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Thursday 23 June 2016

"and therefore creed": Josephine Miles: King and Lucifer Alone

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Breathe | by efo

Breathe (Richmond, California): photo by efo, 6 April 2014

Breathe | by efo 

Breathe (Richmond, California): photo by efo, 6 April 2014
 
Breathe | by efo  
Breathe (Richmond, California): photo by efo, 6 April 2014

#blackberry #mobile #blackandwhite #grainy #streetphotography #newark #nj #aids | by StrangeGoodness

#blackberry #mobile #blackandwhite #grainy streetphotography #newark #nj #aids: photo by J Perez, 6 July 2015

Untitled | by americanseekingasylum

Untitled: photo by r chorneau, 1 June 2016


ITALY - A boy rests on concrete blocks near the small port of Ginostra on the island of Stromboli. By @GABRIELBOUYS: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPPhoto, 22 June 2016 

Josephine Miles: King 


Skull with Burning Cigarette: Vincent van Gogh, Winter 1885/86, Antwerp, oil on canvas, 32 x 25 cm (Rijksmuseum Vincent van Gogh, Amsterdam)
 
I walked along the river path, the river
I never lived beside, 

And met there, hook and line, king of that kingdom
I would not recognize.

He was the golden branch of Eliot, of
Those wasteland parties where I had to play
Tiresias, and he was a king
Whom I did not believe.

Laius nor any man's killed by his son
Unless he wills it, so I said
To this old bird where he sat. Why let come riding
The handsomest of your brood to do you in?

And he wept, Because it is him or me --
Should he not survive me, he survives not
All that I was: alcoholic
At forty, cheat at forty-five,
Coward at fifty, so will he be

Over again in sequence, while I sit
Mourning myself in him. Tell him to hurry.
This was the waste land as it dawns upon me
To see it was my friend sat by the river
Crouching and fishing in his father's form.

Josephine Miles (1911-1985): King, from Poetry, August 1966


A festivalgoer carrying a tent at the Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm in Somerset. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. See PA story SHOWBIZ Glastonbury. Picture date: Wednesday June 22, 2016

A festivalgoer carries a tent at the Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm in Somerset: photo by Yui Mok/PA Wire, 22 June 2016

A festivalgoer carrying a tent at the Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm in Somerset. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. See PA story SHOWBIZ Glastonbury. Picture date: Wednesday June 22, 2016

A festivalgoer carries a tent at the Glastonbury Festival, at Worthy Farm in Somerset: photo by Yui Mok/PA Wire, 22 June 2016

A man walks on a temporary bamboo bridge during heavy rains on the banks of river Ganga in Allahabad, India

A man walks on a temporary bamboo bridge during heavy rains on the banks of river Ganges in Allahabad, India: photo by Jitendra Prakash/Reuters, 22 June 2016

A man walks on a temporary bamboo bridge during heavy rains on the banks of river Ganga in Allahabad, India

A man walks on a temporary bamboo bridge during heavy rains on the banks of river Ganges in Allahabad, India: photo by Jitendra Prakash/Reuters, 22 June 2016

North Koreans push their bicycles past giant portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at the end of a work day on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Wonsan, North Korea.

North Koreans push their bicycles past giant portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at the end of a work day: photo by Wong Maye-E/AP, 22 June 2016

North Koreans push their bicycles past giant portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at the end of a work day on Wednesday, June 22, 2016, in Wonsan, North Korea.

North Koreans push their bicycles past giant portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at the end of a work day: photo by Wong Maye-E/AP, 22 June 2016

World in focus — best photos for June 22, 2016

Parolees paint over gang-related graffiti in a neighbourhood of Soyapango, El Salvador
: photo by. Jose Cabezas / Reuters, 22 June 2016


Jun 21, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar (11) catches a fly ball for an out during the fourth inning in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks  at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sport

Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar (11) catches a fly ball for an out during the fourth inning in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Rogers Centre, Toronto: photo by Nick Turchiaro/Reuters, 22 June 2016  

Jun 21, 2016; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar (11) catches a fly ball for an out during the fourth inning in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks  at Rogers Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sport

Toronto Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Pillar (11) catches a fly ball for an out during the fourth inning in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Rogers Centre, Toronto: photo by Nick Turchiaro/Reuters, 22 June 2016

