In some of his many books, John Shelby Spong, the Bishop of Newark, New Jersey for 21 years, succinctly and lucidly describes key concepts of the New Testament and Christianity and explains keen insights.
A creative theologian at times, he has made startling statements including that “God is not a noun” but “a verb that invites us to live, to love and to be”!
(Probably, in that phrase, he is alluding to Process Theology which speculates that God is process, not substance). According to Process thinkers, God is very real, but God isn't a substance like most Creedal theologians believe.
However in the latter part of his leadership, Spong started denying many of the key doctrines of orthodox Christianity.
And most shocking--indeed, incomprehensible and incongruous--Spong promulgated in a few of his later books that there is No God! That Nontheism is the Truth!
Non-theism didn’t start with him, but is central to one branch of modern liberal religion, including one branch of Quakers in Britain and America. This is very strange since the Society of Friends is centered on God, has been for 380 years!
From Wikipedia:
“Non-theism among Quakers probably dates to the 1930s, when some Quakers in California branched off to form the Humanist Society of Friends (today part of the American Humanist Association), and when Henry Cadbury professed agnosticism in a 1936 lecture to Harvard Divinity School students.
The term "non-theistic" first appeared in a Quaker publication in 1952...In 1976, a Friends General Conference Gathering hosted a Workshop for Nontheistic Friends (Quakers).”
And in 2024 at Haverford College, June 30 through July 6, 2024, FGC is hosting an atheist leader, Tom Kunesh.
"His website on ‘atheisms‘ has an interesting typology of atheism (and agnosticism) and is well worth exploring..."
"Of particular interest is the page on ‘religious atheisms‘ which includes a short, very recently updated, biography of tom..."
"Tom writes:
"What is a god? A god is an idealized human being, human characteristic or human creation to which is attributed with super-human powers of giving meaning to human existence. Examples of gods are Jesus...but no atheist, shaman or otherwise, knows a real god.
Knowing all the gods, the atheist must take care not to fall into the worship of any god."
"The following link takes you to a book by Kunesh, available there as an easy to navigate html file: http://atheisms.info/shaman/
How can this religious atheism be central for spiritual seekers? Especially for Quakers since their central focus is on gathering for “Worship” every 7th day?
One well-known Quaker in the U.S. stated that he doesn’t worship at Worship but, instead, pays close attention to the moment. Another, claimed that he agrees with the hard materialism of famous new atheists.
Of course, there has been a major fracturing of Quakerism in the 20th century, into many different, even contrary meetings, manily as a counter moivement against the quietist, often stringent, Quakerism of the 19th century where Quakers were removed from Yearly Meetings for many reasons including marrying a non-Quaker, being an abolitionist and part of the “Underground Railroad,” for deviation from required clothing styles, etc.
However, it is one thing to strongly oppose rigid, narrow, demanding Quakerism (even early Quakers often disagreed about major points), but it's entirely different to centrally identify with Non-Theism, to deny that the Light is real.
Such modern non-theist Friends appear to strongly agree with Spong’s Non-theism, not only that many of the doctrines of Christianity aren’t true, but that there is no God. They appear to be promoting religious atheism.
How can Spong or Henry Cadbury, an agnostic, be so knowledgeable and inspirational, yet think the Light doesn’t exist, that no transcendent Creator is real?
Such claiming is contrary to the inspirational witness of George Fox, Margaret Fell, other early Friends, and many visionaries all the way back to Jesus?
It is possible that some Quaker Non-theists aren’t denying the True God, but only denying the concept of God in Creedal Christianity. A number of them had very severe experiences in creedal denominations, and so want nothing to do with the Creeds and other doctrines.
If that is so, then they aren’t really Non-theists but deniers of the creedal God.
If that is the case, then such a Friend is completely in line with George Fox who found no succor or belief in the religious denominations of Christianity in Britain.
And I agree with such unbelievers. As a devout theist of a Friendly sort, I’ve never believed in the Creeds of orthodox Christianity and Evangelical Christianity.
As I reflect about this odd, tragic development in modern, fragmented, Quakerism, and think about my previous article on the tendency of modern Friends to lean to rightwing or leftwing ideologies, I admit I feel discouraged. But then I remember, the present isn't that different from how Britain was in the 1640's--rife with all sorts of contrary movements, beliefs, etc.
More later
In the LIGHT of the Good, the True, the Just, the Caring,
Daniel Wilcox
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Neither Right (Wrong) Nor Left (Wrong), but Living in the Center
In this modern Crisis, countless individual humans--including many Friends gravitate either to the Right (Republican, Americans First, Judge people by doctrine and economics, not individual character)
OR
to the Left (Democrat, Defund Police, Judge people by racial classification, not individual character) it is tragic to see how many Quakers have also gotten caught in this ideological battlenet,
on one side or the other.
Not that this hasn't happened before, because it has in most generations, including even among some early Friends. Just study Quaker histories such as Primitivism, Radicalism, and the Lamb's War by T.L. Underwood and Quakers in Conflict by H. Larry Ingle.
Or take a backward glance at Quakers in the last 50 years.
There are many Right-leaning Quakers in California Yearly Meeting, Evangelical Friends, International, etc. Many of these Friends vote Republican, even defend nuclear weapons and 'just' American wars, and other non-Friendly Evangelical values, etc.
Side Note: I used to be a member of California Yearly Meeting, until 1980. At that point, I was shocked to discover at Yearly Meeting most of the leaders spoke up in support of nuclear weapons! Only a few particpants spoke to the peacemaking-nonviolent position. Then our own local meeting in Orange county appointed a Quaker in the Navy Reserve--a fighter pilot!
My wife and I quickly left.
I realize Quakers have included a wide range views--there were even fighting Quaker in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
And in the past, Friends have been both slave owners and abolitionists, etc.
But since I first came to the Society of Friends when I was serving my conscientious objector time in a mental hospital in Philadelphia in 1967, I didn't wish to be a part of any Friends Yearly Meeting in 1980 (or since) who supported lethal violence.
There are many Left-leaning Quakers in the Friends General Conference, Pacific Yearly Meeting (I was also an active member in that Yearly Meeting).
Many of these Friends vote Democrat, support false claims against the police, defend Woke ideological views, etc.
TO BE CONTINUED LATER
OR
to the Left (Democrat, Defund Police, Judge people by racial classification, not individual character) it is tragic to see how many Quakers have also gotten caught in this ideological battlenet,
on one side or the other.
Not that this hasn't happened before, because it has in most generations, including even among some early Friends. Just study Quaker histories such as Primitivism, Radicalism, and the Lamb's War by T.L. Underwood and Quakers in Conflict by H. Larry Ingle.
Or take a backward glance at Quakers in the last 50 years.
There are many Right-leaning Quakers in California Yearly Meeting, Evangelical Friends, International, etc. Many of these Friends vote Republican, even defend nuclear weapons and 'just' American wars, and other non-Friendly Evangelical values, etc.
Side Note: I used to be a member of California Yearly Meeting, until 1980. At that point, I was shocked to discover at Yearly Meeting most of the leaders spoke up in support of nuclear weapons! Only a few particpants spoke to the peacemaking-nonviolent position. Then our own local meeting in Orange county appointed a Quaker in the Navy Reserve--a fighter pilot!
My wife and I quickly left.
I realize Quakers have included a wide range views--there were even fighting Quaker in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
And in the past, Friends have been both slave owners and abolitionists, etc.
But since I first came to the Society of Friends when I was serving my conscientious objector time in a mental hospital in Philadelphia in 1967, I didn't wish to be a part of any Friends Yearly Meeting in 1980 (or since) who supported lethal violence.
There are many Left-leaning Quakers in the Friends General Conference, Pacific Yearly Meeting (I was also an active member in that Yearly Meeting).
Many of these Friends vote Democrat, support false claims against the police, defend Woke ideological views, etc.
TO BE CONTINUED LATER
Tuesday, April 2, 2024
Musings on Great Songs —and on early Quakers’ Rejection of Music-Art
Musings, while spending hours in the new year listening to music,
(instead of focusing only on opposing-lamenting current immoral, false political-social claims and actions).
1 What is the difference between spiritual songs versus ones that harm and even are destructive?
2 Songs that are sung by empty rote versus songs that fill us with Light?
3 How do we tell the difference?
4 What are some of the best songs of the last 60 years?
In no particular order:
Sounds of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel
“Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence…”
The first time I heard this powerful reflection on the superficial nature of most human speaking--the woeful lack of deep communication-communion among us, I was driving through the night in a white wonder of a snowstorm down Van Dorn Avenue in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1966. Huge flakes of snow were silently hitting the wind shield, and Simon was talking to the darkness...
‘And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Paul Simon
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
This verse is almost bizarre! Because, usually, written words in subways, etc. are obscene, superficial, or shallow false slogans...
How is this graffiti at at all prophetic compared to the superficial miscomunication of humans?
"Sounds" has amazing powerful poetry with an expert rhyme scheme (because it isn’t sing-songy nor does it draw attention to itself like most such couplet rhyming does). --
Colored People by DC Talk
...
“Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir
I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin (shade of melanin)
I tip my hat to the colorful arrangement
'Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin
We've gotta come together (come together)
And thank the Maker of us all
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace
One, one, one, one
Two, two, two, two...
A piece of canvas is only the beginning for
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope
We've gotta come together (come together)
Aren't we all human after all?
We're colored people and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace
Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure, oh yeah
Well, just a day in the shoes of a colorblind man
Should make it easy for you to see
That these diverse tones do more than cover our bones
As a part of our anatomy
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
(Oh, colored people)
We're colored people and we all gotta share this space
(Yeah, we've got to come together somehow)
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted world
(Red and yellow, black and white)
We're colored people, every man, woman, boy, and girl
(Colored people, colored people, colored people, colored people, yeah)
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Toby Mckeehan / George C. Cocchini
Colored People lyrics © Achtober Songs
A transcendent morally real wonder of truth. Opposed to white supremacy and to BLMer WOKE-false narrative against all whites, the nuclear family, and police. INSTEAD of white "colored' racism or Black-victimhood, celebrate the wonder of the HUMAN RACE--in all its variations--so COLORFUL! --
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten-thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children..."
Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music
That startling lament against nuclear weapons and other forms of mass slaughter by Dylan is fairly easy to understand despite some of the very strange images. However, many of the best modern song lyrics are far more difficult to ascertain as to what their central meaning is.
While I like to write complex, imaged esoteric lyrics and listen to those difficult sorts of lyrics, many ambiguous literary lyrics often open up many possible contradictory meanings, even though they draw one deep into the lyrics’ allusions, archetypes and symbols.
Too many listeners will end up with wrong meanings--often immoral and destructive ones.
Consider the very famous rock song "(Don't Fear) the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult:
All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are
Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la
Valentine is done
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (like Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (redefine happiness)
Another 40, 000 coming everyday (we can be like they are)
Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man...
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Donald Roeser
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
When I first studied the lyrics, “Don’t Fear…” appeared to be a pro-suicide rock lament. But some commentators have stated, they don’t think that is true.
While the song is a lament it is affirming that life should be accepted, not fearing everyone’s eventual deaths.
Even the author of the lyrics, Buck Dharma, stated,
"I felt that I had just achieved some kind of resonance with the psychology of people when I came up with that, I was actually kind of appalled when I first realized that some people were seeing it as an advertisement for suicide or something that was not my intention at all. It is, like, not to be afraid of [death] (as opposed to actively bring it about). It's basically a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners."
— Buck Dharma, lead singer
Lien, James (November 6, 1995). "Buck Dharma interview". College Music Journal. New York City: CMJ. And on Wikipedia.
And there is the infamous rock ballad by the heavy metal band Led Zeppelin:
Stairway to Heaven
There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to Heaven
There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, makes me wonder
There's a feeling I get when I look to the West
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, really makes me wonder
And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter
Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on...
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Anthony Plant
© Succubus Music Ltd., Sons Of Einion Publishing, Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.
This very unusual rock song with many religious symbols and images including biblical ones. It is unique and amazing, unlike any other music in the last 60 years..
But there have been contradictory commentaries written about the lyrics, some saying it is an anti-spiritual song, others disagreeing.
What do you think?
3. For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield
There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?
What a field day for the heat (Ooh ooh ooh)
A thousand people in the street (Ooh ooh ooh)
Singing songs and they carrying signs (Ooh ooh ooh)
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side" (Ooh ooh ooh)
It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?...
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Stephen Stills
© Cotillion Music Inc., Springalo Toones, Ten East Music, Richie Furay Music
What a distinctive seminal creative song! One's like "For What..." come once or twice in a generation. Its haunting lyrics somehow defined the protest movement.
In the fall of 1966, we used to go down to Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. As college students, we didn’t have money for concerts, but we hung out at coffee shops and philosophized and chatted, spoke against the Vietnam War and for civil rights and of our favorite music groups.
The song appeared shortly after the Sunset Curfew Riot, which we somehow missed. Maybe we Long Beach State students no longer hitchhiked or drove down to Hollywood because of the new 10 PM curfew.
How ironic--but very 60's contradictory--that allegedly nonviolent=promoting teens would riot!
Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) by Alan Jackson
One of the very best poetic laments against war ever written.
Chimes of Freedom (Dylan) by The Byrds
It’s a lyric extoling human rights, justice, kindness, but the tragedy of how often goodness and the truth lose out to intolerance and persecution.
Monday Morning Church (Brent Baxter and Erin Enderlin) by Alan Jackson
Deeply sorrowful dirge with an incredible chorused metaphor. Sung by one of my favorite country ballad singers.
What If I Stumble by DC Talk
Very spiritual song of conscience and care; deeply spiritual, moral, and emotional-- without being formally religious
Desperado by the Eagles
Another example of lucid ballad poetry set to music; in this case the brief story of a Wild West gunman who is being
counseled by the singer through playing card imagery that love is the best choice, not killing and money.
The Gates of Eden by Bob Dylan
60’s folk song filled with surrealistic images and metaphors of protest.
Woodstock (Join Mitchell) by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Paean to the most famous rock concert of all time.
Though the famous event led to countless immoral, unjust, and destructive future actions. How tragic for a concert whose music was fabulous, creative, often morally positive.
Gods of Men by Randy Stonehill
Spiritual satire against the finite idols that too many of us humans ‘worship’ instead of the Good, the True, the Just.
The Universal Soldier (Buffy St. Marie) by Donovan
An anti-war song that covers human history. While not excusing militarist leaders, the lyrics instead focus on how each of us as individual humans are responsible for war.
8 Miles High by The Byrds
The instrumentation in this rocker is amazing, though, correctly or not, many have claimed it is about drugs.
See My Life by Seals and Croft
Philosophical, reflective early song from these two Bahai's.
Somebody Must Be Praying for Me (Frank Vinci, Bob Mould, Kris Bergsnes) by Tim McGraw
A very meaningful spiritual song of how sometimes problems and loss of dreams if considered from a spiritual point can open up other possibilities including love.
Cats in the Cradle by Sandy Gaston and Harry Chapin
Poem and song filled with allusions and metaphoric images which warns the severe and tragic consequences of a father who is too busy succeeding in his career for his family.
Old Man's Rubble (Brown Bannister) by Amy Grant
Probably the best ever song of the danger of living contrary to what one sincerely believes.
Celebrate this Heartbeat by Randy Stonehill
Everything I Own by Bread
Written and sung for his father who died tragically young.
--
Since I am a poet/wannbe-songwriter, artist, and lover of music, (of all kinds except rap and opera), it was difficult (and still is) for me to understand the thinking of early Quakers.
And here's a quote
from one early Friend, an outstanding musician before abandoning his career in music to become a Quaker:
Early Friend Solomon Eccles:
From A Musick Lector
"a QUAKER (so called) being formerly of that Art, doth give his Judgment and Sentence against it; but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God."
Written by SOLOMON ECCLES, 1667
"So I see, that Musick pleases well that which is for destruction, and grieves that which God doth highly esteem and honour; Isa. 42.21.
--
Modern Friend Jon Watts:
“Solomon Eccles rejected his upper-class, baroque music profession, and took all of his instruments and manuscripts and burned them in a public demonstration of leveling. The early Friends were rejecting the social class system, which they deemed unjust and ungodly. How could I possibly hear about that and not write a song about it?"
Friends threw out anything that was formulaic. The idea was experiential—to have your own experience of the Spirit, to have the Living Spirit speak through you. If you’re going to be baptized, let the Spirit baptize you. If you’re going to take communion, take it because the Spirit is leading you to, not because it’s just a thing you do every Sunday.
If you’re going to sing, don’t let someone else write it for you. Sing it! So Quakers were the first jazz musicians, always improvising. The Spirit was their muse.
So when I’m playing a song I try to listen to the Spirit the same way one does in a meeting for worship when preparing to give vocal ministry. I wait until I’m quaking to write a song down. I wait until a song is streaming out of me, until it’s not me anymore. It’s as if I’m watching the song get written.”
Jon Watts, Quaker Musician, songwriter, and movement leader
from an interview in the Friends Journal, May, 2013
http://www.friendsjournal.org/bum-rush-the-internet/
And from A Musick Lector by Solomon Eccles:
"To obey the Lord, is better than to give all my goods to the poor, and my body to be burned; yet to let thee know the Truth of this thing; when I came to be convinced of this everlasting truth, I saw my Calling would not stand before it; I went, but not in the Counsel of the Lord, and sold most of my instruments;
"howbeit that would not cover me, for the Lord met with me; and as I was learning to sew, for I had formerly some insight of a Tailors Trade, but I was too high to bow to it, till the Truth came, and that is of power to make the strong man bow, and I sitting alone, with my mind turned in, the Voice of the Lord said, Go thy way, and buy those Instruments again thou lately soldest, and carry them and the rest thou hast in thy house to Tower Hill, and burn them there, as a Testimony against that Calling."
"So I obeyed the Lord, and bought them again, and carried them, and all I had in my house, to Tower Hill, and burnt them there, according to the uprightness of my heart before the Lord; which Books and Instruments did amount to more than four and twenty pound; and I had great peace. Glory be to God for ever. Amen."
"That Heaven will be shaken, and thy Song will be turned into howling; for such Musick and Singing was never set up of God, but of men; and it takes with that part in man that serves not God aright, but is for wrath and judgement, Heb. 12.26. 1 Cor. 2.24."
"But what effects hath Musick brought forth, that men so highly esteem it? What fruit did Nebuchadnezzars Musick bring forth in his day, was it not to murder? But the three servants of the Lord would not bow to his Image at the sound of his Pipes and his Fiddles, though others did.
"And how did Musick and Dancing take the heart of the foolish King Herod, by means whereof he committed murder, and caused John Baptists's Head to be cut off, who was a blessed man, approved of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and was greater than the prophets; and because he reproved him for having his Brothers Wife, rankor lay in the heart of the Damsels Mother, and when the Fidlers did strike up, and the Wench began to dance, his affectionate love began to be enflamed to the Girle, that he killed the Lords servant in coole blood. O ye Fidlers and Dancing- Masters, let this President break you off from your filthy practice;"
"Why do you dance without the Ark? Where is your Ark? What President have you in Scripture for your Dancing? You set up the Devils Kingdom by your proud Calling: You set their Bodies in postures to enflame and take with the lustful Nature in men, and with proud Apparrel, and Spots on their Faces. Woe to the Crown of Pride."
"What account will ye give to the Lord, ye Dancing- masters, from whence came ye, where is your Ark? David danced before the Ark. O repent ye shameless men, will you not blush at your doings? If my Calling was unlawful, much more is yours; O do not provoke the Lord any more; haste, haste, and leave off your practice before it leave you, for what thank will it be to you then, when you shall break off sinning because you can sin no more?"
--Quaker Heritage Press
http://www.qhpress.org/index.html
BUT, why can't good music be creatively planned?
Why must songs always be only, allegedly, spontaneous from the Divine?
Surely, the Light has also given humans the amazing ability to think rationally, morally, mathematically, scientifically...
To create not only via inspiration but through carefully engaged creativity.
This negation of the arts, especially music shows how lopsided the early Friends were when trying to get rid of hypocrisy, formalism without reality, and destructive
influences.
But early Quakers didn’t get rid of business, medicine, science, new technology,
No, on the contrary, Quakers excelled in the sciences and in business, neither any more holy or spiritual than music or any other art.
In fact, business probably is far more an occasion to err, even to destroy than music ever has been.
Do you have a suggestion of a song to add to Great Music?
Quaker rock to rock;-).
