"My God, help me to survive this deadly love" (Thomas Hardy: Channel Firing)

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Pakistani stockbrokers rest during a trading session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) in Karachi: photo by Rizwan Tabassum/AFP, 28 June 2016



Pakistani stockbrokers rest during a trading session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSE) in Karachi: photo by Rizwan Tabassum/AFP, 28 June 2016

 

The British flag is being replaced by the European Union flag following the visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron at the European Union Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium: photo by Thierry Charlier/AFP, 28 June 2016



The British flag is being replaced by the European Union flag following the visit of British Prime Minister David Cameron at the European Union Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium: photo by Thierry Charlier/AFP, 28 June 2016

A schoolgirl reacts to rainwater being splashed on her, in a flooded street in Mumbai, India: photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP, 28 June 2016



A schoolgirl reacts to rainwater being splashed on her, in a flooded street in Mumbai, India: photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP, 28 June 2016

 
 Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain arriving at a summit meeting of European leaders in Brussels on Tuesday: photo by Francois Lenoir/Reuters, 28 June 2016



 Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain arriving at a summit meeting of European leaders in Brussels on Tuesday: photo by Francois Lenoir/Reuters, 28 June 2016  

Thomas Hardy: Channel Firing

That night your great guns, unawares,
Shook all our coffins as we lay,

And broke the chancel window-squares,

We thought it was the Judgment-day

And sat upright. While drearisome

Arose the howl of wakened hounds:

The mouse let fall the altar-crumb,

The worms drew back into the mounds,

The glebe cow drooled. Till God called, “No;

It’s gunnery practice out at sea

Just as before you went below;

The world is as it used to be:

“All nations striving strong to make

Red war yet redder. Mad as hatters

They do no more for Christés sake

Than you who are helpless in such matters.

“That this is not the judgment-hour

For some of them’s a blessed thing,

For if it were they’d have to scour

Hell’s floor for so much threatening....

“Ha, ha. It will be warmer when

I blow the trumpet (if indeed

I ever do; for you are men,

And rest eternal sorely need).”

So down we lay again. “I wonder,

Will the world ever saner be,”

Said one, “than when He sent us under

In our indifferent century!”

And many a skeleton shook his head.

“Instead of preaching forty year,”

My neighbour Parson Thirdly said,

“I wish I had stuck to pipes and beer.”

Again the guns disturbed the hour,

Roaring their readiness to avenge,

As far inland as Stourton Tower,

   And Camelot, and starlit Stonehenge.

     Thomas Hardy (1840-1928): Channel Firing, April 1914, from Satires of Circumstance, 1914

 


Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K. Independence Party, left, with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, in Brussels on Tuesday: photo by John Thys/Agence France-Presse, 28 June 2016 

 

 Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K. Independence Party, left, with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, in Brussels on Tuesday: photo by John Thys/Agence France-Presse, 28 June 2016  



EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker talks to UKIP leader Nigel Farage at the EU headquarters in Brussels #Brexit: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 28 June 2016

Nigel Farage greeted European Commission President Juncker in the European Parliament this morning. Mr Juncker told the Ukip leader he was surprised to see him in Brussels after last week's Brexit vote.: photo by Reuters, 28 June 2016

Nigel Farage greeted European Commission President Juncker in the European Parliament this morning. Mr Juncker told the Ukip leader he was surprised to see him in Brussels after last week's Brexit vote.: photo by Reuters, 28 June 2016

East Berlin Wall: photo by Dave R, 4 June 2012

The Kiss of Death. "God help us to survive this deadly love affair." (Friedrichshain, Berlin): photo by momo, 6 September 2015

A cyclist looks at a mural depicting Donald Trump and the former London mayor Boris Johnson, a “Brexit” supporter, in Stokes Croft, Bristol, England. The mural, echoing an iconic image of the Communist leaders Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev, was conceived by the We Are Europe initiative to motivate young people to vote Remain. and was created by Bristol underground artist Felix Braun, 47, a descendant of German immigrants.: photo by Neil Munns/European Pressphoto Agency, 30 May 2016

A cyclist looks at a mural depicting Donald Trump and the former London mayor Boris Johnson, a “Brexit” supporter, in Stokes Croft, Bristol, England. The mural, echoing an iconic image of the Communist leaders Erich Honecker and Leonid Brezhnev, was conceived by the We Are Europe initiative to motivate young people to vote Remain. and was created by Bristol underground artist Felix Braun, 47, a descendant of German immigrants.: photo by Neil Munns/European Pressphoto Agency, 30 May 2016

East German President Erich Honecker embraces Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev during festivities celebrating the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic of East Germany: photo by Regis Bossu, 1979



