There is birdsong that enswathes the air of the graveyard. " Joined with the chorus of the dead, it pierces the heart with more precision than prophesy. This song " of the living's eloquence and the deads' abandon " carries us towards evening.
Its melody wends through Time, through Fate's indifferent landscape. No mathematician can map its course nor calculate by statistical prediction its destination.
What we know is this: We are riding this song together, and have done so through eternity. " Marrow-fruited bone, drifting dust, and omnipresent birdsong -- all of our forms and guises -- propel us through the impossible " the Unfolding Fate of All Things.
Self-knowledge begins when one is open to an acceptance of life's dark verities, as well as, to an awareness of one's deepest and darkest drives and desires, even awful, hateful thoughts and impulses. Otherwise, denial of these aspects of one's nature creates what James Hillman termed -- toxic innocence, whereby one's psyche is so driven to protect one's perceived innocence that it becomes overwhelmed by its hidden drives.
In short, an underpinning reason how distressingly large segments of the U.S. populace began to evince the mode of mind on display under fascist rule.
Conversely, to the mode of mind of a tyrant -- one possessed of a compulsion for control of others, mind and body -- one should become fond of exploring psychic landscapes, even those of hostile, fact-resistant, capitalist true believers, fundamentalist religious types, crackpot pragmatists, puritanical ninnies, insular liberals, Obama cultists, and self-referential tyrants and dogmatist tight-asses.
There is a great deal one can learn about oneself when confronting strange, even hostile landscapes of the human soul; in particular " the assertions and actions of others that induce despair and reflexive rage within you.
Human engagement, like art, involves more process than principle. One must engage the process, evoke the ritual, show up at the ceremony, join the protest " to see what spirits have been summoned e.g., the unsettled ghosts of memory, the strutting spirits of the age, the admonishing/beckoning spirits of the deep.
It is not enough to deliver light; one, also, must listen to the soliloquies of restless shadows " just don't take them at their word. Moreover, light is a deft liar as well. Yet, when tales of light and shadow are entwined, we start to move in the direction of a compelling tale.
Do not demur from dialog with difficult feelings, and those seemingly irredeemable aspects of your hidden nature " even if doing so engenders inner conflict and involves trespassing into your comfort zone. Violate the fascist catchphrase: "Don't go there."
By all means, go there. "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." -- T.S. Eliot
Phil Rockstroh is a poet, lyricist and philosopher bard living in New York City. He may be contacted at: Visit Phil's website http://philrockstroh.com / And at FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/phil.rockstroh(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
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