Man on the Rocks by Mike Oldfield

Mike Oldfield's New Rock Album

Song of November

Let me sing a song of November

the chilly dream that Winter wakes

October's leafy pageant

the steely wind shakes

from the clattering sky

littering the brown field

when black birds solemnly fly.

The pastel flowers have floated down September's streams like prayer flags flying 

The triumphant cry of the year!

Against the western winds laying down their fair share of grief

before Winter steals the color of this dream/

Dusty pink petals swirl and rise never to fall or die.

Bronze bells clang harmony in the distance as if to amuse me

What angel hovers there?

What death dance keeps me turning 

What new melody am I learning?

Song of November arises in my mind

echoing ancient battles of yellows and greens

of Summer's grip and before it Spring’s.

I am the wind to tousle your hair

I am fire orange and billowing

I am water

I am the moon

I am the dream when the dreamer wakes

You cannot see me/cannot hear me.

I am the stone and soil

you kick me underfoot.

You never knew me/

never held me at all.

Now alone you sing my song

and stand baffled by its sombre chords

though the words speak clearly

of this day and filter the sand into the hourglass.

Mountains rise and mountains fall

your mind gathers focus then crumbles to a stall

gazing into the mirror the mirror cannot lie

You see your original face without darkness

I am not lying.

Morning comes and morning goes as the broken leaves into the cold torrent's flow

you reach outside/feel the stinging breeze.

The wind tousles back your autumn hair

I come rushing into the air

you catch me in one powerful try

As I tumble into the corner of your eye.

Pale moon hides in her cloudy bed

and fire steals the night

My stream wends in fright an uneven way---

into the neverending poem at the heart of this day!

"All passes away yet God smiles and waves a banner of serenity---

Lord, You hold all of the cards we play

and yet I would beg you to play this hand in another way."

"god" particle-Higgs-Boson found to be " a little more complicated" than the physicists had originally imagined :)

Forbes Article on Higgs-Boson Particle

To those serious inquirers who would know the fundament of light and gravity please see:
Robert Archer Smith's Physics of Light

Photography: Link to Pennsylvania Landscapes

Link to Pennsylavania Landscapes

Beauty: The Realist Take

"In the psychology of the Victorines, the joy felt in experiencing sensuous harmony was a prolongation of physical pleasure [ital. mine]; it was rooted in the affective life and grounded in an ontologically real correspondence between the structure of the mind and the structure of matter." Umberto Eco Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages

Link to Zoosophy Blog

Link: Zoosophy

Link to 1000 Finger'd World

1000 Finger'd World

New Link at Teafroth

Link to Teafroth

New Post on Sovieta Blog

Link to Sovieta Blog

New Post on Beautiful Day Today

Link to Beautiful Day Today

Thomas Merton Blog: Father Louis

Father Louis (Thomas Merton Blog)

New Essay (click on link below)

How Did We Get Here From There?

What does it mean 'To Know'?

I have been thinking about what 'to know' really means---hence, what true knowledge consists in. To know ('oida': Gk) in Greek the term 'oida' is cognate with 'to see'. In shorthand to see is to know. In fact the vernacular use of seeing as knowing is quite commonly understood. Now imagine you come upon a tick sucking blood (as pictured below). One sees that the tick sucks blood it engorges but one does not know how the tick sucks blood. One knows that the tick sucks blood, in fact one knows how the tick sucks blood. 

But this is not how we teach our young scientists to proceed! We refer to a pentasyllabic word 'hematophagy' invented to describe the blood sucking mechanism. Or we turn to Wikipedia:
Wikipedia: Hematophagy

Presumably one gains a verbal access to explaining the phenomenon under discussion, presumably one better understands, even better 'knows' the phenomenon! This confused sense of knowledge and knowing, separate from seeing is what I deem as the greatest intellectual conundrums of our era.

Let us review the order of the phenomenon---one sees the tick exploded 10x its body size on the back of an innocent dog, in seeing the tick one knows that the tick sucks blood but presumes that one does not know how this little varmint does it! So one asks the question and then proceeds to use the cultural viable means of answering the question---one proceeds 'scientifically'. One refers to books, encyclopedia, Wikipedia, one asks an "expert". Like receiving a diagnosis for a mysterious symptom, the questioner is satisfied to learn that this an example of biological 'hematophagy'---the questioning mind is able to rest.

