Directions

Because this blog is used to post literary works in installments, I highly suggest consulting the BLOG ARCHIVE to the right side of the screen, which will enable you to start at the beginning of whichever piece you care to read.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

In the Beginning

It seems silly to start a blog as a muse by quoting from others, but I will not take credit for that which is not mine. We all started somewhere, and I am not ashamed to have learned from others. I do not claim to be the only one. And so, I attribute the two references in the design of my blog:


One (at the end of  my "about me" section) is from the movie The Matrix. "I can only show you the door; you have to walk through it." Morpheus is an awesome guy.


The other is at the end of the note under my heading: "So send me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free-- I lift my lamp beside the golden door." Sound familiar? That could be because these lines are from Emma Lazarus's famous poem "The New Colossus," engraved on a stone tablet beneath the Statue of Liberty in the harbor beside Ellis Island, New York.


The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
 -- Emma Lazarus


What more to say have I, that has not been said? This is my little corner of cyberspace, carved out to make into a home for those who need it. This is my refuge from the cold, dark wastelands of eternity,* and there is no better warmth than companionship. So come stay a while, take off your coat, sit and warm yourself by the fire. Let us speak a bit, of things that were, things that are, and things that have not yet come to pass.**




*"...from the cold, dark wastelands of eternity" is a quote from Anne Rice.
**"...things that were, things that are, and... things that have not yet come to pass" is a quote from J.R. Tolkein's Lord of the Rings.