Penelope and Ulysses
Page 16
I have struggled with the idea and praxis of going public, putting my vision on paper and offering it to both kindred and the stranger. I have hidden my work and my creative thoughts and worlds from others, simply because I do not want to be confined or formulated, “and when I am formulated . . . [and] pinned . . . how should I begin to spit out . . . my days?”54
The other tension in me is that I do not desire to lead, I simply desire to share and to return to my solitude.
Through this journey that I have shared, I learned some things about sharing that I had forgotten.
If I do not give myself permission to share this with others, my avoidance and silence would be an admission that the sensitive and intelligent do not belong here; in truth, we have a great need for the sensitive, compassionate, and intelligent in our life and world.
Where would I be if my humankind family had not left their song for me to share, challenge, inspire me, and keep my soul warm in the darkest night?
This type of invention and exploration is a process of finding inner worlds that so many fear to travel in or speak about, the inner worlds that connect us to life, others, the past, present, and future, the inner voice of “self-ownership.”55
Within this struggle and inspiration I discovered that if I did not share my song with others then I would not be worthy of what my navigating ancestors have offered me freely. I also discovered that unless I was willing to share this vision, it lacked the affirmation of blood, my devotion and commitment to it. Although I love the songs that others have left for me, this is my song, and in humility and gratitude I say thank you to them, and you, for staying, for seeing, for exploring what I invented and created.
Thank you for allowing me the gift to share this creativity with you.
Thank you for teaching me to offer my work.
I thank those that have waited for me:
the past generations and navigators;
those that are with me now;
and those that will wait for me when they arrive later.
All that has been written is from
Myth
Fact
and Nonsense.
Endnotes
1The Bible, Deuteronomy 8: 2-3 (King James Version)
2Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science, trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage Books, 1974, § 276, p. 223.
3Ritsos, Yannis. From The Fourth Dimension: Selected Poems of Yannis Ritsos, transl. Rae Dalven. Godine, 1977.
4Miller, Alice. “The Essential Role of an Enlightened Witness in Society”, 1 January, 1997. From: http://www.alice-miller.com
5“Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world”. Plutarch (Greek essayist and biographer, A.D. 46-A.D. 120), “Of Banishment”.
6The epitaph on the grave of Nikos Kazantzakis.
7“Of all that is written, I love only what a person hath written with his blood, and thou will find that blood is spirit”. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra, translated by Thomas Common. The Pennsylvania State University, 1999.
8Kierkegaard, Soren, and Rohde, Peter P, The diary of Soren Kierkegaard / translated from the Danish by Gerda M. Anderson; edited by Peter P. Rohde Owen, London, 1960.
9“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, from: Eliot, Thomas Stearns. Prufrock and Other Observations. From Poems. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1920; Bartleby.com, 2011.
10“Do not go gentle into that Good Night”. Thomas, Dylan, and Jones, Daniel, The poems of Dylan Thomas/edited with an introduction and notes by Daniel Jones, New York: New Directions Pub. Corp., 1971.
11“Ode to a Grecian Urn”. Keats, John. Poetical Works, London: Macmillan, 1884; Bartleby.com, 1999.
12Plato. and Cary, Henry. and Burges, George. and Davis, Henry. The works of Plato. London, New York: G. Bell & sons, , 1891.
13As above.
14“Socrates said he was not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world”. Plutarch (Greek essayist and biographer, A.D. 46-A.D. 120), “Of Banishment”.
15Elytis, Odysseus. What I love: Selected Poems of Odysseus Elytis, translated by Olga Broumas, Copper Canyon Press, 1986.
16Reed, Henry. “Unarmed Combat.” New Statesman and Nation 29, no. 740 (28 April 1945): 271.
17Zenovia. Penelope, work in progress.
18Shakespeare, William, and Hunter, G. K. King Lear/William Shakespeare; edited by G.K. Hunter. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972.
19Aeschylus, and Fagles, Robert, The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides; translated by Robert Fagles; London: Penguin Books, 1977.
20As above.
21As above.
22As above.
23Shakespeare, William. Much ado about nothing Penguin, London : 1954
24Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra, translated by Thomas Common. The Pennsylvania State University, 1999.
