London. Englands Green.

Englands Green & Pleasant Land

Englands Green & Pleasant Land

London. Englands Green.

Browning’s poem Christmas Eve especially opened the door for me, finally walked through, after decades of thinking about it. Browning and Tennyson before Westminster Abbey. A cordial reception and then a dressing down. The Federation of the World.

Blake and Milton walk together over from St. Margaret’s Church and join us. My master guides me to what Blake called, so rightly, “Englands green & pleasant land.” A simple parish church. Surrounding graves. A church perhaps Thomas Hardy had restored, in need again of his services. A prayer.

And the Lady of the Lake. A thrush, not darkling now, though it were. Excalibur. Arthur returns. An inscription on the shining blade.

Frederick Glaysher

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Chartres Cathedral. Dante.

Boot of Italy

Having thought of Chartres Cathedral and Dante for more decades than I can remember, I consider it a blessing  that he chose to guide me there. The Queen of Heaven, to whom I prayed as a child, found me, I hope, not entirely unworthy of her grace and mercy, though we human beings, from that perspective, are always undeserving. Europe, a hallowed tale, in colored glass.

One always wonders how to go on. How from here. But one does somehow. Through the labyrinth. On one’s knees.

Back in London, so soon. Outside Westminster Abbey.

Frederick Glaysher

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Job. Hebrew Poets. Baal.

An Ash Heap of Moon Dust

An Ash Heap of Moon Dust

It took months of study, thought, reflection, and prayer, but I found my way forward, rose from zazen on the lunar platform, spoke with Job on an ash heap of moon dust. The Hebrew poets of Andalusia widened the perspective, with Hanagid directing Yehuda Halevi to guide me below to Mt. Carmel and Elijah’s slaughter of the prophets of Baal. Dante lifted the Persona from that scene of horror, flying up the boot of Italy, into Europe….

Frederick Glaysher

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Ben Jonson. Bartholomew Fair.

Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Having seen Antoni Cimolino’s production of Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair a few weeks ago, I find myself continuing to think about it. A rare play rarely played, Jonson’s comedy, like Shakespeare’s, offers its audience a serious vision of life in all its plenitude, letting the hot air out of everyone. Cimolino gives the play a marvelous interpretation, bringing it to life for our own time. After seeing the play, it was a shock to learn that the Stratford Festival production was the first performance in North America. Bartholomew Fair deserves to be much better known….

Now available in

The Myth of the Enlightenment: Essays
Forthcoming, September, 2014.

https://www.earthrisepress.net/myth_of_the_enlightenment.html

Frederick Glaysher

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