In Light,
Daniel Wilcox
1 What is the difference between spiritual songs versus ones that harm and even are destructive?
2 Songs that are sung by empty rote versus songs that fill us with Light?
3 How do we tell the difference?
4 What are some of the best songs of the last 60 years?
In no particular order:
“Hello darkness, my old friend
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence
In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence…”
The first time I heard this powerful reflection on the superficial nature of most human speaking--the woeful lack of deep communication-communion among us, I was driving through the night in a white wonder of a snowstorm down Van Dorn Avenue in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1966. Huge flakes of snow were silently hitting the wind shield, and Simon was talking to the darkness...
‘And the sign said, "The words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls
And whispered in the sounds of silence"
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Paul Simon
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
This verse is almost bizarre! Because, usually, written words in subways, etc. are obscene, superficial, or shallow false slogans...
How is this graffiti at at all prophetic compared to the superficial miscomunication of humans?
"Sounds" has amazing powerful poetry with an expert rhyme scheme (because it isn’t sing-songy nor does it draw attention to itself like most such couplet rhyming does). --
...
“Pardon me, your epidermis is showing, sir
I couldn't help but note your shade of melanin (shade of melanin)
I tip my hat to the colorful arrangement
'Cause I see the beauty in the tones of our skin
We've gotta come together (come together)
And thank the Maker of us all
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace
One, one, one, one
Two, two, two, two...
A piece of canvas is only the beginning for
It takes on character with every loving stroke
This thing of beauty is the passion of an artist's heart
By God's design, we are a skin kaleidoscope
We've gotta come together (come together)
Aren't we all human after all?
We're colored people and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace
Ignorance has wronged some races
And vengeance is the Lord's
If we aspire to share this space
Repentance is the cure, oh yeah
Well, just a day in the shoes of a colorblind man
Should make it easy for you to see
That these diverse tones do more than cover our bones
As a part of our anatomy
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted place
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
We've got a history so full of mistakes
And we are colored people who depend on a Holy Grace
We're colored people, and they call us the human race
(Oh, colored people)
We're colored people and we all gotta share this space
(Yeah, we've got to come together somehow)
We're colored people, and we live in a tainted world
(Red and yellow, black and white)
We're colored people, every man, woman, boy, and girl
(Colored people, colored people, colored people, colored people, yeah)
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Toby Mckeehan / George C. Cocchini
Colored People lyrics © Achtober Songs
A transcendent morally real wonder of truth. Opposed to white supremacy and to BLMer WOKE-false narrative against all whites, the nuclear family, and police. INSTEAD of white "colored' racism or Black-victimhood, celebrate the wonder of the HUMAN RACE--in all its variations--so COLORFUL! --
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall by Bob Dylan
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been, my darling young one?
I've stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I've walked and I crawled on six crooked highways
I've stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I've been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I've been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard, it's a hard
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
Oh, what did you see, my blue-eyed son?
And what did you see, my darling young one?
I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a highway of diamonds with nobody on it
I saw a black branch with blood that kept dripping
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleeding
I saw a white ladder all covered with water
I saw ten-thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken
I saw guns and sharp swords in the hands of young children..."
Copyright © 1963 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991 by Special Rider Music
That startling lament against nuclear weapons and other forms of mass slaughter by Dylan is fairly easy to understand despite some of the very strange images. However, many of the best modern song lyrics are far more difficult to ascertain as to what their central meaning is.
While I like to write complex, imaged esoteric lyrics and listen to those difficult sorts of lyrics, many ambiguous literary lyrics often open up many possible contradictory meanings, even though they draw one deep into the lyrics’ allusions, archetypes and symbols.
Too many listeners will end up with wrong meanings--often immoral and destructive ones.
Consider the very famous rock song "(Don't Fear) the Reaper by Blue Oyster Cult:
All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are
Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man
La, la, la, la, la
La, la, la, la, la
Valentine is done
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity (Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (like Romeo and Juliet)
40, 000 men and women everyday (redefine happiness)
Another 40, 000 coming everyday (we can be like they are)
Come on, baby (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, take my hand (don't fear the reaper)
We'll be able to fly (don't fear the reaper)
Baby, I'm your man...
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Donald Roeser
© Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
When I first studied the lyrics, “Don’t Fear…” appeared to be a pro-suicide rock lament. But some commentators have stated, they don’t think that is true.
While the song is a lament it is affirming that life should be accepted, not fearing everyone’s eventual deaths.
Even the author of the lyrics, Buck Dharma, stated,
"I felt that I had just achieved some kind of resonance with the psychology of people when I came up with that, I was actually kind of appalled when I first realized that some people were seeing it as an advertisement for suicide or something that was not my intention at all. It is, like, not to be afraid of [death] (as opposed to actively bring it about). It's basically a love song where the love transcends the actual physical existence of the partners."
— Buck Dharma, lead singer
Lien, James (November 6, 1995). "Buck Dharma interview". College Music Journal. New York City: CMJ. And on Wikipedia.
And there is the infamous rock ballad by the heavy metal band Led Zeppelin:
Stairway to Heaven
There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to Heaven
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Ooh, ooh, and she's buying a stairway to Heaven
There's a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, makes me wonder
There's a feeling I get when I look to the West
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, really makes me wonder
And it's whispered that soon if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter
Oh-oh-oh-oh-whoa
If there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on...
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Jimmy Page / Robert Anthony Plant
© Succubus Music Ltd., Sons Of Einion Publishing, Flames Of Albion Music, Inc.
This very unusual rock song with many religious symbols and images including biblical ones. It is unique and amazing, unlike any other music in the last 60 years..
But there have been contradictory commentaries written about the lyrics, some saying it is an anti-spiritual song, others disagreeing.
What do you think?
3. For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield
There's something happening here
But what it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware
I think it's time we stop
Children, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?
There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind
It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?
What a field day for the heat (Ooh ooh ooh)
A thousand people in the street (Ooh ooh ooh)
Singing songs and they carrying signs (Ooh ooh ooh)
Mostly say, "Hooray for our side" (Ooh ooh ooh)
It's time we stop
Hey, what's that sound?
Everybody look, what's going down?...
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Stephen Stills
© Cotillion Music Inc., Springalo Toones, Ten East Music, Richie Furay Music
What a distinctive seminal creative song! One's like "For What..." come once or twice in a generation. Its haunting lyrics somehow defined the protest movement.
In the fall of 1966, we used to go down to Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. As college students, we didn’t have money for concerts, but we hung out at coffee shops and philosophized and chatted, spoke against the Vietnam War and for civil rights and of our favorite music groups.
The song appeared shortly after the Sunset Curfew Riot, which we somehow missed. Maybe we Long Beach State students no longer hitchhiked or drove down to Hollywood because of the new 10 PM curfew.
How ironic--but very 60's contradictory--that allegedly nonviolent=promoting teens would riot!
Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) by Alan Jackson
One of the very best poetic laments against war ever written.
Chimes of Freedom (Dylan) by The Byrds
It’s a lyric extoling human rights, justice, kindness, but the tragedy of how often goodness and the truth lose out to intolerance and persecution.
Monday Morning Church (Brent Baxter and Erin Enderlin) by Alan Jackson
Deeply sorrowful dirge with an incredible chorused metaphor. Sung by one of my favorite country ballad singers.
What If I Stumble by DC Talk
Very spiritual song of conscience and care; deeply spiritual, moral, and emotional-- without being formally religious
Desperado by the Eagles
Another example of lucid ballad poetry set to music; in this case the brief story of a Wild West gunman who is being
counseled by the singer through playing card imagery that love is the best choice, not killing and money.
The Gates of Eden by Bob Dylan
60’s folk song filled with surrealistic images and metaphors of protest.
Woodstock (Join Mitchell) by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
Paean to the most famous rock concert of all time.
Though the famous event led to countless immoral, unjust, and destructive future actions. How tragic for a concert whose music was fabulous, creative, often morally positive.
Gods of Men by Randy Stonehill
Spiritual satire against the finite idols that too many of us humans ‘worship’ instead of the Good, the True, the Just.
The Universal Soldier (Buffy St. Marie) by Donovan
An anti-war song that covers human history. While not excusing militarist leaders, the lyrics instead focus on how each of us as individual humans are responsible for war.
8 Miles High by The Byrds
The instrumentation in this rocker is amazing, though, correctly or not, many have claimed it is about drugs.
See My Life by Seals and Croft
Philosophical, reflective early song from these two Bahai's.
Somebody Must Be Praying for Me (Frank Vinci, Bob Mould, Kris Bergsnes) by Tim McGraw
A very meaningful spiritual song of how sometimes problems and loss of dreams if considered from a spiritual point can open up other possibilities including love.
Cats in the Cradle by Sandy Gaston and Harry Chapin
Poem and song filled with allusions and metaphoric images which warns the severe and tragic consequences of a father who is too busy succeeding in his career for his family.
Old Man's Rubble (Brown Bannister) by Amy Grant
Probably the best ever song of the danger of living contrary to what one sincerely believes.
Celebrate this Heartbeat by Randy Stonehill
Everything I Own by Bread
Written and sung for his father who died tragically young.
--
Since I am a poet/wannbe-songwriter, artist, and lover of music, (of all kinds except rap and opera), it was difficult (and still is) for me to understand the thinking of early Quakers.
And here's a quote
from one early Friend, an outstanding musician before abandoning his career in music to become a Quaker:
Early Friend Solomon Eccles:
From A Musick Lector
"a QUAKER (so called) being formerly of that Art, doth give his Judgment and Sentence against it; but yet approves of the Musick that pleaseth God."
Written by SOLOMON ECCLES, 1667
"So I see, that Musick pleases well that which is for destruction, and grieves that which God doth highly esteem and honour; Isa. 42.21.
--
Modern Friend Jon Watts:
“Solomon Eccles rejected his upper-class, baroque music profession, and took all of his instruments and manuscripts and burned them in a public demonstration of leveling. The early Friends were rejecting the social class system, which they deemed unjust and ungodly. How could I possibly hear about that and not write a song about it?"
Friends threw out anything that was formulaic. The idea was experiential—to have your own experience of the Spirit, to have the Living Spirit speak through you. If you’re going to be baptized, let the Spirit baptize you. If you’re going to take communion, take it because the Spirit is leading you to, not because it’s just a thing you do every Sunday.
If you’re going to sing, don’t let someone else write it for you. Sing it! So Quakers were the first jazz musicians, always improvising. The Spirit was their muse.
So when I’m playing a song I try to listen to the Spirit the same way one does in a meeting for worship when preparing to give vocal ministry. I wait until I’m quaking to write a song down. I wait until a song is streaming out of me, until it’s not me anymore. It’s as if I’m watching the song get written.”
Jon Watts, Quaker Musician, songwriter, and movement leader
from an interview in the Friends Journal, May, 2013
http://www.friendsjournal.org/bum-rush-the-internet/
And from A Musick Lector by Solomon Eccles:
"To obey the Lord, is better than to give all my goods to the poor, and my body to be burned; yet to let thee know the Truth of this thing; when I came to be convinced of this everlasting truth, I saw my Calling would not stand before it; I went, but not in the Counsel of the Lord, and sold most of my instruments;
"howbeit that would not cover me, for the Lord met with me; and as I was learning to sew, for I had formerly some insight of a Tailors Trade, but I was too high to bow to it, till the Truth came, and that is of power to make the strong man bow, and I sitting alone, with my mind turned in, the Voice of the Lord said, Go thy way, and buy those Instruments again thou lately soldest, and carry them and the rest thou hast in thy house to Tower Hill, and burn them there, as a Testimony against that Calling."
"So I obeyed the Lord, and bought them again, and carried them, and all I had in my house, to Tower Hill, and burnt them there, according to the uprightness of my heart before the Lord; which Books and Instruments did amount to more than four and twenty pound; and I had great peace. Glory be to God for ever. Amen."
"That Heaven will be shaken, and thy Song will be turned into howling; for such Musick and Singing was never set up of God, but of men; and it takes with that part in man that serves not God aright, but is for wrath and judgement, Heb. 12.26. 1 Cor. 2.24."
"But what effects hath Musick brought forth, that men so highly esteem it? What fruit did Nebuchadnezzars Musick bring forth in his day, was it not to murder? But the three servants of the Lord would not bow to his Image at the sound of his Pipes and his Fiddles, though others did.
"And how did Musick and Dancing take the heart of the foolish King Herod, by means whereof he committed murder, and caused John Baptists's Head to be cut off, who was a blessed man, approved of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and was greater than the prophets; and because he reproved him for having his Brothers Wife, rankor lay in the heart of the Damsels Mother, and when the Fidlers did strike up, and the Wench began to dance, his affectionate love began to be enflamed to the Girle, that he killed the Lords servant in coole blood. O ye Fidlers and Dancing- Masters, let this President break you off from your filthy practice;"
"Why do you dance without the Ark? Where is your Ark? What President have you in Scripture for your Dancing? You set up the Devils Kingdom by your proud Calling: You set their Bodies in postures to enflame and take with the lustful Nature in men, and with proud Apparrel, and Spots on their Faces. Woe to the Crown of Pride."
"What account will ye give to the Lord, ye Dancing- masters, from whence came ye, where is your Ark? David danced before the Ark. O repent ye shameless men, will you not blush at your doings? If my Calling was unlawful, much more is yours; O do not provoke the Lord any more; haste, haste, and leave off your practice before it leave you, for what thank will it be to you then, when you shall break off sinning because you can sin no more?"
--Quaker Heritage Press
http://www.qhpress.org/index.html
BUT, why can't good music be creatively planned?
Why must songs always be only, allegedly, spontaneous from the Divine?
Surely, the Light has also given humans the amazing ability to think rationally, morally, mathematically, scientifically...
To create not only via inspiration but through carefully engaged creativity.
This negation of the arts, especially music shows how lopsided the early Friends were when trying to get rid of hypocrisy, formalism without reality, and destructive
influences.
But early Quakers didn’t get rid of business, medicine, science, new technology,
No, on the contrary, Quakers excelled in the sciences and in business, neither any more holy or spiritual than music or any other art.
In fact, business probably is far more an occasion to err, even to destroy than music ever has been.
Do you have a suggestion of a song to add to Great Music?
Quaker rock to rock;-).
In Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Monday, March 25, 2024
Short Review of the Scholarly Biography of George Fox by H. Larry Ingle
First Among Friends by H. Larry Ingle
This is a very important historical study for all Friends and other readers! Probably, First Among Friends is the best book on George Fox and early Friends. (See below for other detailed histories and biographies.)
Unlike so many studies of the religious past, his book isn’t hagiographical but emphasizes verified facts. At some points it even errs to the side of trying to be so objective, that I wondered whether or not Ingle is even a Quaker.
While pointing out many of the outstanding good actions and perspectives of George Fox, Ingle goes into detail showing Fox’s (and other early Quakers) bad characteristics and acts, their major failings, warts and all. Keeping a scholarly tone, Ingle seldom deals with Fox from a spiritual point-of-view.
The volume focuses mostly on outward actions and is more of a cultural biography. And at times, the text comes across almost too academic and skeptical. For instance, the last paragraph of the biography is disconcerting from a transcendental/spiritual perspective.
Still, it seems that this is a must read for all modern Quakers. First Among Friends has given me new awareness of how all moral and spiritual truth is conditioned by culture, time, and other events. Tragically, even the best moral leaders are still weighed down by pettiness and squabbling.
A good companion history to read is Cavaliers and Roundheads. That outstanding history of the England in the 1600's helps readers to understand that though the secular governments of the period persecuted, oppressed, even killed the early Friends, the authorities weren't necessarily evil but often mistook Fox and Quakers for dangerous violent revolutionaries.
It is also strange seeing in Ingle’s account how at times Parliament vs. King varied in their behavior toward the Friends, not always badly.
How very strange it was that James II, a Roman Catholic (who the early Friends opposed) should be the first to really grant Friends and others religions tolerance, while in stark contrast, Parliament in 1683 was so against Friends and other nonconformists that hundreds were sent to prison.
Such intriguing facts show how complicated real history is versus the myths and over simplifications that most people hear about and think is the truth of their movement.
Other powerful histories on Friends:
Primitivism, Radicalism, and the Lamb's War
Quakers in California
Quakers in Conflict
In the LIGHT,
Daniel Wilcox
This is a very important historical study for all Friends and other readers! Probably, First Among Friends is the best book on George Fox and early Friends. (See below for other detailed histories and biographies.)
Unlike so many studies of the religious past, his book isn’t hagiographical but emphasizes verified facts. At some points it even errs to the side of trying to be so objective, that I wondered whether or not Ingle is even a Quaker.
The volume focuses mostly on outward actions and is more of a cultural biography. And at times, the text comes across almost too academic and skeptical. For instance, the last paragraph of the biography is disconcerting from a transcendental/spiritual perspective.
Still, it seems that this is a must read for all modern Quakers. First Among Friends has given me new awareness of how all moral and spiritual truth is conditioned by culture, time, and other events. Tragically, even the best moral leaders are still weighed down by pettiness and squabbling.
A good companion history to read is Cavaliers and Roundheads. That outstanding history of the England in the 1600's helps readers to understand that though the secular governments of the period persecuted, oppressed, even killed the early Friends, the authorities weren't necessarily evil but often mistook Fox and Quakers for dangerous violent revolutionaries.
It is also strange seeing in Ingle’s account how at times Parliament vs. King varied in their behavior toward the Friends, not always badly.
How very strange it was that James II, a Roman Catholic (who the early Friends opposed) should be the first to really grant Friends and others religions tolerance, while in stark contrast, Parliament in 1683 was so against Friends and other nonconformists that hundreds were sent to prison.
Such intriguing facts show how complicated real history is versus the myths and over simplifications that most people hear about and think is the truth of their movement.
Other powerful histories on Friends:
Primitivism, Radicalism, and the Lamb's War
Quakers in California
Quakers in Conflict
In the LIGHT,
Daniel Wilcox
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Thursday, March 7, 2024
GUEST post from Tent of Nations, a Palestinian family's seeking, despite Israeli attacks, to live Jesus' moral Truth
FROM TENT OF NATIONS WEBSITE--
https://tentofnations.com/about-us/
The picture this morning shows "5 illegal Israeli Jewish settlements” who have confiscated more Palestinian land:-( that immorally and unjustly surround
a Christian Palestinian family’s land that has been in their family for over 100 years, since Ottoman times!
Here's part of an accounting of how the Israeli government’s oppression, persecution, confiscation, destruction of Palestinian orchards, etc. make it so difficult for Palestinians such as this Palestinian family near Bethlehem:-(
YET this Palestinian family seeks to love all people including their Jewish enemies with Jesus’ love.
FROM "History of the ToN"
“More than 100 years ago, many family members have worked at the ToN during the day and slept in caves at night. Olives, grapes, almonds, fruit trees, wheat and other crops are grown on the land.
"The farm (Daher’s Vineyard) was purchased more than one 100 years ago...At that time, the country was still under the Ottoman rule. During the British Mandate in Palestine from 1918 to 1948, the property was registered with the British in 1924 and 1925 under Bishara Daher Nassar’s name.
"The Arab Israeli war in 1948-49 (Arabic: Nakba = catastrophe), left more than 750,000 Arab Palestinians without a home. Daher’s son Bishara Nassar began a ministry in the Bethlehem area among the Palestinian Christian refugees by offering Bible Study and prayer sessions to empower them and to encourage them...
More Palestinian land "was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, and in the 1970s Israel started building Settlements... Bishara's "ToN is surrounded by 5 illegal Israeli Jewish settlements (Gush Etzion settlement bloc) that are growing to become cities. In 2018, a Torah school, also expanding rapidly, was built right next to the ToN.
--
"In 1991, Israeli authorities declared the Nassar family farm and surrounding area as" Israeli state land. Despite the facts that the " Nassar family owns all the original land registrations under the name of Bishara Nassar from 1924 and 1925 and has farmed the land throughout Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli rule, which clearly proves that the Israeli government has no right to declare it as state land.
"Since then, the Nassar family has defended their land from demolition of farm buildings, water cisterns, tents, and outright expropriation in front of the Israeli Military Court and Supreme Courts.
--
More than 0.7 million Jewish settlers already have stolen and occupied Palestinian lands!
--
"Since then, the process has been repeatedly delayed by Israel, forcing the Nassars to restart the process several times. In 2019, the Nassars finally received confirmation that their application was complete...
"Despite repeated requests, the Nassars continue to wait to hear the results of this meeting. Between February and August 2021, nothing was heard from the Civil Administration, despite several requests from their attorney.
--
"As in many other cases in the past, the hearing was postponed and rescheduled for January 16, 2022.
--
"This date was again postponed to October 27, 2022, postponed to November 21, 2022 and then postponed again to January 16, 2023. "..the ToN continued to be the target of numerous attacks. On May 21, 2021, unknown persons set fire on the Nassar’s land and destroyed over 1000 trees, including hundreds of olive trees. On June 9, 2021, Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers entered their private property and cut down approximately 50 olive trees.
