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Easter Saturday 2003
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WINTER IN WARTIME
Last night I dreamed a dream: once more I stood
High on the windy hill, above the wood
Where often through enchanted April days
I sat in silver shadows; watched the rays
Of sunlight coax the valley mists away
Till fields and town lay shining in the day.
Now all was winter-sadness in my dream
Only unfriendly darkness; not a gleam
Of twinkling light from windows far below:
No carillon of bells across the snow
Crowding the night sky with the call to prayer.
In vain I looked for Truth and Reason there;
Only Despair
Peered through the tangled tresses of her hair.
And from the distance like a roll of thunder,
Tearing the awful, silent night asunder,
Stark Horror roared with all her hordes of war.
Oh, where was Light and where was Sanity!
Was this a world without a Deity.
Should we forever have to walk along
With men who'd lost the beauty of all song.
I looked towards the hills; Lo! over them
Radiant, there shone the Star of Bethlehem.
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A poem written by Henry Morgan during a WW1 Easter. Many thanks Pop. Peace be with you always.
And what better time and place to add another of his I have just espied with my little eye.. It is titled Futility, but don't let that mislead you. :-) :-)
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FUTILITY
God, tell me this, for only you can know
The reason why around the world must go
The threatening murmur, rising to a cry,
Then, sinking slowly, gasping through a sigh,
To rise again in waves of fearful awe;
The cry of "war" !
Hidden behind the veil of mystery
The woods and twilight, stardust, and the sea,
moved by some hidden power from stone to stone
and thundering down the years for evermore;
Spring time in England, and the hum of bees,
and rain in April . . . . .
Yet to me all these
were clear as sunlight in a crystal bowl
Beside the secret of man's heart and goal :
Blessed with the powers of Gods, creative, skilful,
yet turning skill to actions wild and wilful,
unreasoning in their object and their aim,
seeking a transient glory and false fame
which passes like the passing of a star . . . . . .
For it would seem
By some perversity men always dream
and long for what they have not, which, when gained,
Loses its glamour, then with eyes of pained
and deep surprise, turn to regain once more
The quiet beauty which they'd missed before :
Stars in the grass and blossom -- laden boughs ;
The Thrush's music when he makes his vows
From misty dawn to darkness . . . This the peace
That soldiers long for when the guns shall cease.
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By Henry George Morgan, father of Henry Clifton, father de moi. :-) Now are there any more gun-barrels still needing a White-Rose stuffed into their muzzles ??
Love and Peace.
David.
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Easter Sunday 2003
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.
The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone
of the corner.
This is the LORDS's
doing ; it is marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in
it.
Verses 21 - 24.. The Psalms of David. (No 118)
Jesus has Risen, and the Alchemist wishes you all a Joyous Easter and the Blessings of God in your own re-new-alls. Amen.
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David.
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L8er @ The Café de la Paix
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Boris Mouravieff: "I find the system at the foundations of the Christian doctrine. What do you say on this matter?"
George Gurdjieff: "It is the ABC. But they do not understand this!"
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Orthodox Easter Saturday
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Greetings, and may the Blessings of Easter be upon you all. I know the Greek Orthodox celebrate Easter this weekend, and I should think the Russian and maybe the Coptics do as well, but I cannot be sure of that. I don't have time to keep up with everything yet! My feet have only just touched ground recently so I have decided that since I am an independent religious, and also because "I am me, and I am free", that I will celebrate The Divine Teacher for a second weekend running. :-) :-) :-)
May his Peace be with all those who Love And Dare to follow Him.
And may God Bless Us All.
Il Y A
Amen.
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P.S. Hope everyone likes dear old Pop's poems. When he wrote that Easter one, during WW1 (1916 I think it was).. he was of course at home in England, safe in the lovely Surrey countryside, and it was his son's safety (my father) that was the prayer in his heart that day. My Dad was aboard one of His Majesty's Naval Vessels somewhere or other.. HMS St Vincent it might have been, I know he was on that at some point..
And 'his point' of course was.... "WHY?" ( if they only knew what they were missing )
Love and Peace, David.
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Orthodox Easter Sunday 2003
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Friends. Happy Easter, especially all you who officially celebrate today (Sunday 27th April 2003) as Easter Sunday.
Blessed Be. I have dug up a couple of Easter Hymns for us today. First this one, attributed variously to Saints Augustine or Jerome.. Who knows, they say Willie Shakespeare was just a 'frontispiece' so to say, so really he was just another pendragon. Sangreal. Peace be with him anyway. Here it is...
This is the Night,
Which throughout the world
Frees all who believe in Christ
From the vices of their time-shackled existence,
From the lightless dungeon of sin,
And restores them to grace: unites them to holiness.
This is the Night
In which Christ broke the chains of death
And rose in radiant victory
From the pit of Hades.
Bravo.
Anyway here's another rather good one. It is a fourth-century poem, and is the Latin hymn of Saint Ambrose, expressing the "paradox of faith" as seen in the death and Resurrection of Christ:
O mystery great and glorious,
That mortal flesh should conquer death,
And all our human pains and wounds
The Lord should heal by bearing them.
Behold how man, though crushed by death,
Now does arise and live with Christ,
While death, repelled and robbed of might,
Dies from its own malignant sting.
yes indeed.. "Death where is thy sting?"
Awake.
Do Not Sleep.
Seek The Kingdom of Heaven within yourself.
"Unless a man first die.. And then be born again of The Spirit, he can in no wise enter into The Kingdom of Heaven."
IAO
Love Everything that breathes, Uncle George said. It is the Eighteenth 'personal command' of Our Common Creator Endlessness. I am not one to argue with Mr. Gurdjieff I give you the tip. That most stupendous Ivan (of the Itch) I ever clapped eye and ear upon. He constated that for himself, but before I first read it from his pen, I knew the Bhuddists weren't wrong anyway. I am .
The Peaceful Warrior.
Love And Peace,
David. (today's Hymns I got from here BTW ... http://www.intermirifica.org/easter/easthymns.htm )
:-) :-) :-)