Recollections of Blaisdon Hall
National Newsletter
As One Year Closes
by Tony Brady
LAST
THOUGHTS AT THE
YEAR’S TURNING:
A CONTINUING
JOURNEY……
The
longer I live the more I become aware that
the comforts of religion are complimented by the compensations of poetry.
I believe like most people there is great depth of spirituality in the
works of T.
S. Eliot and Ezra Pound.
As we approached the year’s end, I had arranged to meet up with a
Blaisdon Old Boy. Our meeting would
be the culmination of both of us making a long car drive, almost the length of
Ireland, ending at a half way point of the total distance of our journey.
However, my friend had to cancel at the last moment due to atrocious
weather conditions at his place of departure.
I had been reading Eliot’s a poem entitled: The
Journey of the Magi. and the words: “A cold coming we had of it…..just
the wrong time of year for a journey ….” seemed so accidentally apt in the
circumstances.
Had
we met as planned, I daresay much of our talk would have been about the past and
ended with mutual expressions of our hopes for the future. If a still read and
oft quoted Greek philosopher MTC was with us, we would have taken note of his
words: “Let us not go over old ground, rather let us prepare for what is to
come.” Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-45 BC).
As
this year of 2009 ends and we are intensely conscious of the dimensions of past,
present and future, the words from a play shown on TV over the Christmas period
come to mind: “If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will
be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.” Hamlet - Act 5 Scene 2.
Last
summer, I struggled with numerous poetic obscurities as I read The
Pisan Cantos. I knew that if I continued on with an expectant curious
attention, I would eventually come across something memorable and I was not
disappointed. So here (from memory) are Pound’s words - from a long poem: The
Commission. It contains sentiments I want to pass on and hope that you will
carry them with you into the New Year as you journey onward in a new decade .
“Go
in a friendly manner,
Go
with an open speech.
Be
eager to repel new evils, do new good,
Be
against all forms of oppression.”
Tony Brady, President Blaisdon Association. - 1st
January 2010