"On January 28, 2022, two of the Nassar’s brothers were attacked and seriously injured on the ToN by masked men. The pace of settlement expansion, the constant concern for the family’s physical safety, the construction of settler-only roads, and roadblocks and checkpoints have added to the isolation of the ToN and the sense of imminent threat.
"Countless times so far, the ToN has been attacked, thousands of trees have been destroyed, and damages of over €150,000 have been caused. The Nassar family has been threatened with their lives several times.
Yet this Christian Palestinian family despite "the continuous destructions and the attacks on their lives" attempts to live peaceful nonviolent way based on their Christian values and trusting in God’s justice."
Please relay this story to your Congress leaders and all others that you know so that the Palestinian side of the current horrific tragedy in Palestine-Israel gets heard!
In the LIGHT,
Daniel Wilcox
https://tentofnations.com/about-us/
The picture this morning shows "5 illegal Israeli Jewish settlements” who have confiscated more Palestinian land:-( that immorally and unjustly surround
a Christian Palestinian family’s land that has been in their family for over 100 years, since Ottoman times!
YET this Palestinian family seeks to love all people including their Jewish enemies with Jesus’ love.
FROM "History of the ToN"
“More than 100 years ago, many family members have worked at the ToN during the day and slept in caves at night. Olives, grapes, almonds, fruit trees, wheat and other crops are grown on the land.
"The farm (Daher’s Vineyard) was purchased more than one 100 years ago...At that time, the country was still under the Ottoman rule. During the British Mandate in Palestine from 1918 to 1948, the property was registered with the British in 1924 and 1925 under Bishara Daher Nassar’s name.
"The Arab Israeli war in 1948-49 (Arabic: Nakba = catastrophe), left more than 750,000 Arab Palestinians without a home. Daher’s son Bishara Nassar began a ministry in the Bethlehem area among the Palestinian Christian refugees by offering Bible Study and prayer sessions to empower them and to encourage them...
More Palestinian land "was occupied by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, and in the 1970s Israel started building Settlements... Bishara's "ToN is surrounded by 5 illegal Israeli Jewish settlements (Gush Etzion settlement bloc) that are growing to become cities. In 2018, a Torah school, also expanding rapidly, was built right next to the ToN.
--
"In 1991, Israeli authorities declared the Nassar family farm and surrounding area as" Israeli state land. Despite the facts that the " Nassar family owns all the original land registrations under the name of Bishara Nassar from 1924 and 1925 and has farmed the land throughout Ottoman, British, Jordanian and Israeli rule, which clearly proves that the Israeli government has no right to declare it as state land.
"Since then, the Nassar family has defended their land from demolition of farm buildings, water cisterns, tents, and outright expropriation in front of the Israeli Military Court and Supreme Courts.
--
More than 0.7 million Jewish settlers already have stolen and occupied Palestinian lands!
--
"Since then, the process has been repeatedly delayed by Israel, forcing the Nassars to restart the process several times. In 2019, the Nassars finally received confirmation that their application was complete...
"Despite repeated requests, the Nassars continue to wait to hear the results of this meeting. Between February and August 2021, nothing was heard from the Civil Administration, despite several requests from their attorney.
--
"As in many other cases in the past, the hearing was postponed and rescheduled for January 16, 2022.
--
"This date was again postponed to October 27, 2022, postponed to November 21, 2022 and then postponed again to January 16, 2023. "..the ToN continued to be the target of numerous attacks. On May 21, 2021, unknown persons set fire on the Nassar’s land and destroyed over 1000 trees, including hundreds of olive trees. On June 9, 2021, Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers entered their private property and cut down approximately 50 olive trees.
"On January 28, 2022, two of the Nassar’s brothers were attacked and seriously injured on the ToN by masked men. The pace of settlement expansion, the constant concern for the family’s physical safety, the construction of settler-only roads, and roadblocks and checkpoints have added to the isolation of the ToN and the sense of imminent threat.
"Countless times so far, the ToN has been attacked, thousands of trees have been destroyed, and damages of over €150,000 have been caused. The Nassar family has been threatened with their lives several times.
Yet this Christian Palestinian family despite "the continuous destructions and the attacks on their lives" attempts to live peaceful nonviolent way based on their Christian values and trusting in God’s justice."
Please relay this story to your Congress leaders and all others that you know so that the Palestinian side of the current horrific tragedy in Palestine-Israel gets heard!
In the LIGHT,
Daniel Wilcox
Sunday, March 3, 2024
To us an Infant is GIFTED--No to "abortion on demand"
What is a baby?
Don't ask many modern thinkers. According to them there are "abortion rights"! And the new human life in its mother's womb is a "parasite" only unwanted "tissue"!
Nothing could be further from the moral truth.
That doesn't mean that state governments or the federal government should make intolerant, oppressive rules like some rightwing politicians have been doing lately, ones that require a woman or girl who has been raped or molested to bring the rapist's infant to birth, etc.
There are also tragic biological accidents where preborn infants in the womb are missing their brain or so severely malformed that they will die shortly after birth or never be able to function.
I'm not speaking to any of those severe pregnancy tragedies.
And, in all cases of pregnancy, the mother (in consultation with her husband and doctor) IS the ONLY one who decides!
NOT strangers or the government.
The key point of this article is that generally conception, growth in the mother's womb, and birth are the wondrous creation of new human life!
Also, don't ask theologians or become entangled in illusions and delusions, long-winded metaphysical splits/spit;-) of religious thinking.
What if we didn't focus on abstract philosophical doctrine, but viewed each baby as a true gift.
Instead, most traditional churches claim the doctrine of Original Sin-- that all babies are born inherently guilty sinners. In contrast, New Thought religion declares all babies are born divine. What a philosophical split!
What does either doctrinal extreme have to do with the real living being who is birthed from her mother?
the creation of her and her husband's love-making?
Human beings at birth are neither divine nor depraved. A baby is a natural offspring of a primate species. But uniquely (probably unlike any other species of life, even dolphins and chimps) a human being has the potential to grow spiritually--to relate to her Creator, and to create, bring newness and improvements into existence since she has been created in the image of God.
What a wonder a baby is! I recently held my first grandchild. Experientially, the moment was blessed. How perfect her tiny living body. What a true gift from the Divine.
But a little later, when she got hungry, wow, what lungs and what a puckered face she suddenly developed!
I must admit, I don't think something called a "soul" enters a baby at conception, or for that matter anytime later.
At conception a new life begins with amazing characteristics from the genes of her/his ancestors. At conception, the life appears to have no awareness. But brain wave activity begins early in the womb.
Even after birth, however, a baby is sort of an eating and pooping blob;-) She has awareness, but probably not much except she wants to be fed, and fed now!
Then gradually her awareness grows month after month. Finally she becomes self-conscious. Then later her sense of conscience develops--what is morally good, true, and just.
Finally, an awareness of her finiteness and the mystery of existence comes into her consciousness.
No, a baby doesn’t come into the world a walking, talking, mentally active philosopher/theologian/moralist/saint.
On the contrary she is a living breathing consciousness at the most simple level.
As she grows in the next 6 to 7 years in her consciousness, self-awareness, and her moral conscience develops with a sense of ought, then she will become a moral and spiritual individual who acts. Sometimes she will fail, sometimes "miss the mark."
But even then she is still an innocent child struggling to function and to understand and to fulfill needs and desires and hopes, and the demands of the big people in her life.
Is not this the stage that Jesus referred to when he said those who enter the Kingdom of God must do so as a little child? And where he said to people to let little children come to him for of such is the Kingdom?
And this was my own personal experience—when so young. I don’t remember being a sinful-driven child that fundamentalist Christians claim all babies and small children are.
Instead, as far back as I can remember, I had very deep desires to do good, to be good, to know God and to love the Light. And I had a lot of childlike wonder questions about God, life, other...always asking why about everything:-)
Of course the slither of wrong thought, wrong action, wrong living does come to us all, but not at conception or birth!
A child's awareness will grow if she is introduced to God and is shown her responsibility to share, to think of others and their needs, even though she still doesn’t voluntarily give outwardly if it is to her own privation.
Finally, the her moral consciousness kicks in mid-childhood. At each given moment, there will be a tussle between her babyhood past (all spontaneous need and desire) and her adulthood future (potentially all share, give, and bliss).
At that moment by moment juncture—that possibility moment--she must make continual moral, spiritual decisions. She is finite and so will make mistakes and fail. She is learning in her emotions, her mind, her conscience, and her body as she moves through time. Her choices are a much more complicated version of the way she learned to walk and to talk three years earlier--by trial and error.
But now a new possibility rears its ugly or saintly head. If she doesn’t continue to develop holistically, widening outwardly her care, her helpfulness, her compassion, then she slows, stalls, or even regresses backward to a total need/want level.
However, since she isn’t an infant but has the outer body and will and growing mental ability of a 6 or 7 year old, her regression hurts herself and other persons.
To try and fulfill life as a growing child, by returning to the barely conscious self-focused life of an infant actually distorts life and will bring harm to others to varying degrees.
Continued growing, in contrast, takes her through new stages of human development and new challenges. Each developmental advance brings new ethical and spiritual choices—either good or bad, advancing or regressing or a combination of both.
As anyone knows, when climbing a mountain, the higher one goes the more dangerous the climb becomes—not because the action of climbing mountains is evil, or because individuals who climb mountains are depraved sinful beings, but because the very nature of going "higher" also offers more options of choosing. Some of the ways are wrong, even could cause one to plummet to the bottom. Some of the ways are right, and lead toward the peak.
If a baby cries when she hungry that doesn’t show she is sinning.
On the contrary that is how an infant acts to get the attention she needs to survive. If a 4-year-old child throws a tantrum and takes her little brother’s bottle because she thinks she isn’t getting enough attention from her parents, while her action is wrong and needs to be corrected, she shouldn't be told she is a sinner. She hasn’t developed enough in her conscious awareness and ethical conscience to make altruistic decisions.
However, if at 8, she hides her little brother’s medicine, because she wants all the attention instead, this is morally wrong because by then her mental, moral conscience has developed enough to know that her action isn't the right way to get attention. And, besides, by this point she should be widening her compassion and care for others out beyond her own needs and desires.
If at 18, she steals her younger sister’s boyfriend to build up her own ego, deep wrong has occurred. By 22 if she joins with many of her countrymen and demonizes others and distant people in another country and lies, steals, and joins in the slaughter of those enemies, we do have actions of evil,
just as if in contrast,
she joins an outreach organization such as Habitat for Humanity or World Vision and sacrifices her time, talent, and money and inspires her younger sister to do so as well, we have actions of goodness.
Then the two sisters think of a way to get other people in their neighborhood, school, and city to get involved. One such inspired girl, about 13 years of age, raised thousands of dollars for starving, hurting people in a far off country.
See how the moral growth of human beings happens. A human being is in process from simple surviving to becoming the acting being of moral truth.
Reminds me of several of Jesus’ moral parables...
Go and do thou likewise...please stop talking about babies being unwanted "parasites" or "depraved sinners..."
“Holy infant so tender and mild*,” except when she cries at 3 a.m. and the parents haven’t slept through the night for weeks;-)
In the LIGHT,
Dan Wilcox
Don't ask many modern thinkers. According to them there are "abortion rights"! And the new human life in its mother's womb is a "parasite" only unwanted "tissue"!
Nothing could be further from the moral truth.
That doesn't mean that state governments or the federal government should make intolerant, oppressive rules like some rightwing politicians have been doing lately, ones that require a woman or girl who has been raped or molested to bring the rapist's infant to birth, etc.
There are also tragic biological accidents where preborn infants in the womb are missing their brain or so severely malformed that they will die shortly after birth or never be able to function.
I'm not speaking to any of those severe pregnancy tragedies.
And, in all cases of pregnancy, the mother (in consultation with her husband and doctor) IS the ONLY one who decides!
NOT strangers or the government.
The key point of this article is that generally conception, growth in the mother's womb, and birth are the wondrous creation of new human life!
Also, don't ask theologians or become entangled in illusions and delusions, long-winded metaphysical splits/spit;-) of religious thinking.
What if we didn't focus on abstract philosophical doctrine, but viewed each baby as a true gift.
Instead, most traditional churches claim the doctrine of Original Sin-- that all babies are born inherently guilty sinners. In contrast, New Thought religion declares all babies are born divine. What a philosophical split!
the creation of her and her husband's love-making?
Human beings at birth are neither divine nor depraved. A baby is a natural offspring of a primate species. But uniquely (probably unlike any other species of life, even dolphins and chimps) a human being has the potential to grow spiritually--to relate to her Creator, and to create, bring newness and improvements into existence since she has been created in the image of God.
What a wonder a baby is! I recently held my first grandchild. Experientially, the moment was blessed. How perfect her tiny living body. What a true gift from the Divine.
But a little later, when she got hungry, wow, what lungs and what a puckered face she suddenly developed!
I must admit, I don't think something called a "soul" enters a baby at conception, or for that matter anytime later.
At conception a new life begins with amazing characteristics from the genes of her/his ancestors. At conception, the life appears to have no awareness. But brain wave activity begins early in the womb.
Even after birth, however, a baby is sort of an eating and pooping blob;-) She has awareness, but probably not much except she wants to be fed, and fed now!
Then gradually her awareness grows month after month. Finally she becomes self-conscious. Then later her sense of conscience develops--what is morally good, true, and just.
Finally, an awareness of her finiteness and the mystery of existence comes into her consciousness.
No, a baby doesn’t come into the world a walking, talking, mentally active philosopher/theologian/moralist/saint.
On the contrary she is a living breathing consciousness at the most simple level.
As she grows in the next 6 to 7 years in her consciousness, self-awareness, and her moral conscience develops with a sense of ought, then she will become a moral and spiritual individual who acts. Sometimes she will fail, sometimes "miss the mark."
But even then she is still an innocent child struggling to function and to understand and to fulfill needs and desires and hopes, and the demands of the big people in her life.
Is not this the stage that Jesus referred to when he said those who enter the Kingdom of God must do so as a little child? And where he said to people to let little children come to him for of such is the Kingdom?
And this was my own personal experience—when so young. I don’t remember being a sinful-driven child that fundamentalist Christians claim all babies and small children are.
Instead, as far back as I can remember, I had very deep desires to do good, to be good, to know God and to love the Light. And I had a lot of childlike wonder questions about God, life, other...always asking why about everything:-)
Of course the slither of wrong thought, wrong action, wrong living does come to us all, but not at conception or birth!
A child's awareness will grow if she is introduced to God and is shown her responsibility to share, to think of others and their needs, even though she still doesn’t voluntarily give outwardly if it is to her own privation.
Finally, the her moral consciousness kicks in mid-childhood. At each given moment, there will be a tussle between her babyhood past (all spontaneous need and desire) and her adulthood future (potentially all share, give, and bliss).
At that moment by moment juncture—that possibility moment--she must make continual moral, spiritual decisions. She is finite and so will make mistakes and fail. She is learning in her emotions, her mind, her conscience, and her body as she moves through time. Her choices are a much more complicated version of the way she learned to walk and to talk three years earlier--by trial and error.
But now a new possibility rears its ugly or saintly head. If she doesn’t continue to develop holistically, widening outwardly her care, her helpfulness, her compassion, then she slows, stalls, or even regresses backward to a total need/want level.
However, since she isn’t an infant but has the outer body and will and growing mental ability of a 6 or 7 year old, her regression hurts herself and other persons.
To try and fulfill life as a growing child, by returning to the barely conscious self-focused life of an infant actually distorts life and will bring harm to others to varying degrees.
Continued growing, in contrast, takes her through new stages of human development and new challenges. Each developmental advance brings new ethical and spiritual choices—either good or bad, advancing or regressing or a combination of both.
As anyone knows, when climbing a mountain, the higher one goes the more dangerous the climb becomes—not because the action of climbing mountains is evil, or because individuals who climb mountains are depraved sinful beings, but because the very nature of going "higher" also offers more options of choosing. Some of the ways are wrong, even could cause one to plummet to the bottom. Some of the ways are right, and lead toward the peak.
If a baby cries when she hungry that doesn’t show she is sinning.
On the contrary that is how an infant acts to get the attention she needs to survive. If a 4-year-old child throws a tantrum and takes her little brother’s bottle because she thinks she isn’t getting enough attention from her parents, while her action is wrong and needs to be corrected, she shouldn't be told she is a sinner. She hasn’t developed enough in her conscious awareness and ethical conscience to make altruistic decisions.
However, if at 8, she hides her little brother’s medicine, because she wants all the attention instead, this is morally wrong because by then her mental, moral conscience has developed enough to know that her action isn't the right way to get attention. And, besides, by this point she should be widening her compassion and care for others out beyond her own needs and desires.
If at 18, she steals her younger sister’s boyfriend to build up her own ego, deep wrong has occurred. By 22 if she joins with many of her countrymen and demonizes others and distant people in another country and lies, steals, and joins in the slaughter of those enemies, we do have actions of evil,
just as if in contrast,
she joins an outreach organization such as Habitat for Humanity or World Vision and sacrifices her time, talent, and money and inspires her younger sister to do so as well, we have actions of goodness.
Then the two sisters think of a way to get other people in their neighborhood, school, and city to get involved. One such inspired girl, about 13 years of age, raised thousands of dollars for starving, hurting people in a far off country.
See how the moral growth of human beings happens. A human being is in process from simple surviving to becoming the acting being of moral truth.
Reminds me of several of Jesus’ moral parables...
Go and do thou likewise...please stop talking about babies being unwanted "parasites" or "depraved sinners..."
“Holy infant so tender and mild*,” except when she cries at 3 a.m. and the parents haven’t slept through the night for weeks;-)
In the LIGHT,
Dan Wilcox
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
when hopes and goals and...fail, how to LIVE
I have never been satisfied with the usual, the superficial, even the partial good, not even brief moments of the best, but have always yearned for the unseen deep, the transcendent--
have been an idealist, an individual who always seeks beyond this current tragic mess to the wondrous,
the sublime,
the essential--
to God,
True Ultimate Reality.
And as I share below, only a few wondrous times, I have been overwhelmed me with its Presence far beyond my wildest hopes, ideals and dreams.
HOWEVER,
as already said,
so much of my life has been lived and continually needs to be lived in
(and I suppose most other people's lives) the humdrum,
the routine,
the repetitious,
the mediocre,
the dull,
the boring --yes, the drudgery and sludge of the average day.
And now after a severe stroke of bad luck in the spine, I am mostly confined to the lonely rooms of our house, often not even capable of walker-hobbling out to the mail box.
Even on a day or so a week, when I am doing a bit better, and walker-out, seldom are there any neighbors out and
about.
Not since COVID does anyone hang out talking, while their kids bike and play around the cul-de-sac, etc.
Yet I long for, like the Jewish Psalmist says, deeply thirst for the wondrous and the true and the good and the
caring.
Recently, I came across an insight that helped me in my daily quandary; changed my thoughts of communion with the Transcendent, since so often I am disappointed with how shallow, even dry, my experiences seem on any given day or night, especially on days taken up with the hectic or the tragic.
When the spiritual insight reached me in the deepest place, the vital truth came anew--
friendship with the Light is MORAL ACTION!
not primarily feeling
or experience.
(And not 'creedal' beliefs
like most humans think).
WHAT COUNTS ISN'T memory, desire, hope--BUT DOING in each moment the morally right act.
Since I am an artist though through and through (one huge nerve ending;-),
this focus is difficult.
I want to feel, feel, feel...
Even a speculative-sci-fi novel by me was titled, The Feeling of the Earth.
And I do hope to experience God again and again, but for now I know more deeply what most counts is TO ACT
for the ideal,
for the true,
for the transcendent.
That's Truth come down.
HOPEFULLY, we will sometimes also experience the Infinite-Transcendent to an overwhelming degree--
one incredible time I did--
Outside the Limit
Working the thursday graveyard shift
At 7-11, I stock cold shelves of 'cours'
Then write a college essay on dreiser
Of how all is thin surface, all negation;
But alert in the night, I muse in the stillness
While beyond the glass, the parking lot lies
Vacant, lit by the neon signs and street lights--
When so unexpected my mind transports.
I rise outside of self, see far beyondness,
Perceive myself sitting between the rows,
Observe the little ego in the skin and skull
My bodied self sitting with the staid cans and jars.
But now awash drowned in awe, in the Personal
Luminousness aware beyond words vivid bliss
Blessed all encompassing exalting surpassing
Transcendent Deep Presence.
First pub. in Flutter Poetry Journal
May you find the LIGHT in your daily giving actions and at least once in an overwhelming Sublime experience.
In the Light,
Dan
have been an idealist, an individual who always seeks beyond this current tragic mess to the wondrous,
the sublime,
the essential--
to God,
True Ultimate Reality.
