Of course we always wanted to have wings, we always wanted to be able to breathe under water and we wished we could speak to animals. In some people these are passing fancies in others they become life-long passions, never attained but dreamed of so that we get ‘nearly there’ with hang gliding, aqualungs and crazy gadgets that make animal nosies.<\/p>\n
But the brain is a clever piece of evolved technology and it carries with it exquisite instances of the strange and rewarding. High on that list is hearing in your mind the prefect reproduction of a dead friend’s voice. \u00a0As the Greek poet put it ‘…those nightingales awake,” but there is also the thought of projecting oneself into the future beyond one’s years. I share with you one of the most beautiful such thoughts by James Elroy Flecker:<\/p>\n
To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence<\/p>\n
I who am dead a thousand years,
\nAnd wrote this sweet archaic song,
\nSend you my words as messengers,
\nThe way I shall not pass along.<\/p>\n
I who am dead a thousand years,
\nAnd wrote this sweet archaic song,
\nSend you my words for messengers
\nThe way I shall not pass along.<\/p>\n
I care not if you bridge the seas,
\nOr ride secure the cruel sky,
\nOr build consummate palaces
\nOf metal or of masonry.<\/p>\n
But have you wine and music still,
\nAnd statues and a bright-eyed love,
\nAnd foolish thoughts of good and ill,
\nAnd prayers to them who sit above?<\/p>\n
How shall we conquer? Like a wind
\nThat falls at eve our fancies blow,
\nAnd old Moeonides the blind
\nSaid it three thousand years ago.<\/p>\n
O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
\nStudent of our sweet English tongue,
\nRead out my words at night, alone:
\nI was a poet, I was young.<\/p>\n
Since I can never see your face,
\nAnd never shake you by the hand,
\nI send my soul through time and space
\nTo greet you. You will understand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Of course we always wanted to have wings, we always wanted to be able to breathe under water and we wished we could speak to animals. In some people these are passing fancies in others they become life-long passions, never attained but dreamed of so that we get ‘nearly there’ with hang gliding, aqualungs and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[271],"class_list":["post-574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily","tag-flecker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daniel.footstepsbooks.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}