~Robert Graves
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome! It's lovely to have you here.
Sending thanks to participants in Jone's New Year's Postcard Swap. I have enjoyed receiving your warmth and creativity on these cold days.
It's been a transformative week. What are you and I being transformed into? My hope is that we will become more clear-eyed, generous, imaginative, curious, and brave.
I thought about "stiffening the sinews" the other day, so I had to share Shakespeare's Henry V, Act III, Scene I [Once more unto the breach, dear friends]:
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, conjure up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage:
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let it pry through the portage of the head,
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to my collection of brave poems (and to Elena, who formatted it)! You can read it online here and you can print it here. (Choose "print on both sides" and "short edge." If you have trouble printing from Adobe, let me know.)
I had thought I would pick my favorite poem to give the $50 Bookshop gift card to, but when it came down to it, I couldn't decide. Congrats to Irene, who was chosen by the random choice generator. Happy book shopping!
Isn't the image below cool? It's on a Wikipedia tshirt and says (in small letters) Free Knowledge For Everyone! I'm a huge fan of free knowledge in general and Wikipedia in specific, so I bought one of these tees for a family member. It was a hit with my kids and their SOs.
If you'd like to learn about how to keep info/anything on the Web safely archived, check out this DIY Web Archiving zine by Quinn Dombrowski, Tessa Walsh, Anna Kijas, Ilya Kremer, and Amanda Wyatt Visconti.
Time to add your link!
7 comments:
Thank you, dear Tabatha. I needed this post this week. I am no longer part of the Metaverse and hoping to learn to be a small kind of tiger in our corner of the real world.
This:
" In peace there's nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:"
Thank you. You always inspire. xo, a.
Yes, and WOW, "Follow Your Spirit!" Onward we go! What a performance by Hiddleston, thanks for sharing it Tabatha, the poem, and the Marvelous "Brave Poetry Collection, Brava for all!! The" Free Knowledge" art is lovely–thanks also for hosting! xox
Tom does a fantastic job, so thanks for sharing - and I'm looking forward to cehcking out your Brave Poetry Project! Thanks for hosting, Tabatha.
Oh, Tabatha, I needed every inch and aspect of this post this week. Thank you, friend, thank you. ❤️
Tabatha, thank you for hosting, for the good info on archiving blog posts, and featuring the Brave Zine.
Indeed, "bend up every spirit", needed & wanted very much after this week, Tabatha. Thank you for your "Brave" poems, will use them for a "one-a-day" tablet! And, I do love Wikipedia, too, have supported them for a long time! It's a rich post, and I thank you for the treasure, and for hosting!
What a stirring poetry performance. I wish I had his stage presence! I look forward to dipping into your Brave collection, Tabatha. (And reading about archiving blog posts.) Thank-you for hosting us. x
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