From a CSL Letter to Malcolm, stuffed out by me

"Who killed Suburbia?"
"Pride" said Superbia.
"When is it really dead?"
"When charity has fled."
"Is there nothing they can do?"
"See that beggar walking through:
"If they will give a penny
 "And he can buy a beer,
"They can go off to Heaven
 "To the Enemy we fear."
We won't gaze on Superbia
 Or devils any more
But the beggar in Suburbia
 And his plight shall be our lore.
At eventide the Capital
 The toil and noise he left
To find a spot in smaller towns
 Where sleeping is no theft
Where friendly people give you food
Where calm the night, though bed be crude.
He got a ticket as a gift
And from his hour made some thrift
But once arrived he paid a tea
 Sun being up but getting low
Wishing his toothache would let be
 But dentists with him make it slow
Pining he loved still to see
Sunset's glow with each tree.

...

Came a girl, brown eyed, blonde
 Brought some food for his cheer
Handsome was she and pretty
Winsome her ways and witty
The belle of any city
 But lived in the town right here.
When o'er apple and cheese-bread
Beggar crossed himself, she said:
"How is a man who's begging
 "And sleeps on stony bed
"Still can believe a fairy story
"Starting wars, many and gory?"
"Now, are you sure," beggar said
"Sleeping on stony bed
"Hurts the faith of monkish creed?
"And who was who started
 "The wars indeed?"
"OK, the Irish have
"Been had badly" - "Yes they have."
"But how about just getting along?
"Doesn't warfare prove you wrong?"
"Now getting along is good indeed,
"Spoilt by ambition, spoilt by greed
"By resenting you spoil it
 "You spoil it by hate
"By the giving and asking
 "Of pardon too late,
"Betimes of law or creed the quarrel
"Living without won't end the war all,
"Commies try, look how they do
 "Rail at crusaders for massacres done
  "At Torquemada for forcing a creed
"And do it more than Catholics do
 "For more than by sword died by gun
  "By men who see men as weeds."

....

"I have to do my job
"As sure as I'm called Job."
The Janitor however took
A cup of tea ere he shook
Shoulder of the beggar sleeping.
"Guv'nor, no use to howl or of weeping
"But if you like a tear of tea
"With milk and sugar that can be."
Beggar truly did no weeping
Slowly waking up from sleeping.
"Now tea sounds good, it is a deal,
"I'll go when I have had this meal."
"No problem I have yet a quarter
"Of an hour before I really ought ter
"Be showing off to early leavers
  "A porch without a stranger here."
  "That is enough! But oh, what cheer:
 "Not all the Janitors so far
   "Have done so to me, only some.
"Enjoy the tea before you leave us.
 "And oh, some biscuits from this jar ..."
   He said because his wife had come
Precisely with the jar of biscuits.
"I know this ain't no beer and whiskey
"But in the morning this is better."
"Agreed." the beggar said and let her
Deal out the biscuits in his hand
 The one that did not hold the cup.

...

"Now who killed Suburbia?"
Said Christ to Superbia.
"And is she really dead?"
"If charity had fled ..."
"But has it now? The beggar
 "Is taking cheese and beer
"With bread after his kippers,
 "Enjoying it with cheer."
"But what about the snubs
 "The beggar had to bear?
"Yes what about them?
 "If you accuse I hear.
"Now read your papers ..." - The devil looked
 But all the ink was blotted out
 Superbia then gave a shout:
"You don't mean it's forgiven??"
"The beggar's even shriven.
"Begone foul Satan, hold thy peace!"
Now Superbia had to cease
His accusations on the town
Which the beggar loved without a frown.
He fled to Hell, the Queen of Heaven
Said "thank you Son, that he is shriven."

Review of a Book I've Not Yet Read

To Owen the Grandson of Owen
Who I hope will be reading this Poem
The Novella your Grandfather wrote*
Was it really no recenter note
And not by yourself but your mentor?
For it seems to be made ex eventu
Like when Virgil wrote Eneid Six
On how Rome and the Punes came to kicks.
But again ... it was read by some Polak
Who thereafter could make the "Seks Misja"?
And the recently unburrowed Muslims
Of Russia have children like that.
For security living as Gollums
But in daylight as blind as a bat.
To the rest who don't know what I'm saying
It is hardly a matter of praying
For deeper and deeper profundity
That would really be quite a redundity.
It's a book Owen Barfield has written
By his grandson in copies now smitten
But still I would leave this a riddle
If I were to leave out here its title
Which is cleped Night Operation
Would you make a Russian translation?

