Tag Archives: George Orwell

The Ballad of St. Orwell

It might seem uncommon, to some passing strange,
that your life some others would like to arrange,
to limit your options, your sights and your range;
a preposterous thought, you’ll agree.

It might seem presumptuous, to say the least,
to let someone else say who starves and who feasts,
and draw a hard line between layman and priest;
yes, it feels overzealous to me.

It might seem unusual, in point of fact,
that those who have plenty despise those who lack,
yet build their great empires on those same poor backs;
an unsettling picture to see.

They might seem in error, such customs as these,
that lift a few up but leave most on their knees,
though the difference between them is but small degrees;
yes, a puzzling dichotomy.

It might seem quite curious, given some thought,
that some will complain, while most others stay bought,
and give up those precious gifts so dearly bought;
a great mystery, oh yes, indeed.

It might be for nothing, this musing of mine,
some light entertainment served with bread and wine,
but into each darkness surely, some light must shine;
while I’ve breath in me, so it will be.

25 APR 2013

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Thirteen O’Clock (and All’s Well)

Thirteen o’clock and all the world is well;
beyond the reach of the tempest makers,
where thought and reason still may sway the mind
and the conscience of a nation feeds not
on unfounded rumors of threat and fear,
but seeks for truth behind innuendo
and shadow agendas for armed conflict,
recognizing that in the doublespeak
asserting the need to take firm action,
to rail against an unseen enemy
is but a diversion to cloak from view
the clandestine interests of the few,
so that they may be pursued without pause
and bankrupt the soul of a proud country.

16 FEB 2003

Ok, so maybe it’s a VERY strange question…but does anyone but me think that a re-interpretation of George Orwell’s 1984, as a play written in entirely in iambic pentameter (much like Shakespeare’s retelling of the Tragedie of Hamlett King of Demarke) sounds REALLY cool? Any thoughts?

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Thoughts in these Increasing Militaristic Times

“As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.” — Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I

To think that it has been two hundred and twenty eight years since that observation was made. So many have been the advances, so far have we traveled, how much cleaner are our streets now … and how much we have forgotten, forgotten to remember. Santayana said that those who do not learn from the past are fated to repeat it. Lo, how our great and wondrous empire stretches and cracks at the seams, this great and mighty ship, this grand republic, festers and rots from within from its self-inflicted, neglected and overlooked wounds.

What price freedom? Is the individual or the state more important? These are indeed quite rapidly becoming Orwellian times, my friends.

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