YEARNING AFTER 2000...! A Poem of Parts & Synthesis for the Millennial Generation by Trevor Gordon French As the old year is rung out And the New Year sung in... Some reflections I find Seeking sanction in my mind... Like fireflies at making Fairy-gold -- the true captive Denizens of the tentatively Fading waxing night, having waned... From twilight, long since Settled, as had sought also Some greater iteration, and finds Sooth in, now, this anticipation... Of faces glowing here in a magical Light whilst still each and every One must admit that they all are Simply now waiting... Waiting... Each one perhaps breathlessly hoping That this particular epochal occurrence This "Year 2000" rumpus and fraças May find some true representation As the kind of event that might Settle in the minds of people Everywhere as some sort of rare Achievement, especially after a Century of wars, of bickering amongst Nations, of violent death, and the Threat of Nuclear annihilation -- which I personally remember from the day I Was born...! -- but is there then not also Some hint of tremulous agitation which Nowadays we sense in everyday life as A real and living form of human growth...!? Of learning about living, of teaching Ourselves by our own mistakes, even Bravely admitting them, and recounting The teaching so that others may learn And not stumble? -- Is there not some Outward breath as bespeaks a new empathy Towards our fellow beings? -- and for which, Other than good will, there can be no Accounting...? And is, or does, this new Awakening and concern for our environment And for those living, breathing things Gathered about us, and which constitute Much of the beauty and the beneficence of The wondrous world of nature all around us, Not also fed by the experiencing of such Bounties of culture and exoteric sharing Of all of the rich and varied world which We inhabit, oft trying to mould, subdue And scape it to such designs, the consequences Of which, as their originators, we must ultimately Suffer, or suffer to be foisted upon our future Children -- to the lost and ambitious generations Beyond our parvenue -- beyond our sight even to Comprehend the extent and unthinking results Of much abusive tenure of such fragile and inveigled upon Sacrosant ground as this place we inhabit -- This Earth...! -- Far older and far more regal in her graces, in her moods, And in her demeanour, than any display of mankind in Its temper-tantrums and most-times disorderly Disarray! -- How then more than like to gentle A woman, or child, should we not also courteously Gentle her, and perhaps restore her composure, And soothe her troubled, dissentful mumblings, Which, for their hostility, we more often than not Ignore her, as containing some fear of the threat of Something unknown...! How then the inhabitants of Any city under threat of imminent natural destruction -- Or beset, embattled, or besieged...!? At such a prospect All the earth might equably shiver, yet who could raise a Hand to stay such inexorability and onrush As these, and many other phenomena, represent in Terms of their being like some sort of fatalistic Shudder in the fabric of the Cosmos all around Us...? -- And who but a Holy Man might raise the Level of consciousness of even a whole people -- As say the Mahatma Gandhi did in his long walk to Collect the simple salt of the sea...!? -- in order Conjointly to say "Stop...! Stand...! Wait...!?" So who, how much more easily and humanly, could Then so easily raise a hand to mar the lines of any Exquisitely wrought human face -- as might a tyrant or a Dictator out of sheer malicious pride and arrogance; At such self-appointed station as only the most Primitive, wanton and bestial amongst those of whom It is usually a self-professed asset of wielding Power by abjection under terror and intimidation Of the human mind to see as an accolade this sort Of distempered, egotistical and delusional rubbish...! This sort of petty demonstration of one man's greed And gluttony and outright flagrance of life's dignity As has had publicly crushed the hands of a North African Protest singer; or the bureaucracy which might see it fit to Persecute so many conscientious artists -- progenitors of Both beauty and truth...! -- so severely as to see them die, Lost, leavened and broken, as aliens abroad, destitute, Depressed, strung-out, home-sick, lost or just blind-drunk... Weeping for the shadows of things that might have been Had the quantities of mercy, pity and peace been more Prevalent, or been present in amounts significant or large Enough to preserve in perpetuity the dignity of such individuals That in like fashion the joys of learning, and feeling, and gaining A greater understanding of the world around about us might Not also have been blessed with such indefatigable gain as Mankind makes by the creation of