* Referenced in Malcolm Guite on Owen Barfield (nearly at the end of the video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWPaYqMYwbA

10.000 page views, since stats started

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Forgiveness Has Its Sides.

Susan had as you remember decided to forgive the attempt of rape that George White had committed back in 1949. And as a token of her real forgiveness, she did not take that up with the Gárda when questioned next morning.

"We cannot keep him if we cannot prove he had no criminal intent against you."

"But burglary?"

"You said nothing was missing, right?"

"No."

"Did you see him pick things?"

"No. I just caught him where he should not be."

"And the earlier bad behaviour was not bad enough for you to lodge a complaint against him either?"

"As said, it was ugly, but as I have forgiven him, I do not delve into it."

"He walks, then. Just one moment for you to change your mind."

"No, I won't."

"Then he walks."

And he went down the corridors, turned a corner and after a minute or two came back with - George White.

"He generously said he would not file a complaint against you for violence, since you were a bit hysterical."

They went out. The Gárda man came back and said:

"Now you may walk too."

And Susan left the office. George - as in Georgina this time - was waiting outside.

"Well, I am glad he did not file a complaint," said she, as they started walking. "As I hurt him most, and since this does not count as self-defense, I might have, if not gone to prison, since I 'took him for a burglar' (as if he weren't), at least paid some fines for excess in defense and for the mistake."

"But how could he explain it?"

"He had lived in the house before you. He wanted to get a few old chests out. He tried to ask you in a friendly manner, but after your old history (the nature of which you would not tell) ... well, he got off with a warning too."

"And what did he say about our old history?"

"He slandered you."

"What did he say?"

"That you had had the hots for him and been sudden shy when he tried to go about it."

"That is also a way of putting it. I went out with him, and I liked him in a friendly fashion as long as he showed no too personal interests in me."

And they rounded a corner ... and there he was.

"Ah, my lady, you do hurt me as you say that you know!" (wonderful how much more suave he was when George was around thought Susan). "No, do not scowl! I will admit I went too far, and should not have taken up any kind of contact with you ever again. But ... I was put under pressure."

"Under pressure?" said both girls.

"Well, can I offer you a drink while we talk?"

"Not for me, please!" said Susan.

"Not for me neither," said George (or Georgina as we will call her when George White is along) with some solidarity for Su.

"Then let us sit, next park."

They did. He started explaining. It seems his father was being held hostage, while everyone believed he was away in Israel, which was not true. A hostage by the policeman who had sat in the car when Susan was taken to the judge, a hostage by the shrink Coon, a hostage by the guy who had wanted to bomb Dresden ... and a few others. So, in order to free his father, who by the way would have to swear on the Torah not to speak about it, if and when he was released, he had to do another dirty trick on Susan.

"Namely?" said Susan with a bit sharpness.

"Arrange some oddity about the electric lights. Make you doubt your sanity. Make others doubt it if you wouldn't."

"What kind of oddity is that?"

"Well, turning it up and down and on and off ... especially when you were sleeping, so as to wake you."

"And if I had said it was most certainly not me who turned it on and off?"

"Well, in the eyes of some doctors that would seem a bit odd. They might conclude you did it to yourself out of some kind of attention seeking ..."

"But that would be a lie!"

"And they have always been able to tell lies from truth in your own experience?"

She was silent for a moment before saying: "no."

"You see, what a plan that was."

"Are you going to try carrying it out now?"

"When I told you?" He paused. Then he added with a gleam in his eyes: "that would be pretty diabolical."

Susan looked at him as if he was something the cat had brought in, some dead rodent, which, being no cat, she had no appetite for.

"No, I will not. Father may be killed for me not serving them, but on the day of judgement he shan't have to be ashamed also."

"Something we could do to help him?" Susan asked.

"Na, not likely."

"Are you aware who George here is?"

"You mean Georgina?"

From her he got a frown and fro Su a "don't call her that."

