Don't give me the infinite or the eternal: nothing of infinity, nothing of eternity. Give me the still, white seething, the incandescence and the coldness of the incarnate moment: the moment, the quick of all change and haste and opposition: the moment, the immediate present, the Now.
Moments of connection, in the creative process, in Nature ... these are what make life worth living ... even as certain forces are doing their best to destroy it all; (they won't succeed of course, but no doubt will cause much misery along the way).
“The simple man, whose best self, his noble self, is nearly all the time puzzled, dumb and helpless, has still the power to recognise the man in whom the noble self is powerful and articulate. To this man he must pledge himself. That is the only way. To act according to the spark of nobility we have in us, not according to our greediness and our cowardice, our hard selves. The hereditary aristocratic class has fallen into disuse. And democracy means the electing of tools to serve the fears and the material desires of the masses. Noblesse n’oblige plus.
This is really the worst that can happen to mankind, when Noblesse n’oblige plus. Goodness and badness there is bound to be. But a spark of nobility redeems everything. This is our job, then, our uncommon sense: to recognise the spark of nobleness inside us, and let it make us. To recognise the spark of noblesse in one another, and add our sparks together, to a flame. And to recognise the men who have stars, not mere specks of nobility in their souls, and to choose these for leaders. We can choose for noblesse and we can choose for basesse.
Nations are slowly strangling one another in ‘competition.’ The cancer of finance spreads throughout the body of mankind. Individuals are diseased with the same disease. To get money, and to spend money, nothing else remains. And with it goes all the strangling, and the bullying, and the degradation, the sense of humiliation and worthlessness of life, which is bitterest of all. There is nothing to be done, en masse. But every youth, every girl can make the great historical change inside himself and herself, to care supremely for nothing but the spark of noblesse that is in him and in her, and to follow only the leader who is a star of the new, natural Noblesse.”
– D.H. Lawrence, Movements in European History (1921).
D.H. Lawrence was and is a controversial, anti-democratic figure (it is amazing to think now that Movements in European History was a British junior school textbook); this somewhat Platonic quote is offered at face value. Every man is a dichotomy, and D.H. Lawrence is Exhibit A.
It is more important in this case to put him into historical context, D.H. Lawrence, T.E. Lawrence and Adolf Hitler were the same generation; Bertrand Russel, whom he corresponded with, who called him a proto-Fascist, was the prior generation, and Albert Camus and John Sartre were the generation after.
WWII and the Cold War made D.H. Lawrence’s political arguments unpalatable (when de-cartelization of German industry and the spread of democracy acted as a bulwark against Communism), while his befuddled common man seems to foreshadow Camus’ absurdism, but the preceding quote is still an interesting entry in the subject of how best to govern humanity.
(extracted from Gestalt-Genesis/Day Million, p. 874)
Don't give me the infinite or the eternal: nothing of infinity, nothing of eternity. Give me the still, white seething, the incandescence and the coldness of the incarnate moment: the moment, the quick of all change and haste and opposition: the moment, the immediate present, the Now.
Best passage.
Who’s to say where beauty stops and ugliness begins? Even in dried petals, faded colors and brown, crackling leaves there is an essence to admire.
Bubbling brigade circulated
in shallow and music of words
wordsmith multiplied in thousand of words,
in cycles of unending discourses
Great quote and great poem. The moment is all.
Now. Just now!
Let there be bubbling up!
"The seething poetry of the incarnate Now is supreme, beyond even the everlasting of the before and after."
Remembering reading The Rainbow when I was 20 or 21 years old. Might be time to read that life-changing book again.
Moments of connection, in the creative process, in Nature ... these are what make life worth living ... even as certain forces are doing their best to destroy it all; (they won't succeed of course, but no doubt will cause much misery along the way).
You have moved to the very top with me on Substack. I read every post with delight. Thank you.
The power of now.
Thank you SO much. Now to Live The Words.
Such a beautiful reminder of the gift of presence and how poetry is intricately connected to that.
Do you have a preference: NY Review of Books or London Review of Books?
“The simple man, whose best self, his noble self, is nearly all the time puzzled, dumb and helpless, has still the power to recognise the man in whom the noble self is powerful and articulate. To this man he must pledge himself. That is the only way. To act according to the spark of nobility we have in us, not according to our greediness and our cowardice, our hard selves. The hereditary aristocratic class has fallen into disuse. And democracy means the electing of tools to serve the fears and the material desires of the masses. Noblesse n’oblige plus.
This is really the worst that can happen to mankind, when Noblesse n’oblige plus. Goodness and badness there is bound to be. But a spark of nobility redeems everything. This is our job, then, our uncommon sense: to recognise the spark of nobleness inside us, and let it make us. To recognise the spark of noblesse in one another, and add our sparks together, to a flame. And to recognise the men who have stars, not mere specks of nobility in their souls, and to choose these for leaders. We can choose for noblesse and we can choose for basesse.
Nations are slowly strangling one another in ‘competition.’ The cancer of finance spreads throughout the body of mankind. Individuals are diseased with the same disease. To get money, and to spend money, nothing else remains. And with it goes all the strangling, and the bullying, and the degradation, the sense of humiliation and worthlessness of life, which is bitterest of all. There is nothing to be done, en masse. But every youth, every girl can make the great historical change inside himself and herself, to care supremely for nothing but the spark of noblesse that is in him and in her, and to follow only the leader who is a star of the new, natural Noblesse.”
– D.H. Lawrence, Movements in European History (1921).
D.H. Lawrence was and is a controversial, anti-democratic figure (it is amazing to think now that Movements in European History was a British junior school textbook); this somewhat Platonic quote is offered at face value. Every man is a dichotomy, and D.H. Lawrence is Exhibit A.
It is more important in this case to put him into historical context, D.H. Lawrence, T.E. Lawrence and Adolf Hitler were the same generation; Bertrand Russel, whom he corresponded with, who called him a proto-Fascist, was the prior generation, and Albert Camus and John Sartre were the generation after.
WWII and the Cold War made D.H. Lawrence’s political arguments unpalatable (when de-cartelization of German industry and the spread of democracy acted as a bulwark against Communism), while his befuddled common man seems to foreshadow Camus’ absurdism, but the preceding quote is still an interesting entry in the subject of how best to govern humanity.
(extracted from Gestalt-Genesis/Day Million, p. 874)
Impressive flow. Thanks for sharing!
Really good read