sense in appreciation of Truly great art, or emotion, or sentiment, or even principle, Which also always seems like the gleaning of distant echoes...! So what, then, does this uniquely human celebration Now represent in the minds of people that they find Themselves so anxiously, almost skittishly, waiting...? Some blindingly issued universal law or affirmation...? Some epiphanic recurrence, vision or spiritual revelation...? Some return to chaos, and tumult with consuming fires, And "fire and brimstone" and ravishing and pillaging, And anarchy and death and all humanity's annihilation...? Some quite pedestrian end to a perfectly splendid evening...!? Perhaps, then, it is more a case that with each of us there Is for this New Millennium in the minds of each and all Of humanity to secure for ourselves a greater, refreshing And more liberating ardour in our dealings in our own and Others' dreams, ambitions and aspirations, especially When we speak as one in achieving some noble and worthy Cause of imaginative and far-reaching idealism, some solution Which benefits all who conceive of it and who build it, And which gives enough from the heart of the self away To ensure the sanction and blessing of not just the next, But of all future generations who might benefit by Such conception and execution, as may also be the True and real achievement of humanity's abilities And purpose -- for we have often proved that we are Capable of doing things of this nature out of a pure Spirit of altruism and goodwill towards our fellows And indeed all co-tenanted beings here upon this Lonely little planet in this obscure little galaxy Which we affectionately term the Milky Way... Carl Sagan has romantically suggested that in some Sense or other we are all made of the product of The exhalations and exudations of the stars! -- He says We are all the product of "star-stuff," because at some basic Level or other we are all constituted of the molecules And atoms which have cooled and settled out of flaming Supernovae, which have eventually resolved themselves Into solar systems at the heart of each of which is a star... Max Erhmann, in 1927, wrote that: "We are all children Of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; We have a right to be here. And whether or not this is Clear to us, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. He said that we should: "be at peace with God, whatever we Conceive Him to be and that, whatever our labours and Aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, that we should keep Peace with your souls." He said that: "with all its sham, drudgery And broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world." He warns us to be careful. He encourages us to strive To achieve happiness, and "beyond a wholesome discipline, To otherwise be gentle with ourselves," as with others...! What he truly seems to have been doing is to echo what might Almost be some sort of universal unwritten law about the value Of a healthy and respectful outlook and attitude towards both Ourselves and those inhabiting the environment around us. Sentiment lies in rags and broken dreams. New hope springs Up with new life, in some evidently endless genetic progression Of the will and right of life to survive -- and that could be Almost anywhere in the Universe! -- For to continue to live, To love, to lose, and dream... -- To regain, to re-assess in value, To renegotiate, and renew, refresh, in ourselves and revitalise Ourselves thereby; to regain in joy what we expend in love; to Hold to heart, to breathe life into, to cherish, to ascertain... In realisation of being, and gaining in living, and losing to life, Of abjection as the negative mirroring of unadulterated bliss, In subjection to our consciences, and in administering to our Emotions, once again, as to a freckless child which lives within... Truly, we are "Children of the Universe," but we are also the product Of our own natures, influences, and leanings; no man has the right To judge! -- all men have the ability to teach or help, or give of Themselves unselfishly, uncritically, quite unconditionally of the Expenditure in time and energy, because a part of growth, on A spiritual level anyway, is being in possession of the generosity Of nature to offer such assistance where such assistance might needs Be rendered, and where such profferance is justly and gratefully Received and accepted as an equable reciprocity in provision For a justifiable need in society and in the environment at large Which needsakes such environment, such home-ground's sanctifying After the manner and quality of what rightly might be termed living... After all: Do we really wait alone...!? Are there not now a multitude Thronged to celebrate in mind the idealised culmination of this age...!? Is there not rejoinder or retainder or recourse