w39 links and recs
"It may be that we cease; we cannot tell."
book of the week: 'Good Friday, and other poems' by John Masefield. The link is to Project Gutenberg, where it is free in the public domain.
When we have done with Time and wander Space,
Some meeting of the blind may strike a spark,
And to Death's empty mansion give a grace.
It may be, that the loosened soul may find
Some new delight of living without limbs,
Bodiless joy of flesh-untrammelled mind,
Peace like a sky where starlike spirit swims.
It may be, that the million cells of sense,
Loosed from their seventy years' adhesion, pass
Each to some joy of changed experience,
Weight in the earth or glory in the grass;
It may be that we cease; we cannot tell.
Even if we cease life is a miracle.
I don't read a lot of poetry; I think because if it's very slightly off it's bothersome in a way that slightly off prose isn't. I can look at a clunky sentence in a novel & think "Oh, I see how that happened" or "That's of its time" but in poetry everything has a task, you know? So I avoid it, in an effort to avoid being bothered. But I figured I could trust Masefield & was right.
purchase of the week: it wasn't this week's purchase, or even this year's, but shawls. Really big shawls. Three or four years ago I had a pinterest board called something like 'the local children believe I am a witch' which got to over 200 pictures of hayseed aunties wearing drapery & layers & boots and suchlike. & eventually I realised that actually shawls & shawl pins (the search you want is 'kilt pin') aren't expensive at all. And you'll never grow out of them. The overnight temperatures just this week dropped below 10, so in the mornings I sling a shawl round me and feel ready for the winters of 2025, 1925, 1825, etc.
Caveats: don't do shawls if you regularly use candles or cook over flame, nor if your dog or cat strenuously dislikes having their claws unhooked from cloth.
listening to: in various frames of mind, 65daysofstatic, Alaskan Tapes & Jon Hopkins. This was the week my Spotify premium ended so I am mainly listening to things I already have. I need to figure out a Bandcamp budget - the wishlist is getting silly. Also, of course, youtube videos named things like 'a playlist for a quiet autumn morning' & 'a comfort playlist for living a quiet life'.