Prayers for the legend Muhammad Ali: image via Enes Kanter Verified account @Enes_Kanter, 3 June 2016
Robert Creeley: Heroes
In those stories the hero
is beyond himself into the next
thing, be it those labors
of Hercules, or Aeneas going into death.
I thought the instant of the one humanness
in Virgil's plan of it
was that it was of course human enough to die,
yet to come back, as he said, hoc opus, hic labor est.
That was the Cumaean Sibyl speaking.
This is Robert Creeley, and Virgil
is dead now two thousand years, yet Hercules
and the Aeneid, yet all that industrious wis-
dom lives in the way the mountains
and the desert are waiting
for the heroes, and death also
can still propose the old labors.
Robert Creeley (1926-2005): Heroes, from For Love, 1960
In those stories the hero
is beyond himself into the next
thing, be it those labors
of Hercules, or Aeneas going into death.
I thought the instant of the one humanness
in Virgil's plan of it
was that it was of course human enough to die,
yet to come back, as he said, hoc opus, hic labor est.
That was the Cumaean Sibyl speaking.
This is Robert Creeley, and Virgil
is dead now two thousand years, yet Hercules
and the Aeneid, yet all that industrious wis-
dom lives in the way the mountains
and the desert are waiting
for the heroes, and death also
can still propose the old labors.
Robert Creeley (1926-2005): Heroes, from For Love, 1960
@MuhammadAli and Joe Louis: image via Andrea Barocci @AndreaBarocci, 30 April 2016
[Untitled]: image via Eddie Garcia @Eddieonfox, 3 June 2016 Los Angeles, CA
Supporters listen as Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, speaks at a campaign rally at Sacramento International Airport on Wednesday. Mr. Trump vowed to make a "real run" to carry California in November.: photo by Damon Winter/The New York Times, 1 June 2016
Supporters listen as Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, speaks at a campaign rally at Sacramento International Airport on Wednesday. Mr. Trump vowed to make a "real run" to carry California in November.: photo by Damon Winter/The New York Times, 1 June 2016
During a series of confrontations, a supporter of the Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures towards anti-Trump demonstrators outside a campaign rally in San Jose, California: photo by Stephen Lam / Reuters, 2 June 2016
A woman wearing a Trump shirt is pelted with eggs by protesters while pinned against a door near where Donald Trump was holding a rally in San Jose, California. Protesters attacked Trump supporters as they left the rally, burned an American flag, Trump paraphernalia, and scuffled with police and each other.: photo by Josh Edelson / AFP, 2 June 2016
Calvin Ward, 50, of Chicago,
looked out as the police investigated the shooting of his wife, Julia
Rhoden, 53, on Saturday. With Memorial Day marking the unofficial
beginning of summer, residents and city officials fear an increase in
gun violence that has traumatized some Chicago neighborhoods and left
city officials searching for new ways to subdue street crime.: photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times, 28 May 2016
Calvin Ward, 50, of Chicago, looked out as the police investigated the shooting of his wife, Julia Rhoden, 53, on Saturday. With Memorial Day marking the unofficial beginning of summer, residents and city officials fear an increase in gun violence that has traumatized some Chicago neighborhoods and left city officials searching for new ways to subdue street crime.: photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times, 28 May 2016
People gathered on Saturday at a wake for Mark Lindsey, 25, known as Lavish, at a home in the Ashburn neighborhood of Chicago. Mr. Lindsey was shot and killed the night before while he was sitting in a car.: photo by Whitney Curtis for The New York Times, 29 May 2016
People gathered on Saturday at a wake for Mark Lindsey, 25, known as Lavish, at a home in the Ashburn neighborhood of Chicago. Mr. Lindsey was shot and killed the night before while he was sitting in a car.: photo by Whitney Curtis for The New York Times, 29 May 2016
Racegoers cheer on their horses on Ladies Day during the 2016 Investec Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse today: photo by Steve Parsons/PA, 3 June 2016
Racegoers cheer on their horses on Ladies Day during the 2016 Investec Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse today: photo by Steve Parsons/PA, 3 June 2016
Posing for a selfie on Ladies Day at Epsom: photo by Alan Crowhurst via the National, 3 June 2016
Members of the traveller community watch as horses are ridden along
the road during the horse fair in Appleby-in-Westmorland, United Kingdom: photo by Phil Noble/Reuters, 3 June 2016
Members of the traveller community watch as horses are ridden along the road during the horse fair in Appleby-in-Westmorland, United Kingdom: photo by Phil Noble/Reuters, 3 June 2016
