by William Blake in Songs of Experience
Ah Sun-flower! weary of time.
Who countest the steps of the Sun:
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the travellers journey is doneWhere the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale Virgin shrouded in snow:
Arise from their graves and aspire,
Where my Sun-flower wishes to go.
Clear skies this morning. Looks like the latest hurricane has passed, or as Ethel Waters once sang in the 1930s (with accompaniment by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey, lyrics by Ted Koehler / Harold Arlen)…
I like this rhyme:
When he went away the blues walked in and met me.
If he stays away old rockin chair will get me.
There must be a dozen or more versions of this song by famous singers, but I have not seen or heard one better than the original. Wonder if anyone in pop has attempted an alternative version?
A little bit of insight from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
I have a growing fascination with Francis Picabia, not least of all because of some of the quotes I have found attributed to him:
“Who is with me is against me.”
“What I like least about others is myself.”
“The world is divided into two categories: failures and unknowns.”
“My ass contemplates those who talk behind my back.”
His poetry is strangely inspirational:
IN ORDER TO LOVE
SOMETHING YOU HAVE TO
HAVE SEEN IT OR HEARD ITFOR A LONG TIME YOU BUNCH OF IDIOTS
I find it fitting that he challenged order and reason in a way commonly associated with the term “hacker” today. So sad he has already passed. He would have been an amazing keynote to Blackhat, unlike the inanely boring LSE professor who was chosen for this year.
My early thoughts were to resist Dada-ism, but I wonder if with age I might be sliding into it nonetheless.