However, one should note that this is 'sleight of hand'---no understanding has been achieved in the acquisition of the pentasyllabic term! No new knowledge is obtained with the acquisition of this term. As a matter of fact, when one sees that the tick sucks blood, one knows how the tick sucks blood. In knowing that the tick sucks blood, one knows how the tick sucks blood. And this holds true with every other phenomenon!

In knowing that, one knows how. In seeing that such and such occurs, one knows how such and such occurs!

Therefore we must ask, since almost all of what we call knowing depends upon seeking expert diagnoses, and explanations, Wikipedia, and five-syllabled terms---which actually adds no new understanding to the phenomenon grasped, what is the status with regards to truth, concerning all of this so-called knowledge? One thing is for certain, the original grasp of the phenomenon which proceeds individually and by power of one's own eyesight, is routinely downgraded as a source of knowledge, whereas the move to downplay one's own true vision and knowledge is bypassed for a theory of knowledge which depends upon so-called "experts"---a kind of totalitarian-fascist way of knowing, if you ask me!

Philosophical Essay: John-Paul II

Fides et Ratio

I'll Keep it With Mine (b. Dylan) performed by Fairport Convention

Fairport Convention

Andrea Valeri: Sultans of Swing

Flamenco Interpretation of Knopfler's Magic

Mark Knopfler: Sultans of Swing

Unrivalled Guitar Mastery

Better to Live as a Dog....

“May you live in interesting times" is an English expression purporting to be a translation of a traditional Chinese curse. Despite being so common in English as to be known as "the Chinese curse", the saying is apocryphal and no actual Chinese source has ever been produced.^[1] The nearest relatedChinese expression is "宁为太平犬，莫做乱世人" (níng wéi tàipíng quǎn, mò zuò luànshì rén) which conveys the sense that it is "better to live as a dog in an era of peace than a man in times of war."

God Only Knows---BBC Production October 2014

One thing we can safely say about the New World Order: when the fashionistas and culture czars of the NWO put their heads together and decide to bestow a platinum candy nugget on the world as with this non-disappointing re-make of Brian Wilson's "God Only Knows"---the enormity of the canvas and (I suspect) the recording bill, allows the faithful denizens the whole world over to soak in the luxuriance unmatched since the Rococco while admiring not only the acoustic fanfare and chamber pomp but also the colorful vignettes which populate the theatrical in an unprecedented delivery of the authentic intention of Brian Wilson's mammoth pop beauty. God only knows why Paul McCartney and David Bowie failed to show up for this unparalleled masterpiece in the history of pop music recording.
God Only Knows BBC Production

A New Poem (lyric)-Written in Summer 2014

I ponder as I wander
and wonder at this day---
this jewel, this yellow flower, this puffy bumblebee!

My eyes, full wide awake
in the center of the day;
I am awake in the darkest night
when the stars all fade away.

I don't know when the weekend ends,
I don't know why the river bends,
I don't know how many lives I've spent,
How many yet to come...
I'll meet you at the journey's end,
at the final door,
I'll be there my friend.

Each moment amazes me,
each hour of everyday,
though the world beats faster than a drum.

I don't know how many roads I've gone,
how many yet to come
the world spins fast as a whip
but this moment lingers on.

Amazing Grateful Dead Video

Touch of Grey

Google Places Security Guards in Its Silicon Valley Offices

This post is actually more of an 'apocalypse illustrated' story but I thought I would post it here:

Google Adds Security Guards

Everything is upside down in the US---it is a "cockamamy world"----it's like you introduce the word 'security' and everyone acts like chickens with their heads cut off. So for all of the orthodox capitalist believers I have a question---how is security good for bottom line? How is it good to pay someone to DO NOTHING which cannot possibly 'create wealth'?

One is reminded of Ben Franklin's famous saying; 'those who would exchange liberty for security will have (deserve) neither!"
At the current rate of the growth of the police state and its consequent militarization, pretty soon everyone will be a security guard, then every citizen can arrest every other citizen and lock up the prison on the history of the USA. The doctors, lawyers and ministers of course can stand by rejoicing because they have the hegemony that has always been their guiding goal. The one per centers (one percenters ought not to be considered citizens as their allegiance is to mammon) will rejoice to get the low-bred laborers into a more controllable environment and of course, the White House and the senate can finally fulfill their promises to the New World Order, to package and deliver the US populace all of a piece for the Pharoah-ic enterprise of completing the destruction of the earth. Not bad work for a couple of presidential administrations since W and O have utterly devastated the last traces of Sovereignty in the US---great job---all hail to the chiefs! The world has lost its marbles!!