And as I share below, only a few wondrous times, I have been overwhelmed me with its Presence far beyond my wildest hopes, ideals and dreams.
HOWEVER,
as already said,
so much of my life has been lived and continually needs to be lived in
(and I suppose most other people's lives) the humdrum,
the routine,
the repetitious,
the mediocre,
the dull,
the boring --yes, the drudgery and sludge of the average day.
And now after a severe stroke of bad luck in the spine, I am mostly confined to the lonely rooms of our house, often not even capable of walker-hobbling out to the mail box.
Even on a day or so a week, when I am doing a bit better, and walker-out, seldom are there any neighbors out and
about.
Not since COVID does anyone hang out talking, while their kids bike and play around the cul-de-sac, etc.
Yet I long for, like the Jewish Psalmist says, deeply thirst for the wondrous and the true and the good and the
caring.
Recently, I came across an insight that helped me in my daily quandary; changed my thoughts of communion with the Transcendent, since so often I am disappointed with how shallow, even dry, my experiences seem on any given day or night, especially on days taken up with the hectic or the tragic.
When the spiritual insight reached me in the deepest place, the vital truth came anew--
friendship with the Light is MORAL ACTION!
not primarily feeling
or experience.
(And not 'creedal' beliefs
like most humans think).
WHAT COUNTS ISN'T memory, desire, hope--BUT DOING in each moment the morally right act.
Since I am an artist though through and through (one huge nerve ending;-),
this focus is difficult.
I want to feel, feel, feel...
Even a speculative-sci-fi novel by me was titled, The Feeling of the Earth.
And I do hope to experience God again and again, but for now I know more deeply what most counts is TO ACT
for the ideal,
for the true,
for the transcendent.
That's Truth come down.
HOPEFULLY, we will sometimes also experience the Infinite-Transcendent to an overwhelming degree--
one incredible time I did--
Outside the Limit
Working the thursday graveyard shift
At 7-11, I stock cold shelves of 'cours'
Then write a college essay on dreiser
Of how all is thin surface, all negation;
But alert in the night, I muse in the stillness
While beyond the glass, the parking lot lies
Vacant, lit by the neon signs and street lights--
When so unexpected my mind transports.
I rise outside of self, see far beyondness,
Perceive myself sitting between the rows,
Observe the little ego in the skin and skull
My bodied self sitting with the staid cans and jars.
But now awash drowned in awe, in the Personal
Luminousness aware beyond words vivid bliss
Blessed all encompassing exalting surpassing
Transcendent Deep Presence.
First pub. in Flutter Poetry Journal
May you find the LIGHT in your daily giving actions and at least once in an overwhelming Sublime experience.
In the Light,
Dan
Saturday, February 17, 2024
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Unusual Place where Millions of Characters from Literature Exist and Interact
Somewhere, characters from countless selections of literature and media exist and interact.
Making educated guesses based upon your chosen individuals from novels, movies, etc., take us on a mystery tour of their conversations, actions, and views.
To write your adventure, assume your main character's 1st-person point-of-view, though any other point-of-view would also be fine. (Mention each title in brackets or parentheses).
Place the interacting characters in a particular novel or real-life setting.
Another fascinating possibility is to have them talk and interact with actual famous individuals of human history or the present.
For instance, Huck Finn (Mark Twain's novel) and Wolf Larsen (Jack London's The Sea Wolf) meet John Proctor (the real individual of history or the fictional character in Arthur Miller's The Crucible) one of the falsely accused at the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
Playing around with time and space is a possible option, too.
What if Europeans didn't discover the Americas?!
Or what happens if a current American political leader shows up in 1859 and meets Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara (Margaret Mitchel's Gone with the Wind)?
The possibilities in this imaginative literary lounge are limitless:-)
In the Light,
-Dan Wilcox
To write your adventure, assume your main character's 1st-person point-of-view, though any other point-of-view would also be fine. (Mention each title in brackets or parentheses).
Place the interacting characters in a particular novel or real-life setting.
Another fascinating possibility is to have them talk and interact with actual famous individuals of human history or the present.
For instance, Huck Finn (Mark Twain's novel) and Wolf Larsen (Jack London's The Sea Wolf) meet John Proctor (the real individual of history or the fictional character in Arthur Miller's The Crucible) one of the falsely accused at the Salem Witchcraft Trials.
Playing around with time and space is a possible option, too.
What if Europeans didn't discover the Americas?!
Or what happens if a current American political leader shows up in 1859 and meets Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara (Margaret Mitchel's Gone with the Wind)?
The possibilities in this imaginative literary lounge are limitless:-)
In the Light,
-Dan Wilcox
Wednesday, January 31, 2024
Friend Brinton’s insightful study of the Quaker Movement in the last 300 years, how the Society has 4 different emphases
Currently, in the U.S. and many other nations (and in various ideological or religious movements in history), most humans seem given to extremes and fragmentation.
This leaves us often divisive, unbalanced, and distorted in our quest for truth.
As Howard H. Brinton insightfully explains in Friends for 300 Years this divisiveness and fragmentation even happens to good renewal movements such as the Friends, who came into being for the very purpose of regaining wholistic truth and avoiding all destructive tendencies of human history.
"Through the three centuries of Quaker history the four primary elements present in all religion have at different times exerted their influence in varying degrees."
-Brinton
Mystic Inner Life
Evangel Outreach
Social Justice
Rationalism
From 1650 to about 1750, mysticism and evangel outreach were in balance in the group as a whole though some individuals tended to stress one or the other.
But then mysticism and evangelicalism became a major conflict, each pressing the other to bad extremes among Quakers as a whole.
By the 1800’s, Quietism, (an excessive focus on mysticism—the inner life) became dominant, and the early expressive evangel preaching and sharing of truth with those outside of the society greatly receded.
Instead, the Friends became “a peculiar society” which besides their “inner life” focused on exclusive boundaries and rigid rules.
Exactly the Opposite of the Early Friends who emphasized the CENTER, not exclusion and conformity to outward rules and dress.
During the latter half of the 20th century and the 1st 23 years of the 21st, rationalism and social justice took over and have assumed greater prominence,
(except for a few fundamentalist Friends who have abandoned the key points of the Society and, instead, inserted-asserted Reformed theology, the exact opposite of ALL that Quakerism means)!
Brinton:
"The best type of religion is one in which the mystical, the evangelical, the rational and the social are so related that each exercises a restraint on the others. Too exclusive an emphasis on mysticism results in a religion which is individualistic, subjective and vague."
Too dominant an evangelicalism results in religion which is authoritarian, creedal and external; too great an emphasis on rationalism results in a cold, intellectual religion which appeals only to the few.
Too engrossing a devotion to the social justice results in a religion which, in improving the outer environment, ignores serious defects of the inner life which cause the outer disorders.
Brinton also goes on to warn against "vitalism which worships the life-force in its biological sense" which has very little in common with the central message of the Early Friends.
My response to Brinton's excellent analysis: About the only point where I disagree with Brinton is when he says the 4 qualities "each exercise a restraint on the others."
No--and that sounds too negative--it is rather that when Most bathed in the Light, the 4 parts of true transcendental reality relate/commune, giving a redeeming uplifting of each other and are the Seed of true moral and spiritual becoming.
Read Friends for 300 Years (or the updated version, Friends for 350 Years) and be not only intellectually enlightened, but raised up in the LIGHT!
Friend on the edge, Daniel
This leaves us often divisive, unbalanced, and distorted in our quest for truth.
As Howard H. Brinton insightfully explains in Friends for 300 Years this divisiveness and fragmentation even happens to good renewal movements such as the Friends, who came into being for the very purpose of regaining wholistic truth and avoiding all destructive tendencies of human history.
"Through the three centuries of Quaker history the four primary elements present in all religion have at different times exerted their influence in varying degrees."
-Brinton
Mystic Inner Life
Evangel Outreach
Social Justice
Rationalism
From 1650 to about 1750, mysticism and evangel outreach were in balance in the group as a whole though some individuals tended to stress one or the other.
But then mysticism and evangelicalism became a major conflict, each pressing the other to bad extremes among Quakers as a whole.
By the 1800’s, Quietism, (an excessive focus on mysticism—the inner life) became dominant, and the early expressive evangel preaching and sharing of truth with those outside of the society greatly receded.
Instead, the Friends became “a peculiar society” which besides their “inner life” focused on exclusive boundaries and rigid rules.
Exactly the Opposite of the Early Friends who emphasized the CENTER, not exclusion and conformity to outward rules and dress.
During the latter half of the 20th century and the 1st 23 years of the 21st, rationalism and social justice took over and have assumed greater prominence,
(except for a few fundamentalist Friends who have abandoned the key points of the Society and, instead, inserted-asserted Reformed theology, the exact opposite of ALL that Quakerism means)!
Brinton:
"The best type of religion is one in which the mystical, the evangelical, the rational and the social are so related that each exercises a restraint on the others. Too exclusive an emphasis on mysticism results in a religion which is individualistic, subjective and vague."
Too dominant an evangelicalism results in religion which is authoritarian, creedal and external; too great an emphasis on rationalism results in a cold, intellectual religion which appeals only to the few.
Too engrossing a devotion to the social justice results in a religion which, in improving the outer environment, ignores serious defects of the inner life which cause the outer disorders.
Brinton also goes on to warn against "vitalism which worships the life-force in its biological sense" which has very little in common with the central message of the Early Friends.
My response to Brinton's excellent analysis: About the only point where I disagree with Brinton is when he says the 4 qualities "each exercise a restraint on the others."
No--and that sounds too negative--it is rather that when Most bathed in the Light, the 4 parts of true transcendental reality relate/commune, giving a redeeming uplifting of each other and are the Seed of true moral and spiritual becoming.
Read Friends for 300 Years (or the updated version, Friends for 350 Years) and be not only intellectually enlightened, but raised up in the LIGHT!
Friend on the edge, Daniel
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
AWAKE to SEEK
Awake to Seek
Wake
Up and suit yourself,
Into the floundering pattern-mudded
Consciousness of this our finite skin---
Into a being 'berthed' bemused, beseemed morning
So like the proverbial hog, boar or sow of the round ring
Who as life's suitors get caught by our snouted 'knows;'
Beshrewed, besotted, bemired so we instinctively grunt,
Tempted by our sensual, careening awareness
Or our dutiful grindstoned routine,
We press our life's suit 'til evening
Or wallow down
To our suited Wake.
1st pub. in Moria Poetry
--
in the time of Darkness
to commune with the Transcendently Real
in the midst of our utter loss
in the darkened night of alone
to contemplate despite a soon demise,
to live in the Infinite's silence
deafens our wayward heart and leaves
our confused mind bereft;
the Divine answers no pleas
our anguished request left--
Selah
to hope against midnight's despair
to trust in all that is blessedly Fair,
so Beautiful, Right, Good and Just
despite our world history of horror
for naught, and absurd;
we seek
a slight glimmer
of the billion-lighted
meaning shimmering briefly
in our finite reason and creative awareness,
before the cosmos spun into place,
eternally ever always
Ultimate
Becoming.
Selah
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
Wake
Up and suit yourself,
Into the floundering pattern-mudded
Consciousness of this our finite skin---
Into a being 'berthed' bemused, beseemed morning
So like the proverbial hog, boar or sow of the round ring
Who as life's suitors get caught by our snouted 'knows;'
Beshrewed, besotted, bemired so we instinctively grunt,
Tempted by our sensual, careening awareness
Or our dutiful grindstoned routine,
We press our life's suit 'til evening
Or wallow down
To our suited Wake.
1st pub. in Moria Poetry
--
in the time of Darkness
to commune with the Transcendently Real
in the midst of our utter loss
in the darkened night of alone
to contemplate despite a soon demise,
to live in the Infinite's silence
deafens our wayward heart and leaves
our confused mind bereft;
the Divine answers no pleas
our anguished request left--
Selah
to hope against midnight's despair
to trust in all that is blessedly Fair,
so Beautiful, Right, Good and Just
despite our world history of horror
for naught, and absurd;
we seek
a slight glimmer
of the billion-lighted
meaning shimmering briefly
in our finite reason and creative awareness,
before the cosmos spun into place,
eternally ever always
Ultimate
Becoming.
Selah
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
My Rating of the BEST MOVIES and TV SHOWS
Ones worth watching at least 2-3 times; and studying a few even more...
1. The Stand Original Miniseries
(not the recent inferior, at times hokey, one)
2. North and South Miniseries
3. Breaking Bad
(best dramatic tragedy TV series ever)
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
(endlessly thematically deep movie though it has
a few unnecessary bad scenes)
5. On the Waterfront
6. Star Wars-Empire Strikes Back duo
7. Dr. Zhivago
8. Original Star Trek, (some amazing episodes) and Star Trek:NG (a few powerful episodes)
8. Casablanca
(didn't get tired of this amazing classic,
until I had re-watched, studied the film 11 times!)
9. Sommersby
(very creative script and great acting; at times overly idealistic take on post-Civil War
South that has deeply moral themes
10. States of Grace
(deeply spiritual drama, powerful except for very long excessively slow ending)
11. A Stranger Among Us
(powerful moral story of devout Jewish view of reality versus secular police officers’ view)
12. Time Cop
(great futuristic time travel movie with unexpected plot twists)
13. The Sixth Day
14. Total Recall
(despite gratuitous scenes and excessive lethal violence)
15. Terminator 2
(despite intense over-done violent attack by mother of hero)
16. Sleepy Hollow
(intriguing adaption of the classic American literature story
by Washington Irving)
17. Savior
(powerful moral story of modern war in former Yugoslavia,
at times too realistic such as its constant gross cursing in every scene;
so weird that almost all indviduals in the military constantly use profanity and obscenity
in their speech:-( AFter I retired from teaching, I drove--moved cars around California for rental
agencies; but the 4 drivers I wroekd with constantly cursed and told me that the only reason I didn't
is because I hadn't been in the army.)
18. Bruce Almighty
(best comic, thematic, moral, spiritual movie ever)
19. Oblivion (s-f wonder
(but has brief gratuitous swim scene and unbelievable, anachronistic ball-glove-50’s episode)
20. Interstellar
21. Face-Off
(fascinating s-f story with deep moral dilemmas, contrasting a law-focused, though rigid, police with an sociopathic, though fascinating, terroist; despite extreme graphic slaughter and hard-to-believe abusive futuristic prison episode)
22. Contact
23. District 9
(most creative, suspenseful, at times tragic, and comic
by South African director)
19. Flight of the Navigator
(very best s-f Disney movie back when there wasn't CGI)
20. By the Sword Divided Miniseries,
(intense BBC English Civil War drama)
21. The Mask
(hilarious way-out-there creative comedy,
despite one brief gross scene)
22. Roads to Freedom BBC/PBS Miniseries
from Jean-Paul Sartre's complex novel trilogy
(about 20th century Europe's politcal, philsophical, moral dilmenas;
though I feel ambivalent including it now that I know the horrific facts of Sartre's
and Simone deBeauvoir’s immoral and unjust lives
—including her grooming many girl students
for his sexual exploitation, and her own,
and their horrific—almost impossible to understand
strong support of Stalin and the Soviet Union!)
23. A Sound of Thunder
(s-f short story by Ray Bradbury)
24. Modern Times
25. The Time Machine (original)
26. What Dreams May Come
27. Lost
(1st season only;
after that it became cheesy with contradictions and lame stuff)
28. Logan’s Run
29. Planet of the Apes
(liked this classic; watched it 2 or 3 times in a row when I 1st
saw it in the theatre in 1968)
30. Centennial Miniseries
31. Shogun Miniseries
(dated now, but when 1st shown was powerful)
32. The Terminator
(despite extreme graphic slaughter)
33. Romeo and Juliet
(60’s, 1st version)
34. The Outer Limits TV series
(some creative s-f episodes)
35. The Twilight Zone
(many s-f episodes)
36. The Expanse TV Series
(1st season only)
37. a few episodes of the terror drama, 24
38. V Minseries (1983)
39. Heroes (1st season though too episodic)
40. The Walking Dead
(1st season only)
41. The Piano and Who’s on First --Abbot and Costello
42.Sense8
(creative plot/characters/themes but ruined by
nearly constant graphic immoral behavior)
43.The Fugitive
44. The Day the Earth Stood Still
45.Easy Rider
46. Combat TV series
(WW2 war drama)
47. Sea Hunt
48. Kindergarten Cop
(intriguing comedy-thriller, but
the climatic conclusion is way-too-excessively violent)
49. Falling Down
50. Oh God!
(classic comedy with Burns as 'God')
51. Dead Poet Society
(Robin Williams as the creative teacher,
a coming-of-age story,
though it is too 60ish cliched)
52.Over There
(realistic Iraq war story, a few episodes)
53. China Beach TV Series
(a few episodes, especially
one about the moral dilemma of whether or not medical staff
ought to try and save the life of a Viet Cong terrorist leader
54. Boys in Company C/Born on the 4th of July/Deer Hunter
(powerful Vietnam War movies)
55. Ghost in the Shell
(amazingly original Japanese anime movie
56. Simpsons
(a few hilarious episodes)
57. Rocky and Bullwinkle
(cartoon with hidden allusions and jokes for
parents watching with their kids)
58. Wizard of OZ
58. The Flinstones
58. Top Cat
(60's animation popular with us kids back then)
59. Shane
(most famous classic western)
60. Z
(intense politcal drama about the modern Greek dictatorship)
ALSO MENTIONS:
The Sound of Music
some Woody Allan creative movies such as Annie Hall
(though now I avoid his movies because of his immoral actions that have come out)
The China Syndrome
The Winds of War Miniseries
(based upon Herman Wouk's WW2 novels)
Testimony of 2 Men
Against the Wind Miniseries
Titanic
The Good, Bad, and the Ugly
Dr. Who British fantasy-sf series
(a few episodes)
Zorro TV series
(my dad and I used to watch that when I was a kid)
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
1. The Stand Original Miniseries
(not the recent inferior, at times hokey, one)
2. North and South Miniseries
3. Breaking Bad
(best dramatic tragedy TV series ever)
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
(endlessly thematically deep movie though it has
a few unnecessary bad scenes)
5. On the Waterfront
6. Star Wars-Empire Strikes Back duo
7. Dr. Zhivago
8. Original Star Trek, (some amazing episodes) and Star Trek:NG (a few powerful episodes)
8. Casablanca
(didn't get tired of this amazing classic,
until I had re-watched, studied the film 11 times!)
9. Sommersby
(very creative script and great acting; at times overly idealistic take on post-Civil War
South that has deeply moral themes
10. States of Grace
(deeply spiritual drama, powerful except for very long excessively slow ending)
11. A Stranger Among Us
(powerful moral story of devout Jewish view of reality versus secular police officers’ view)
12. Time Cop
(great futuristic time travel movie with unexpected plot twists)
13. The Sixth Day
14. Total Recall
(despite gratuitous scenes and excessive lethal violence)
15. Terminator 2
(despite intense over-done violent attack by mother of hero)
16. Sleepy Hollow
(intriguing adaption of the classic American literature story
by Washington Irving)
17. Savior
(powerful moral story of modern war in former Yugoslavia,
at times too realistic such as its constant gross cursing in every scene;
so weird that almost all indviduals in the military constantly use profanity and obscenity
in their speech:-( AFter I retired from teaching, I drove--moved cars around California for rental
agencies; but the 4 drivers I wroekd with constantly cursed and told me that the only reason I didn't
is because I hadn't been in the army.)
18. Bruce Almighty
(best comic, thematic, moral, spiritual movie ever)
19. Oblivion (s-f wonder
(but has brief gratuitous swim scene and unbelievable, anachronistic ball-glove-50’s episode)
20. Interstellar
21. Face-Off
(fascinating s-f story with deep moral dilemmas, contrasting a law-focused, though rigid, police with an sociopathic, though fascinating, terroist; despite extreme graphic slaughter and hard-to-believe abusive futuristic prison episode)
22. Contact
23. District 9
(most creative, suspenseful, at times tragic, and comic
by South African director)
19. Flight of the Navigator
(very best s-f Disney movie back when there wasn't CGI)
20. By the Sword Divided Miniseries,
(intense BBC English Civil War drama)
21. The Mask
(hilarious way-out-there creative comedy,
despite one brief gross scene)
22. Roads to Freedom BBC/PBS Miniseries
from Jean-Paul Sartre's complex novel trilogy
(about 20th century Europe's politcal, philsophical, moral dilmenas;
though I feel ambivalent including it now that I know the horrific facts of Sartre's
and Simone deBeauvoir’s immoral and unjust lives
—including her grooming many girl students
for his sexual exploitation, and her own,
and their horrific—almost impossible to understand
strong support of Stalin and the Soviet Union!)
