Axe made of gold

Story of Isaac

The door it opened slowly,
my father he came in, I was nine years old.
And he stood so tall above me,
his blue eyes they were shining
and his voice was very cold.
He said, "I've had a vision
and you know I'm strong and holy,
I must do what I've been told."
So he started up the mountain,
I was running, he was walking,
and his axe was made of gold.

Well, the trees they got much smaller,
the lake a lady's mirror,
we stopped to drink some wine.
Then he threw the bottle over.
Broke a minute later
and he put his hand on mine.
Thought I saw an eagle
but it might have been a vulture,
I never could decide.
Then my father built an altar,
he looked once behind his shoulder,
he knew I would not hide.

You who build these altars now
to sacrifice these children,
you must not do it anymore.
A scheme is not a vision
and you never have been tempted
by a demon or a god.
You who stand above them now,
your hatchets blunt and bloody,
you were not there before,
when I lay upon a mountain
and my father's hand was trembling
with the beauty of the word.

And if you call me brother now,
forgive me if I inquire,
"Just according to whose plan?"
When it all comes down to dust
I will kill you if I must,
I will help you if I can.
When it all comes down to dust
I will help you if I must,
I will kill you if I can.
And mercy on our uniform,
man of peace or man of war,
the peacock spreads his fan.

– Leonard Cohen (from Songs of from a Room, 1969)

Posted for One Single Impression / Gold.

Relationship dynamics

In one lucid moment of
non-righteousness
she managed
to cement his trust.
He and she both knew
now that they’d walk
through hell for each other.

– Leonard “Fu Tse” Blumfeld (© 2010)

Written to include lucid, righteous and salvage from 3WW.

The 1002nd night

Padma thought the radish joke might be too risqué for the ruler, whose sense of humor was not known for much alacrity.

But Kamini decided to go ahead – after all, she would be wearing her ravishing purple sari.

Padma was finally relieved of her worrying when Kamini’s ring tone – the first few notes of the theme song from Mohabbatein – sounded after midnight.

This had been their agreed signal if things were all right.

– Leonard Blumfeld ( © 2010 )

Written to use up risque, radish, ring tone, ravishing, ruler from Raven’s Saturday Wordzzle Challenge for Week 98.

A German translation of this story is here.

Not your average collection of clocks

 

Clock sculpture at Gare St. Lazare, Paris, France.

Posted for Photo Hunt and Average.

Splat

A frantic lurch
to get me away
from that odor

But alas, the odor,
stuck to my shoes,
came right along

- Leonard "Lurch" Blumfeld

Written to implicate frantic, lurch and odor from 3WW. Titled "Splat" because a pond might have been my next destination in quest of getting rid of that odor I'd stepped into.

Elegant architecture

Posted for Wordless Wednesday.

Dealing in conditional

Do you know
how much easier it is
to deal in muddled
but, if, if only
and I don’t know
than in bright
shiny yes or no?

– Leonard Blumfeld (© 2010)

Written and posted for Sunday Scribblings.

Dialog with my horoscope

The horoscope said:
a. You might suddenly desire a big change, Chayote. b. The energy of the day could make you impatient. c. You might feel restless. d. Maybe you realize that you are growing tired of your current job. e. You could crave more creative stimulation and personal challenge. f. Or perhaps you are feeling like you and your romantic partner have become stuck in a rut. g. Find some ways to spice up this important relationship.

I say:
a. Not even suddenly. I've been wanting big change for a long time. But the picture of it is fuzzy.
b. This has actually been an exhausting day, even though it began with good energy from yoga. Several misunderstandings followed, and I felt like an incompetent fool for hours, with my head completely in the clouds, not relating to people right.
c. Yes.
d. It's been worse, but I am definitely tired of it.
e. More creative stimulation would be good. More personal challenge I can do without. I feel challenged enough.
f. Yes, definitely. Even though she qualifies as my romantic partner primarily in my own imagination and in some friends' gossip. They keep seeing us together and putting 2 and 2 together and arriving at 6 1/2 or whatever. And I'm not telling anything.
g. That would be good.

That's all for now, folks.

L.B.

Out of chaos

Out of chaos
came order –

one second,
one puzzle piece

of chaos was
put in order

for a second.
Or: somebody

saw order
in chaos,

a pattern
emerging,

somewhere –
for a second.

– Leonard "Chayote" Blumfeld (© 2010 )

Written for One Single Impression.

Today's horoscope says romance

Romance is in the air today, L.B. Take that special woman in your life and do something completely different. Get last-minute tickets to a rock concert, or arrange to spend the day canoeing. Do something to shake up your relationship a bit. It is at risk of becoming a bit stale. If there is no one special in your life right now, call a good friend to see if he can set you up with someone. This is no time to be alone!

No, this does not feel like a romantic day at all. I'm afraid the computer that put this horoscope together is even more wrong than usual.

A. That special woman in my life - if I may call her that - would definitely not be thrilled by a last-minute rock concert. She prefers classical or Russian. And canoeing is out. Did that computer take into account the weather hereabouts? This is more the time for ice skating than water sports.

B. Yes, things are a bit stale in that they're not moving at all. Haven't been much in over a year. In fact, calling it a relationship at all would be exaggerating. Even though there are relationships of all kinds. This is definitely one of all kinds.

C. I wouldn't know which friend to call for that.

D. I completely agree - this ain't no time to be alone. Nobody should be. Not even a recluse* such as I.

* I've been called that by my dear ex-wife numerous times (always feeling that I'd been completely misunderstood in 19 years of marriage). And a British friend recently called himself that and seemed to imply the same for me. The truth: I'm just like anybody else, need time with others and time by myself.

Len "Temporarily Recluded" Blumfeld