"No, we did not really catch her back in that day, she went to hiding with the tinkers or something. Odd, we usually get to know who most people are."

"Heard of Famous Five?"

"No ... not really."

Then he went on: "oh, you mean the four kids with a dog who were the terror of criminals not to mention of constable .... in the early forties? The ones who snooped around where police would not? Julian, Richard, Anne and a Georgina who insisted on being called George? Plus a Tim who was more of use through his clumsiness than through ... wait, are you that 'George'?"

"I am."

"And your cousins are still alive and well and ... could you do something for my pa, please?"

Forgiveness Is Serious Stuff

"Jack, may I disturb you please?"

"What is the matter? An older French gloss not in the dictionary would be a case for Warnie. Me it's rather 14th C. than le Grand Siècle, you know."

"You remember the night we met?"

"Of course. Some cad had tried to lay his hands on you and you had paddled across the Thames."

"Well, it seems his father wants me to forgive him."

"A father would want that, of course, but what are his arguments?"

"A car key. A handsome sum of money. And a somewhat phoney excuse."

"If you take these things after he wrote you explicitly he was asking you to forgive his son, I would try to forgive him. Or reject the offer."

"But if the excuse is too bad?"

"What excuse is that?"

"The man who tried to rape me grew up among men who thought if you are a young lady and walk out into the woods with someone, you are asking to be raped. How stupid is that?"

"If they are Jewish, it is not quite stupid."

"Right is right and wrong is wrong anywhere, right?"

"Sure, but rape is one thing among us and one thing among people where inviting a rape is the only way a girl has to get toused without getting stoned afterwards."

"Surely Jews don't stone people any more?"

"No, but it seems some reactions die hard with them. A Jewish girl - at least among conservatives - can consider getting raped (by a Jew of course if it is the one she likes), but would consider herself totally disgraced if she were to be seduced."

"Was it like that with Christians too?"

"Not really, since a girl was not stoned for getting seduced. Even married woman could count on some forgiveness and understanding."

"So rape was much worse among us than among Jews, then?"

"Yes ... or depends when and where, some places and times there were unwed maidens who had similar sensibilities to Jewesses. Like the one in St Thomas More's satire. I won't quote it."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I was doing some research on what reactions to seduction are in different times:

.... For to win love in sondry ages ...
... there sondry be usages.

"And in some cultures 'usages' are indeed very sondry."

"So you mean the excuse could be honest?"

"I would not bet on it. But if I took the offer, I would still try to forgive. And it could be, we cannot look into their hearts."

"I suppose you Christians go around forgiving people all the time?"

"Did you before you fell away?"

"No, not offended all that often. Oh, except by family and friends ... usually small stuff ... and there I forgave."

And she cried, because she thought of Edmund again. And - though she did not tell Jack Lewis - of her own sister forgiving her the betrayal.

"I'll go and get a tea for you." And he did. "Think it over when you are alone."

She did that. She considered she had had no untoward meetings with him or anyone else for some time. She considered she was going to visit Narnia in Umbria, where her family had been going. And she decided to take the offer and to try to forgive young Mr White.

Dialogus Temporibus Romanis

Vir malosus et nigris capillis advenit ad iuvenem ...

"Amicule, amicille ... optime te revideo!"

"Num homunculus factus sim? Bene venisti, sed unde?"

"Fui Lugduni proh dolor!"

"Quare proh dolor? Ut audivi optimas habent salsas carnes!"

"Et vina. Sed linguilla! Non est nominillum quod non diminuunt!"

"Ah, ideo illud 'amicille'!"

"Ideo, ut dicis."

"Bone Jacobe Villari, quae alia dicenda sunt de lingua Lugdunensium?"

"Barbarica verba! Romae dicunt: 'avis habet rostrum exiguum', nonne?"

"Mihi videtur illud et recte quidem! Et Lugduni?"

"Lugduni? 'Avicellus habet beccum finum'!"

"Bene capione: avicellus habet beccum finum?"

"Immo: 'avicellus haat beccum finum' si vis. Quare de barbarismatibus Lugdunesibus curas?"

"Quia narras. Praeterea et Romae dicunt interdum 'haat' pro 'habet'."

"Utinam Corsichae fussem! Vel et Sardiniae vel apud Siculus!"