23. A Sound of Thunder
(s-f short story by Ray Bradbury)
24. Modern Times
25. The Time Machine (original)
26. What Dreams May Come
27. Lost
(1st season only;
after that it became cheesy with contradictions and lame stuff)
28. Logan’s Run
29. Planet of the Apes
(liked this classic; watched it 2 or 3 times in a row when I 1st
saw it in the theatre in 1968)
30. Centennial Miniseries
31. Shogun Miniseries
(dated now, but when 1st shown was powerful)
32. The Terminator
(despite extreme graphic slaughter)
33. Romeo and Juliet
(60’s, 1st version)
34. The Outer Limits TV series
(some creative s-f episodes)
35. The Twilight Zone
(many s-f episodes)
36. The Expanse TV Series
(1st season only)
37. a few episodes of the terror drama, 24
38. V Minseries (1983)
39. Heroes (1st season though too episodic)
40. The Walking Dead
(1st season only)
41. The Piano and Who’s on First --Abbot and Costello
42.Sense8
(creative plot/characters/themes but ruined by
nearly constant graphic immoral behavior)
43.The Fugitive
44. The Day the Earth Stood Still
45.Easy Rider
46. Combat TV series
(WW2 war drama)
47. Sea Hunt
48. Kindergarten Cop
(intriguing comedy-thriller, but
the climatic conclusion is way-too-excessively violent)
49. Falling Down
50. Oh God!
(classic comedy with Burns as 'God')
51. Dead Poet Society
(Robin Williams as the creative teacher,
a coming-of-age story,
though it is too 60ish cliched)
52.Over There
(realistic Iraq war story, a few episodes)
53. China Beach TV Series
(a few episodes, especially
one about the moral dilemma of whether or not medical staff
ought to try and save the life of a Viet Cong terrorist leader
54. Boys in Company C/Born on the 4th of July/Deer Hunter
(powerful Vietnam War movies)
55. Ghost in the Shell
(amazingly original Japanese anime movie
56. Simpsons
(a few hilarious episodes)
57. Rocky and Bullwinkle
(cartoon with hidden allusions and jokes for
parents watching with their kids)
58. Wizard of OZ
58. The Flinstones
58. Top Cat
(60's animation popular with us kids back then)
59. Shane
(most famous classic western)
60. Z
(intense politcal drama about the modern Greek dictatorship)
ALSO MENTIONS:
The Sound of Music
some Woody Allan creative movies such as Annie Hall
(though now I avoid his movies because of his immoral actions that have come out)
The China Syndrome
The Winds of War Miniseries
(based upon Herman Wouk's WW2 novels)
Testimony of 2 Men
Against the Wind Miniseries
Titanic
The Good, Bad, and the Ugly
Dr. Who British fantasy-sf series
(a few episodes)
Zorro TV series
(my dad and I used to watch that when I was a kid)
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
Friday, January 19, 2024
More Public History Getting Torn Down-- How Wrong!
How tragic that public history is being torn down!! Will the Jefferson Memorial be next since Jefferson Never freed his slaves?
ALL human leaders in the past failed morally in many ways, as do we now!
But some human leaders, despite their moral failures, we still honor with statues because of their GOOD actions they did!
The statue of Gaspar de Portola, the Spanish explorer, at Pacifica was just torn down by Cal Trans!! https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/statue-removed-in-pacifica-gaspar-de-portola-18615209.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR2DP0oVMDGKvggnZz9vp0C7505BTfqxebngy-VFXstKC73_6htJiBn4j1k
The statue of Spanish military officer Gaspar de Portola, which stood near the Pacifica Community Center for more than 30 years, started drawing attention in the summer of 2020, as discussions about racial justice and the legacies of colonization reached a boiling point across the nation.
In the late 1760s, Portola led a Spanish fleet along the California coast, including by the San Francisco Bay, and is credited with sparking settlements in the area that ultimately displaced Indigenous inhabitants.
Bob n' Renee via Wiki Commons; Illustration via SFGATE
In mid-2020, a petition calling for the statue’s removal — which read, in part, that the “colonialism, racism and patriarchy this statue represents has no place in the City of Pacifica” — gained nearly 5,000 signatures. Meanwhile, other statues of historical figures, including Christopher Columbus, Ulysses S. Grant and Junipero Serra, were being toppled across the Bay Area, either officially or by protesters.
And, even William Penn's statue was to be removed by the National Park Service from Philadelphia this month, but enough people objected so that is uncertain now.
Matt Rourke/AP
YET William Penn paid the Native Americans for his landgrant of Pennsylvania (granted to him by the King). And he and his followers defended innocent Native Americans from racist-invaders such as the Scotch-Irish who masssacred innocent Native civilians!
Portola's statue’s "confiscation, done without ceremony a little after 9 a.m. on Thursday, was first reported by the Pacifica Tribune."
January 18, 2024
In the Light of the Good, the Just, the Kind,
and the actual facts of history, not the ideological distortions!
Dan Wilcox
ALL human leaders in the past failed morally in many ways, as do we now!
But some human leaders, despite their moral failures, we still honor with statues because of their GOOD actions they did!
The statue of Gaspar de Portola, the Spanish explorer, at Pacifica was just torn down by Cal Trans!! https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/statue-removed-in-pacifica-gaspar-de-portola-18615209.php?utm_campaign=CMS%20Sharing%20Tools%20(Premium)&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=referral&fbclid=IwAR2DP0oVMDGKvggnZz9vp0C7505BTfqxebngy-VFXstKC73_6htJiBn4j1k
The statue of Spanish military officer Gaspar de Portola, which stood near the Pacifica Community Center for more than 30 years, started drawing attention in the summer of 2020, as discussions about racial justice and the legacies of colonization reached a boiling point across the nation.
In the late 1760s, Portola led a Spanish fleet along the California coast, including by the San Francisco Bay, and is credited with sparking settlements in the area that ultimately displaced Indigenous inhabitants.
Bob n' Renee via Wiki Commons; Illustration via SFGATE
In mid-2020, a petition calling for the statue’s removal — which read, in part, that the “colonialism, racism and patriarchy this statue represents has no place in the City of Pacifica” — gained nearly 5,000 signatures. Meanwhile, other statues of historical figures, including Christopher Columbus, Ulysses S. Grant and Junipero Serra, were being toppled across the Bay Area, either officially or by protesters.
And, even William Penn's statue was to be removed by the National Park Service from Philadelphia this month, but enough people objected so that is uncertain now.
YET William Penn paid the Native Americans for his landgrant of Pennsylvania (granted to him by the King). And he and his followers defended innocent Native Americans from racist-invaders such as the Scotch-Irish who masssacred innocent Native civilians!
Portola's statue’s "confiscation, done without ceremony a little after 9 a.m. on Thursday, was first reported by the Pacifica Tribune."
January 18, 2024
In the Light of the Good, the Just, the Kind,
and the actual facts of history, not the ideological distortions!
Dan Wilcox
Sunday, January 14, 2024
Forgotten Black Leaders of the Past--Edward David Bland, Virginia Legistlator, Jordan Point Lighthouse Keeper, Teacher...
Edward David Bland (1848–1927) 3 Terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, shoemaker, lighthouse keeper, teacher, minister.
His serving as a lighthouse keeper is very unusual, because lighthouse keepers were almost always Caucasian.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
"Bland was born into slavery, probably in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, to Frederick Bland and Nancy Yates Bland. After the Civil War, the family moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where Frederick Bland worked as a shoemaker and preacher. Bland learned the shoemaker's trade from his father, and attended a local night school organized by Northerners for African Americans. He married Nancy Jones of Petersburg on December 18, 1872; two years later, they moved to City Point, Virginia, where he worked as a shoemaker. The couple had nine children."
"Bland became involved in local politics in the 1870s. At a mass meeting of black Republicans in 1879, Bland gave a speech advocating an alliance with the Readjuster party led by William Mahone. With the support of the Readjusters, Bland was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates that year, defeating incumbent Robert E. Bland to represent Prince George and Surry Counties. He served on the Committee on Executive Expenditures and the Committee on Schools and Colleges, and was a delegate to the Virginia Republican Party convention in 1880.
"After being re-elected in 1881, he served on the Committee on Agriculture and Mining, the Committee on Claims, and the Committee on Retrenchment and Economy. During that session, black Republicans passed legislation to create a state college and an insane asylum for Virginia's African Americans and increase funding for black public schools. Their success was followed by white backlash; in 1883, Conservatives launched a white supremacy campaign which helped them regain a majority in the Virginia General Assembly.
Bland was nevertheless re-elected that year and served on the Committee on Propositions and Grievances, the Committee on Enrolled Bills, and the Committee on Officers and Offices at the Capitol. After serving his third term, he yielded his seat to Republican William Faulcon but remained active in local politics.
Later years "Bland spent the rest of his life in Prince George County. He worked as a teacher, minister, shoemaker, and keeper of the Jordan Point Lighthouse, near City Point, Virginia. Around 1900, he moved to a farm, where he died of nephritis on February 13, 1927. He was buried at Providence Cemetery (now People's Memorial Cemetery) in Petersburg, Virginia.
"In 2012, Virginia state senator Jennifer McClellan introduced a bill (VA HJR64) to "Recognize and celebrate the outstanding service of the African American men elected to the Virginia General Assembly during Reconstruction, on the occasion of the Sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 2013." The bill recognized Bland along with Samuel P. Bolling, Daniel M. Norton, and other notable African-American legislators.
"In 1954, the Edward D. Bland Courts housing project in Hopewell, Virginia, was named in his honor."
-- from African-American Leaders during and following the Reconstruction era
Wikipedia
"More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) and in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states."
"Historian Canter Brown Jr. noted that in some states, such as Florida, the highest number of African Americans were elected or appointed to offices after the end of Reconstruction in 1877...until before 1900."
"U.S. Senate
Blanche Bruce – Mississippi 1875–1881
P. B. S. Pinchback – Louisiana 1873, elected but the Senate refused to seat him (also Louisiana Lt. Governor, Louisiana Senate, acting Louisiana Governor, Louisiana Constitutional Convention)
Hiram Rhodes Revels – Mississippi 1870 (also Mississippi Secretary of State)
"U.S. House of Representatives
Main articles: First generation of African-American House members, 1870–1893 and List of African-American United States representatives
Richard H. Cain – South Carolina 1873–1875, 1877–1879 (also South Carolina Senate, House, Constitutional Congress)[2] Henry P. Cheatham – North Carolina 1889–1894
Robert C. De Large – South Carolina 1871–1873 (also South Carolina House, South Carolina Constitutional Convention, and State Land Commissioner)
Robert B. Elliott – South Carolina 1871–1874 (also South Carolina House, South Carolina Attorney General, South Carolina Constitutional Convention, South Carolina Senate, city council)
Jeremiah Haralson – Alabama 1875–1877 (also Alabama Senate and Alabama House)
John Adams Hyman – North Carolina 1875–1877 (also North Carolina Senate and North Carolina Constitutional Convention)[2] John Mercer Langston – Virginia 1890–1891 (also U.S. Minister to Haiti)
Jefferson F. Long – Georgia 1871
John R. Lynch – Mississippi 1873–1877, 1882–1883 (also speaker of the Mississippi House)
John Willis Menard – Louisiana, 1868 elected but not seated
Thomas E. Miller – South Carolina September 24, 1890 – March 3, 1891 (also South Carolina Senate, South Carolina House, and South Carolina Constitutional Convention)
George W. Murray – South Carolina 1893–1897
Charles E. Nash – Louisiana 1875 –1877
James E. O'Hara – North Carolina 1883–1887 (also North Carolina House)
....
Joseph H. Rainey – South Carolina 1870–1879 (also South Carolina Senate and South Carolina Constitutional Convention)
Alonzo J. Ransier – South Carolina 1873–1875 (also South Carolina Lt. Governor and Constitutional Convention)
James T. Rapier – Alabama 1873–1875 (also Alabama Constitutional Convention)
Robert Smalls – South Carolina 1875–1879, 1882–1887 (also South Carolina Senate, South Carolina House, and Constitutional Convention)
Benjamin Sterling Turner – Alabama 1871–1873
Josiah T. Walls – Florida 1871–1876 (also Florida House, Florida Senate, and Florida Constitutional Convention)
George Henry White – North Carolina 1897–1901 (also North Carolina House and North Carolina Senate)[2] Alabama
Between 1868 and 1878, more than 100 African Americans served in the Alabama Legislature.
Senate of Virginia
James W. D. Bland – Prince Edward County 1869 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Cephas L. Davis – Mecklenburg County 1879
John M. Dawson – Charles City, Elizabeth City, James City, Warwick, and York counties 1874–1877
Joseph P. Evans – Petersburg 1874
Nathaniel M. Griggs – Prince Edward County 1887–1890
James R. Jones Mecklenburg County – 1875–1877 and 1881–1883
Isaiah L. Lyons – Surry, York, Elizabeth City, and Warwick counties 1869–1871
William P. Moseley – Goochland County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1869–1871 (also Virginia House and Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Daniel M. Norton – James City and York counties 1871–1873 and 1877–1887 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Guy Powell – Nottoway, Lunenburg and Brunswick counties 1875–1878
John Robinson – Cumberland County 1869–1873 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
William N. Stevens – Petersburg 1871–1878 and Sussex County 1881 (also Virginia House)
George Teamoh – Norfolk County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
"Virginia House of Delegates
William H. Andrews – Surry County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)[126] William H. Ash – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1887 Briton Baskerville, Jr. – Mecklenburg County 1887[126] Edward David Bland – Prince George and Surry counties 1879–1884 Phillip S. Bolling – Cumberland and Buckingham counties; elected in 1883 but was ruled ineligible[126] Samuel P. Bolling – Cumberland and Buckingham counties 1883–1887[126] Tazewell Branch – Prince Edward County 1874–1877 William H. Brisby – New Kent County 1869–1871[126] Goodman Brown – Prince George and Surry counties 1887[126] Peter J. Carter – Northampton County 1871–1878 Matt Clark – Halifax County 1874[126] George William Cole – Essex County 1879[126] Asa Coleman – Halifax County 1871–1873 Johnson Collins – Brunswick County 1879 Aaron Commodore – Essex County 1875–1877 Miles Connor – Norfolk County 1875–1877[126] Henry Cox – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1869–1877 Isaac Dabbs – Charlotte County 1875–1877 McDowell Delaney – Amelia County 1871–1873[126] Amos Andre Dodson – Mecklenburg County 1883 Shed Dungee – Cumberland and Buckingham counties 1879–1882[126] Jesse Dungey – King William County 1871–1873[126] Isaac Edmundson – Halifax County 1869–1871[126] Ballard T. Edwards – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1869–1871[126] Joseph P. Evans – Petersburg 1871–1873 (also Virginia Senate) William D. Evans – Prince Edward County 1877–1880[126] William W. Evans – Petersburg 1887[126] William Faulcon – Prince George and Surry counties 1885–1887[126] George Fayerman – Petersburg 1869–1871[126] James A. Fields – Elizabeth City and James City counties 1889 Alexander Q. Franklin – Charles City County 1889[126] John Freeman – Halifax County 1871[126] William Gilliam – Prince George County 1871–1875 James P. Goodwyn – Petersburg 1874[126] Armistead Green – Petersburg 1881–1884[126] Robert G. Griffin – James City and York counties 1883[126] Nathaniel M. Griggs – Prince Edward County 1883 (also Virginia Senate) Ross Hamilton – Mecklenburg County 1869–1882, 1889 Alfred W. Harris – Petersburg 1881–1888 H. Clay Harris – Halifax County 1874–1875[126] Henry C. Hill – Amelia County 1874–1875[126] Charles E. Hodges – Norfolk County 1869–1871[126] John Q. Hodges – Princess Anne County 1869–1871[126] Henry Johnson – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1889–1890[126] Benjamin Jones – Charles City County 1869–1871[126] James R. Jones – Mecklenburg County 1885–1887 (also Virginia Senate) Peter K. Jones – Greensville County 1869–1877 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention) Robert G. W. Jones – Charles City County 1869–1871[126] Rufus S. Jones – Elizabeth City and Warwick counties 1871–1875[127] William H. Jordan – Petersburg 1885–1887[126] Alexander G. Lee – Elizabeth City and Warwick 1877–1879[128] Neverson Lewis – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1879–1882[126] James F. Lipscomb – Cumberland County 1869–1877[126] William P. Lucas – Louisa County 1874–1875[126] John W. B. Matthews – Petersburg 1871–1873[126] J. B. Miller Jr. – Goochland County 1869–1871[126] Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention and city council) Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1874 (also Virginia Senate and Virginia Constitutional Convention) Armistead S. Nickens – Lancaster County 1871–1875 Frederick S. Norton – James City and Williamsburg counties 1869–1871[126] Robert Norton – Elizabeth City and York counties 1869–1872, 1881 Alexander Owen – Halifax County 1869–1871[126] Littleton Owens – Princess Anne County 1879–1882[126] Richard G. L. Paige – Norfolk County 1871–1875, 1879–1882 William H. Patterson – Charles City County 1871–1873 Caesar Perkins – Buckingham County 1869–1871, 1878–1888, 1887 Fountain M. Perkins – Louisa County 1869–1871[129] John W. Poindexter – Louisa County 1875–1877[126] Joseph B. Pope – Southampton County 1879[126] Guy Powell – Brunswick County 1881 (also Virginia Senate) William H. Ragsdale – Charlotte County 1869–1871[126] John H. Robinson – Elizabeth City and James City, and York counties 1887[126] R. D. Ruffin – Dinwiddie County 1875[126] Archer Scott – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1875–1877, 1879–1884[126] George L. Seaton – Alexandria County 1869–1871[126] Dabney Smith – Charlotte County 1881[126] Henry D. Smith – Greensville County 18790[126] Robert M. Smith – Elizabeth City and Warwick counties 1875–1877[126] William N. Stevens – Sussex County 1869–1879 (also Virginia Senate) John B. Syphax – Arlington County 1874 Henry Turpin – Goochland County 1871 John Watson – Mecklenburg County 1869 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention) Maclin C. Wheeler – Brunswick County 1883[130] Robert H. Whittaker – Brunswick County 1875–1877 Ellis Wilson – Dinwiddie County 1869–1871[126] Virginia Constitutional Convention William H. Andrews – Surry County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House)[127] James D. Barrett – Fluvanna County 1867–1868[127] Thomas Bayne – Norfolk 1867–1868 James W. D. Bland – Prince Edward County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate)[127] William Breedlove – Essex County 1867–1868[127] John Brown – Southampton County 1867–1868[127] David Canada – Halifax County 1867–1868[127] James B. Carter – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1867–1868[127] Joseph Cox – Richmond 1867–1868[127] John Wesley Cromwell – Clerk of the Virginia Constitutional Convention 1867 Willis Augustus Hodges – Princess Anne County 1867–1868 Joseph R. Holmes – Charlotte and Halifax counties 1867–1868 Peter K. Jones – Greensville and Sussex counties 1867–1868 (also Virginia House) Samuel F. Kelso – Campbell County 1867–1868[127] Lewis Lindsey – Richmond 1867–1868[127] Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg 1867–1868 (also Virginia House and city council) William P. Moseley – Goochland County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate) Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House and Virginia Senate) Edward Nelson – Charlotte County 1867–1868[127] Daniel M. Norton – Yorktown 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate) John Robinson – Cumberland County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate) James T. S. Taylor – Albemarle County 1867–1868[127] George Teamoh – Portsmouth 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate) Burwell Toler – Hanover County 1867–1868 John Watson – Mecklenburg County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House)[127] Federal offices P. H. A. Braxton – collector at the United States Custom House in Westmoreland County (also constable) William Breedlow or Breedlove – postmaster of Tappahannock March 3, 1870 – March 13, 1871[11] Robert H. Cauthorn – postmaster of Dunnsville September 21, 1897 – October 24, 1901[11] James H. Cunningham – postmaster of Manchester September 20, 1869 – August 1, 1872[11] William Henry Hayes – postmaster of Boydton June 17, 1889 – March 25, 1893[11] John T. Jackson Sr. – postmaster of Alanthus March 23, 1891 – January 31, 1940[11] William H. Johnson – postmaster of Baynesville November 29, 1893 – October 23, 1897[11] Wade H. Mason – postmaster of Bluestone March 13, 1890 – November 14, 1902[11] Isaac Morton – postmaster of Port Royal March 2, 1870 – October 29, 1872[11] Daniel A. Twyman – postmaster of Junta August 12, 1898 – October 23, 1898
Local offices
P. H. A. Braxton – King William County constable 1872 (also U.S. Custom House collector)
Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg city council (also Virginia House and Virginia Constitutional Convention)
V. Cook Nickens – constable of Leesburg Magisterial District 1873
...........
