We need a poet to define our current eon. We are missing this ???
From my youth upwards My Spirit walked not with the souls of men, Nor looked upon the earth with human eyes; The thirst of their ambition was not mine, The aim of their existence was not mine; My joy was in the wilderness—to breathe the difficult air of the iced mountain's top, Where the birds dare not build—nor insect's wing. These were my pastimes, and to be alone; For if the beings, of whom I was one—Hating to be so—crossed me in my path, I felt myself degraded back to them, And was all clay again. And then I dived, In my lone wanderings, to the caves of Death, Searching its cause in its effect; and drew from withered bones, and skulls, and heaped up dust conclusions most forbidden.”
Thanks...and yes, we need more poets and 'creative imaginations' to become the seers.... Here's an extract from the book 'The Zelator' - "You see, such Spiritual developments, and changes in human psyche, are usually experienced first by poets or musicians, long before they are felt by others. Visual artists, for all their vision, are more Earth-bound than poets or musicians: poets have antennae for such things. In a manner of speaking, poets are “satherers of the wind”. When a Spiritual change is in the air, it is generally the poets who sense this first, and give expression to it in poems or songs. Poets are sensitive dreamers. All artists, whether they be poets, painters or musicians, dream their images, before they encapsulate them into works of art, but the poet dreams more deeply. ‘So, the true poets are the real visionaries, the true recipients of Spiritual developments, and if we look into European literature we shall find the earliest signs of the wise Fool cropping up among the wandering scholar-poets and troubadours, the singing-poets of Southern France, which i in those days was rampant with heresy.’"
Thank you so much for this Kingsley. I have the great advantage of having a partner who is both a teacher of English and is a Shakespeare obsessive, so I will be accessing the Wes Jamroz books and gaining further insight from my wife.
I know you were reluctant to make a list of these stories, but I’m curious to know whether the work of James Joyce has these qualities. Does something like Ulysses fall into this category, in your opinion?
Thanks Nico - and I would certainly recommend a dive into the work of Wes Jamroz - both his 'Shakespeare's Sequel to Rumi's Teaching', which I quoted from, as well as his later book 'Shakespeare's Elephant in Darkest England' which, to my mind, is fascinating. Also, his later work such as 'A Journey with Omar Khayaam' are great reading... different material operates on varying levels. The work of 'Ulysses' from James Joyce (which I have only read once) appears, to me, to jar the mind out of its routine thinking patterns. The syntax, grammar, and 'stream of consciousness' technique affects our thinking patterns (neural patterns) and demands new forms of attention. So, on this level at least, this work has an operative effect (although it is not technically a teaching material in the perennial vein). Thanks again.
excellent work Kingsley.
We need a poet to define our current eon. We are missing this ???
From my youth upwards My Spirit walked not with the souls of men, Nor looked upon the earth with human eyes; The thirst of their ambition was not mine, The aim of their existence was not mine; My joy was in the wilderness—to breathe the difficult air of the iced mountain's top, Where the birds dare not build—nor insect's wing. These were my pastimes, and to be alone; For if the beings, of whom I was one—Hating to be so—crossed me in my path, I felt myself degraded back to them, And was all clay again. And then I dived, In my lone wanderings, to the caves of Death, Searching its cause in its effect; and drew from withered bones, and skulls, and heaped up dust conclusions most forbidden.”
― Lord Byron, Manfred
Thanks...and yes, we need more poets and 'creative imaginations' to become the seers.... Here's an extract from the book 'The Zelator' - "You see, such Spiritual developments, and changes in human psyche, are usually experienced first by poets or musicians, long before they are felt by others. Visual artists, for all their vision, are more Earth-bound than poets or musicians: poets have antennae for such things. In a manner of speaking, poets are “satherers of the wind”. When a Spiritual change is in the air, it is generally the poets who sense this first, and give expression to it in poems or songs. Poets are sensitive dreamers. All artists, whether they be poets, painters or musicians, dream their images, before they encapsulate them into works of art, but the poet dreams more deeply. ‘So, the true poets are the real visionaries, the true recipients of Spiritual developments, and if we look into European literature we shall find the earliest signs of the wise Fool cropping up among the wandering scholar-poets and troubadours, the singing-poets of Southern France, which i in those days was rampant with heresy.’"
Thank you Kingsley
Too many lessons
One Way Home
Thanks Guillermo... yes - The Way Back Home.... ;-)
Thank you so much for this Kingsley. I have the great advantage of having a partner who is both a teacher of English and is a Shakespeare obsessive, so I will be accessing the Wes Jamroz books and gaining further insight from my wife.
I know you were reluctant to make a list of these stories, but I’m curious to know whether the work of James Joyce has these qualities. Does something like Ulysses fall into this category, in your opinion?
Thanks Nico - and I would certainly recommend a dive into the work of Wes Jamroz - both his 'Shakespeare's Sequel to Rumi's Teaching', which I quoted from, as well as his later book 'Shakespeare's Elephant in Darkest England' which, to my mind, is fascinating. Also, his later work such as 'A Journey with Omar Khayaam' are great reading... different material operates on varying levels. The work of 'Ulysses' from James Joyce (which I have only read once) appears, to me, to jar the mind out of its routine thinking patterns. The syntax, grammar, and 'stream of consciousness' technique affects our thinking patterns (neural patterns) and demands new forms of attention. So, on this level at least, this work has an operative effect (although it is not technically a teaching material in the perennial vein). Thanks again.