<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""> To drink this poem in again certainly quenches a thrist I had forgotten …….thank you Ed Baldinger, you irrasible forger of so much<div class="">….there are many things to say about this gorgeous peice of work but suffice to say……Robert Bly would have loved this poem too. </div><div class="">Thanks for posting it……and forging ahead…..xo<br class=""><div class=""><div><br class=""><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Dec 21, 2021, at 2:10 PM, Ed Balldinger via Thespiritexpress <<a href="mailto:thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org" class="">thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class=""><font size="4" class="">Dear Fellow Beings born of love, living in love and dying to love - </font><div class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font size="4" class="">Thank you for engaging in the experience of sharing my poem with you today. As I said in my preliminary remarks, it's a poem written over time, which is what Robert Bly says he often did with his poems - write a poem, put it in a drawer, pull it out after some time, carve a little more, then back in the drawer it goes for a while, etc...! This poem told me it was the right time to finish it and lay it to rest, or wake it up for new beginnings to come. </font></div><div class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font size="4" class="">It's a poem woven between the possibilities of our strength and fragility; between ourselves and others. It's a small glimpse into the intimate as we <i class="">"wrassle"</i> with the inanimate. <br class=""></font><div class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font size="4" class="">Blessings to all in this time of year, the shortest day, turning into a new season, a new phase, a new year. </font></div><div class=""><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></div><div class=""><font size="4" class="">~ Ed Balldinger (Scoctavius of Nublin; Scott)</font></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><u class=""><span style="font-size:16pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">Forging
Iron </span></u></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">We
are the hot steaming iron forging various</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">moratoriums
in our own worlds of strength. </span></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">Whatever
we straighten will certainly return </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">as
it curls in a rising mist of mystery tonight. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">Will
you tell me all your ancient truths?</span></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">I’ll
tell you mine and we’ll see how the vapors mingle.</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">Is
it too late to see where this line of conversation</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">crosses
as another string of words are strung up</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">higher
than the sun in our eyes? </span></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">An
amalgamation of American cold war offspring,</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">we
are fused in our infatuation with love life; </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">cross-stitched
together forever in some poetic tongue;</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">vow-bound
and boundlessly wowed by crowds</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">overflowing
edges as we dwindle back to the dust</span></div><div style="text-indent: 0.5in; margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">from which we came. </span></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">I
am the wilting madness here in my inflexibility</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">kindled
by a strange fire I work to keep lit, </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">as
if burnt sacrifice were a mere offering of truce </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">searing
our souls in one syncopating blaze. </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">“Keeper
of the Flame,”</span></i><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">
or so I’ve been called. </span></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">The
bent steel clanks coldly against </span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">a
creative version of my own lost control.
</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">I
crave social interface like a warm scarf,</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">a
long-flowing tail of a crackling whip behind me. </span></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class="">(With
a tip of the cap to Robert Bly)</span></i></div><p class="gmail-MsoNoSpacing" style="margin:0in;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" class=""> </span></p><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><a name="_Hlk37055206" class=""><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"" class="">Edgar Z. Balldinger </span></a></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"" class="">
June 9, 2017 – December 21, 2021</span></div><div style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"" class=""> © Nublin’s Pub, 20</span></i><i class=""><span style="font-family:"Monotype Corsiva"" class="">17-2021</span></i></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div></div>
_______________________________________________<br class="">Thespiritexpress mailing list<br class=""><a href="mailto:Thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org" class="">Thespiritexpress@lists.mcn.org</a><br class="">http://lists.mcn.org/mailman/listinfo/thespiritexpress<br class=""></div></blockquote></div><br class=""></div></div></body></html>