Grex Poetry Conference

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Grex Poetry Item 43: I just read this, and I absolutely had to share it
Entered by toking on Wed Mar 3 17:17:59 UTC 1999:

Here's an item for sharing pieces that you thnk are just incredible

9 responses total.

#1 of 9 by toking on Wed Mar 3 17:26:20 1999:

"The Pole Star" by Aleister Crowley

Love is all virtue, since the pleasure of love is but
  love, and the pain of love is but love.
Love taketh no heed of that which is not and of that
  which is.
Absence exalteth love, and presence exhalteth love.
Love moveth ever from height to height of extasy
  and faileth never.
The wings of love droop not with time, nor slacken
  for life or for death.
Love destroyeth self, uniting self with that which is
  not-self, so that Love breedeth All and None in
  One.
Is it not so?...No?...
Then thou art not lost in love; speak not of love.
Love Alway Yieldeth: Love Alway Hardeneth.
...........May be: Iwrite it but to write Her name.

#2 of 9 by zoe on Wed Mar 3 23:15:01 1999:

that hurts...

#3 of 9 by orinoco on Thu Mar 4 15:42:40 1999:

Lucifer in Starlight
        -George Meredith

On a starred night Prince Lucifer uprose.
Tired of his dark dominion, swung the fiend
Above the the rolling ball, in cloud part screened,
Where sinners hugged their specter of repose.
Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those.
And now upon his western wing he leaned,
Now his huge bulk o'er Afric's sands careened,
Now the black planet shadowed Arctic snows.
Soaring through wider zones that pricked his scars
With memory of the old revolt from Awe,
He reached a middle height, and at the stars,
Which are the brain of heaven, he looked, and sank:
Around the ancient track marched, rank on rank,
The army of unalterable law.

#4 of 9 by toking on Tue Mar 9 18:15:14 1999:

yippie!! 2 more:

both by Aleister Crowley, both from "The Book of Lies"

"Chinese Music"

"Explain this happening!"                 \
"It must have a `natural' cause."      ----- Let
"It must have a `supernatural' cause."    /
  these two asses be set to grind corn.
May, might, must, should, probably, may be, we
  may safely assume, ought, it's hardely question-
  able, almost certainly -- poor hacks! let them be
  turned out to grass!
Proof is only possible in mathematics, and mathe-
  matics is only a matter of arbitrary conventions.
And yet doubt is a good servant but a bad master; a
  perfect mistress, but a nagging wife.
"White is white" is the lash of the overseer; "white
  is black" is the watch word of the slave. The Master
  takes no heed.
The Chinese cannot help thinking that the octave has
  5 notes.
The more necessary anything appears to my mind,
  the more certain it is that I only assert a limitation.
I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on
  awakening; I drank and danced all night with Doubt,
  and found her a virgin in the morning.






"The Vigil of St. Hubert"

In the forest God met a Stag-beetle. "Hold! Wor-
  ship me!" quoth God. "For I am All-Great, All-
  Good, All-Wise....The stars are but sparks from
  the forges of My smiths...."
"Yea, verily and Amen," said the Stag-beetle, "all
  this do I believe, and that devoutly."
"Then why do you not worship Me?"
"Because I am real and you are only imaginary."
But the leaves of the forest rustled with the laughter
  of the wind.
Said the Wind and Wood: "They neither of them know
  anything!"

#5 of 9 by lumen on Wed Mar 10 22:42:36 1999:

The Vigil of St. Hubert-- interesting, but ridiculous.  Reminds me of 
all the pointless religious arguments people make.

#6 of 9 by jazz on Mon Mar 15 15:58:46 1999:

        Very koan-like.

        Crowley's a good prose writer, but as a poet ...

#7 of 9 by firesong on Thu Jul 20 21:39:30 2000:

hisif.

#8 of 9 by flem on Wed Oct 4 18:19:50 2000:

(Mathematical conventions aren't arbitrary, either.  :)

#9 of 9 by arianna on Wed Oct 4 19:27:30 2000:

har har.

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