Saturday, December 17, 2016

Poem for Saturday, Prey, Lewis Ginter Legos

The Resistance and Its Light
By Pier Paolo Pasolini
Translated by Brandon Brown

so I came to the days of the Resistance
I didn't know anything but style
it was a style made totally of light
memorable recognition
of sun. It could never fade
not even for an instant
even as Europe trembled
on its deadliest evening
we escaped from Casarsa
with our stuff in a cart
to a ruined village
among canals and vineyards it was pure light
my brother left, it was a mute morning
March, in a train, disguised
his pistol in a book it was pure light
he lived a long time in the mountains
which shone like paradise in the blue gloom
of Friulian plains it was pure light
in the attic of our farmhouse my mother
always stared at those mountains
hopeless, she saw the future it was pure light
with a few poor people I lived
a glorious life, persecuted
by despicable rhetoric it was pure light
the day of death came
Independence Day, the martyred world
knew itself again in the light...

the light was the thought of justice
I didn't know what kind of justice
all light equal to all other light
then it changed, the light like an uncertain morning
a waxing dawn that spread all over
Friulian fields and canals
struggling workers in the light
the rising dawn was a light I mean
beyond the eternity of style
in history, justice has been
the realization of a humane
distribution of money, hope
maybe, brighter than that
new light

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I had a pretty good Friday! Maddy found out that she was admitted to the Berklee College of Music, which is what she really wants to do -- she will start online in the spring and look into moving to Boston next fall. Alice picked her up in the morning so they could go for manicures while I rewrote the last two paragraphs of my retro review of Voyager's "Prey". When we went to pick up Maddy for work, we stopped at Krispy Kreme so she and I could get our free birthday doughnuts and hot chocolate.

In the evening, Maddy went to Arclight to oversee Star Wars crowds late into the night, and Paul and I went to my parents' for Thai food. Now we're watching the fourth episode of the second season of The Man in the High Castle, which remains phenomenal and seems vastly more relevant to daily life after Trump's election (and has Callum Keith Rennie, who is scary and awesome). We may have to spend the weekend bingeing! From Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden earlier in the year, some of the Lego animals:
















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