Littlestone
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Jul 05, 2006, 14:19
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what about Thomas Hardy's melancholy tone; -Tess - the final chapter at Stonehenge at the slaughter stone...
Yes, that's great stuff moss - will put it up on the Meg Poems Blog when I've found a good illustration to go with it.
Was at Stonehenge last Saturday afternoon; it was very quiet there, perhaps because a lot of people were watching the football. Hadn't been to Stonehenge for eight or nine years but was struck by the sheer majesty of the place - it's awesome even now but imagine what it must have been like when first built, and how people back then, with a different view of the world, would have seen it...
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Littlestone
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Tess of the d'Urbervilles
Jul 05, 2006, 15:35
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tis done, at http://megalithicpoems.blogspot.com/
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Littlestone
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Edited Oct 09, 2006, 11:27
Krista: Calanais
Jul 07, 2006, 11:23
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Calanais
To the stones again I go
I know what I will see
but this feeling always meets me
love and expectancy
dark looming mountains on the way
low rain clouds hang, ready to meet
with the land so full of water
not that much land actually
and the machair filled with flowers
cotton white, like snow to be
spread on and on forever, so heavenly
Then it's there, proud on the hilltop
stands tall and bold for all to see
Calanais sits awaiting
how many visitors will there be
to revere and be amazed
that it has stood for all those days
and what purpose has it played
in its own history?
Maybe a place of worship to the gods
they loved
for their harvests and the ones they took
who they thought they'd laid forever
ashes in the cairn to rest easy
or could it really be an act of love
out of respect for the mountains four
that are the 'old woman of the moor'
to pay homage for her watching over
mountain, moor and sea
cos she inspires awe in me
So if you get to Calanais
take no expectations of what will be
something unforgettably
a time you will remember
the only tool that you will need
is a mind that's open
with eyes that greed
and take in the vista there to see
lochs, peatland, moor and mountains
Calanais has a place deep inside me
I am so glad that they found them
Krista
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Littlestone
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Edited Oct 09, 2006, 11:26
Charles Hamilton Sorely: Barbury Camp
Jul 12, 2006, 07:57
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A fascinating example of synchronicity at http://megalithicpoems.blogspot.com/ (see comment by Donna on the poem by Charles Hamilton Sorely).
Thanks to Rhiannon for posting the poem on TMA where I first saw it.
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Littlestone
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Edited Oct 09, 2006, 11:26
Thomas Hardy: Channel Firing
Jul 28, 2006, 23:16
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Channel Firing
That night your great guns, unawares,
Shook all our coffins as we lay,
And broke the chancel window-squares,
We thought it was the Judgement-day
And sat upright. While drearisome
Arose the howl of wakened hounds:
The mouse let fall the altar-crumb,
The worms drew back into their mounds,
The glebe-cow drooled. Till God called, `No;
It's gunnery practice out at sea
Just as before you went below;
The world is as it used to be:
`All nations striving strong to make
Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters
They do no more for Christés sake
Than you that are helpless in such matters.
`That this is not the judgement-hour
For some of them's a blessed thing,
For if it were they'd have to scour
Hell's floor for so much threatening...
`Ha, ha. It will be warmer when
I blow the trumpet (if indeed
I ever do; for you are men,
And rest eternal sorely need).'
So down we lay again. `I wonder,
Will the world ever saner be,'
Said one, `than when He sent us under
In our indifferent century!'
And many a skeleton shook his head.
`Instead of preaching forty year,'
My neighbour Parson Thirdly said,
`I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer.'
Again the guns disturbed the hour,
Roaring their readiness to avenge,
As far inland as Stourton Tower,
And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
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moss
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Re: Channel Firing
Jul 29, 2006, 05:37
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The cave horses with your last poem made me remember Edwin Muir's The Horses...
http://www.philipgrae.dabsol.co.uk/war/nuclear/horses.htm
It is perhaps appropiate given the latest decision on Lebanon to remember what has been written in the past....
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Littlestone
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Re: Channel Firing
Jul 29, 2006, 11:27
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It is perhaps appropriate given the latest decision on Lebanon to remember what has been written in the past....
Yes, a very moving poem indeed - thank you. Your link reminded me of Nevil Shute's novel (and the film) On The Beach.
On one of the Aldermaston Marches a leaflet started going round about a so-called 'secret nuclear bunker'. The leaflet actually warned us that we could be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act for just having one of these leaflets in our possession! I think the bunker was at a place called Wargrave, which was close to where the march would pass. On the following day some of us broke away from the march and went to investigate - the concrete building was set a little way from the road in a wood - it was windowless and featureless except for a big iron door. After about fifteen minutes the police arrived and we were forced back to the road.
At the time (more than forty years ago now) the thought of a 'secret nuclear bunker' seemed fanciful even to most anti-nuclear demonstrators; the idea (and the demonstrators) were ridiculed in the national press and of course the existence of nuclear bunkers was vigorously denied by the government. Now you can visit nuclear bunkers for a fun day out - there's one just up the road from here.
If anyone thinks all this is off topic think again. The deceit to which the authorities and big businesses will descend is mind boggling - and that includes historical sites.
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Littlestone
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Re: Channel Firing
Aug 02, 2006, 21:37
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These enduring words from the past by Thomas Hardy, and a painting of Stonehenge from the present by Jane, are now at http://megalithicpoems.blogspot.com/
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nigelswift
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Re: Channel Firing
Aug 02, 2006, 21:48
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LOVE the picture.
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Littlestone
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Re: Channel Firing
Aug 02, 2006, 21:59
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nigelswift wrote: LOVE the picture.
Yup, me too. Some ninety years apart but saying the same -
"All nations striving strong to make
Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters..."
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