CelticStoic 🏴
@celticstoic.bsky.social
Chipping away at literature, history, and other interests,
whilst navigating stormy seas and a lee shore. #TodaysPoem #poetry
Locus: Massachusetts & the abyss of MECFS / FQAD
🌤️Sol Omnibus Lucet
– Petronius
whilst navigating stormy seas and a lee shore. #TodaysPoem #poetry
Locus: Massachusetts & the abyss of MECFS / FQAD
🌤️Sol Omnibus Lucet
– Petronius
Pinned
~November Elegy~
As days grow short and holidays draw near,
Echos of times past return and alight
On a gray restless night.
The knowing smile, the gentle laugh,
A warm embrace not there;
Pale light, an empty chair.
O those souls missed & missing
Ring ever so clear
This time of year.
As days grow short and holidays draw near,
Echos of times past return and alight
On a gray restless night.
The knowing smile, the gentle laugh,
A warm embrace not there;
Pale light, an empty chair.
O those souls missed & missing
Ring ever so clear
This time of year.
My wife and I started our holiday movie-watching season with this 1939 gem.🎥
From the Shalin Liu Performance Center, a beautiful 350-seat concert hall in Rockport, Massachusetts:
From the Shalin Liu Performance Center, a beautiful 350-seat concert hall in Rockport, Massachusetts:
Yo-Yo Ma, Kathryn Stott - Over the Rainbow (Official Video)
YouTube video by YoYoMaVEVO
youtu.be
November 28, 2025 at 9:46 PM
My wife and I started our holiday movie-watching season with this 1939 gem.🎥
From the Shalin Liu Performance Center, a beautiful 350-seat concert hall in Rockport, Massachusetts:
From the Shalin Liu Performance Center, a beautiful 350-seat concert hall in Rockport, Massachusetts:
#JosephConrad
"The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. […] He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land — I mean literally."
Ch. 2
"The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. […] He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land — I mean literally."
Ch. 2
November 28, 2025 at 4:41 PM
#JosephConrad
"The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. […] He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land — I mean literally."
Ch. 2
"The thing was to know what he belonged to, how many powers of darkness claimed him for their own. That was the reflection that made you creepy all over. […] He had taken a high seat amongst the devils of the land — I mean literally."
Ch. 2
~Thanksgiving~
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the
water is,
This is the common air that bathes the globe.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the
water is,
This is the common air that bathes the globe.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
November 27, 2025 at 8:33 PM
~Thanksgiving~
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the
water is,
This is the common air that bathes the globe.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the
water is,
This is the common air that bathes the globe.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
~Thanksgiving~
What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, —
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy.
- Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)
From my wife's walk:
What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, —
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy.
- Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)
From my wife's walk:
November 27, 2025 at 3:40 PM
~Thanksgiving~
What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, —
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy.
- Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)
From my wife's walk:
What nothing earthly gives or can destroy, —
The soul's calm sunshine, and the heartfelt joy.
- Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744)
From my wife's walk:
🍂Thanksgiving🍂
"The kindness of people is enough to break one's heart."
- Charles Dickens (Martin Chuzzlewit)
h/t ☘️
"The kindness of people is enough to break one's heart."
- Charles Dickens (Martin Chuzzlewit)
h/t ☘️
November 26, 2025 at 9:40 PM
🍂Thanksgiving🍂
"The kindness of people is enough to break one's heart."
- Charles Dickens (Martin Chuzzlewit)
h/t ☘️
"The kindness of people is enough to break one's heart."
- Charles Dickens (Martin Chuzzlewit)
h/t ☘️
#JosephConrad
"No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze."
- Joseph Conrad
"No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze."
- Joseph Conrad
November 26, 2025 at 8:52 PM
#JosephConrad
"No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze."
- Joseph Conrad
"No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is; and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze."
- Joseph Conrad
#WhitmanWednesday 🌾
What living and buried speech is always vibrating here
. . . . what howls restrained by decorum,
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
What living and buried speech is always vibrating here
. . . . what howls restrained by decorum,
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
November 26, 2025 at 3:39 PM
#WhitmanWednesday 🌾
What living and buried speech is always vibrating here
. . . . what howls restrained by decorum,
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
What living and buried speech is always vibrating here
. . . . what howls restrained by decorum,
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
#WhitmanWednesday 🌾
Not words, not music or rhyme I want . . . . not custom or
lecture, not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
Not words, not music or rhyme I want . . . . not custom or
lecture, not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
![Frontispiece engraving of Walt Whitman [age 36] by Samuel Hollyer, based on a daguerreotype by Gabriel Harrison, for the first edition of Leaves of Grass, 1855, which was self-published by Whitman.
Source: Walt Whitman at the Lilly (curated by Christoph Irmscher), Indiana University Library, Bloomington.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:c7ex5lsw6ieo65txcbw7of2r/bafkreigd3a3skopsr6fyoz6afrhomv4vovetrodpszyr3yy4iw2shnovqm@jpeg)
November 26, 2025 at 3:03 PM
#WhitmanWednesday 🌾
Not words, not music or rhyme I want . . . . not custom or
lecture, not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
Not words, not music or rhyme I want . . . . not custom or
lecture, not even the best,
Only the lull I like, the hum of your valved voice.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
November 25, 2025 at 4:43 PM
#MelvilleMonday
"Oh, give me again the rover's life—the joy, the thrill, the whirl! Let me feel thee again, old sea! let me leap into thy saddle once more. […] Let me snuff thee up, sea-breeze! and whinny in thy spray."