to be had to saying: "Stop...! Hold...! Wait...! Stand to order, there...!" to the edifice of Time as it rushes inexorably and irrevocably past us towards what Potentiate in the minds of all Mankind...!? Is this all really just about Having that "Total Blowout Party of a Lifetime...!?" Will we feel the Monumental thrill, like the aftershock of an earthquake or volcano As it ricochets across the globe from East to West; from that remote Concert held on that tiny Pacific island right down South in the bottom Right hand corner of your map, a bit of a distance North of New Zealand And on, for 24 hours more as it circles the globe, back to its starting point...!? And if we are waiting, in such anxious dubiety about what the future Might hold or bring, are we then also ready for that "wave" as it reaches Each and every one of us; and as this thrilling shudder embraces the globe, Of mankind's wonder at having reached this pinnacle of sobrietous civilisation, This stanchion-pin of unequinimical near-parlance with beings maybe a Little more civilised even than we, maybe even another "intelligent race;" -- As though we should be so very priviliged and so very very lucky...! -- Maybe we should also take a moment to speculate on the very barbarism Of that roughly two thousand years ago this very day, mankind were Celebrating the grim achievement of nailing one man amongst their number Upon a Cross at Calvary, and probably for no more intimidating a reason Than that he knew too much, and could not be controlled in how to think...! I think we owe much to the interim of years that we have perhaps forgotten Too much of why we owe it to ourselves to have learned from this lesson...! I think, too that in many ways mankind, far from finding its place amongst The stars in any "Space Age" has much to learn in order first to fix itself Before attempting to take on such far-flung star-spattered galaxies and nations, Who may, in any event, be far too distant or far too preoccupied even to bother With the locally overstated and far too well-established fact of humanity's Internecine and rather suffocated existence on this third benighted orb from the sun...! Terence McKenna, the Twentieth Century mystic says that this generation will Witness the arrival of history at a certain pre-ordained "attractor-point" He says: "That if the truth can be told so as to be understood, it will be believed...!" He suggests that: "The message that nature sends is: 'Transform your language...! "'Through a synergy between understanding and intuition, and by Dissolving the boundaries which our culture has sanctioned between us; Become part of this dying supermind!' ... History is ending...! We are to be The generation that witnesses the revelation of the purpose of the cosmos..." He says that "the youth-culture that is emerging in the nineties is an End-of-the-millennium culture that is actually 'summing' up Western Civilisation And pointing us in an entirely different direction, so that we're going to arrive In the Third Millenium in the middle of an archaic revival, which will mean ... "A new art, a new social vision, a new relationship to nature, to feminism, and to All of those things which we perceive as being 'evil.' All of these things are Taking hold..." he says, "And not a moment too soon..." The pagans of old Believed that the Yuletide celebration signified the "Ice Maiden's capture by the Green Man." In other words: nature's re-awakening, mid-way through Winter, In the turning back of the seasons; in the changing of the Earth's raiment; They believed that the auspiciousness of the occasion would naturally determine How the earth would respond in the coming year's sowing and reaping of harvest...! Perhaps we should then take heed of this invigorating notion: that the events Of today determine the outcome of tomorrow -- Cause and effect...? -- but take Parlance also with ourselves in taking our lives in hand and learning how best To judge the course which will best resolve itself in our lives and our actions... Perhaps, too, it is time to put a little bit of that blind faith in the magic of Nature which our antecedents practised back in action in our lives again, And begin to see life as a direct train of thoughts, actions and occurrences Which are the product of our own decisions and wills and dreams and desires...! Above all, we should have faith in ourselves, and keep our own counsels, Always applying much qualitative thought to each and every action in which We partake, and for each and every situation in which we find ourselves... To take hope from the very prospect of tomorrow, and have faith in finding An outcome to your ambitions and fulfilment of both our own needs As also the needs of others, because it is only in generating goodwill Towards others that we, in return, may deserve or expect any kind of just Acclamation, or recognition, or vindicable soulsease and reward, ourselves...! An anagram which recently I was fortunate enough to hear Has the word "FEAR" replying to itself in form and sort as a Kind of explanation that sustains a more practical and politic Arrangement of reason founded in the natural workings of the Human mind which always seems to have "False Evidence Appear Real...!" "To live in harmony is to live without fear, and man's greatest fear is death. There is no such thing as death! Life is continuous, love is everlasting. This I know...! For I exist, as to you, my friends, together and forever..."