No.23

LITTLE WOMAN

The daughter of the artiste

1910

Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya

1875-1952

Nationality - Russian

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LIFE

Daisaku Ikeda  b.1928

I will cast out

All the vagueness and indecision within me

Because my wish is to construct

The castle of my whole life

On the fulfilment of each promise that I make.

I want to live my life

As a surpassingly broadminded man

Known for being happy and honest

A person in whom people can have absolute trust.

I've put behind me

The age of dreaming about a rosy future

And with roots extended into life's reality

I realise that the power to create happiness

Derives from what we actually do today. 

-o0o-

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The Sayings of Lao-Tsu

Knowing others is intelligence;

knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength; 

mastering yourself is true power.

-o0o-

Three Poems by Thomas Hardy

REGRET NOT ME

 Regret not me;

   Beneath the sunny tree

I lie uncaring, slumbering peacefully.

      Swift as the light

   I flew my faery flight;

Ecstatically I moved, and feared no night.

      I did not know

   That heydays fade and go,

But deemed that what was would be always so.

      I skipped at morn

   Between the yellowing corn,

Thinking it good and glorious to be born.

      I ran at eves

   Among the piled-up sheaves,

Dreaming, "I grieve not, therefore nothing grieves."

      Now soon will come

   The apple, pear, and plum

And hinds will sing, and autumn insects hum.

    Again you will fare

   To cider-makings rare,

And junketings; but I shall not be there.

      Yet gaily sing

   Until the pewter ring

Those songs we sang when we went gipsying.

      And lightly dance

   Some triple-timed romance

In coupled figures, and forget mischance;

      And mourn not me

   Beneath the yellowing tree;

For I shall mind not, slumbering peacefully.

-o0o-

THE WOUND

I climbed to the crest,

   And, fog-festooned,

The sun lay west

   Like a crimson wound:

Like that wound of mine

   Of which none knew,

For I'd given no sign

   That it pierced me through.

-o0o-

TO THE MOON

What have you looked at, Moon,

     In your time,

   Now long past your prime?"

"O, I have looked at, often looked at

     Sweet, sublime,

Sore things, shudderful, night and noon

     In my time."

"What have you mused on, Moon,

     In your day,

   So aloof, so far away?"

"O, I have mused on, often mused on

     Growth, decay,

Nations alive, dead, mad, aswoon,

     In my day!"

"Have you much wondered, Moon,

     On your rounds,

   Self-wrapt, beyond Earth's bounds?"

"Yea, I have wondered, often wondered

     At the sounds

Reaching me of the human tune

     On my rounds."

"What do you think of it, Moon,

     As you go?

   Is Life much, or no?"

"O, I think of it, often think of it

     As a show

God ought surely to shut up soon,

     As I go."

-o0o-

CAFE TERRACE AT NIGHT

1888

Vincent Van Gogh 1853-90

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BEAUTIFUL OLD AGE

D. H. Lawrence 1885-1930

It ought to be lovely to be old 

to be full of the peace that comes of experience 

and wrinkled ripe fulfilment. 

The wrinkled smile of completeness that follows a life 

lived undaunted and unsoured with accepted lies 

they would ripen like apples, and be scented like pippins 

in their old age. 

Soothing, old people should be, like apples 

when one is tired of love. 

Fragrant like yellowing leaves, and dim with the soft 

stillness and satisfaction of autumn. 

And a girl should say: 

It must be wonderful to live and grow old. 

Look at my mother, how rich and still she is! - 

And a young man should think: By Jove 

my father has faced all weathers, but it's been a life!

-o0o-

A photograph and some verses of poetry

Every tree in the forest has a story to tell. 

Some of them were burnt but they endured the fire and got revived; some of them were cut, their barks injured, some people picked up their leaves to make medicines for their sicknesses, birds used their leaves to make their nests, etc. 

Yet the tree is still a tree! 

― Israelmore Ayivor

-o0o-

There’s no doubt at all that my first life-changing day was when I left home to join the RAF.

Some weeks earlier I had received notification of my National Service call-up, and shortly afterwards my father had discovered that a Glasgow boy who had relatives in our town had his call-up papers also, and that we would both be travelling on the same train to the same destination - RAF Padgate.

And so one night I said goodbye to my mother and sister, and my father accompanied me to Central Station in Glasgow where I met my travelling companion James Wood. The fact that there were two of us setting out on this adventure made the night journey quite pleasant, and I don’t think I had any fears or worries about what the future might hold.

At Padgate there seemed to be hundreds of young men being fitted out with uniforms, finding their billets and being shouted at by angry NCOs. We settled in to a rather chaotic fortnight of some square-bashing, inspections and lectures, and I was surprised to find that I quite enjoyed it all.

Our serious training began at RAF Bridgenorth, and at the end of six weeks I passed out as Aircraftsman Second Class Jaap.

My red letter day of course was that day on which I left home. Until then (as anyone of my age brought up in my kind of society will understand) my parents had made all my decisions for me, but from then onwards, despite being a member of a regimented organisation, I felt I was free for the very first time in my life.

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WESTMINSTER ABBEY WITH A PROCESSION OF KNIGHTS OF THE BATH, 
1749
Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto 
1697-1768 
Nationality - Italian

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