{"id":2459,"date":"2008-12-19T06:49:26","date_gmt":"2008-12-19T11:49:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2008-12-19T06:51:02","modified_gmt":"2008-12-19T11:51:02","slug":"a-gift-of-frozen-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/a-gift-of-frozen-words\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gift of Frozen Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"View<\/a><\/p>\n

Soundtrack to today’s post: “Some Children See Him”
\n(piano solo by George Winston from his album December<\/em>;
\nclick Play button to start, and adjust volume with the little row of bars at the left):<\/p>\n

[audio:somechildrenseehim_georgewinston.mp3|titles=’Some Children See Him’|artists=George Winston]<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Days<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each one is a gift, no doubt,
\nmysteriously placed in your waking hand
\nor set upon your forehead
\nmoments before you open your eyes.
\nToday begins cold and bright,
\nthe ground heavy with snow
\nand the thick masonry of ice,
\nthe sun glinting off the turrets of clouds.
\nThrough the calm eye of the window
\neverything is in its place
\nbut so precariously
\nthis day might be resting somehow
\non the one before it,
\nall the days of the past stacked high
\nlike the impossible tower of dishes
\nentertainers used to build on stage.
\nNo wonder you find yourself
\nperched on the top of a tall ladder
\nhoping to add one more.
\nJust another Wednesday
\nyou whisper,
\nthen holding your breath,
\nplace this cup on yesterday’s saucer
\nwithout the slightest clink.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Billy Collins)<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Antisthenes says that in a certain faraway land the cold is so intense that words freeze as soon as they are uttered, and after some time they thaw and become audible, so that words spoken in winter go unheard until the next summer.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Plutarch, Moralia<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river:<\/p>\n

[Pantagruel] fitted out a great fleet at St. Malo, and sailed beyond the Cape of Good Hope to Lantern Land. As they were voyaging along, beyond the desolate land of the Popefigs and the blessed island of the Papemanes, Pantagruel heard voices in the air, and the pilot said: “Be not afraid, my lord! We are on the confines of the frozen sea, where there was a great fight last winter between the Arimaspians and the Nepheliabetes. The cries of the men, the neighing of the horses, and all the din of battle froze in the air, and now that the warm season is come, they are melting into sound.”<\/p>\n

“Look,” said Pantagruel, “here are some that are not yet thawed.” And he threw on deck great handfuls of frozen words, seeming like sugar-plums of many colours. Panurge warmed some of them in his hands, and they melted like snow into a barbarous gibberish. Panurge prayed Pantagruel to give him some more, but Pantagruel told him that to give words was the part of a lover.<\/p>\n

“Sell me some, then,” cried Panurge.<\/p>\n

“That is the part of a lawyer,” said Pantagruel. But he threw three or four more handfuls of them on the deck, and as they melted all the noises of the battle rang about the ship.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(The Squashed version<\/a> of Gargantua and Pantagruel<\/em><\/a>, by Francois Rabelais)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soundtrack to today’s post: “Some Children See Him” (piano solo by George Winston from his album December; click Play button to start, and adjust volume with the little row of bars at the left): [audio:somechildrenseehim_georgewinston.mp3|titles=’Some Children See Him’|artists=George Winston]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,74,50,251],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-music","8":"category-language-writing_cat","9":"category-poetry-writing_cat","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-DF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2472,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/2472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}