* Frank Herbert, in "Dune," his mythological epic of a future of mankind scattered And still in conflict amongst the stars, says that: ""Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. Therefore, I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will "Turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." All of which once again seems to echo the sentiment that On a purely psychological level, perhaps, after all, the greatest thing that we, as Individuals, really have to fear is "the fear of fear" as a concrete object itself...!? But were we to succeed in conquering our fears perhaps then we Might also attempt to live in harmony by the reassessing of our Own modes of action as motivated by our thinking. First principles Of logical deduction incorporate the notion that if your conclusion Is ineffective, or faulty, that you should then return to the very Precepts upon which your argument is founded in order to assess The level at which the interference at achieving the desired answer Is to be found. The same is true of Human Nature, and in living Humans seems to lend themselves blindly to a deference for truth In order to save and preserve their own self-saving and self- Sanctifying aims, which is faulty reason, which cannot sustain Itself, or any being whose existence is founded on such self-delusion... Hermann Hesse, in his beautifully portrayed depiction of the life And mind of a "would-be rebel-saviour" who, eventually succumbs To a conflict in interests between intellectualism and the dictates of His reasoned and instinctual conscience,* speaks of truth thus: "It is treason to sacrifice love of truth, intellectual honesty, Loyalty to the laws and methods of the mind, to any other Interests, including those of one's country. Whenever propaganda And the conflict of interests threatens to devalue, distort, and "Do violence to truth as it has already done to individuals, to Language, to the arts, and to everything else that is organic And highly cultivated, then it is our duty to resist and save the truth, Or rather the striving for truth, since that is the supreme article. "We may sacrifice ourselves, but never our fealty to the life of the mind. The mind of man is beneficent and noble only when it obeys truth. As soon as it betrays truth, as soon as it ceases to revere truth, As soon as it sells out, it becomes intensely diabolical. "Then it becomes far worse than instinctual bestiality, which always Retains something of the innocence of nature." Dave Clarke, in his Rare meisterstuk "Time" had Alec Guinness, perhaps one of the greatest Oratory speakers ever, speak of the life of the higher mind in this way: "Stand before me on the sign of infinity all you of the Earth. With the granting of the law of provenation comes the application of change. I will give you the key. And with this knowledge, please realise, comes the Responsibility of sharing it. I will show you the way. It's very simple! "Throughout the universe there is order. In the movement of the planets, In nature, and in the functioning of the human mind. A mind that is in its Natural state of order is in harmony with the universe, and such a mind is Timeless. Your life is an expression of your mind. You are a creator of your "Own universe, for, as a human being, you are free to will whatever state of Being you desire through the use of your thoughts and words. Ah...! There is great power there... Can be a blessing, or a curse! It's entirely up to you. For the quality of your life is brought about by the quality of your thinking. "Think... about that! Thoughts produce actions. Look at what you are thinking. See the pettiness, and the envy and the greed and the fear and all the other attitudes That cause you pain and discomfort. Realise that the one thing that you have absolute Control over is your attitude. See the effect that is has on those around you... "For each life is linked to all life. And your words carry with them chain-reactions Like a stone that is thrown into a pond. If your thinking is in order, your
Reason for writing:
The hopes and dreams of humanity approaching the New Millennium...
Birth sign: Gemini
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