"Further reading
Bailey, Richard. Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867–1878.
Montgomery: Richard Bailey Publishers, 1995. ISBN 978-0962721809
Brown, Jr., Canter. Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867–1924. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1998. ISBN 9780817309169 Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar. Shadow and Light: An Autobiography. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-8032-7050-3 Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era. Howard N. Rabinowitz, editor. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN 978-0252009723"
"Bland was born into slavery, probably in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, to Frederick Bland and Nancy Yates Bland. After the Civil War, the family moved to Petersburg, Virginia, where Frederick Bland worked as a shoemaker and preacher. Bland learned the shoemaker's trade from his father, and attended a local night school organized by Northerners for African Americans. He married Nancy Jones of Petersburg on December 18, 1872; two years later, they moved to City Point, Virginia, where he worked as a shoemaker. The couple had nine children."
"Bland became involved in local politics in the 1870s. At a mass meeting of black Republicans in 1879, Bland gave a speech advocating an alliance with the Readjuster party led by William Mahone. With the support of the Readjusters, Bland was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates that year, defeating incumbent Robert E. Bland to represent Prince George and Surry Counties. He served on the Committee on Executive Expenditures and the Committee on Schools and Colleges, and was a delegate to the Virginia Republican Party convention in 1880.
"After being re-elected in 1881, he served on the Committee on Agriculture and Mining, the Committee on Claims, and the Committee on Retrenchment and Economy. During that session, black Republicans passed legislation to create a state college and an insane asylum for Virginia's African Americans and increase funding for black public schools. Their success was followed by white backlash; in 1883, Conservatives launched a white supremacy campaign which helped them regain a majority in the Virginia General Assembly.
Bland was nevertheless re-elected that year and served on the Committee on Propositions and Grievances, the Committee on Enrolled Bills, and the Committee on Officers and Offices at the Capitol. After serving his third term, he yielded his seat to Republican William Faulcon but remained active in local politics.
Later years "Bland spent the rest of his life in Prince George County. He worked as a teacher, minister, shoemaker, and keeper of the Jordan Point Lighthouse, near City Point, Virginia. Around 1900, he moved to a farm, where he died of nephritis on February 13, 1927. He was buried at Providence Cemetery (now People's Memorial Cemetery) in Petersburg, Virginia.
"In 2012, Virginia state senator Jennifer McClellan introduced a bill (VA HJR64) to "Recognize and celebrate the outstanding service of the African American men elected to the Virginia General Assembly during Reconstruction, on the occasion of the Sesquicentennial of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 2013." The bill recognized Bland along with Samuel P. Bolling, Daniel M. Norton, and other notable African-American legislators.
"In 1954, the Edward D. Bland Courts housing project in Hopewell, Virginia, was named in his honor."
-- from African-American Leaders during and following the Reconstruction era
Wikipedia
"More than 1,500 African American officeholders served during the Reconstruction era (1865–1877) and in the years after Reconstruction before white supremacy, disenfranchisement, and the Democratic Party fully reasserted control in Southern states."
"Historian Canter Brown Jr. noted that in some states, such as Florida, the highest number of African Americans were elected or appointed to offices after the end of Reconstruction in 1877...until before 1900."
"U.S. Senate
Blanche Bruce – Mississippi 1875–1881
P. B. S. Pinchback – Louisiana 1873, elected but the Senate refused to seat him (also Louisiana Lt. Governor, Louisiana Senate, acting Louisiana Governor, Louisiana Constitutional Convention)
Hiram Rhodes Revels – Mississippi 1870 (also Mississippi Secretary of State)
"U.S. House of Representatives
Main articles: First generation of African-American House members, 1870–1893 and List of African-American United States representatives
Richard H. Cain – South Carolina 1873–1875, 1877–1879 (also South Carolina Senate, House, Constitutional Congress)[2] Henry P. Cheatham – North Carolina 1889–1894
Robert C. De Large – South Carolina 1871–1873 (also South Carolina House, South Carolina Constitutional Convention, and State Land Commissioner)
Robert B. Elliott – South Carolina 1871–1874 (also South Carolina House, South Carolina Attorney General, South Carolina Constitutional Convention, South Carolina Senate, city council)
Jeremiah Haralson – Alabama 1875–1877 (also Alabama Senate and Alabama House)
John Adams Hyman – North Carolina 1875–1877 (also North Carolina Senate and North Carolina Constitutional Convention)[2] John Mercer Langston – Virginia 1890–1891 (also U.S. Minister to Haiti)
Jefferson F. Long – Georgia 1871
John R. Lynch – Mississippi 1873–1877, 1882–1883 (also speaker of the Mississippi House)
John Willis Menard – Louisiana, 1868 elected but not seated
Thomas E. Miller – South Carolina September 24, 1890 – March 3, 1891 (also South Carolina Senate, South Carolina House, and South Carolina Constitutional Convention)
George W. Murray – South Carolina 1893–1897
Charles E. Nash – Louisiana 1875 –1877
James E. O'Hara – North Carolina 1883–1887 (also North Carolina House)
....
Joseph H. Rainey – South Carolina 1870–1879 (also South Carolina Senate and South Carolina Constitutional Convention)
Alonzo J. Ransier – South Carolina 1873–1875 (also South Carolina Lt. Governor and Constitutional Convention)
James T. Rapier – Alabama 1873–1875 (also Alabama Constitutional Convention)
Robert Smalls – South Carolina 1875–1879, 1882–1887 (also South Carolina Senate, South Carolina House, and Constitutional Convention)
Benjamin Sterling Turner – Alabama 1871–1873
Josiah T. Walls – Florida 1871–1876 (also Florida House, Florida Senate, and Florida Constitutional Convention)
George Henry White – North Carolina 1897–1901 (also North Carolina House and North Carolina Senate)[2] Alabama
Between 1868 and 1878, more than 100 African Americans served in the Alabama Legislature.
Senate of Virginia
James W. D. Bland – Prince Edward County 1869 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Cephas L. Davis – Mecklenburg County 1879
John M. Dawson – Charles City, Elizabeth City, James City, Warwick, and York counties 1874–1877
Joseph P. Evans – Petersburg 1874
Nathaniel M. Griggs – Prince Edward County 1887–1890
James R. Jones Mecklenburg County – 1875–1877 and 1881–1883
Isaiah L. Lyons – Surry, York, Elizabeth City, and Warwick counties 1869–1871
William P. Moseley – Goochland County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1869–1871 (also Virginia House and Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Daniel M. Norton – James City and York counties 1871–1873 and 1877–1887 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
Guy Powell – Nottoway, Lunenburg and Brunswick counties 1875–1878
John Robinson – Cumberland County 1869–1873 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
William N. Stevens – Petersburg 1871–1878 and Sussex County 1881 (also Virginia House)
George Teamoh – Norfolk County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)
"Virginia House of Delegates
William H. Andrews – Surry County 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention)[126] William H. Ash – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1887 Briton Baskerville, Jr. – Mecklenburg County 1887[126] Edward David Bland – Prince George and Surry counties 1879–1884 Phillip S. Bolling – Cumberland and Buckingham counties; elected in 1883 but was ruled ineligible[126] Samuel P. Bolling – Cumberland and Buckingham counties 1883–1887[126] Tazewell Branch – Prince Edward County 1874–1877 William H. Brisby – New Kent County 1869–1871[126] Goodman Brown – Prince George and Surry counties 1887[126] Peter J. Carter – Northampton County 1871–1878 Matt Clark – Halifax County 1874[126] George William Cole – Essex County 1879[126] Asa Coleman – Halifax County 1871–1873 Johnson Collins – Brunswick County 1879 Aaron Commodore – Essex County 1875–1877 Miles Connor – Norfolk County 1875–1877[126] Henry Cox – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1869–1877 Isaac Dabbs – Charlotte County 1875–1877 McDowell Delaney – Amelia County 1871–1873[126] Amos Andre Dodson – Mecklenburg County 1883 Shed Dungee – Cumberland and Buckingham counties 1879–1882[126] Jesse Dungey – King William County 1871–1873[126] Isaac Edmundson – Halifax County 1869–1871[126] Ballard T. Edwards – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1869–1871[126] Joseph P. Evans – Petersburg 1871–1873 (also Virginia Senate) William D. Evans – Prince Edward County 1877–1880[126] William W. Evans – Petersburg 1887[126] William Faulcon – Prince George and Surry counties 1885–1887[126] George Fayerman – Petersburg 1869–1871[126] James A. Fields – Elizabeth City and James City counties 1889 Alexander Q. Franklin – Charles City County 1889[126] John Freeman – Halifax County 1871[126] William Gilliam – Prince George County 1871–1875 James P. Goodwyn – Petersburg 1874[126] Armistead Green – Petersburg 1881–1884[126] Robert G. Griffin – James City and York counties 1883[126] Nathaniel M. Griggs – Prince Edward County 1883 (also Virginia Senate) Ross Hamilton – Mecklenburg County 1869–1882, 1889 Alfred W. Harris – Petersburg 1881–1888 H. Clay Harris – Halifax County 1874–1875[126] Henry C. Hill – Amelia County 1874–1875[126] Charles E. Hodges – Norfolk County 1869–1871[126] John Q. Hodges – Princess Anne County 1869–1871[126] Henry Johnson – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1889–1890[126] Benjamin Jones – Charles City County 1869–1871[126] James R. Jones – Mecklenburg County 1885–1887 (also Virginia Senate) Peter K. Jones – Greensville County 1869–1877 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention) Robert G. W. Jones – Charles City County 1869–1871[126] Rufus S. Jones – Elizabeth City and Warwick counties 1871–1875[127] William H. Jordan – Petersburg 1885–1887[126] Alexander G. Lee – Elizabeth City and Warwick 1877–1879[128] Neverson Lewis – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1879–1882[126] James F. Lipscomb – Cumberland County 1869–1877[126] William P. Lucas – Louisa County 1874–1875[126] John W. B. Matthews – Petersburg 1871–1873[126] J. B. Miller Jr. – Goochland County 1869–1871[126] Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg 1869–1871 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention and city council) Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1874 (also Virginia Senate and Virginia Constitutional Convention) Armistead S. Nickens – Lancaster County 1871–1875 Frederick S. Norton – James City and Williamsburg counties 1869–1871[126] Robert Norton – Elizabeth City and York counties 1869–1872, 1881 Alexander Owen – Halifax County 1869–1871[126] Littleton Owens – Princess Anne County 1879–1882[126] Richard G. L. Paige – Norfolk County 1871–1875, 1879–1882 William H. Patterson – Charles City County 1871–1873 Caesar Perkins – Buckingham County 1869–1871, 1878–1888, 1887 Fountain M. Perkins – Louisa County 1869–1871[129] John W. Poindexter – Louisa County 1875–1877[126] Joseph B. Pope – Southampton County 1879[126] Guy Powell – Brunswick County 1881 (also Virginia Senate) William H. Ragsdale – Charlotte County 1869–1871[126] John H. Robinson – Elizabeth City and James City, and York counties 1887[126] R. D. Ruffin – Dinwiddie County 1875[126] Archer Scott – Amelia and Nottoway counties 1875–1877, 1879–1884[126] George L. Seaton – Alexandria County 1869–1871[126] Dabney Smith – Charlotte County 1881[126] Henry D. Smith – Greensville County 18790[126] Robert M. Smith – Elizabeth City and Warwick counties 1875–1877[126] William N. Stevens – Sussex County 1869–1879 (also Virginia Senate) John B. Syphax – Arlington County 1874 Henry Turpin – Goochland County 1871 John Watson – Mecklenburg County 1869 (also Virginia Constitutional Convention) Maclin C. Wheeler – Brunswick County 1883[130] Robert H. Whittaker – Brunswick County 1875–1877 Ellis Wilson – Dinwiddie County 1869–1871[126] Virginia Constitutional Convention William H. Andrews – Surry County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House)[127] James D. Barrett – Fluvanna County 1867–1868[127] Thomas Bayne – Norfolk 1867–1868 James W. D. Bland – Prince Edward County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate)[127] William Breedlove – Essex County 1867–1868[127] John Brown – Southampton County 1867–1868[127] David Canada – Halifax County 1867–1868[127] James B. Carter – Chesterfield and Powhatan counties 1867–1868[127] Joseph Cox – Richmond 1867–1868[127] John Wesley Cromwell – Clerk of the Virginia Constitutional Convention 1867 Willis Augustus Hodges – Princess Anne County 1867–1868 Joseph R. Holmes – Charlotte and Halifax counties 1867–1868 Peter K. Jones – Greensville and Sussex counties 1867–1868 (also Virginia House) Samuel F. Kelso – Campbell County 1867–1868[127] Lewis Lindsey – Richmond 1867–1868[127] Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg 1867–1868 (also Virginia House and city council) William P. Moseley – Goochland County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate) Francis "Frank" Moss – Buckingham County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House and Virginia Senate) Edward Nelson – Charlotte County 1867–1868[127] Daniel M. Norton – Yorktown 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate) John Robinson – Cumberland County 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate) James T. S. Taylor – Albemarle County 1867–1868[127] George Teamoh – Portsmouth 1867–1868 (also Virginia Senate) Burwell Toler – Hanover County 1867–1868 John Watson – Mecklenburg County 1867–1868 (also Virginia House)[127] Federal offices P. H. A. Braxton – collector at the United States Custom House in Westmoreland County (also constable) William Breedlow or Breedlove – postmaster of Tappahannock March 3, 1870 – March 13, 1871[11] Robert H. Cauthorn – postmaster of Dunnsville September 21, 1897 – October 24, 1901[11] James H. Cunningham – postmaster of Manchester September 20, 1869 – August 1, 1872[11] William Henry Hayes – postmaster of Boydton June 17, 1889 – March 25, 1893[11] John T. Jackson Sr. – postmaster of Alanthus March 23, 1891 – January 31, 1940[11] William H. Johnson – postmaster of Baynesville November 29, 1893 – October 23, 1897[11] Wade H. Mason – postmaster of Bluestone March 13, 1890 – November 14, 1902[11] Isaac Morton – postmaster of Port Royal March 2, 1870 – October 29, 1872[11] Daniel A. Twyman – postmaster of Junta August 12, 1898 – October 23, 1898
Local offices
P. H. A. Braxton – King William County constable 1872 (also U.S. Custom House collector)
Peter G. Morgan – Petersburg city council (also Virginia House and Virginia Constitutional Convention)
V. Cook Nickens – constable of Leesburg Magisterial District 1873
...........
"Further reading
Bailey, Richard. Neither Carpetbaggers Nor Scalawags: Black Officeholders During the Reconstruction of Alabama, 1867–1878.
Montgomery: Richard Bailey Publishers, 1995. ISBN 978-0962721809
Brown, Jr., Canter. Florida's Black Public Officials, 1867–1924. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1998. ISBN 9780817309169 Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar. Shadow and Light: An Autobiography. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-8032-7050-3 Southern Black Leaders of the Reconstruction Era. Howard N. Rabinowitz, editor. University of Illinois Press, 1982. ISBN 978-0252009723"
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Lines for inspiration and reflection
Hearts-full, Not location or creed
Instead Evangelicals live for US First--
Group-egotists, of that proud sort
Water piped in from pristine reservoirs
Lush grass, high-tech, enlarged houses and store;
But down below, poor refugees get Walled out,
Live in patched together plastic tents,
Preyed upon by ruthless cartel killers;
Or back down on their small stony acre
Near their shack and Jesus church of prayer
Where peasants Juan and Ana used be
Poverty, local gangs, and disease ruled;
But now hope for kind actions, smiles,and care;
Flighting Surprise
In my morning mug
Cold milk, washed blue berries
Dark and delicious
Lay waiting for another swig
Wait; what’s that?
Adhering--a wispy white feather
Or more briefly:
flighting surprise
in my morning mug--
adhering to wet blue berries
a wispy white feather
--
humming attack
wearing my fiery red shirt
for Christmas, I open our
sliding glass door;
sudden jolt in front
of my startled face--
a flash of feathers hum-buzzes,
darts within inches of me;
but away it flits left
back to that flowering bush
along our fence--
me a reject
--
side of the road
gray shadowed mail box
overwhelmed green, red-purple
bloomed jungle wonder
--
Twilight: Crossing Shimmering Streams into Dusk and Stars
--
fall back to autumn
treetops blazing gold
with the last light of this day--
we lift our eyes
a time for springing
childhood,
festivals of Monet-splashed leaves
that my sister and I raked and piled high
in the deep ditch in front
and jumped down into,
and our large garden behind the parsonage
with pumpkins, melons, and withered corn rows...
and lightning bugs on the wane,
flashing on and off
full of fall...
--
bidingTimeabiding
bite my teeth on famous lines
a hole lot of fragmented shells;
hunger hollows within--
deepening abyss
of lost longing
lone-ranging, reigning the distance
of a round heartless night
of a round heart-last light
lane-ranging, raining the day-stance
of last longing
steepening a-bless
fulness hallows within--
a whole lot of fragranced shalls;
bide my heart on famous lines
--
August 2020:
bolder utah
utah boulders
eye widening rock
pastels bold in harvest's sun--
basalt garden wonder
--
at the park's bat box
my young grandson scooping up handfuls
of dust
and swinging it loose--
fogged clouds of powder
lighted by sunshine
disfused halos
that disperse
back to cleated ground
--
gull wings
gullish wings
lightly spraying over gray clod fields
6-year drought--
so 'irrigating'!
--
In Every Crisis
When flailed, blind-sided,
Going down fast in
A basket abyss shrivel of worth-loss
And hope fails all drowned,
Do we launch deeper into the Deep?
Do we weep,
Do we shrive?
Thrive?
For in every crisis
Chry-sal-is*
*From crawler to butterfly--chrysalis
Even in the worst, most evil events, each of us still has the difficult possibility of heeding Viktor Frankl’s shocking words about their horrific experiences in Auschwitz Concentration Camp:
“Between stimulus [even trying to survive at Auschwitz!] and response
there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
“As we see it, an analogous relationship between the realm of human freedom and a realm superior to man is quite imaginable, so that man is endowed with free will...”
Viktor E. Frankl
“(26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997 was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and a Holocaust survivor, of Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering and Türkheim. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy (literally "healing through meaning") a meaning-centered school of psychotherapy…part of existential and humanistic psychology theories. He is the author of over 39 books; he is most noted for his best-selling book Man's Search for Meaning based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps...
In 1941 he married his first wife Tilly Grosser, who was a station nurse at the Rothschild hospital. Soon after they were married, she became pregnant but they were forced to abort the child. Tilly died in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. His father Gabriel died in the Terezin concentration camp(Theresienstadt) in 1942. His mother and brother, Walter, were both killed in Auschwitz
--Bio from Wikipedia
--
Dan's Brief Bio:
How did I become a hobbling mutant with a red walker?
Got struck with bad stroke of bad luck 4 1/2 years ago, shortly after returning with my sweetheart from a 12,000 mile Ram camper van trip to the heartland of the U.S. and the Great Lakes.
Plenty of scenic hiking, history-learning, photo-taking, cusine-enjoying. So many
beautiful natural scenes, historical places, colorful lighthouses, quilting stores, and chilly weather!
Would you believe, we encountered 3 weeks of stormy weather in May and June?
About May the 24th I encountered a dense snow storm in western Colorado, gripped knuckle-hard my Ram steering wheel because of dangerous side-winds in eastern Colorado, barely missed 2 tornados in Kansas by about 5 minutes, but got severe lightning all about me.
And survived coat-cold weather in Michigan in June. Hit by heavy hail coming into Duluth, Minnesota.
And it rained, rained, rained--especially in Missouri.
However, we loved the trip:-)
Now I am virtually stuck here looking out at the chilly gloom of January 2024 on the Central Coast of California, at our bare-branched plum tree, our 2 rambunctious cats, the Sphinx and Selah.
-----
You might like to do a Google sleuth and find washed up pieces of my poetic driftwood lines on the vast shores of the Internet.
Dan's wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices,
The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot, and
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat & Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.
