Job Discussion Forums

Isla Guapa · Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2010 6:06 pm Post subject:

Spiral, it sounds as though you have a really great group of Saudi students. I wish I had had a similar group when I was teaching at Temple University in Philadelphia.

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 5:03 am Post subject:

Wow! You've come a long long way Spiral!

gaijinalways · Joined: 29 Nov 2005 Posts: 2279

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:01 pm Post subject:

Is this wilful misunderstanding on your part or was I being too subtle?

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

Too subtle, Sasha. I admit I didn't get it either Embarassed

johnslat · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:05 pm Post subject:

Dear spiral 78,

I did - but then my mind is likely about as hopelessly Byzantine as Sasha's.

Regards,
John

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:07 pm Post subject:

OK, then listen carefully y'all, sigh. In a previous thread we had all sorts of condescending comments, whose tone was questioned by a few other posters, and yet now, in the space of a week, we have high praise from the same source. Spiral, I think the professional distance you've covered in that short time is a credit to you. Don't know how you did it!

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:09 pm Post subject:

Dear Johnslat

Nothing wrong with Byzantium. Lovely place, but only for the young....

THAT is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

johnslat · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:20 pm Post subject:

Dear Sasha,

One of my most favorite poets and one of his very best poems. Thanks.

"An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.'

CLAP, CLAP (but be very glad you can't hear my singing.)

Regards,
John

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

THAT'S what I get for skimming over exactly who's posting what...forgive my density Sad

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:38 pm Post subject:

That's OK Spiral. I'm sure you don't have the resources that the forces of communism have when it comes to keeping tabs and what's being said by whom about this and that...hic!

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:40 pm Post subject:

Dear Johnslat

Yes, he's a special one is WB. Said a lot of silly things in his political life, but all is forgiven when reading his art.

johnslat · Posted: Mon Sep 13, 2010 7:02 pm Post subject:

Dear Sasha,

I'm sure you've already read W.H. Auden's great memorial to WB, but just in case:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15544

Regards,
John

spiral78 · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 11534 Location: On a Short Leash

That's OK Spiral. I'm sure you don't have the resources that the forces of communism have when it comes to keeping tabs and what's being said by whom about this and that...hic!

My trusty Bulgarians are spread a bit thin at the moment over the Limburg mafia, I must admit. Perhaps I need to recruit some extras for a couple of weeks...