Poem for Wednesday

Aboard at a Ship’s Helm
By Walt Whitman

Aboard, at a ship’s helm,
A young steersman, steering with care.

A bell through fog on a sea-coast dolefully ringing,
An ocean-bell—O a warning bell, rock’d by the waves.

O you give good notice indeed, you bell by the sea-reefs ringing,
Ringing, ringing, to warn the ship from its wreck-place.

For, as on the alert, O steersman, you mind the bell’s admonition,
The bows turn,—the freighted ship, tacking, speeds away under her gray sails,
The beautiful and noble ship, with all her precious wealth, speeds away gaily and safe.

But O the ship, the immortal ship! O ship aboard the ship!
O ship of the body—ship of the soul—voyaging, voyaging, voyaging.

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: "Not What You Think", for the "101 Ways To Get Rid Of Lana" challenge.

Some stuff I meant to post last night, till I got distracted writing angsty post-OOTP Snupin -- and can anyone explain to me why, much as I love reading happy schmoopy Marauders-era Remus/Sirius, I can't write it and there's a piece of me that doesn't really believe in it? (It's the happy/schmoopy that I don't believe in, not the Remus/Sirius, which is more real to me than the threat of You-Know-Who.) Have been reading some of 's SB/RL rec list, and while there are many wonderfully written happy stories here, the Sirius story that has been trying to crawl out of my brain for months is post-POA and involves memories of Dementors and a complete inability to experience pleasure without going to pieces.

Anyway, from the same Mad as the M&C parody (March 2004, #439), the Oscar preview, on why Russell Crowe should win: "For being able to play an intelligent, conscientious, compassionate leader without having any real role model to pattern himself after." This made me howl, particularly as the background news was yammering on about Reagan's conservative compassion which is so thoroughly missing from the current White House administration, and while I fully agree that the current White House administration is just as bad, the Reagan nostalgia factor is making me nauseous. Can someone draw up a chart of the spread of AIDS while Reagan was preaching compassion?

Speaking of M&C, sort of, has provided this morning's execution in the form of Death By Paul Bettany in Wimbledon. And , these are for you:

Russell Crowe's bits are best described as his "dripping twig".

Paul Bettany's bits are best described as his "unruly whatchamacallit".

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Feel free to make the obvious comments but don't blame me, I'm only the messenger. I woke up in such a Whitman mood; now I feel like Going Someplace. I am off to seduce have Mexican food with !