Gravediggers pose after the first Hungarian grave digging
championship in Debrecen, Hungary, today, competing for the national
crown, which is awarded based on accuracy, speed, and aesthetic quality: photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters, 3 June 2016
Gravediggers pose after the first Hungarian grave digging championship in Debrecen, Hungary, today, competing for the national crown, which is awarded based on accuracy, speed, and aesthetic quality: photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters, 3 June 2016
Water rising near the statue of the Zouave and the Eiffel Tower at the Alma bridge in Paris: photo by Laurent Kalfala/AFP, 3 June 2016
Water rising near the statue of the Zouave and the Eiffel Tower at the Alma bridge in Paris: photo by Laurent Kalfala/AFP, 3 June 2016
Boxes containing valuable artworks from the Louvre reserves stored
among status in one of the museum’s room of the Department of Greek,
Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities room after they were evacuated from the
basement following days of heavy rains which led the River Seine to
reach its highest level in three decades: photo by AFP, 3 June 2016
Boxes containing valuable artworks from the Louvre reserves stored among status in one of the museum’s room of the Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities room after they were evacuated from the basement following days of heavy rains which led the River Seine to reach its highest level in three decades: photo by AFP, 3 June 2016
Plastic boxes containing artworks were placed with sculptures in a high and dry exhibition hall at the Louvre, which has been closed because of the flooding. The Musée d’Orsay also moved artwork to keep it beyond the reach of floodwaters.: photo by Markus Schreiber/Associated Press, 3 June 2016
.
Plastic boxes containing artworks were placed with sculptures in a high and dry exhibition hall at the Louvre, which has been closed because of the flooding. The Musée d’Orsay also moved artwork to keep it beyond the reach of floodwaters.: photo by Markus Schreiber/Associated Press, 3 June 2016
Calvin Ward, 50, of Chicago, looked out as the police investigated the shooting of his wife, Julia Rhoden, 53, on Saturday. With Memorial Day marking the unofficial beginning of summer, residents and city officials fear an increase in gun violence that has traumatized some Chicago neighborhoods and left city officials searching for new ways to subdue street crime.: photo by Todd Heisler/The New York Times, 28 May 2016
People gathered on Saturday at a wake for Mark Lindsey, 25, known as Lavish, at a home in the Ashburn neighborhood of Chicago. Mr. Lindsey was shot and killed the night before while he was sitting in a car.: photo by Whitney Curtis for The New York Times, 29 May 2016
People gathered on Saturday at a wake for Mark Lindsey, 25, known as Lavish, at a home in the Ashburn neighborhood of Chicago. Mr. Lindsey was shot and killed the night before while he was sitting in a car.: photo by Whitney Curtis for The New York Times, 29 May 2016
Racegoers cheer on their horses on Ladies Day during the 2016 Investec Epsom Derby Festival at Epsom Racecourse today: photo by Steve Parsons/PA, 3 June 2016
Posing for a selfie on Ladies Day at Epsom: photo by Alan Crowhurst via the National, 3 June 2016
Members of the traveller community watch as horses are ridden along the road during the horse fair in Appleby-in-Westmorland, United Kingdom: photo by Phil Noble/Reuters, 3 June 2016
Gravediggers pose after the first Hungarian grave digging championship in Debrecen, Hungary, today, competing for the national crown, which is awarded based on accuracy, speed, and aesthetic quality: photo by Laszlo Balogh/Reuters, 3 June 2016
Rick Blood in his work uniform at the
family’s business, the slaughterhouse Blood Farm in West Groton: photo by Jessica Rinaldi/Boston Globe, 2 June 2016
A man walked atop a wall that separates the Seine River, right, from a roadway, at left, near the Louvre Museum in Paris. The river was expected to crest Friday to its highest level since 1982, at 20.7 feet, but well below the all-time crest of 26.2 feet after a deluge in 1910.: photo by Pierre Terdjman for The New York Times, 3 June 2016
A man walked atop a wall that separates the Seine River, right, from a roadway, at left, near the Louvre Museum in Paris. The river was expected to crest Friday to its highest level since 1982, at 20.7 feet, but well below the all-time crest of 26.2 feet after a deluge in 1910.: photo by Pierre Terdjman for The New York Times, 3 June 2016
Residents who refused to be evacuated sit on makeshift boats during
evacuation operations of the Villeneuve-Trillage flooded suburb in
Villeneuve Saint-Georges, outside Paris, France, on Friday: photo by Christian Hartmann/Reuters 3 June 2016
.
