

Oh, wow. Some lucky kid just got "avoirdupois." Considering they're throwing out words like "psittacosis," "ophelimity," "herniorrhaphy," and "Reykjavik," I'd have sighed with relief over "avoirdupois"!

The Hail Mary

in twelve languages.

I was not familiar with the French version, and was startled, a bit, by the word "entrailles," so much like the English "entrails"!

A poetry question answered!

Lord, defend us from the peroration;
Silence all that politicians say.
Those who plough us in to make a nation
Have not know the vision we obey.

Wits that learn from mother-wit are keenest,
Nor is there nobility of style
Till the proud man kneel to help the meanest:
Those who justify themselves are vile.

Vernon Watkins (1906-67)

Text of the poem provided by reader Tielo, to whom, a thousand thank-yous!

The "wisdom" of Kris Allen

It's not about religion. We're not running for president.

Kris Allen, on whether "the Christian vote" caused him to win this year's American Idol competition

Yahoo headline

Ga. mother accused of leaving baby in car to play video games

Wow! When I was a baby, I couldn't play video games! That's some baby!

Quotation of note

Jesus came to raise the dead. The only qualification for the gift of the Gospel is to be dead. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to be good. You don't have to be wise. You don't have to be wonderful. You just have to be dead. That's it.

Robert Farrar Capon, via Archbishop Chaput, in Living the Catholic Faith (Charis Books/Servant Publications, 2001), p. 159

Met a fellow blogger today (sort of)

A ministerial blogger, no less! I was privileged to attend the beautiful Ascension Thursday Mass at St Paul's Church just outside Harvard Square, Cambridge, where the celebrant was Fr Mark Mossa, SJ, the author of Diary of a Rookie Priest and its previous incarnation ... AND I LET MYSELF BE DUPED. After Mass, I shook hands with him and said merely, "Hello, Father," but did not identify myself as dylan, the blogger of darkspeech, for fear of hearing something like, "Oh, so you're the unregenerate wretch responsible for that ungodly mess!" (Well, I'm fairly sure that that wouldn't happen. Maybe. But one never knows.)

So, Father, if you're reading, it was pleasant to meet you! (Or to have almost met you.) A pleasure, indeed, to have attended the beautiful liturgy on this holy day.

Let's play: Is it Thomas Hardy or an early Smiths lyric?

On a morning sick as the day of doom
      With the drizzling gray
      Of an English May,
There were few in the railway waiting-room.

Thomas Hardy, from "In a Waiting-Room"

More Archbishop Chaput

Hundreds of things are politically correct, but virtually nothing is sacred.

Chaput, op. cit., pp. 99-100

Two from Archbishop Chaput

One concern we should have today is that we've lost our awe for the church. We hear frequently about the contrast between the "institutional Church" and the "real Church." We see this again and again in the newspapers. We read about what the "institutional Church" has to say or teach, and then we have it refuted by someone who claims to represent the "real Church," a spiritual entity separate from the institution. Yet this is not what Catholics believe. We have only one Church. Any distinction between an "institutional" Church and the "real" Church is both artificial and dangerous, because it gives us a license to choose what we want to believe and throw away the rest. We set up a dishonest distinction between what the institutional Church teaches and what members of the "real" Church -- in other words, we -- prefer.

:: :: :: :: ::

Ask yourself this question: Why do we have a vocations crisis in the Church? Is it because of celibacy? I don't think so. When I was eighteen years old, my body wasn't any different from those of eighteen-year-old males today, and women were no less interesting, intelligent, and attractive in the 1960s than they are today. Yet somehow great numbers of young men were able to choose celibacy. Celibacy in the 2000s isn't the real obstacle to priestly vocations. Being faithful to celibacy has always involved a struggle. We have a crisis in priestly and religious vocations for the same reason we have a crisis in committed lay vocations: The sons and daughters of the Church lack confidence in the Church. No sensible person would become celibate for General Motors or Microsoft, and no sensible person should give himself as a celibate to the Church if the Church is merely an institution.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap., Living the Catholic Faith : Rediscovering the Basics (Charis, 2001), pp. 82-85

On charity

Hugh of Saint Victor observes that the devil is not afraid of us when we give alms to the poor, because he himself does not own anything. Neither does he fear us when we fast, because he does not take food. And even when we keep vigil at night he is not afraid, because he does not sleep. But if we are united in charity, of this the devil is terrified, and immensely so, because he realizes that we safeguard on earth what he disdained in heaven.

Fr Peter John Cameron, OP, via the May 2009 Magnificat

Quotation

Most of the young poets I read appear to have little sense of the sound words make, and I wonder whether they read their own poems aloud.

May Sarton, At Seventy : A Journal (Norton, 1984), p. 318

Lemonade! Huzzah!

I have just received the Lemonade Stand Award from Sharon of clairity currents! I am most grateful!

And accordingly, I nominate the following five for the Lemonade Stand Award, for bloggers "whose posting demonstrates great attitude and gratitude":

Sancta Sanctis

Video meliora, proboque; deteriora sequor

For Keats' Sake!

Enchiridion

Eve Tushnet

Oh, yes, the rules!

1) Put the Lemonade Award logo on your blog or post.

2) Nominate at least 5 blogs that show great attitude or gratitude (half of the original 10)

3) Link to your nominees within your post.

4) Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5) Share the love and link to the person from whom you received your award.

I feel so extraordinary, something's got a hold on me

An '80s flashback :