"Insulis a Cartheginensibus captis abhinc septingentos annos ... verum est quod bene grammatice loquuntur."

"Grammatiche!"

"Grammatice."

"Tu quid dicis de grammatica? Immo curas de illud 'avicellus haat beccum exiguum'?"

"Finum, dixisti, non exiguum."

"Vere, vere."

"Mater mea Ripuaria fuit de Treveris. Ic pratu auc theudiscu talu!"

"Debuisses Lugdunum ire!"

"Et tu quidem Corsicam."

"Ubi de grammatichis nullum opus."

"Quot sunt Lugduni?"

"Lugdunu a longinguu fugiunt omnes, desperatum iam de causa!"

"Sed alii restant, salsarii inter alios?"

"Salsarii, inter alius ... laburusi sunt."

"Quod de Corsica nullus est qui diceret."

"Ah, vidi quidem servus patris! Laburusissimi fuerunt! Et sudor! Et honor!"

"Honor? Nonne dicunt 'improbus labor' ...?"

"Post Christum fabrum, qui est qui posset labures spernere? Videndu servus quasi oratiunem feci ..."

"Sed ipse non 'laburasti'?"

"Habui servus, nun?"

"Bene, forsitan ibo Lugdunum."

"Tu melius quam ego, Faramunde!"

Debate on Hypnosis (Incomplete Poem with Prose Comment)

"Where arms are floating in the air,

where fingertips are drawn to touch

each other or the nose, right there

hypnosis is the demon's clutch,"

quoth one. "Oh no," the other said.

"Don't fear that such hypnosis is.

Though reason rests it hath not fled,

but images sail on brisker breeze,

the flesh obeying what mind sees."

"But what," the first said, "if a lie

is in the image, when might flees

to lift an eyelid, as you try

or if a hand, you know not why

is glued to things that have no glue

or weighing down or floating high

beyond your might, although not true

the obstacles that fetter you,

or if some else's word shall gain

the power to make your voice a 'mooh'

hath Hell not shown its pomp again?"

"If demons use what men can use

man's use is not their vile abuse.

Also there is the right to play

and to enact is not astray

unless real thraldom is achieved

or other vile abuses made

in sins from which Our Lord relieved

mankind when on the Cross he bade

for Father's glory, devil's loss

for foes' forgiveness and for Church

for those reborn of ...

...

Comment:

Sometimes it does happen that I do come up with a brighter idea than just writing on a poem. As with asking myself what - if any - the Church has said about hypnosis.

It seems Pius XII pronounced himself twice, 1956 and 1957. A bit late on my scale of where to find reliable Romans. But any way, what he said was:

• may be used for medical purposes
• may be researched scientifically
• may not be used as pastime among laymen or even religious, or clergy.

Seeming to imply there is a danger but there is also a rightful use. And also to imply that science/medicine is the key to it./HGL

Further comment:

It seems the alpha state can be reached, at least approached, without using phrases like "you cannot" (or for autohypnosis "I cannot") "open the eyelids - try - you may stop trying". Or whatever the state implying unnatural impossibilities to the one undergoing someone else's or his own hypnosis.

Insofar there is a possibility of hypnosis without that particular kind of lie.

The problem is I risk becoming an addict to autohypnosis doing these experiments. And I think the ones who want me to try it are actually not my greatest friends. Like people who think I am hot-tempered because their proposal angered me, when it was in fact a bad proposal. Or who think I have an unforgiving side for my not forgiving, not what has been done once in the past but what people are still doing. Or who read an incapacity to forgive merely personal offenses offered by a system into my rejection of that system - like any of and all together of child welfare, compulsory school, psychiatry in its present extent and powers. Or who simply think I need a treat without a woman - though I would be better off married really - and also without chemicals they think or pretend to think I am using when I am not.

How much is prayer, how much is witchcraft, how much is merely depriving me of natural occurrence of alpha state when waking up slowly? Behind my craving for doses of it artificially procured by induction?

And what if a priest simply wanted me to admit this and prayed - and I fell because he prayed? I mean, he could have thought hypnosis or autohypnosis or meditation or yoga or something was behind something else I was doing or saying or writing or believing, or not doing, when in fact that was simply not the case./HGL