Residents who refused to be evacuated sit on makeshift boats during evacuation operations of the Villeneuve-Trillage flooded suburb in Villeneuve Saint-Georges, outside Paris, France, on Friday: photo by Christian Hartmann/Reuters 3 June 2016
A man walked atop a wall that separates the Seine River, right, from a roadway, at left, near the Louvre Museum in Paris. The river was expected to crest Friday to its highest level since 1982, at 20.7 feet, but well below the all-time crest of 26.2 feet after a deluge in 1910.: photo by Pierre Terdjman for The New York Times, 3 June 2016
A man walked atop a wall that separates the Seine River, right, from a roadway, at left, near the Louvre Museum in Paris. The river was expected to crest Friday to its highest level since 1982, at 20.7 feet, but well below the all-time crest of 26.2 feet after a deluge in 1910.: photo by Pierre Terdjman for The New York Times, 3 June 2016
. Residents who refused to be evacuated sit on makeshift boats during evacuation operations of the Villeneuve-Trillage flooded suburb in Villeneuve Saint-Georges, outside Paris, France, on Friday: photo by Christian Hartmann/Reuters 3 June 2016
Water rising near the statue of the Zouave and the Eiffel Tower at the Alma bridge in Paris: photo by Laurent Kalfala/AFP, 3 June 2016
Boxes containing valuable artworks from the Louvre reserves stored among status in one of the museum’s room of the Department of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities room after they were evacuated from the basement following days of heavy rains which led the River Seine to reach its highest level in three decades: photo by AFP, 3 June 2016
Plastic boxes containing artworks were placed with sculptures in a high and dry exhibition hall at the Louvre, which has been closed because of the flooding. The Musée d’Orsay also moved artwork to keep it beyond the reach of floodwaters.: photo by Markus Schreiber/Associated Press, 3 June 2016
. Plastic boxes containing artworks were placed with sculptures in a high and dry exhibition hall at the Louvre, which has been closed because of the flooding. The Musée d’Orsay also moved artwork to keep it beyond the reach of floodwaters.: photo by Markus Schreiber/Associated Press, 3 June 2016
Rescue workers search for survivors after a landslide at a landfill near Lviv, Ukraine, on Monday: photo by Markiian Lyseiko/European Pressphoto Agency, 30 May 2016
.
