"The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry."
~ Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms



"Our lives disconnect and reconnect, we move on, and later we may touch one another, again bounce away. This is the felt shape of a human life, neither simply linear nor wholly disjunctive nor endlessly bifurcating, but rather this bouncey sequence of bumping into's and tumblings apart."
~ Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet



Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A Ballade Of An Anti-Puritan ~ G.K. Chesterton...


They spoke of Progress spiring round,
Of Light and Mrs. Humphry Ward--
It is not true to say I frowned,
Or ran about the room and roared;
I might have simply sat and snored--


I rose politely in the club
And said, "I feel a little bored;
Will someone take me to a pub?"



The new world's wisest did surround
Me; and it pains me to record
I did not think their views profound,
Or their conclusions well assured;
The simple life I can't afford,
Besides, I do not like the grub--
I wait a mash and sausage, "scored"--
Will someone take me to a pub?




I know where Men can still be found,
Anger and clamorous accord,
And virtues growing from the ground,
And fellowship of beer and board,
And song, that is a sturdy cord.

And hope, that is a hardy shrub,
And goodness, that is God's last word--
Will someone take me to a pub?



ENVOI



Prince, Bayard would have smashed his sword
To see the sort of knights you dub--Is
that the last of them--O Lord!
Will someone take me to a pub?





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