Slouching towards Bethlehem

[Recyclerz]

<p>Let me apologize in advance for any perceived or real fanciness in this thread. I think that in my whole life I've admired maybe three poems that did not include a man from Nantucket as a central character. But when I heard this quote from our girl Condi: </p><p>&quot;What we're seeing here, in a sense, is the growing -- the birth pangs of a new Middle East and whatever we do we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East not going back to the old one. &quot; Condoleeza Rice 7/21/2006</p><p>&nbsp;<a href="http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/69331.htm">http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/69331.htm</a> </p><p>it seemed as if this poem were coming to life right in front of me.</p><p>&nbsp;Enjoy/despair/ignore at your pleasure. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>The Second Coming</strong> </p><p>W.B Yeats </p><p>Turning and turning in the widening gyre </p><p>The falcon cannot hear the falconer; </p><p>Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; </p><p>Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere </p><p>The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst </p><p>Are full of passionate intensity. </p><p>Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. </p><p>The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spritus Mundi </p><p>Troubles my sight: somewhere in the sands of the desert. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, </p><p>Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. </p><p>The darkness drops again; but now I know </p><p>That twenty centuries of stony sleep were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, </p><p>And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>[Edited for spacing]</p><p>&nbsp;</p>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by Recyclerz on 7-26-06 @ 1:42 AM</span>

[FMJeff]

<p>The falcon cannot hear the falconer; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><img height="150" src="http://www.willforte.net/imgs/wp/thmb/Falconer800x600.jpg" width="200" border="0" /></p><p>Umm...what? Am I the only one not getting this thread? I must be stupid.</p>

[A.J.]

<p>Surely the Second Coming is at hand. </p><p>Only after I wait an hour.</p>