19 Dec 2013

My closing arguments - Part 1

My closing arguments - Part 1 - by P.K.Odendaal - 20 December 2013

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes, and ships, and sealing-wax
Of cabbages, and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings."
From the Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll.

The time has come for me to conclude with my closing arguments in this trial where I have placed Great Arguments before the Great Judge. I myself and how I think and experience life have also bowed to these arguments. I have over the past six years enjoyed writing my blog articles, and I have now exhausted all the ideas which I am passionate about and it is time for me to move on. I have also enjoyed the patronage of my readers who have inspired me to consider all sides of every argument, and I hope I have been objective in giving voice to the proponents of my adversary arguments. However - I never expected to have the last word.

11 Dec 2013

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Part IV

IV 

There is no chapel on the day
On which they hang a man:
The Chaplain's heart is far too sick,
Or his face is far too wan,
Or there is that written in his eyes
Which none should look upon.

 
So they kept us close till nigh on noon,
And then they rang the bell,
And the Warders with their jingling keys
Opened each listening cell,
And down the iron stair we tramped,
Each from his separate Hell.

3 Dec 2013

Phantasmagoria - Canto II


CANTO II--Hys Fyve Rules

"My First--but don't suppose," he said,
"I'm setting you a riddle -
Is--if your Victim be in bed,
Don't touch the curtains at his head,
But take them in the middle,

"And wave them slowly in and out,
While drawing them asunder;
And in a minute's time, no doubt,
He'll raise his head and look about
With eyes of wrath and wonder.

28 Nov 2013

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Part III

Ballad of Reading Gaol - Part III

In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard,
And the dripping wall is high,
So it was there he took the air
Beneath the leaden sky,
And by each side a Warder walked,
For fear the man might die.

 
Or else he sat with those who watched
His anguish night and day;
Who watched him when he rose to weep,
And when he crouched to pray;
Who watched him lest himself should rob
Their scaffold of its prey.


24 Nov 2013

The Ballad of Reading Goal - Part II

The Ballad of Reading Goal - Part II  


Six weeks our guardsman walked the yard,
In the suit of shabby grey:
His cricket cap was on his head,
And his step seemed light and gay, 

But I never saw a man who looked
So wistfully at the day.

 
I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye 

Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every wandering cloud that trailed
Its ravelled fleeces by.

22 Nov 2013

Phantasmagoria - Canto I - by Lewis Carroll


Phantasmagoria by Lewis Carroll

Canto I--The Trystyng

One winter night, at half-past nine,
Cold, tired, and cross, and muddy,
I had come home, too late to dine,
And supper, with cigars and wine,
Was waiting in the study.

There was a strangeness in the room,
And Something white and wavy
Was standing near me in the gloom -
I took it for the carpet-broom
Left by that careless slavey.

12 Nov 2013

The Ballad of Reading Goal - Part 1

The Ballad of Reading Goal by Oscar Wilde
 
He did not wear his scarlet coat,
For blood and wine are red,
And blood and wine were on his hands
When they found him with the dead,
The poor dead woman whom he loved,
And murdered in her bed.

He walked amongst the Trial Men
In a suit of shabby grey;
A cricket cap was on his head,
And his step seemed light and gay;
But I never saw a man who looked
So wistfully at the day.

10 Nov 2013

How I found my way out ...


How I found my way out ... by P.K.Odendaal - November 2013.

Note added to end on 29 November 2013.

I have taken this title from a series of books published over many years. Some of these titles are:
How I found my way out of:
Mormonism
Free Masonry
Catholicism
And many others.
 
And I think it is the most important thing in our lives to pursue the way out of hundreds of bondages and enslavements - by ourselves, by others and by society.

8 Nov 2013

Hunting of the Snark - The last two fits

Fit the Seventh
The Banker's Fate
 
They sought it with thimbles, they sought it with care;
   They pursued it with forks and hope;
They threatened its life with a railway-share;
   They charmed it with smiles and soap.
 
And the Banker, inspired with a courage so new
   It was matter for general remark,
Rushed madly ahead and was lost to their view
   In his zeal to discover the Snark

6 Nov 2013

Our previous and next poem.

I have selected some poems here which I like most and I have presented them in parts not to overload the demand on your free time. The present one, namely Hunting of the Snark, excels in its clothes of nonsense because this humorous poem tells the tale of an impossible voyage for an improbable crew hunting an imaginary creature. It was very popular and rose from being read by only a few of my readers in the first fit to being read by almost all in the latest fit.

But on a deeper level you will find it is an allegory for the quest of happiness as Carroll himself once admitted. This quest for happiness is, as usual, also accompanied by the fears of doom and doom itself, because of the duality of life.

You might have noticed that there are ten personages involved having all their names being started with a B. Down deeper you will also meet the acrostic for one of Carrolls female child friends named Gertrude Chataway.

Our next poem, "The Ballad of Reading Goal" by Oscar Wilde, one of my all time favourites, will be exactly the opposite and will be an image of human suffering brought on by human hypocrisy - a malady we still suffer under today.