Clouds: A reflection

[Pa'li Makto]

A patch of blue way up high,
overpowered by beaten white peaks of cloud in the sky.
A little girl watches as the wind blows,
she feels her mind slowly ebb away from reality.
A ruined castle sits undisturbed,
abandoned amongst the lush green fields.
Alone she waits.


Far back into the past,
a Crusader kneels in a courtyard.
Watched from all sides by archers atop high ramparts.
He kneels, his tattered tunic stained with blood.
The blood of the innocent; woman, man and child.
He stares up at the sky, the very sky gazed on by his forefathers and his children.
His eyes brim with tears,
hot metal sears the flesh in his back.
Penance is demanded.
The Crusader is still and ever silent.
A patch of blue reflected in his tears.




Just a small poem that I wrote when after I played a bit of Clive Barker's Jericho today; with the main menu music in my head. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLfncjjroec It made me think about just how close time wise we are to our medieval ancestors. It's was only 1095 when Pope Urban II proclaimed the first Crusade and sent many to their deaths and created a system of systematic bloodshed that would only end at the conclusion of the ninth crusade in 1272. When you look up at the sky, you can imagine an ancestor, in a different time looking back at the same sky.

[Advent]

Interesting. Very interesting...

[Moco Loco]

In my mind I picture a view of Earth from space

[Pa'li Makto]

Cool idea!!

[Moco Loco]

Like everything that has ever happened, happened right here :3

[Pa'li Makto]

That's what I thought of in a way when I look up at the sky. You can imagine a human from thousands of years ago looking up at the same sky; minus the cloud variations of course.

[Empty Glass]

Originally Posted by Moco Loco

Like everything that has ever happened, happened right here :3

Originally Posted by Pa'li Makto

That's what I thought of in a way when I look up at the sky. You can imagine a human from thousands of years ago looking up at the same sky; minus the cloud variations of course.

Now you're making me think of what one man once said about a certain pale blue dot!

[Pa'li Makto]

And what was that?

[Empty Glass]

Originally Posted by Carl Sagan

...Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam...

[Pa'li Makto]

Oh I see. That's very philosophical.

[Empty Glass]

Here - give this a listen:

I'm sorry if I'm derailing your thread Pa'li Makto, but I just admire Carl Sagan's awesome voice among other things. You'll also see the specific photograph I've been thinking of.

[Pa'li Makto]

Hey no problem, I'm not annoyed at all, I'm quite happy that you've given this some thought.
Cool video by the way! I see the pic too.

[apache_blanca]

Originally Posted by Pa'li Makto

That's what I thought of in a way when I look up at the sky. You can imagine a human from thousands of years ago looking up at the same sky; minus the cloud variations of course.

Interesting your poem, Pa'li. I have flashes like this^^^too, & I just wonder. It gives me chills but not in a bad way - it's like a contact with "some other knowledge". A bit like in the pic in my signature

I liked Car Sagan's quote altho I can't watch the video right now - skiving!

[Pa'li Makto]

Thanks Apache, I get chills too. It's an interesting concept to think about, especially when you relate it to the small amount of time the humanity have had civilisations. Circa 3500BC.

[apache_blanca]

The weirdest thing happened to me once: I was looking at... myself across the centuries

I was knitting on a sofa & listening to this tune:

& started seeing "a movie in my head" - the images of snow, fir trees, mountains... I wondered, what that was, & step by step it unfolded into a story where I was a hunter in a tribe somewhere near the Great Lakes. It was a very cold & cruel winter, people & animals were dying I went with other hunters further away to get food - but we were lost during a snow storm, & when I - the only survivor (I thought) - came back, everybody of my clan died I was feeling horrible, my life had no meaning anymore. Only one baby survived, so I made him some food & went on with him looking for other people. But it was screaming all the time, & of course attracted the wolves. I couldn't fight them well cos I was holding it with one hand. Suddenly other hunters appeared, I threw the baby to them but I was already dying of blood loss. But the others managed to fight the wolves off & carried the baby with them. At least someone survived; that was the last thing I thought.
When I died too, I watched the whole scene from somewhere above thru some golden mist, my dead body didn't matter anymore. What mattered was - did I do the right thing? It turned out "yes" cos altho I didn't manage to save the others from my tribe at least I tried to the best of my ability.

And then was it, the weirdest thing: somehow, "me the hunter who died" & "me the knitter on the sofa" were looking at each other thru some impossible "time & space hole" I remember that, as a hunter, I found this place where "me the woman" was sitting very strange cos it was all angles, it was full of square lifeless things, & people even had their food in boxes. But they didn't have to die of cold & hunger anymore. They were comfortable - but they were also sort of imprisoned in their security. "I the hunter" didn't have the time to ponder which life was better cos the vision dissolved. But I guess I would still prefer the freedom...

Weird, eh.