Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Of Psalms and Poets

ozarque posted a poem today, "Get Thee To," which said in part:

"This world is spinning out, into mad orbit,
with nothing to brake it but poets and their psalms."


This is exactly how I feel, doing everything I can and it's not near enough or ever like to be.
Tags: poetry
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  • 12 comments
wylde_writer

wylde_writer

August 20 2008, 08:23:11 UTC 12 years ago

When I feel like that I remember the world is nothing but microcosms, en masse.
And everything we do, *everything*, affects our microcosm.
And every microcosm affects the mass.

No energy wasted, you know? And don't forget the power of alchemy and critical mass.

I'm all about the hundredth monkey theorum. We don't need a billion enlightened souls.
We need 100 clever monkeys, and we'll reach critical mass.

voila.

~W~
dianavilliers

dianavilliers

August 20 2008, 09:43:30 UTC 12 years ago

Two things:
1) You are only responsible for things you have power over. If you are doing what you can, it's enough. It'll have to be.

2) Don't despair. It's a waste of time and energy.

ysabetwordsmith

ysabetwordsmith

August 20 2008, 16:12:50 UTC 12 years ago

"You are only responsible for things you have power over."

This is true.

"If you are doing what you can, it's enough. It'll have to be."

This, however, is not true. I'm not personally responsible for causing global warming, nor do I have the power to stop it. I'm doing what I can to slow it, but other people are doing more to speed it. My efforts will not stop it from killing me or otherwise destroying my life, if other people's actions push it far enough, just because I am innocent of blame. The wilding weather does not look where it steps.


dianavilliers

dianavilliers

August 20 2008, 21:02:14 UTC 12 years ago

The weather could always squash any of us like the bugs we are, with or without anthropogenic climate change.
You do more than you think. Your concern and willingness to do what you can inspiries and reassures me, and I am in a more practical place to effect change than you are.
Besides, one of my colleagues worked on the Montreal Protocol. Things on this scale have been done before. This one'll be harder, but I have to believe it can be done.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a fleet model to run.
phantomcranefly

phantomcranefly

August 30 2008, 13:12:42 UTC 12 years ago

The wilding weather does not look where it steps.


In a hurry (here from ozarque's journal) but I just want to say I love that sentence. It seems like the start of a poem on its own.
minor_architect

minor_architect

August 20 2008, 14:15:18 UTC 12 years ago

Hmm. I'm not sure I agree with the sentiment expressed in these lines. Are poets the only ones able to brake the world's mad orbit? If so, we're in a lot more trouble than we first thought. There are so few poets, and so many who are not.

The burden has to be shared equally, I think. We're all capable of it.
the_vulture

the_vulture

August 20 2008, 17:22:45 UTC 12 years ago

I think that line refers more to the solace we'd find in the words of a poet. It's also a bit of a oxymoron meant to highlight how dire the situation is.
ysabetwordsmith

Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

August 20 2008, 17:29:52 UTC 12 years ago

I think that line is open to interpretation. One, as you say, refers to the fact that words have power: they can comfort us or inspire us to action. Another is that, in many ways, people with more practical skills are choosing not to apply those skills towards keeping the world livable on economic, environmental, political, and other levels. It's down to poets and activists and other idealists to wave our arms and scream at the passed-out-drunk driver of the bus to wake up before we hit the side of the mountain.
the_vulture

the_vulture

August 20 2008, 17:25:13 UTC 12 years ago

Now, is that your personal world spinning out of control, or the world in general (I'm guessing the latter, given all your recent posting on the presidential election race).

In the end, doing what you can is the best you can do. If it makes a substantial difference or not is up to the Fates to decide, not for us to waste anxiety over. 'Course, that's MUCH easier to say than it is to hold in our heads...
ysabetwordsmith

Thoughts

ysabetwordsmith

August 20 2008, 17:32:24 UTC 12 years ago

More the world in general than my personal world, although the general calamity is making my personal life more difficult in various concrete ways. I have to concentrate on taking what action I can, and then pushing the massive pile of ugly probability out of my awareness so it doesn't paralyze me. This is a situation where my superpowered extrapolative engine is not always my friend.
the_vulture

Re: Thoughts

the_vulture

August 20 2008, 22:24:28 UTC 12 years ago

"This is a situation where my superpowered extrapolative engine is not always my friend."

I feel your pain...
lizamanynames

lizamanynames

August 20 2008, 21:03:09 UTC 12 years ago

As above, so below - I feel that way about my own life, too.

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