World in focus — best photos for June 22, 2016

Toronto Blue Jays centre fielder Kevin Pillar makes a diving catch on a hit by Arizona Diamondbacks left fielder Peter O’Brien, during the fourth inning of a baseball game in Toronto
.: photo by Nathan Denette / The Canadian Press via AP, 22 June 2016


Lightning flashes during a thunderstorm over Havana, Cuba June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa

Lightning flashes during a thunderstorm over Havana, Cuba: photo by Enrique de la Osa/Reuters 22 June 2016 

Lightning flashes during a thunderstorm over Havana, Cuba June 21, 2016. REUTERS/Enrique de la Osa 

Lightning flashes during a thunderstorm over Havana, Cuba: photo by Enrique de la Osa/Reuters 22 June 2016 

World in focus — best photos for June 22, 2016

A Palestinian girl looks on during the 15th day of the holy month of Ramadan in the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, 21 June 2016. Most children in the Gaza Strip learn the Quran in the mosques during the holy month of Ramadan every year.
: photo by Mohammed Saber / EPA, 22 June 2016


epa05382771 Protesters take to the streets in support to the extension of acting President Jovelerme Privert's term, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 21 June 2016. The Haitian Parliament has not reached an agreement on the extension of acting President of Haiti Jocelerme Privert's term, which started in February pending a general election in no more than 120 days, nor the appointing of another interim leader, as hundreds of people took the streets supporting Privert.  EPA/BAHARE KHODABANDE

Protesters take to the streets in support of the extension of acting President Jovelerme Privert’s term, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: photo by Bahare Khodabande/EPA, 22 June 2016

epa05382771 Protesters take to the streets in support to the extension of acting President Jovelerme Privert's term, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 21 June 2016. The Haitian Parliament has not reached an agreement on the extension of acting President of Haiti Jocelerme Privert's term, which started in February pending a general election in no more than 120 days, nor the appointing of another interim leader, as hundreds of people took the streets supporting Privert.  EPA/BAHARE KHODABANDE

Protesters take to the streets in support of the extension of acting President Jovelerme Privert’s term, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti: photo by Bahare Khodabande/EPA, 22 June 2016

World in focus — best photos for June 22, 2016

Supporters of presidential candidate Maryse Narcisse hold up human skulls and bones along with a booklet with the photo of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide during a voodoo ceremony before the start of a demonstration in support of interim president Jocelerme Privert, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on June 21, 2016. The demonstrators are demanding an extension of Mr Privert’s expired mandate
: photo by Dieu Nalio Chery / Associated Press, 22 June 2016


. | by gumanow

Dallas, TX -- March 2015: photo by Gary Gumanow, 27 May 2016

Tobacco | by michaelj1998

Tobacco (Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 10 June 2016

Tobacco | by michaelj1998

Tobacco (Los Angeles, California): photo by michaelj1998, 10 June 2016

Josephine Miles: Lucifer Alone


The Fall of the Rebel Angels (detail): Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1562, oil on oak (Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels)

One rat across the floor and quick to floor's a breeze,
But two a whisper of a human tongue.
One is a breath, two voice;
And one a dream, but more are dreamed too long.

Two are the portent which we may believe at length,
And two the tribe we recognize as true.
Two are the total, they saying and they saying,
So we must ponder what we are to do.

For every scuttle of motion in the corner of the eye
Some thought of thought is asked in us indeed,
But of two, more: there we have likeness moving,
And there knowledge therefore, and therefore creed.

Josephine Miles (1911-1985): Lucifer Alone, 1969, from Collected Poems 1930-1983


 

Fall of Lucifer (fragment): Spinello Aretino, 1408-10, fresco, transferred to canvas, 116 x 170 cm (National Gallery, London)

World in focus — best photos for June 22, 2016

An American fan readies for a 2016 Copa America Centenario semi-final match between Argentina and the United States at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas.
: photo by Scott Halleran/AFP, 22 June 2016


. | by gumanow

New York, NY -- July 2015: photo by Gary Gumanow, 27 May 2016

3 comments:

Sandra said...

intriguing poems those of Josephine Miles....I think I will try to translate Lucifer alone !!

Hilton said...

JM's poems are wonderful, a kind of super realism of brain waves. Thanks.

TC said...

Sandra and Hilton,

Muchas gracias.

I love Jo Miles' brainy humour and oblique lucidity.

Impossible to be too realistic about those super unpredictable brainwaves...

Hard Light: Josephine Miles: So Graven and Made Shine