The largest remaining section of the Berlin Wall has long been an open-air exhibit called the East Side Gallery. One of its most famous paintings showed former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing his East German counterpart Erich Honecker.: photo by Reuters via Spiegel Online, 27 March 2016

 

The picture inspired many visitors to replicate the scene, as in this 1995 photo: photo by AP 1995 via Spiegel Online, 27 March 2016


 
The painting, however, is no mlonger to be seen. Authorities recently removed it as part of renovation work on the monument. Only the picture's inscription, "My God, help me to survive this deadly love," is left at the top of the wall.: photo by Irina Slintchuk via Spiegel Online, 27 March 2016

Explosions rocked Turkey’s largest airport on Tuesday night, according to Turkish authorities and television reports: photo by Ilhas News Agency, via Agence France-Presse, 28 June 2016

 

Explosions rocked Turkey’s largest airport on Tuesday night, according to Turkish authorities and television reports: photo by Ilhas News Agency, via Agence France-Presse, 28 June 2016

A Turkish government official said that the police fired shots at suspected attackers at the entryway to the airport’s international terminal, in an effort to stop them before they reached the building’s security checkpoint. The suspects then blew themselves up, the official said.: photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters, 28 June 2016

 

A Turkish government official said that the police fired shots at suspected attackers at the entryway to the airport’s international terminal, in an effort to stop them before they reached the building’s security checkpoint. The suspects then blew themselves up, the official said.: photo by Osman Orsal/Reuters, 28 June 2016

People waited with their luggage outside the airport after the attack: photo by Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse, 28 June 2016

 

People waited with their luggage outside the airport after the attack: photo by Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse, 28 June 2016 


TURKEY - Passengers embrace outside Ataturk airport after Istanbul suicide attack. By @ozannkosee #AFP: image via AFP Photo Department @AFPphoto, 28 June 2016

Turkish special forces members secured the area after an attack at Ataturk airport in Istanbul. Turkey has been rocked by a series of bombings since 2014, and they have been increasing in frequency.: photo by Sedat Suna/European Pressphoto Agency, 28 June 2016

 

Turkish special forces members secured the area after an attack at Ataturk airport in Istanbul. Turkey has been rocked by a series of bombings since 2014, and they have been increasing in frequency.: photo by Sedat Suna/European Pressphoto Agency, 28 June 2016

Bodies lay in the street outside the terminal after the attack at Ataturk airport: photo by Ilhas News Agency, via Agence France-Presse, 28 June 2016

 

Bodies lay in the street outside the terminal after the attack at Ataturk airport: photo by Ilhas News Agency, via Agence France-Presse, 28 June 2016

Crime scene investigators collected evidence on Tuesday night at Ataturk airport: photo by Sedat Suna/European Pressphoto Agency, 28 June 2016

 

Crime scene investigators collected evidence on Tuesday night at Ataturk airport: photo by Sedat Suna/European Pressphoto Agency, 28 June 2016

 
TURKEY - A riot police officer patrols Ataturk airport's entrance in Istanbul after suicide attack. By @ozannkosee: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 28 June 2016

 
TURKEY - Anti-riot police officers block entrance of Ataturk airport in Istanbul after suicide attack. By @ozannkosee: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 28 June 2016

@GailSimone What about Batman being attacked by duck-face? #deathkiss: image via Juliette @ElusiveJ, 17 January 2014

 Fredo se que fuiste tu, Fredo. me rompiste el corazón Fredo. M.C. #michaelcorleone #godfather #fredo #deathkiss: image via Gerardo Félix @Geras4849, 12 September 2013

@FotoCinephila Sin duda alguna @charly2d2 @rodasons @darbon @8yomismo #DeathKiss #Godfather2 #peloscomoescarpias: image via Alberto Serra @_aserra, Juliette @ElusiveJ, 21 August 2014

The Kiss of the Sphinx: Franz von Stuck, 1890-1914, charcoal, pastel and chalk on grey paper, 520 x 460 mm (The Hermitage, St. Petersburg)


  Scenes from the Life of Christ: 15. The Arrest of Christ (detail): Giotto di Bondone, 1304-06, fresco (Cappella Scrovegni, Padua)



Death and the Maiden: Hans Baldung Grien, 1518-20, oil on panel, 31 x 19 cm (Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Basel)  

MEXICO - Graffiti against US Donald Trump painted on the embankment of Bravo River in Ciudad Juarez. By Jesus Alcaza: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 28 June 2016

Sheep graze at sunset in Dalanzadgad, in the southern Gobi desert: photo by Johannes Eisele / AFP, 28 June 2016