Bury Me Deep In Love

*



The Peonie Nebula, picture courtesy of NASA.

And the wild wings were raised
Above her folded head, and the soft feathered voice
Was flying through the house as though the she bird praised
And all the elements of the slow fall rejoiced
That a man knelt alone in the cup of the vales,

In the mantle and calm,
By the spit and the black pot in the log bright light.
And the sky of birds in the plumed voice charmed
Him up and he ran like a wind after the kindling flight
Past the blind barns and byres of the windless farm.

In the poles of the year
When black birds died like priests in the cloaked hedge row
And over the cloth of counties the far hills rode near,
Under the one leaved trees ran a scarecrow of snow
And fast through the drifts of the thickets antlered like deer,

Rags and prayers down the knee-
Deep hillocks and loud on the numbed lakes,
All night lost and long wading in the wake of the she-
Bird through the times and lands and tribes of the slow flakes.
Listen and look where she sails the goose plucked sea,

The sky, the bird, the bride,
The cloud, the need, the planted stars, the joy beyond
The fields of seed and the time dying flesh astride,
The heavens, the heaven, the grave, the burning font.
In the far ago land the door of his death glided wide

Dylan Thomas, A Winter's Tale



Bury me deep in love goes the song, and he could feel the tides lapping far off, distant shores, arcane imagery, siren songs, over-arching melancholy. For years he had felt like a bug living on the bottom of an aquarium full of liquid lead, crushed by the weight of everything. Surviving in that harsh environment was no mean feat, as the weight of the molten lead crushed down on his psyche, flattening his bones.

He would sit outside the building, his clothes dank from addiction sweat, the alcohol oozing through his pores and his head scattered to the four winds, enveloped in an overwhelming melancholy. Thought disordered to the max. The lyricism he had once managed to find within his despair was now in tatters. Nothing worked any more. He had become a walking derelict; derelict in his own soul, shambolic in his physical presence. He gazed mournfully out at the normal world, the handsome young men in their flash cars, smiles plastered across their healthy, happy faces, and he knew true envy.

Why couldn't he be like them? Why had he been born so defective? Why was this bleak planet he had been born on so unkind? It couldn't just be him. A nice guy in a hostile universe, the swirling thoughts barely keeping insanity at bay. He tried to do the right thing. He tried to keep true to some creative ideal, to be a decent person. To celebrate, promote, live the ideals of social justice. Just beyond his peripheral vision was the evil drift, the dark greys and malicious spirits, always ready to sweep him away. The only thing that kept them at bay was the alcohol.

This despairing state he had descended to lasted for years. He dragged himself through each day on the bottom of that lead aquarium, his head bowed, his spirit crushed, his thoughts secretive as he devised ever more destructive ways to escape the overwhelming despair. Nice guy, pity he drinks so much, came the voice, cutting through, but it was too late to save him. He knew his destiny was a sad and dangerous one. He knew no human could survive this level of stress for long. He knew that here, at the bottom of the mercury seas, life would be short and flickering, his unique intelligence dying long before it had a chance to flower.

There was no way out, of that he had been convinced for a very long time. They might as well have been a different species, those young happy people driving by, for all the chance he had to be like them. He sucked on a cigarette, unfashionable now, and cared no longer that his clothes stank and he stank; all he could think of was how to get enough money to relieve the pain. Bury me deep in love, the song went, and the tears sparked behind his eyes as he dwelt on all the past failures, they knew not what they did, those who had left him.

He continued to drown himself in the crowds each evening, seeking that clicking point where the black bourbon and cokes enveloped him and he forgot, at last, the agony of his own spirit, forgot everything. But these days, instead of waking up in the beds of total strangers, laughing at the predicament and getting off once more just for the hell of it, before stumbling into the brittle light of some suburb he had never heard of, these days he find himself sitting on the outskirts, forlorn, watching everybody else couple, uniting in laughter and the joys of transitory love.

Instead he was still on the bar stool as the tides of people washed out. The speed stopped working and no amount of alcohol could drown the pain any more. Everything he had run on for decades stopped working; and he had no idea where to go or what to do. Summer sadness replaced summer love, and the respect he had once been shown for his unique set of skills fell away. The quality of jobs he was given worsened, and it was more frequently assumed his hopeless alcoholism would leave him dead in the gutter. He watched the handsome lads pass by, adoring girlfriends by their side, the world their oyster, and he knew as deeply as one could know anything that all was lost, utterly lost. There was no way back and the death that awaited him there in Belmore Park grew ever closer.