Previous published poems in the past:
October 2019:
A Poetic Debacle of the American News
May 2019:
trembled
First pub. in Stylus Poetry Journal
April 2019:
playing blues
March 2019:
I became a beachcomber of beauty
February 2019:
El Paso
First pub. in Unlikely Stories IV
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2019/02/el-paso-rallys-political-contradictions.html
Alluded Fractures
A Twist of Words
First pub. in Counterexample Poetics
January 2019:
my gramma's beheading like the results of Dort
September 2018:
mused moments in nature
including
side of the road mailbox
california dazing
January 2018:
Lemons, "Pineapples" and Mexico
(for my dad)
October 2017:
MORNING GLORY
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2017/10/morning-glory.html
connudrumed Clockwise Cat
starbacked
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/59489337/klox-and-katz-ink
October 2016:
a haiku, dripping rain vox poetica
http://voxpoetica.com/dripping-rain-drizzles/
December 2015:
bidingTimeabiding Dead Snakes
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/12/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html
Poem for My Dad Lightwaveseeker
Deaf to Death
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2015/12/personal-two-poems-for-my-dad.html
September 2015:
Ricochet Dead Snakes
First pub. Yes Poetry
End of a Rope First pub. The New Verse News
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/09/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html
--
August 2015:
The Signal of the Flag
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/08/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html
The Wind Blew Away the Young
(Dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut)
First pub. in Mad Swirl
July 2015:
One Dog Night Dead Snakes
First pub. in Unlikely Stories 2.0
Film Over Our Eyes
First pub. in Camel Saloon
Juxtaposition
First pub. in Camel Saloon
https://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/search?q=wilcox
April 2015:
Gazing on Gaza Contemporary American Voices
earstopper
First pub. in The Write Room
our 'checkered' past
https://contemporaryamericanvoices.wordpress.com/2015/04/
February 2015:
The Modern Covenant Dead Snakes
First pub. in The Cerebral Catalyst
Iraqi Temples
First pub. in The November 3rd Club
On Visiting Hemingway's Mansion
First pub. in The Rogue Poetry Review
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/02/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html
Moon River Poetry Pacific
First pub. in Ascent Aspirations
horse trailer
First pub. in lyrical passion poetry
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2015/02/2-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html
November 2014: The Road to Elsewhere Fish Food Magazine October 2014: RELEASE OF KINDLE VERSION OF THE FEELING OF THE EARTH August 2014: The Pull-Out Coyote vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/pull-out-coyote/ dark cliff walls Three Line Poetry http://threelinepoetry.com/issue.php?id=27&issue=27 July 2014: If you haven't checked out any of my other creative websites, hark over to them: http://www.selahriver.com/ Social and Spiritual and Personal Poems http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/ More Poems and Stories, Light in the Darkness http://lastthings.weebly.com/ Speculative/Science Fiction Poems and Stories May 2014: 1967 Dead Snakes http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2014/05/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html Use Your Head First pub. in Unlikely Stories IV Face-Overs First pub. in Mouse Tales Press JANUARY 2014: THE FEELING OF THE EARTH A Speculative Novel of the Past and the Future In 2013: Short story, "The Gift," in Scattered Hearts: An Anthology and available on the website November 2013: Film Over Our Eyes Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/11/film-over-our-eyes.html October 2013: Juxtaposition Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/10/juxtaposed.html September 2013: The Dog's Bite...in Syria Dead Snakes First pub. in The Recusant, UK Gum Up First pub. in Poydras Review http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/09/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html August 2013: Retreaded Poetry Pacific http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2013/08/1-poem-by-daniel-wilcox.html July 2013: Nail Holes Enhance Literary Magazine June 2013: "Roll Ever Columbia" cavalcadeofstars Northeast Night two hands vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/two-hands/ May 2013: The Last Libation Dead Snakes First pub. in Sentinel Online Midnight Voyager http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/05/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html First pub. in La Fenetre in France April 2013: The Revolution Dead Snakes First pub. in Lucid Rhythms http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/04/daniel-wilcox-poem.html March 2013: Ah, Bird Poop Van Dead Snakes First pub. in The Bicycle Review November 2012: In Every Crisis Ancient Paths Literary Magazine After the Battle The Write Room They Have Procedures Mad Swirl Face-Overs Mouse Tales Press October 2012: At the Retreat Ascent Aspirations September 2012: Three Sons Fight and Allah Knot Magazine, Middle Eastern Journal First pub. in outwardlink.net Whether...an Arab Spring First pub. in The New Verse News Shell Casings First pub. in different form in The Recusant El Paso Unlikely Stories IV Use Your Head? http://www.unlikelystories.org/12/wilcox0912.shtml Monks Brawl in Holy Sepulcher First pub. in The New Verse News August 2012: AWOL Paradise Review July 2012: Shipping Thirty Pieces The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2012/07/shipping-thirty-pieces.html WayLight The Mindful Word 4-Letter Praise http://www.themindfulword.org/2012/poems-daniel-wilcox-present-moment/ Discarding First pub. in Tipton Poetry Journal Present Moment First pub. in Liturgical Credo Retina Shadow First pub. in The Greensilk Journal Outside the Limit First pub. in Flutter Poetry Journal June 2012: horse trailer Lyrical Passion Poetry First pub. in Stylus Poetry Journal May 2012: Clammy Chops vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/clammy-chops/ Their Beekeeper's Moon The Greensilk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/poetry_3_spring_2012.html 4th poem down The Journey Rime of Faith Rubber Lemon April 2012: Lapping Ideas Front Porch Review First pub. in The Centrifugal Eye Out of the Carcass Enhance March 2012: " Let's Do the 'Twister'" The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2012/03/lets-do-twister.html February 2012: Gum Up Poydras Review End of a Rope First pub. in The New Verse News January 2012: Human Imitation Bigger Stones Joan of Arc The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2012/01/joan-of-arc.html December 2011: Rock the Nations as a Cradle The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/12/rock-nations-as-cradle.html Sunday Morning Quill & Parchment http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Dec2011/sund.html November 2011: Cape May Light hotmetalpress.net The Mystery of Modern Life Missouri's 'Job' Markers Ventura Beach October 2011: Summer of Love Quill & Parchment First pub. in Wild Violet http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Oct2011/summer.html Reflection in Glass Westward Quarterly First pub. in The Oak Bend Review 'Whether' The New Verse News Of the Arab Spring http://archive.feedblitz.com/8753/~4086452 Remix: Babbling On, Again, River Eunoia Review http://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/remix-babbling-on-again-river/ One Dog Night Unlikely Stories http://www.unlikelystories.org/11/wilcox1011.shtml Brief Decades Review Mean 'Wile' Unlikely Stories First pub. in Frame Lines Tomorrow and Unlikely Stories and Tomorrow and Tomorrow First pub. in The Medulla Review July 2011: Walls The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/07/walls.html June 2011: Ah, Bird Poop Van amphibi.us First pub. in The Bicycle Review May 2011: A Last The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/05/last.html April 2011: Perception Poetry Super Highway the bumps Haiku Journal March 2011: sliced Three Line Poetry dark tent black barred window http://threelinepoetry.com/issue.php?id=2&issue=2 earstopper The Write Room Our Indy Pacer Casting Out February 2011: The Paradox of Truth Western Friend Magazine Borderlines The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2011/02/borderlines.html Traveling Within The Camel Saloon January 2011: Time Lapse Widowmoon Press The Animal Sound in the Trees Widowmoon Press First pub. in The Driftwood Review Stone Seal Widowmoon Press First pub. in The Writer's Eye Magazine The Cat's Scientist Windowmoon Press First pub. Abandoned Towers Magazine
And many more before. Do a Google search and find more washed up pieces of his poetic driftwood on the vast shores of the Internet.
His wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices, The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot, and
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat & Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.
There are 3 collections of Daniel's published poems,
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls,
Dark Energy
and selah river.
All 3 areavailable at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local bookstores, and coffee shops.
For Daniel's speculative writing, futuristic poems and stories warp over to
http://lastthings.weebly.com/.
Other websites include
http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/
http://planktonpelican.weebly.com/
and
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/
And OLDER PUBLISHED POEMS:
December 2010: Ricochet Yes, Poetry November 2010: Of Princes and Frogs Liturgical Credo But the Cesspool... Right Here The High Way Chair Present Moment http://liturgicalcredo.wordpress.com/present-moment-daniel-wilcox/ The So n' So Argument MediaVirus Magazine October 2010: The Last Act Midwest Literary Magazine Short Story Morning Four and Twenty http://4and20poetry.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/4and20_v3i10.pdf A Word from the Tree Front Porch Review September 2010: All 'Hail' Gloom Cupboard August 2010: A Love Affair The Clockwise Cat Iraqi Temples http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2010/07/two-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Giving Talk 'A' Graded Clutching at Straws July 2010: Sign of the 12 Rubber Lemon #1 Tomorrow The Medulla Review and Tomorrow and Tomorrow June 2010: The Hatted Fish Structo Magazine #4 UK http://structomagazine.co.uk/ The Canine Trail vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/the-canine-trail-memorial/ Onslaught Danse Macabre Live Branch Reach Willows Wept Review Night Watch Psalm May 2010: manta ray Lyrical Passion Poetry Retina Shadow The Greensilk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/poetpg5sp2010.html The Teeth of It The Centrifugal Eye April 2010: Israeli Morning Wild Violet Literary Magazine http://www.wildviolet.net/2010/04/13/israeli-morning/ red peaches A Handful of Stones The Last Exit Right Hand Pointing March 2010: molten froth waves A Handful of Stones February 2010: Sayings so Unkind The Centrifugal Eye Ah, Bird-Poop Van The Bicycle Review Three Poems The Copperfield Review Midnight Voyager Unfettered Verse The Cheyenne Gift Scattered Hearts Anthology Short Story January 2010: On Visiting Leaf Garden Hemingway's Mansion Only Left Standing The Modern Covenant Calliope Nerve Of Things Past Static Movement and Future December 2009: The Nemesis Counterexample Poetics Three Sons outwardlink.net Divergent Learning A Song of Songs http://www.outwardlink.net/features/danielwilcox/song_of_songs_into_olding.html The Wind Blew Away Mad Swirl the Young Caught in the Act in Iraq October 2009: To Whom it Does Not protestpoems.org Concern http://protestpoemsdotorg.blogspot.com/2009/10/daniel-wilcox.html August 2009: End of a Rope The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2009/08/end-of-rope.html Her Strands Writer's Ink Walking the Night July 2009: Dark Energy Diminuendo Press Book of Poems The Trouble with Names In the book Writing Cheerfully on the Web and Terms a few blasphemies The Recusant The Winged Ones Black Light Comcerning this 500th Anniversary of John Calvin and his Tongues of Fire June 2009: love's bullion Full of Crow mowed field May 2009: Picture Identity Oak Bend Review Under the Sky World The Green Silk Journal Hardwood Tap Dancer http://www.thegreensilkjournal.citymax.com/poetrypg2may09.html Ever After The Shine Journal Our Human Real Estate Word Catalyst The Miser For Goodness Sake April 2009: Cambria in Gray The Houston Literary Review restless slumber March 2009: 'ExHume' the Mind Counterexample Poetics The Incredible Shrinking Consciousness Eye Bandits A Twist of the Words Alluded Fractures The Cup Wild Violet http://www.wildviolet.net/linked_lives/cup.html February 2009: Mean 'wile' Frame Lines The Cat's Scientist Abandoned Towers Print Magazine #2 Cold as Hell Frostwriting First pub. in The Externalist In Store for Less the poetry warrior January 2009: Missing Star and Cradle Danse Macabre December 2008: Live Branch Reach Western Friend Magazine Less Is More The Daughter's Return Word Riot Body Parts California Mythic Death Moria AWake http://www.moriapoetry.com/wilcox.html November 2008: The Nature of Fishhooks The Centrifugal Eye Art Clasps Mississippi Crow Print Magazine Getting the Slip Up Early after the cyclone Hanging Moss Journal A Modern Psalm Monks Brawl in Holy The New Verse News Sepulcher http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/11/monks-brawl-in-holy-sepulcher.html The Mythic Mask Mad Swirl after the loss The Slowness of Danger three haiku ocean diamond Stone Seal The Writer's Eye The Faces of Rock Danse Macabre Short Story Reprint Perception in Late Night Word Catalyst Magazine Under the Big Sky A Song of Songs Into Olding October 2008: Research Filing Cabinets Mad Swirl In the Far Lane The Scruffy Dog Review Wasted Wealth Word Catalyst Magazine The Shell Zebra Mussels In September 2008: The Dog's Bite The Recusant The Loss of April Oak Bend Review Reflection in Glass The Lady in the Garden Baja Abandoned Towers Without Rime The Possibility of Suburbia Divergent Learning Paradise The Space Clown First pub. in Right Hand Pointing August 2008: Gargoyle The Clockwise Cat Utter Common Sense library census Reflection While 'Lying' on a Bed at a Slant Collapsed Falling http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2008/07/five-themed-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html July 2008: Dirge in the Night Danse Macabre Night Watch Psalm The Cherry Blossom Review Messed-Up News Crossing Rivers Into Twilight June 2008: The Road Kill Cliche The New Verse News May 2008: Two Haiku Ink Sweat & Tears The Crucified Isle The Centrifugal Eye April 2008: Black Samaritan The Houston Literary Review of the Street Rock Life Partially Found Poem Lost-- Hemingway By the Waters erbacce print journal surreal morning Stoned for Truth Dear Susan B The Modern The Cerebral Catalyst Covenant March 2008: the animal sound in the trees The Driftwood Review Of Things Past and Future Half Way Down the Stairs http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net/index.php?action=view&id=76 February 2008: Aesopian Snail The Cerebral Catalyst Discarding Tipton Poetry Journal http://tiptonpoetryjournal.com/tpj8/wilcox.htm Waking at the Funeral Lunarosity Montana's History Lesson The 'Darlossness' The Clockwise Cat of Dawkins http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2008/01/five-themed-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Only Left Standing What Nerve of the 23rd Psalm Artesian Well of Voice Losing Your Head January 2008: Be Forewarned The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/01/be-forewarned.html December 2007: Outside the Limit Flutter Poetry Journal The Revolution Lucid Rhythms The Space Clown Right Hand Pointing November 2007: Shell Casings The Recusant shadowed garden The Green Silk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/page/page/5161101.htm Conflicted West The Writer's Eye Fable of the North The Centrifugal Eye My Canadian And in the book Dark Energy Memories From Below the Line Caught in the Act The Clockwise Cat http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2007/11/five-political-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Kiss of Death 'Heir Ball' The Day My Battery Died Carpet Diem Pomona Hills Identity Theory Her Santa Right Hand Pointing Barbara Way Court Hearing The Faces of Rock The Danforth Review Short Story http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/300/danforth/2007/no20/fiction/09_07/wilcox.htm 2 Haiku Idlewheel literary friction http://idlewheel.wordpress.com/volume-2/esch-haiku/ Summer of Love Wild Violet in Philadelphia http://www.wildviolet.net/blue_moon/summer_love.html Harvest Time Words-Myth and in the book Dark Energy Yosemite The Indite Circle Sitting... Word Riot Natural Selection Lapping Ideas The Centrifugal Eye I Love You Flannery O'Connor The Last Libation Sentinel Poetry Online http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/0207/wilcox.html Redux of Moose Words-Myth and Men And in the book Dark Energy Iraqi Temples The November 3rd Club One The Green Silk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/page/page/4231640.htm 3rd poem down On Hemingway's Mansion The Rogue Poetry Journal Fall's Impression The WriteSideUp and Dark Energy Book Cold as Hell The Externalist and in the book Dark Energy Word from Tree La Fenetre International Literary Magazine The Wearing Midnight Voyager The Essence of Software The Cat n' Mouse Anthrozine http://anthrozine.com/ptry/cat.and.mouse.html 3 Haiku The Stylus Poetry Journal Sunday Morning The Other Side Magazine The First Gulf War The Evangelical Visitor Supper The Other Side Magazine Fall Eyes Gambit Editorial Columist The Forty-Niner of Cal State University, Long Beach Other Poems and Articles Small Magazines and School Publications Short Story Award Scholastic Magazine National Short Story Contest We're Disturbing the Chaos Honorable Mention
--
Daniel's wandering, wondering lines have appeared in many magazines including Contemporary American Voices, vox poetica, Dead Snakes, Word Riot, Centrifugal Eye,
Write Room, Enhance, Static Movement, Counterexample Poetics, and Unlikely Stories IV.
Three large collections of his published poetry are in print: Dark Energy,
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls, and selah river. And a speculative novel, The Feeling of the Earth, one of alternate history and futuristic science fiction.
Before that, Dan hiked through the University of Nebraska, Long Beach State (Creative Writing), Montana, Pennsylvania, Europe, Palestine-Israel, Mexico, Canada, Arizona, and many other states. Now he resides with his quilting wife on the central coast of California. Life gets difficult in elder age as I got a stroke of bad luck, so am mostly house-bound. But as circumstances get tough--we MUTANTS get tougher:-).
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
Instead Evangelicals live for US First--
Group-egotists, of that proud sort
Water piped in from pristine reservoirs
Lush grass, high-tech, enlarged houses and store;
But down below, poor refugees get Walled out,
Live in patched together plastic tents,
Preyed upon by ruthless cartel killers;
Or back down on their small stony acre
Near their shack and Jesus church of prayer
Where peasants Juan and Ana used be
Poverty, local gangs, and disease ruled;
But now hope for kind actions, smiles,and care;
Flighting Surprise
In my morning mug
Cold milk, washed blue berries
Dark and delicious
Lay waiting for another swig
Wait; what’s that?
Adhering--a wispy white feather
Or more briefly:
flighting surprise
in my morning mug--
adhering to wet blue berries
a wispy white feather
--
humming attack
wearing my fiery red shirt
for Christmas, I open our
sliding glass door;
sudden jolt in front
of my startled face--
a flash of feathers hum-buzzes,
darts within inches of me;
but away it flits left
back to that flowering bush
along our fence--
me a reject
--
side of the road
gray shadowed mail box
overwhelmed green, red-purple
bloomed jungle wonder
--
Twilight: Crossing Shimmering Streams into Dusk and Stars
--
fall back to autumn
treetops blazing gold
with the last light of this day--
we lift our eyes
a time for springing
childhood,
festivals of Monet-splashed leaves
that my sister and I raked and piled high
in the deep ditch in front
and jumped down into,
and our large garden behind the parsonage
with pumpkins, melons, and withered corn rows...
and lightning bugs on the wane,
flashing on and off
full of fall...
--
bidingTimeabiding
bite my teeth on famous lines
a hole lot of fragmented shells;
hunger hollows within--
deepening abyss
of lost longing
lone-ranging, reigning the distance
of a round heartless night
of a round heart-last light
lane-ranging, raining the day-stance
of last longing
steepening a-bless
fulness hallows within--
a whole lot of fragranced shalls;
bide my heart on famous lines
--
August 2020:
bolder utah
utah boulders
eye widening rock
pastels bold in harvest's sun--
basalt garden wonder
--
at the park's bat box
my young grandson scooping up handfuls
of dust
and swinging it loose--
fogged clouds of powder
lighted by sunshine
disfused halos
that disperse
back to cleated ground
--
gull wings
gullish wings
lightly spraying over gray clod fields
6-year drought--
so 'irrigating'!
--
In Every Crisis
When flailed, blind-sided,
Going down fast in
A basket abyss shrivel of worth-loss
And hope fails all drowned,
Do we launch deeper into the Deep?
Do we weep,
Do we shrive?
Thrive?
For in every crisis
Chry-sal-is*
*From crawler to butterfly--chrysalis
Even in the worst, most evil events, each of us still has the difficult possibility of heeding Viktor Frankl’s shocking words about their horrific experiences in Auschwitz Concentration Camp:
“Between stimulus [even trying to survive at Auschwitz!] and response
there is a space.
In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
“As we see it, an analogous relationship between the realm of human freedom and a realm superior to man is quite imaginable, so that man is endowed with free will...”
Viktor E. Frankl
“(26 March 1905 – 2 September 1997 was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and a Holocaust survivor, of Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Kaufering and Türkheim. Frankl was the founder of logotherapy (literally "healing through meaning") a meaning-centered school of psychotherapy…part of existential and humanistic psychology theories. He is the author of over 39 books; he is most noted for his best-selling book Man's Search for Meaning based on his experiences in various Nazi concentration camps...
In 1941 he married his first wife Tilly Grosser, who was a station nurse at the Rothschild hospital. Soon after they were married, she became pregnant but they were forced to abort the child. Tilly died in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. His father Gabriel died in the Terezin concentration camp(Theresienstadt) in 1942. His mother and brother, Walter, were both killed in Auschwitz
--Bio from Wikipedia
--
Dan's Brief Bio:
How did I become a hobbling mutant with a red walker?
Got struck with bad stroke of bad luck 4 1/2 years ago, shortly after returning with my sweetheart from a 12,000 mile Ram camper van trip to the heartland of the U.S. and the Great Lakes.
Plenty of scenic hiking, history-learning, photo-taking, cusine-enjoying. So many
beautiful natural scenes, historical places, colorful lighthouses, quilting stores, and chilly weather!
Would you believe, we encountered 3 weeks of stormy weather in May and June?
