Poetictouch

Misty Mountain Scene - Looking For A Haiku

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:20:00 +0000

Misty Mountain Scene - Looking For A Haiku | ~ Fractal Artist
Click here or on image to enlarge

Podcasts

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Mon, 12 May 2008 05:10:00 +0000

Al-Jazeera.net
12 May 2008
08:00 am

• Video: Democracy Now! - 09 May 2008

• Radio: BBC World Service (Arabic/English) | Classic FM Live

Let's Get Loud

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:50:00 +0000

The Reader

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:40:00 +0000

Ophelia by Pierre Auguste Cot
(1837-1883)
Click here or on image to enlarge

Her life is spent between pages. Someone else's words feed her soul. Someone else's thoughts and characters have become embedded in the tapestry of her life. But, where do they end and where does she begin? Her mind is not an empty vessel, after all, waiting to be filled with the musings of another.

So then you have to ask, do the books she can not live without merely mirror what already exists in her heart? Do they reflect truths that she already knows, yet remain buried deep within complex layers of her psyche until she recognizes them as her own through the eyes and words of an author? She finds that the layers peel away with each new experience. Exposure to different authors helps her to blossom. Even an author who lived and breathed a century before in a time vastly different from her own. She can picture them sitting as they write, wondering if it is good enough and making revisions in the midst of candlelight. Never knowing that their words would mean so much to a girl not even born yet. Authors in another age with courage enough to scribble their very soul on paper. Yes, this person had more courage than she. For her days and nights (when not spent reading) are spent imagining tales and writing words she never intends anyone to ever read. She accepts the fact that she will never be a "writer".

Or will she? It remains to be seen.

But to be a reader? This she is proud of. She knows she is part of a delicate dance between authors and those that read the product of their craft. For what is the beauty of a sonata if it is unheard? She is crucial to the dance, yes even to those who penned their words centuries ago. For their stories become a part of who she is, that is their immortality. They feed her and contribute to her. She is the parasite absorbing their creativity to feed her own. And she grows.

7 September 2006.

• Source: The Reader: An Autobiographical Tale by Stephanie Pina

Have You Ever Been In Love?

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Sun, 11 May 2008 10:30:00 +0000

Les Amants [The Lovers]
by René Magritte (1898-1967)
Click here or on image to enlarge

Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life... You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like "Maybe we should just be friends" or "How very perceptive" turns into a glass splinter working its way to your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. Nothing should be able to do that. Especially not love. I hate love.

• Source: The Sandman - Vol. 9 The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman

Ahebbik

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:20:00 +0000

Granada - Frank Sinatra

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:40:00 +0000

Granada
by Frank Sinatra

Granada, I'm falling under your spell,
And if you could speak, what a fascinating tale you would tell.
Of an age the world has long forgotten,
Of an age that weaves a silent magic in Granada today.

The dawn in the sky greets the day with a sigh for Granada.
For she can remember the splendor that once was Granada.
It still can be found in the hills all around as I wander along,
Entranced by the beauty before me,
Entranced by a land full of flowers and song.

When day is done and the sun starts to set in Granada
I envy the blush of a snow-clad tierra nevada.
Soon it will welcome the stars
While a thousand guitars play a soft carbinera.
Then moonlit Granada will live again,
The glory of yesterday, romantic and Granada.

Granada - Angela Gheorghiu

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Fri, 09 May 2008 22:30:00 +0000

Maryam

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:30:00 +0000

Maryam - Quran - Surah 019
Recited by Abdul Baset Abdul Samad (Mujawwad)

Background Picture: Holy Quran - Sorat Maryam by Qatari Mother

Quran Podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Fri, 09 May 2008 11:10:00 +0000

Abdul Baset Abdul Samad - Mujawwad

Pokarekare Ana - Hayley Westenra

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:10:00 +0000

Pokarekare Ana
A Traditional New Zealand Love Song

Maori

Pökarekare ana
ngä wai o Waiapu,
Whiti atu koe hine
marino ana e.

E hine e
hoki mai ra.
Ka mate ahau
I te aroha e.

Tuhituhi taku reta
tuku atu taku rïngi,
Kia kite tö iwi
raru raru ana e.

Whati whati takupene
ka pau aku pepa,
Ko taku aroha
mau tonu ana e.

E kore te aroha
e maroke i te rä,
Mäkükü tonu i
aku roimata e.

English

They are agitated
the waters of Waiapu,
But when you cross over girl
they will be calm.

Oh girl
return to me,
I could die
of love for you.

I have written my letter
I have sent my ring,
so that your people can see
that I am troubled.

My pen is shattered,
I have no more paper
But my love
is still steadfast.

My love will never
be dried by the sun,
It will be forever moistened
by my tears.

