Please pass me the word

[Bar22do]

Please pass me the word.
I have the key, but the keyhole is rusty -
the tongue in my mouth the tongue
vainly starts to turn
I’ll meet you at the inn of dawn
We’ll rise with clouds
with wind to unknown destination
‘cause, how long can we still drag
our dolls through the dust
knock around the earth
half dead, half flabbergasted,
glass-eyed, forsaken
Let’s not waste time (it gets ever worse)
or cheat with yet another twelve seconds
Don’t be afraid. In any manner one day
there will be but one day left.
Dot. And -
No more need to be slave to pain
or to see men and beasts
no more shouting alone at night
to deafen what darkness whispers
no need to smile while heart bleeds rawly
neither to breathe, stubborn breath after breath
It’s not that it’s time to die
a familiar hope is still pregnant with chords –
but the words, what did the words say exactly?

(Has there ever been a time of which one could say : « after the war»? a war is always raging somewhere)

[Alexander III]

I have to be honest I'm having a hard time interpreting this poem, could be that my mind is still dazed after my bio exam. However I would love to hear your notes on this poem Bardo as it does intrigue me.

[Bar22do]

Alexandre III - Of course, I am sorry, this was a very personal reaction to wars (recent ones which I witnessed and of which I wrote more to myself, to tell you the very truth), to their devastating effects on those who survive but loose as much as the very sense of remaining here, be it to witness. In the poem, they two, would perhaps love to live, are still suspended at something that, although they do not know what it is anymore, sounds like hope, but of which message is blurred and most probably indecipherable... They dream of death is an attempt to stop the unbearable --- Actually, you reminded me in a way (and by contrast) of the existence of this poem in my files, when yours, yesterday, spoke of our possibility to regain immortality... Vive la Jeunesse! and I thought, how beautiful, but is there any chance we win... for mankind is always occupied with warcraft and only few are able to glean some essence of life and to give it permanency (and the question arises - what impact it has)... cogs' last poem contains valuable hints to these matters... I hope I answered your question a bit. Thanks for reading.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Please pass me the word.
I have the key, but the keyhole is rusty -
the tongue in my mouth the tongue
vainly starts to turn
I’ll meet you at the inn of dawn
We’ll raise with clouds[COLOR="Red"]We'll rise
with wind to unknown destination
‘cause, how long can we still drag
our dolls through the dust
knock around the earth
half dead, half flabbergasted,
glass-eyed, forsaken
Let’s not waste time (it gets ever worse)
or cheat with yet another twelve seconds
Don’t be afraid. In any manner one day
there will be but one day left.
Dot. And -
No more need to be slave to pain
or to see men and beasts
no more shouting alone at night
to deafen what darkness whispers
no need to smile while heart bleeds rawly
neither to breathe, stubborn breath after breath
It’s not that it’s time to die
a familiar hope is still pregnant with chords –
but the words, what did the words say exactly?


Tumultuous and passionate! (but see the small grammatic error above).

[Bar22do]

Thanks Prince for reading and commenting. And for the welcome correction.

[cogs]

there seems to be independent thought, and not, as you said, a unity. individuals are led about by their own desires, not understanding 'no man is an island entire of itself'
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/29901.html
the more i read, the more i got from your poem, and the ending was pleasantly surprising. (thank you for the reference)

[free]

This is really a moving poem. I’d understood its feelings even before I read your explanation below. And the reason why it had to be expressed in a poem. There is always something to be done, someone to be persuaded, waited for, something to be understood, like the words you are asking for...

[Bar22do]

there seems to be independent thought, and not, as you said, a unity. individuals are led about by their own desires, not understanding 'no man is an island entire of itself'
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/29901.html
the more i read, the more i got from your poem, and the ending was pleasantly surprising. (thank you for the reference)

You're welcome for the reference, your last poem is very good in my eyes.
Is not: "no man is an island entire of itself" somehow a hint that along with the possible independent manifesting thought, a unity, or - interconnectedness (as an obvious beginning) is a sort of a module in the existing?
"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind" that continues your quotation seems to approve...
And back to my poem, let us (not) imagine, to what extent can massive men death diminish me if I am involved in mankind... what "saves" my two protagonists is their still lingering power to prick up their ears to hear an answer to their unbearable question...

[Bar22do]

Thank you "free" for your so sensitive a read, you have just given me some confidence that my poem did convey a bit of what I felt while urged from within to write it.

[cogs]

i was noticing the chaotic motives that have no governing force, that give rise to covetousness, or 'looking out for number one'; when men should be striving for a unified spirit of action to employ their wills. i think this spirit is outside of us, because 'mankind is always occupied with warcraft', and an individual division exists.

[Bar22do]

i was noticing the chaotic motives that have no governing force, that give rise to covetousness, or 'looking out for number one'; when men should be striving for a unified spirit of action to employ their wills. i think this spirit is outside of us, because 'mankind is always occupied with warcraft', and an individual division exists.
I answered you to that in your thread "Special"; and I agree, this spirit is outside of us, as yet, but hopefully not for ever... thanks for the exchange, cogs

[cogs]

yes, bardo, thank you. i think some of the clues in your poem, to answer what those words might have said, are 'forsaken' and 'hope'. because it takes faith to believe, despite severe conditions that speak to the contrary, that we're not forsaken. perhaps this is the point, to learn faith? but definitely to learn the error of war, which does divide us.

[Bar22do]

cogs: perpetuated "error of war" (horror of war)... not only divides us as you so rightly say, it strips us of our humanity also and thus sentences our end, unless we learn... your related quotation spoke of our interdependency, which the French philosopher Lévinas developed to "Absolute Responsibility for Other". Retrogression can only give way to progression with the last as watchword... but is it not utopic...

[~Sophia~]

I especially loved these lines which I read as pertaining to so much more than man-on-man war but also, our man-on-battered- planet war:


how long can we still drag
our dolls through the dust
knock around the earth
half dead, half flabbergasted,
glass-eyed, forsaken

A wonderful poem Bar!

[Bar22do]

Sophia, you are so right, this poem is placed in the midst of "man-on-battered-planet war", not one "man on man", the two lovers are lost in the mess, have had enough, became disorientated... war and horror robbed them of the beauty of their lives... Thanks for your kindness. Happy snowy Christmas!