Taking Off on J. Middleton Murry's Skakespeare: William Shakespeare Campfire
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line. William Shakespeare & Taking Off on J. Middleton Murry's Skakespeare
Posted by RonPrice on September 05, 192004 at 06:56:04:
THE THICK OF THE HUDDLE
‘Sensation and watchfulness in itself’-a total experience suffused by awareness-is, I believe, what Blake meant by ‘spiritual sensation’; and it is as near as we shall get to a definition of Imagination-the means and instrument by which, in man, that which is creative creates itself. -J. Middleton Murry, Shakespeare, 1936.
Before ultimate silence these poems at home: I’ve seen them coming for years--the pace, the tone, the notes, the range. Strident life’s raging chatter I’ve kept at a distance and so I’ve got fatter. Those who come onto my personal stage need me somehow or want to engage. I rarely seek out neighbours or friends, but rejoice in the life He willingly sends. Perhaps it’s just choice, a quiet eye that broods and sleeps, some inward sigh. Perhaps I take the endless words that I have gathered like the birds, cut out notes here and long bars there, a trifle sharp, a trifle too bare.
A planet swarming with hords and herds, teaming with life and plenty of nerds,* requires some points of silence and thought, some intensest feelings with words sought quite explicitly to tell of the tale of an ineffable life far beyond the pale. And the adventure right here in fine detail, fed by some radiance sent in the mail, past the chaos streaming through life, with a curb and a rudder to cluster the strife and the throng from some nethermost fire; out of the thick of the huddle beauty springs higher and higher and higher and higher!