The Neck Of A Maiko

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Thu, 08 May 2008 12:30:00 +0000

Sometimes if one is lucky then one can meet a maiko or geisha in the small streets of Gion in Kyoto. Like this one who was so kind to wait for a few moments so that people like me could take some pictures of her:) ~ manganite | Click here or on image to enlarge

I Have A Dream - Martin Luther King

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:40:00 +0000

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history
as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our
nation... ~ Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream

• Video: Martin Luther King: I Have A Dream (YouTube)

Umm Kulthoum

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Called by some Kawkab Al-Sharq (Star Of
The East) and by others 'Empress Of Arab
Tunes,' Umm Kulthoum, with a voice
powerful and clear, can still be heard daily
on radio stations in the multitudes of coffee
shops and taxis all over the Arab world.
Even though she died over two
decades ago, her love lyrics,
national odes and religious
chants continue to affect
millions of people. Her audience,
as if on cue, hums along or cries
in despair in reaction to her
range of pitch, filled with
nostalgia and yearning,
touching the very Arab soul...

• Umm Kulthoum - Legendary Songstress Of The Arabs

Umm Kulthoum (BBC Xtra)

The Most Hunted Person Of The Modern Age

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Audio

Great Speeches

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:30:00 +0000

El-Gaish El-Arabi Fain?

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Wed, 07 May 2008 05:20:00 +0000

Audio

• Video: El-Gaish El-Arabi Fain?

Afghan Women Praying

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:50:00 +0000

Click here or on image to enlarge

Afghan women pray outside
the shrine of Hazrat Ali in
Mazari Sharif, Afghanistan,
06 May 2008. (AP)

Yana Yana - Somaya

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Tue, 06 May 2008 20:40:00 +0000

Slideshow

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:50:00 +0000

Lebanese singer Myriam Faris shows a copy of her new album 'Bet Oul Eih' (What are you saying?) during the launching ceremony in Beirut, late 05 May 2008. (AFP) Click here to enlarge

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Mystery Over Schiller's Skull Deepens

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Friedrich Schiller's bust, created by German sculptor Johann Friedrich von Dannecker at the end of the 18th century. (AP)
Click here or on image to enlarge

BERLIN - 05 May 2008 (Reuters) - A painstaking two-year investigation to determine which of two skulls belonged to Friedrich Schiller has found neither is a match, prolonging a 180-year-old mystery over the celebrated German poet's remains.

A team of international experts came to their surprise conclusion after comparing DNA samples from the two skulls in question to material from the graves of the poet's relatives.

"The investigations into the relics which have been attributed to Friedrich Schiller have proven that neither of the skulls is authentic," said a statement released by the Weimar Foundation and MDR broadcaster who had supported the research.

German anthropologists from Berlin and Freiburg had initiated the project and earlier this year they exhumed the graves of several of Schiller's family members in southern Germany.

The puzzle over the skull began in 1826, 21 years after Schiller died when the mayor of Weimar had 23 skulls dug up from a mass grave in which the poet was buried.

The mayor identified the biggest skull and one which bore a resemblance to the dramatist's death mask as Schiller's and it was brought to the home of his contemporary Goethe before being buried in a crypt in the eastern city of Weimar.

Later, Goethe's tomb was placed next to Schiller's in the crypt which still attracts about 41,000 visitors a year. Schiller had spent the last years of his life in Weimar which is mostly famous for being Goethe's home for almost 50 years.

However, in 1911, another skull was retrieved from the mass grave and researchers claimed that was the real one, sparking a lengthy dispute amongst academics, historians and anthropologists about the origin of the two skulls.

It is now a mystery where the dramatist's skull is.

Schiller, who lived between 1759 and 1805, wrote plays which are still performed regularly both in Germany and abroad. His poems include 'Ode to Joy' which Beethoven set to music in his Ninth Symphony.

The team of experts came from institutions in Germany, Austria and the United States.

(Writing by Madeline Chambers)

Gulf Business Women

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Gulf Business Women

BBC Xtra

The Oriental

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:40:00 +0000

Click here or on image to enlarge

Die Orientalin (The Oriental)
by Friedrich von Amerling
(1849-1926)

Click here or on image to enlarge

The Young Eastern Woman
by Friedrich von Amerling
(1849-1926)

The Mirror

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Mon, 05 May 2008 04:10:00 +0000

The Mirror (1896) by Sir Frank Dicksee (1853-1928)
Click here or on image to enlarge

An Oriental Beauty

noreply@blogger.com (Poetictouch) — Mon, 05 May 2008 03:40:00 +0000

Click here or on image to enlarge

Une Beauté Orientale
An Oriental Beauty
by Paul de la Boulaye
(1849-1926)