About May the 24th I encountered a dense snow storm in western Colorado, gripped knuckle-hard my Ram steering wheel because of dangerous side-winds in eastern Colorado, barely missed 2 tornados in Kansas by about 5 minutes, but got severe lightning all about me.
And survived coat-cold weather in Michigan in June. Hit by heavy hail coming into Duluth, Minnesota.
And it rained, rained, rained--especially in Missouri.
However, we loved the trip:-)
Now I am virtually stuck here looking out at the chilly gloom of January 2024 on the Central Coast of California, at our bare-branched plum tree, our 2 rambunctious cats, the Sphinx and Selah.
-----
You might like to do a Google sleuth and find washed up pieces of my poetic driftwood lines on the vast shores of the Internet.
Dan's wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices,
The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot, and
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat & Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.
Previous published poems in the past:
October 2019:
A Poetic Debacle of the American News
May 2019:
trembled
First pub. in Stylus Poetry Journal
April 2019:
playing blues
March 2019:
I became a beachcomber of beauty
February 2019:
El Paso
First pub. in Unlikely Stories IV
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2019/02/el-paso-rallys-political-contradictions.html
Alluded Fractures
A Twist of Words
First pub. in Counterexample Poetics
January 2019:
my gramma's beheading like the results of Dort
September 2018:
mused moments in nature
including
side of the road mailbox
california dazing
January 2018:
Lemons, "Pineapples" and Mexico
(for my dad)
October 2017:
MORNING GLORY
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2017/10/morning-glory.html
connudrumed Clockwise Cat
starbacked
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/59489337/klox-and-katz-ink
October 2016:
a haiku, dripping rain vox poetica
http://voxpoetica.com/dripping-rain-drizzles/
December 2015:
bidingTimeabiding Dead Snakes
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/12/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html
Poem for My Dad Lightwaveseeker
Deaf to Death
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/2015/12/personal-two-poems-for-my-dad.html
September 2015:
Ricochet Dead Snakes
First pub. Yes Poetry
End of a Rope First pub. The New Verse News
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/09/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html
--
August 2015:
The Signal of the Flag
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/08/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html
The Wind Blew Away the Young
(Dedicated to Kurt Vonnegut)
First pub. in Mad Swirl
July 2015:
One Dog Night Dead Snakes
First pub. in Unlikely Stories 2.0
Film Over Our Eyes
First pub. in Camel Saloon
Juxtaposition
First pub. in Camel Saloon
https://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/search?q=wilcox
April 2015:
Gazing on Gaza Contemporary American Voices
earstopper
First pub. in The Write Room
our 'checkered' past
https://contemporaryamericanvoices.wordpress.com/2015/04/
February 2015:
The Modern Covenant Dead Snakes
First pub. in The Cerebral Catalyst
Iraqi Temples
First pub. in The November 3rd Club
On Visiting Hemingway's Mansion
First pub. in The Rogue Poetry Review
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2015/02/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html
Moon River Poetry Pacific
First pub. in Ascent Aspirations
horse trailer
First pub. in lyrical passion poetry
http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2015/02/2-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html
November 2014: The Road to Elsewhere Fish Food Magazine October 2014: RELEASE OF KINDLE VERSION OF THE FEELING OF THE EARTH August 2014: The Pull-Out Coyote vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/pull-out-coyote/ dark cliff walls Three Line Poetry http://threelinepoetry.com/issue.php?id=27&issue=27 July 2014: If you haven't checked out any of my other creative websites, hark over to them: http://www.selahriver.com/ Social and Spiritual and Personal Poems http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/ More Poems and Stories, Light in the Darkness http://lastthings.weebly.com/ Speculative/Science Fiction Poems and Stories May 2014: 1967 Dead Snakes http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2014/05/daniel-wilcox-three-poems.html Use Your Head First pub. in Unlikely Stories IV Face-Overs First pub. in Mouse Tales Press JANUARY 2014: THE FEELING OF THE EARTH A Speculative Novel of the Past and the Future In 2013: Short story, "The Gift," in Scattered Hearts: An Anthology and available on the website November 2013: Film Over Our Eyes Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/11/film-over-our-eyes.html October 2013: Juxtaposition Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2013/10/juxtaposed.html September 2013: The Dog's Bite...in Syria Dead Snakes First pub. in The Recusant, UK Gum Up First pub. in Poydras Review http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/09/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html August 2013: Retreaded Poetry Pacific http://poetrypacific.blogspot.com/2013/08/1-poem-by-daniel-wilcox.html July 2013: Nail Holes Enhance Literary Magazine June 2013: "Roll Ever Columbia" cavalcadeofstars Northeast Night two hands vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/two-hands/ May 2013: The Last Libation Dead Snakes First pub. in Sentinel Online Midnight Voyager http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/05/daniel-wilcox-two-poems.html First pub. in La Fenetre in France April 2013: The Revolution Dead Snakes First pub. in Lucid Rhythms http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2013/04/daniel-wilcox-poem.html March 2013: Ah, Bird Poop Van Dead Snakes First pub. in The Bicycle Review November 2012: In Every Crisis Ancient Paths Literary Magazine After the Battle The Write Room They Have Procedures Mad Swirl Face-Overs Mouse Tales Press October 2012: At the Retreat Ascent Aspirations September 2012: Three Sons Fight and Allah Knot Magazine, Middle Eastern Journal First pub. in outwardlink.net Whether...an Arab Spring First pub. in The New Verse News Shell Casings First pub. in different form in The Recusant El Paso Unlikely Stories IV Use Your Head? http://www.unlikelystories.org/12/wilcox0912.shtml Monks Brawl in Holy Sepulcher First pub. in The New Verse News August 2012: AWOL Paradise Review July 2012: Shipping Thirty Pieces The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2012/07/shipping-thirty-pieces.html WayLight The Mindful Word 4-Letter Praise http://www.themindfulword.org/2012/poems-daniel-wilcox-present-moment/ Discarding First pub. in Tipton Poetry Journal Present Moment First pub. in Liturgical Credo Retina Shadow First pub. in The Greensilk Journal Outside the Limit First pub. in Flutter Poetry Journal June 2012: horse trailer Lyrical Passion Poetry First pub. in Stylus Poetry Journal May 2012: Clammy Chops vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/clammy-chops/ Their Beekeeper's Moon The Greensilk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/poetry_3_spring_2012.html 4th poem down The Journey Rime of Faith Rubber Lemon April 2012: Lapping Ideas Front Porch Review First pub. in The Centrifugal Eye Out of the Carcass Enhance March 2012: " Let's Do the 'Twister'" The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2012/03/lets-do-twister.html February 2012: Gum Up Poydras Review End of a Rope First pub. in The New Verse News January 2012: Human Imitation Bigger Stones Joan of Arc The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2012/01/joan-of-arc.html December 2011: Rock the Nations as a Cradle The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/12/rock-nations-as-cradle.html Sunday Morning Quill & Parchment http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Dec2011/sund.html November 2011: Cape May Light hotmetalpress.net The Mystery of Modern Life Missouri's 'Job' Markers Ventura Beach October 2011: Summer of Love Quill & Parchment First pub. in Wild Violet http://quillandparchment.com/archives/Oct2011/summer.html Reflection in Glass Westward Quarterly First pub. in The Oak Bend Review 'Whether' The New Verse News Of the Arab Spring http://archive.feedblitz.com/8753/~4086452 Remix: Babbling On, Again, River Eunoia Review http://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2011/10/15/remix-babbling-on-again-river/ One Dog Night Unlikely Stories http://www.unlikelystories.org/11/wilcox1011.shtml Brief Decades Review Mean 'Wile' Unlikely Stories First pub. in Frame Lines Tomorrow and Unlikely Stories and Tomorrow and Tomorrow First pub. in The Medulla Review July 2011: Walls The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/07/walls.html June 2011: Ah, Bird Poop Van amphibi.us First pub. in The Bicycle Review May 2011: A Last The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2011/05/last.html April 2011: Perception Poetry Super Highway the bumps Haiku Journal March 2011: sliced Three Line Poetry dark tent black barred window http://threelinepoetry.com/issue.php?id=2&issue=2 earstopper The Write Room Our Indy Pacer Casting Out February 2011: The Paradox of Truth Western Friend Magazine Borderlines The Camel Saloon http://thecamelsaloon.blogspot.com/2011/02/borderlines.html Traveling Within The Camel Saloon January 2011: Time Lapse Widowmoon Press The Animal Sound in the Trees Widowmoon Press First pub. in The Driftwood Review Stone Seal Widowmoon Press First pub. in The Writer's Eye Magazine The Cat's Scientist Windowmoon Press First pub. Abandoned Towers Magazine
And many more before. Do a Google search and find more washed up pieces of his poetic driftwood on the vast shores of the Internet.
His wild lines have fallen to print in many magazines including vox poetica, Fish Food Magazine, Contemporary American Voices, The Camel Saloon, Ascent Aspirations, Poetry Pacific, Dead Snakes, Paradise Review, The Mindful Word, Enhance Literary and Art Magazine, Knot Middle Eastern Literary Journal, Mouse Tales Press, Mad Swirl, Ancient Paths Literary Magazine, hotmetalpress.net, Front Porch Review, The Greensilk Journal, Bigger Stones, Lyrical Passion Poetry, Eunoia Review, The New Verse News, Decades Review, Quill and Parchment, Poydras Review, Counterexample Poetics, The Copperfield Review, Rubber Lemon, amphibi.us, Poetry Super Highway, Three Line Poetry, The Clockwise Cat, Liturgical Credo, Willows Wept Review, vox poetica, Structo Magazine #4, Four and Twenty, Gloom Cupboard, Clutching at Straws, The Centrifugal Eye, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Lyrical Passion Poetry, A Handful of Stones, Haiku Journal, Right Hand Pointing, The Bicycle Review, Leaf Garden, The Recusant, Calliope Nerve, Static Movement, Unfettered Verse, outwardlink.net, protestpoems.org, Word Riot, and
Moria Poetry, MediaVirus Magazine, Lunarosity, Hanging Moss Journal, The New Verse News, ocean diamond, The Writer's Eye, Mad Swirl, Abandoned Towers, Writer's Ink, The Scruffy Dog Review, Oak Bend Review, Crossing Rivers Into Twilight, Tipton Poetry Journal, The Cherry Blossom Review, Word Catalyst, The Houston Literary Review, Lucid Rhythms, Identity Theory, Halfway Down the Stairs, Frame Lines, Full of Crow, The Externalist, The Driftwood Review, Western Friend Magazine, Flutter Poetry Journal, Frostwriting, Words-Myth, Ink Sweat & Tears, Erbacce Print Journal, Sentinel Poetry Online, The November 3rd Club, the poetry warrior, The Shine Journal, Mississippi Crow Magazine, The Cerebral Catalyst, Anthrozine, Ink, Sweat, & Tears, Stylus Poetry Journal, Idlewheel Literary Friction, The Indite Circle, The Rogue Poetry Journal, The WriteSideUp, La Fenetre International Literary Magazine,The Other Side Magazine, Gambit, etc.
There are 3 collections of Daniel's published poems,
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls,
Dark Energy
and selah river.
All 3 areavailable at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, local bookstores, and coffee shops.
For Daniel's speculative writing, futuristic poems and stories warp over to
http://lastthings.weebly.com/.
Other websites include
http://lightwaveseeker.weebly.com/
http://planktonpelican.weebly.com/
and
http://infiniteoceanoflightandlove.blogspot.com/
And OLDER PUBLISHED POEMS:
December 2010: Ricochet Yes, Poetry November 2010: Of Princes and Frogs Liturgical Credo But the Cesspool... Right Here The High Way Chair Present Moment http://liturgicalcredo.wordpress.com/present-moment-daniel-wilcox/ The So n' So Argument MediaVirus Magazine October 2010: The Last Act Midwest Literary Magazine Short Story Morning Four and Twenty http://4and20poetry.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/4and20_v3i10.pdf A Word from the Tree Front Porch Review September 2010: All 'Hail' Gloom Cupboard August 2010: A Love Affair The Clockwise Cat Iraqi Temples http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2010/07/two-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Giving Talk 'A' Graded Clutching at Straws July 2010: Sign of the 12 Rubber Lemon #1 Tomorrow The Medulla Review and Tomorrow and Tomorrow June 2010: The Hatted Fish Structo Magazine #4 UK http://structomagazine.co.uk/ The Canine Trail vox poetica http://voxpoetica.com/the-canine-trail-memorial/ Onslaught Danse Macabre Live Branch Reach Willows Wept Review Night Watch Psalm May 2010: manta ray Lyrical Passion Poetry Retina Shadow The Greensilk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/poetpg5sp2010.html The Teeth of It The Centrifugal Eye April 2010: Israeli Morning Wild Violet Literary Magazine http://www.wildviolet.net/2010/04/13/israeli-morning/ red peaches A Handful of Stones The Last Exit Right Hand Pointing March 2010: molten froth waves A Handful of Stones February 2010: Sayings so Unkind The Centrifugal Eye Ah, Bird-Poop Van The Bicycle Review Three Poems The Copperfield Review Midnight Voyager Unfettered Verse The Cheyenne Gift Scattered Hearts Anthology Short Story January 2010: On Visiting Leaf Garden Hemingway's Mansion Only Left Standing The Modern Covenant Calliope Nerve Of Things Past Static Movement and Future December 2009: The Nemesis Counterexample Poetics Three Sons outwardlink.net Divergent Learning A Song of Songs http://www.outwardlink.net/features/danielwilcox/song_of_songs_into_olding.html The Wind Blew Away Mad Swirl the Young Caught in the Act in Iraq October 2009: To Whom it Does Not protestpoems.org Concern http://protestpoemsdotorg.blogspot.com/2009/10/daniel-wilcox.html August 2009: End of a Rope The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2009/08/end-of-rope.html Her Strands Writer's Ink Walking the Night July 2009: Dark Energy Diminuendo Press Book of Poems The Trouble with Names In the book Writing Cheerfully on the Web and Terms a few blasphemies The Recusant The Winged Ones Black Light Comcerning this 500th Anniversary of John Calvin and his Tongues of Fire June 2009: love's bullion Full of Crow mowed field May 2009: Picture Identity Oak Bend Review Under the Sky World The Green Silk Journal Hardwood Tap Dancer http://www.thegreensilkjournal.citymax.com/poetrypg2may09.html Ever After The Shine Journal Our Human Real Estate Word Catalyst The Miser For Goodness Sake April 2009: Cambria in Gray The Houston Literary Review restless slumber March 2009: 'ExHume' the Mind Counterexample Poetics The Incredible Shrinking Consciousness Eye Bandits A Twist of the Words Alluded Fractures The Cup Wild Violet http://www.wildviolet.net/linked_lives/cup.html February 2009: Mean 'wile' Frame Lines The Cat's Scientist Abandoned Towers Print Magazine #2 Cold as Hell Frostwriting First pub. in The Externalist In Store for Less the poetry warrior January 2009: Missing Star and Cradle Danse Macabre December 2008: Live Branch Reach Western Friend Magazine Less Is More The Daughter's Return Word Riot Body Parts California Mythic Death Moria AWake http://www.moriapoetry.com/wilcox.html November 2008: The Nature of Fishhooks The Centrifugal Eye Art Clasps Mississippi Crow Print Magazine Getting the Slip Up Early after the cyclone Hanging Moss Journal A Modern Psalm Monks Brawl in Holy The New Verse News Sepulcher http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/11/monks-brawl-in-holy-sepulcher.html The Mythic Mask Mad Swirl after the loss The Slowness of Danger three haiku ocean diamond Stone Seal The Writer's Eye The Faces of Rock Danse Macabre Short Story Reprint Perception in Late Night Word Catalyst Magazine Under the Big Sky A Song of Songs Into Olding October 2008: Research Filing Cabinets Mad Swirl In the Far Lane The Scruffy Dog Review Wasted Wealth Word Catalyst Magazine The Shell Zebra Mussels In September 2008: The Dog's Bite The Recusant The Loss of April Oak Bend Review Reflection in Glass The Lady in the Garden Baja Abandoned Towers Without Rime The Possibility of Suburbia Divergent Learning Paradise The Space Clown First pub. in Right Hand Pointing August 2008: Gargoyle The Clockwise Cat Utter Common Sense library census Reflection While 'Lying' on a Bed at a Slant Collapsed Falling http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2008/07/five-themed-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html July 2008: Dirge in the Night Danse Macabre Night Watch Psalm The Cherry Blossom Review Messed-Up News Crossing Rivers Into Twilight June 2008: The Road Kill Cliche The New Verse News May 2008: Two Haiku Ink Sweat & Tears The Crucified Isle The Centrifugal Eye April 2008: Black Samaritan The Houston Literary Review of the Street Rock Life Partially Found Poem Lost-- Hemingway By the Waters erbacce print journal surreal morning Stoned for Truth Dear Susan B The Modern The Cerebral Catalyst Covenant March 2008: the animal sound in the trees The Driftwood Review Of Things Past and Future Half Way Down the Stairs http://www.halfwaydownthestairs.net/index.php?action=view&id=76 February 2008: Aesopian Snail The Cerebral Catalyst Discarding Tipton Poetry Journal http://tiptonpoetryjournal.com/tpj8/wilcox.htm Waking at the Funeral Lunarosity Montana's History Lesson The 'Darlossness' The Clockwise Cat of Dawkins http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2008/01/five-themed-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Only Left Standing What Nerve of the 23rd Psalm Artesian Well of Voice Losing Your Head January 2008: Be Forewarned The New Verse News http://newversenews.blogspot.com/2008/01/be-forewarned.html December 2007: Outside the Limit Flutter Poetry Journal The Revolution Lucid Rhythms The Space Clown Right Hand Pointing November 2007: Shell Casings The Recusant shadowed garden The Green Silk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/page/page/5161101.htm Conflicted West The Writer's Eye Fable of the North The Centrifugal Eye My Canadian And in the book Dark Energy Memories From Below the Line Caught in the Act The Clockwise Cat http://clockwisecat.blogspot.com/2007/11/five-political-poems-by-daniel-wilcox.html Kiss of Death 'Heir Ball' The Day My Battery Died Carpet Diem Pomona Hills Identity Theory Her Santa Right Hand Pointing Barbara Way Court Hearing The Faces of Rock The Danforth Review Short Story http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/202/300/danforth/2007/no20/fiction/09_07/wilcox.htm 2 Haiku Idlewheel literary friction http://idlewheel.wordpress.com/volume-2/esch-haiku/ Summer of Love Wild Violet in Philadelphia http://www.wildviolet.net/blue_moon/summer_love.html Harvest Time Words-Myth and in the book Dark Energy Yosemite The Indite Circle Sitting... Word Riot Natural Selection Lapping Ideas The Centrifugal Eye I Love You Flannery O'Connor The Last Libation Sentinel Poetry Online http://www.sentinelpoetry.org.uk/0207/wilcox.html Redux of Moose Words-Myth and Men And in the book Dark Energy Iraqi Temples The November 3rd Club One The Green Silk Journal http://www.thegsj.com/page/page/4231640.htm 3rd poem down On Hemingway's Mansion The Rogue Poetry Journal Fall's Impression The WriteSideUp and Dark Energy Book Cold as Hell The Externalist and in the book Dark Energy Word from Tree La Fenetre International Literary Magazine The Wearing Midnight Voyager The Essence of Software The Cat n' Mouse Anthrozine http://anthrozine.com/ptry/cat.and.mouse.html 3 Haiku The Stylus Poetry Journal Sunday Morning The Other Side Magazine The First Gulf War The Evangelical Visitor Supper The Other Side Magazine Fall Eyes Gambit Editorial Columist The Forty-Niner of Cal State University, Long Beach Other Poems and Articles Small Magazines and School Publications Short Story Award Scholastic Magazine National Short Story Contest We're Disturbing the Chaos Honorable Mention
--
Daniel's wandering, wondering lines have appeared in many magazines including Contemporary American Voices, vox poetica, Dead Snakes, Word Riot, Centrifugal Eye,
Write Room, Enhance, Static Movement, Counterexample Poetics, and Unlikely Stories IV.
Three large collections of his published poetry are in print: Dark Energy,
Psalms, Yawps, and Howls, and selah river. And a speculative novel, The Feeling of the Earth, one of alternate history and futuristic science fiction.
Before that, Dan hiked through the University of Nebraska, Long Beach State (Creative Writing), Montana, Pennsylvania, Europe, Palestine-Israel, Mexico, Canada, Arizona, and many other states. Now he resides with his quilting wife on the central coast of California. Life gets difficult in elder age as I got a stroke of bad luck, so am mostly house-bound. But as circumstances get tough--we MUTANTS get tougher:-).
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)