Rescue workers searched for survivors after a landslide at a landfill near Lviv, Ukraine, on Monday: photo by Markiian Lyseiko/European Pressphoto Agency, 30 May 2016
Animal rights activists demanding that bullfighting be banned clashed with police officers outside the Plaza Mexico ring in Mexico City on Sunday: photo by Marco Ugarte/Associated Press, 29 May 2016
Animal rights activists demanding that bullfighting be banned clashed with police officers outside the Plaza Mexico ring in Mexico City on Sunday: photo by Marco Ugarte/Associated Press, 29 May 2016
A
protester in Nantes, France, uses a tennis racket to return a tear gas
canister in a demonstration on Thursday against proposed changes in
French labor laws: photo by Stephane Mahe/Reuters, 2 June 2016
A protester uses a tennis racket to return a tear gas canister during a demonstration to protest the government's proposed labor law reforms in Nantes, France: photo by Stephane Mahe / Reuters, 2 June 2016
A wild leopard runs on the stairs as it tries to escape from a compound of a house in Kathmandu, Nepal: photo by Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters, 1 June 2016
Bara market in Rawalpindi, Pakistan ahead of Ramadan: photo by Faisal Mahmood / Reuters, 2 June 2016
Security forces clash with people trying to reach Miraflores
presidential palace to protest against the severe food and medicine
shortages, in Caracas: photo by Juan Barreto/AFP, 3 June 2016
Security forces clash with people trying to reach Miraflores presidential palace to protest against the severe food and medicine shortages, in Caracas: photo by Juan Barreto/AFP, 3 June 2016
A traveller washes his horse in the River Eden during the Appleby Horse Fair in Appleby, England: photo by Christopher Furlong via FT Photo Diary, 2 June 2016
A traveller washes his horse in the River Eden during the Appleby Horse Fair in Appleby, England: photo by Christopher Furlong via FT Photo Diary, 2 June 2016
Italian military march during the Republic Day military parade in Rome: photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters, 2 June 2016
Italian military march during the Republic Day military parade in Rome: photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters, 2 June 2016
The Italian Air Force aerobatic unit Frecce Tricolori (Tricolor Arrows) perform for Italy’s Republic Day ceremony: photo by Tiziana Fabi / AFP, 2 June 2016
The body of a migrant, probably from an overcrowded rubber boat that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, was lowered off the Italian Navy vessel Vega at the Reggio Calabria harbor in southern Italy. Nearly 50 migrants drowned in the episode, but more than 100 were rescued.: photo by Antonio Parrinello/Reuters, 1 June 2016
The body of a migrant, probably from an overcrowded rubber boat that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, was lowered off the Italian Navy vessel Vega at the Reggio Calabria harbor in southern Italy. Nearly 50 migrants drowned in the episode, but more than 100 were rescued.: photo by Antonio Parrinello/Reuters, 1 June 2016
Migrant and refugee tents are set up in a new makeshift camp along the cliffs at the port of Dieppe, northern France. A group of around 150 Albanians have set up camp near the English Channel hoping to cross to the UK.: photo by Michel Spingler / AP, 2 June 2016
Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel during a visit to Farmhouse Biscuits in Nelson, Lancashire, where they were campaigning on behalf of the Vote Leave EU referendum campaign: photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA, 2 June 2016
Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel during a visit to Farmhouse Biscuits in Nelson, Lancashire, where they were campaigning on behalf of the Vote Leave EU referendum campaign: photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA, 2 June 2016
A shepherd taking care of his flock near Mizhhirya, western Ukraine: photo by Roman Pilipey / EPA, 2 June 2016
A human rights activist places lights representing thousands of
people killed by the police since Rio won the bid to host the Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: photo by Felipe Dana/AP, 3 June 2016
A protester uses a tennis racket to return a tear gas canister during a demonstration to protest the government's proposed labor law reforms in Nantes, France: photo by Stephane Mahe / Reuters, 2 June 2016
A wild leopard runs on the stairs as it tries to escape from a compound of a house in Kathmandu, Nepal: photo by Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters, 1 June 2016
Tiger
male ‘Mak’ inside a cage after he was tranquillised to be moved by Thai
National Park officials from the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi province,
Thailand.: photo by Narong Sangnak / EPA, 3 May 2016
Bara market in Rawalpindi, Pakistan ahead of Ramadan: photo by Faisal Mahmood / Reuters, 2 June 2016
Security forces clash with people trying to reach Miraflores presidential palace to protest against the severe food and medicine shortages, in Caracas: photo by Juan Barreto/AFP, 3 June 2016