25Aeschylus, Oresteia, and William Shakespeare, Macbeth
26Euripides, The Trojan Women
27Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra, translated by Thomas Common. The Pennsylvania State University, 1999.
28Shakespeare, William. and Davidson, Ric. Shakespeare Macbeth / edited by Ric Davidson. Avalon Beach, NSW: Lion Island, 2003.
29Aeschylus, and Fagles, Robert, The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides; translated by Robert Fagles; London: Penguin Books, 1977.
30Aeschylus, Oresteia, and William Shakespeare, Macbeth.
31Shakespeare, William. and Davidson, Ric. Shakespeare Macbeth / edited by Ric Davidson. Avalon Beach, NSW: Lion Island, 2003.
32Aeschylus, and Fagles, Robert, The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides; translated by Robert Fagles; London: Penguin Books, 1977.
33As above.
34As above.
35As above.
36Orwell, George. “Politics and the English Language”. GB, London: Horizon, 1946.
37Dante Alighieri. and Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Divine comedy of Dante Alighieri. Inferno. London: Routledge and sons, 1867.
38Gatsos. Nikos. Amorgos. translated by Sally Purcell. 1980; London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1998.
39Agathon, from Aristotle. and Thomson, J. A. K. The ethics of Aristotle : the Nicomachean ethics/translated by J.A.K. London: Thomson Allen & Unwin, 1953.
40Zarathustra, the philosopher, believed that a man should focus on doing more good when alive and in bloom, for he believed that upon death, all his good deeds reveal themselves to him and make the transition of light. Similarly, if a man has committed crimes of the blood and the destruction of others, these deeds also come to life upon one’s deathbed, and they become demons. Zarathustra advised that we remain focused in our lives, to know the connections we have with others, to make sure that we do more good to assist others and ourselves in our human journey, to assist us to have a “good death” as we have a good life—as the classical philosophers spoke about.
41Dante Alighieri. and Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Divine comedy of Dante Alighieri. Inferno. London: Routledge and sons, 1867.
42Agathon, from Aristotle. and Thomson, J. A. K. The ethics of Aristotle : the Nicomachean ethics/translated by J.A.K. London: Thomson Allen & Unwin, 1953.
43Whitman, Walt. and Murphy, Francis. The complete poems/Walt Whitman; edited by Francis Murphy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Education, 1975.
44“East Coker”. From Eliot, T. S. Four quartets/T.S. Eliot. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1943.
45Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra, translated by Thomas Common. The Pennsylvania State University, 1999.
46Aeschylus, and Fagles, Robert, The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides; translated by Robert Fagles; London: Penguin Books, 1977.
&nb
sp; 47Seferis, George. Complete Poems trans. Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. London: Anvil Press Poetry, 1995.
48Novalis. and Hope, M. J. and Just, Coelest August. Novalis (Friedrich von Hardenberg): his life, thoughts and works/edited and translated by M.J. London: Hope Stott, 1891.
49Sophocles. and Watling, E. F. and Sophocles. and Sophocles. and Sophocles. The Theban plays: King Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone/Sophocles ; translated by E.F. Watling. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1947.
50“Beauty is truth, and truth beauty. That is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know.” From Keats, John, “Ode to a Grecian Urn”. From: Quiller-Couch, Arthur Thomas, Sir. The Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford: Clarendon, 1919; Bartleby.com, 1999.
51Chekhov, Anton, Letters on the Short Story, the Drama and other Literary Topics, selected and edited by Louis S. Friedland. New York: Minton, Balch & Co., 1924.
52Lawrence, D. H., “The poetry of the present”. From: www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/essay/237874
53Seferis, George, and Walton, Mary Cooper. Mythistorema and Gymnopaidia/George Seferis; with translation by Mary Cooper Walton. Athens, Greece: Lycabettus Press, 1977.
54“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”, from: Eliot, Thomas Stearns. Prufrock and Other Observations. From Poems. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1920; Bartleby.com, 2011.
55Nietzsche, Friedrich. Thus Spake Zarathustra, translated by Thomas Common. The Pennsylvania State University, 1999.