THE BIGGER STORY:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-10-voa26.cfm

President Bush, who is in Beijing for the start of the Olympics, attended church Sunday and urged greater religious freedom in China. The communist country remains officially atheist, and human rights groups have criticized China's government for its treatment of some religious minorities and those who practice religion outside of government-sanctioned institutions. Mike O'Sullivan reports from Beijing that some in China see a growing role for religion in the future.

At Chong Wen Men Protestant church in Beijing, ethnic Koreans from northeastern China hold a Sunday worship service in their native language.

In the Niujie area, Beijing's largest Muslim neighborhood, believers gather for noontime prayer.

The Niujie area has Islamic supermarkets, restaurants and bookstores. This mosque, a lively center for education and worship, was founded 1000 years ago.

These Beijing Muslims are part of the one or two percent of the Chinese population that embraces Islam. Christians are thought to number three to four percent. Buddhism and Taoism are traditional Chinese faiths, and remain a part of the culture.

Officials insist that religion is practised freely in China, and they point to congregations like this mosque in Niujie. Yet critics point to tight controls and persecution of groups that do not enjoy official favour. The Chinese government recognises five faiths - Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, and Protestant and Catholic Christianity. Congregations must register with a state-controlled association, and unregistered groups, including Christian house churches, are illegal and subject to crackdowns. Human rights groups have criticised a crackdown on dissidents and unregistered faith groups in the lead-up to the Olympics.

A Buddhist Offering Incense
A Buddhist offering incense
Human Rights groups also accuse China of repression of Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims in the western province of Xinjiang, and members of the outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong. The government responds that religious freedom is enshrined in Chinese law, and accuses the critics of interfering in China's internal affairs.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10/washington/10gitmo.html?_r=1&em=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1218402209-vxJ4ElLLuMDkjhx+nJJMDQ&oref=slogin

The verdict in the first war crimes trial at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is in: One poorly educated Yemeni, with an impish sense of humor and two little girls, is guilty of supporting terrorism by driving Osama bin Laden. With credit for time served, the sentence is no more than five months.

But the other, perhaps more important verdict — the judgment on the Bush administration’s military commission system — is still out.

With the decision from a panel of military officers last week, the Pentagon accomplished what once seemed nearly impossible. It completed a trial in a system that has faced a series of challenges since its birth in the unsettled months after the 2001 attacks.

The verdict and the five-and-a-half-year sentence may not have been as severe as the government had hoped for, but it was a green light for a tribunal that the Pentagon plans to use to prosecute as many as 80 detainees, including five men charged as the plotters and coordinators of the Sept. 11 attack. Nonetheless, the central question about the war crimes system remains unanswered after its first trial: Is it fair enough and open enough to meet Americans’ concept of justice?

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-08-10-voa30.cfm

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is urging the United States to use its diplomatic clout to help bring about an end to conflict and bloodshed in the breakaway region of South Ossetia. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington, the Georgian leader spoke on U.S. television as his government offered to begin talks with Russia on ending hostilities.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili speaks during a security council meeting in Tbilisi, 09 Aug 2008
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili speaks during a security council meeting in Tbilisi, 09 Aug 2008
President Saakashvili says he believes the United States could play an important role in quelling an escalating military conflict between his nation and its giant neighbor, Russia.

"The United States and the world community should stop [the] intervention and invasion of my sovereign country," said Mikhail Saakashvili. "I think the U.S. is the most powerful country in the world. I think the U.S. has lots of leverage, and I think there are lots of diplomatic means that it could be done through. This is not about Georgia anymore. This is about basic values of humanity."

Mr. Saakashvili was speaking on CNN's "Late Edition" program.

But the Georgian leader does not appear to be waiting for the United States or the broader international community to act. News reports say Russian officials have received a truce offer from their Georgian counterparts.

Meanwhile, Mr. Saakashvili is striking a conciliatory tone toward Moscow.

"We need to stop [the] hostility," he said. "We do not need further military action. We need to bring back peace. We proclaim [a] cease-fire; we are willing to sign the document on non-use of force and no resumption of hostilities. We are willing to be as flexible as we can on sovereignty issues [for South Ossetia]."



The so-called Towers of Despair, public housing in Waterloo, Sydney.