A traveller washes his horse in the River Eden during the Appleby Horse Fair in Appleby, England: photo by Christopher Furlong via FT Photo Diary, 2 June 2016
A traveller washes his horse in the River Eden during the Appleby Horse Fair in Appleby, England: photo by Christopher Furlong via FT Photo Diary, 2 June 2016
Italian military march during the Republic Day military parade in Rome: photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters, 2 June 2016
Italian military march during the Republic Day military parade in Rome: photo by Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters, 2 June 2016
The Italian Air Force aerobatic unit Frecce Tricolori (Tricolor Arrows) perform for Italy’s Republic Day ceremony: photo by Tiziana Fabi / AFP, 2 June 2016
The body of a migrant, probably from an overcrowded rubber boat that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, was lowered off the Italian Navy vessel Vega at the Reggio Calabria harbor in southern Italy. Nearly 50 migrants drowned in the episode, but more than 100 were rescued.: photo by Antonio Parrinello/Reuters, 1 June 2016
The body of a migrant, probably from an overcrowded rubber boat that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, was lowered off the Italian Navy vessel Vega at the Reggio Calabria harbor in southern Italy. Nearly 50 migrants drowned in the episode, but more than 100 were rescued.: photo by Antonio Parrinello/Reuters, 1 June 2016
Migrant and refugee tents are set up in a new makeshift camp along the cliffs at the port of Dieppe, northern France. A group of around 150 Albanians have set up camp near the English Channel hoping to cross to the UK.: photo by Michel Spingler / AP, 2 June 2016
Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel during a visit to Farmhouse Biscuits in Nelson, Lancashire, where they were campaigning on behalf of the Vote Leave EU referendum campaign: photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA, 2 June 2016
Michael Gove, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel during a visit to Farmhouse Biscuits in Nelson, Lancashire, where they were campaigning on behalf of the Vote Leave EU referendum campaign: photo by Stefan Rousseau/PA, 2 June 2016
A shepherd taking care of his flock near Mizhhirya, western Ukraine: photo by Roman Pilipey / EPA, 2 June 2016
A human rights activist places lights representing thousands of
people killed by the police since Rio won the bid to host the Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: photo by Felipe Dana/AP, 3 June 2016
Ali was a hero to the world, that big place nobody wants to think about any more. In the country where he was born, not so much, early on. Neither the refusal to go to Southeast Asia to kill people whom he had nothing against nor the conversion to Islam were well received. When he stepped into the ring in Lewiston for his second fight against Liston, the cankering hatred of a White Nation rained down upon him.
ReplyDeleteMuhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston II, 1965
In the years that followed, Ali took a lot of punches. It's been estimated he took 30,000 head shots in his career. Small wonder his brain ended up scrambled. The punishment in the second Frazier fight is hard to look upon now.
Muhammad Ali vs Joe Frazier I, 1971 (round 15)
The day after the first Liston fight, Ali said:
“It's natural that the American Negro should have a Muslim nature. Those bombings, and they never caught the people who did it. The Civil Rights Bill having all that trouble, and all those people talking so it don't come to a vote, and Kennedy did so much for the Negro and he died. Things die on out and our people forget. Three hundred and ten years of physical slavery, the faithful slave I see on a corner in Harlem and he has to ask for a dollar cause he's hungry. All our lives we learn that black is evil, it's dirty, they even call black cake devil's food cake, and now we learn in our Muslim temples that the richest dirt and the strongest coffee is black. So Muslim fits us like a glove.” (26 February 1964)
An a few months later, attempting to account for his unpopularity:
“I can't understand it... I didn't go with white women, I don't smoke, I don't go where I'm not wanted. And still I catch all this hell. Why?
“I can go to a Roman Catholic church and bow to all their idols and statues, and I can go into the Holy Roller and pound the drums and yell, and nobody'll say nothing. But as soon as I go to the Muslim meeting, where everybody is clean and righteous, everyone else is Jumping. Why?”
Robert Lipsyte, writing in the New York Times, offered this explanation.
"Part of the reason must be the traditional role that the sporting world demands a hero to play."
Cassius Clay, Cassius X, Muhammad: Robert Lipsyte, 25 October 1964
Much "industrious wisdom" in this post, Tom.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good word, Dunc.
ReplyDelete