- Herman Melville, White-Jacket (Ch. XIX, The Jacket Aloft)
"Oh, give me again the rover's life—the joy, the thrill, the whirl! Let me feel thee again, old sea! let me leap into thy saddle once more. […] Let me snuff thee up, sea-breeze! and whinny in thy spray."
- Herman Melville, White-Jacket (Ch. XIX, The Jacket Aloft)
November 24, 2025 at 10:42 PM
#MelvilleMonday
"Oh, give me again the rover's life—the joy, the thrill, the whirl! Let me feel thee again, old sea! let me leap into thy saddle once more. […] Let me snuff thee up, sea-breeze! and whinny in thy spray."
- Herman Melville, White-Jacket (Ch. XIX, The Jacket Aloft)
"Oh, give me again the rover's life—the joy, the thrill, the whirl! Let me feel thee again, old sea! let me leap into thy saddle once more. […] Let me snuff thee up, sea-breeze! and whinny in thy spray."
- Herman Melville, White-Jacket (Ch. XIX, The Jacket Aloft)
#JosephConrad
"The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future."
"The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future."
November 24, 2025 at 5:08 PM
#JosephConrad
"The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future."
"The mind of man is capable of anything—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future."
#SundaySentence
A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . . I do not know what it
is any more than he.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . . I do not know what it
is any more than he.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
November 23, 2025 at 5:14 PM
#SundaySentence
A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . . I do not know what it
is any more than he.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . . I do not know what it
is any more than he.
- Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
#JosephConrad
"I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work,— the chance to find yourself."
- Joseph Conrad
"I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work,— the chance to find yourself."
- Joseph Conrad
November 22, 2025 at 7:23 PM
#JosephConrad
"I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work,— the chance to find yourself."
- Joseph Conrad
"I don't like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work,— the chance to find yourself."
- Joseph Conrad
~November Elegy~
As days grow short and holidays draw near,
Echos of times past return and alight
On a gray restless night.
The knowing smile, the gentle laugh,
A warm embrace not there;
Pale light, an empty chair.
O those souls missed & missing
Ring ever so clear
This time of year.
As days grow short and holidays draw near,
Echos of times past return and alight
On a gray restless night.
The knowing smile, the gentle laugh,
A warm embrace not there;
Pale light, an empty chair.
O those souls missed & missing
Ring ever so clear
This time of year.
November 22, 2025 at 1:38 AM
~November Elegy~
As days grow short and holidays draw near,
Echos of times past return and alight
On a gray restless night.
The knowing smile, the gentle laugh,
A warm embrace not there;
Pale light, an empty chair.
O those souls missed & missing
Ring ever so clear
This time of year.
As days grow short and holidays draw near,
Echos of times past return and alight
On a gray restless night.
The knowing smile, the gentle laugh,
A warm embrace not there;
Pale light, an empty chair.
O those souls missed & missing
Ring ever so clear
This time of year.
#JosephConrad
"To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
November 21, 2025 at 4:27 PM
#JosephConrad
"To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"To tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
🕊️
"Blessed by the distant liberty,
Blind to the newer agony!
The earth will be a frozen coal
Before man knows his traitor soul."
- Arthur Davison Ficke, The Birdcage (1915)
"Blessed by the distant liberty,
Blind to the newer agony!
The earth will be a frozen coal
Before man knows his traitor soul."
- Arthur Davison Ficke, The Birdcage (1915)
November 20, 2025 at 7:42 PM
🕊️
"Blessed by the distant liberty,
Blind to the newer agony!
The earth will be a frozen coal
Before man knows his traitor soul."
- Arthur Davison Ficke, The Birdcage (1915)
"Blessed by the distant liberty,
Blind to the newer agony!
The earth will be a frozen coal
Before man knows his traitor soul."
- Arthur Davison Ficke, The Birdcage (1915)
#JosephConrad
"I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
November 20, 2025 at 3:45 PM
#JosephConrad
"I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"I've seen the devil of violence, and the devil of greed, and the devil of hot desire; but, by all the stars! these were strong, lusty, red-eyed devils, that swayed and drove men—men, I tell you."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
#TodaysPoem
I am weary of being bitter and weary of being wise,
And the armor and the mask of these fall from me, after
long.
I would go where the islands sleep, or where the sea-dawns
rise,
And lose my bitter wisdom in the wisdom of a song.
- Arthur Davison Ficke, 1915
I am weary of being bitter and weary of being wise,
And the armor and the mask of these fall from me, after
long.
I would go where the islands sleep, or where the sea-dawns
rise,
And lose my bitter wisdom in the wisdom of a song.
- Arthur Davison Ficke, 1915
November 19, 2025 at 11:39 PM
#TodaysPoem
I am weary of being bitter and weary of being wise,
And the armor and the mask of these fall from me, after
long.
I would go where the islands sleep, or where the sea-dawns
rise,
And lose my bitter wisdom in the wisdom of a song.
- Arthur Davison Ficke, 1915
I am weary of being bitter and weary of being wise,
And the armor and the mask of these fall from me, after
long.
I would go where the islands sleep, or where the sea-dawns
rise,
And lose my bitter wisdom in the wisdom of a song.
- Arthur Davison Ficke, 1915
#WhitmanWednesday 🌾
"A heroic person walks at his ease through and out of that custom or precedent or authority that suits him not."
-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
"A heroic person walks at his ease through and out of that custom or precedent or authority that suits him not."
-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
November 19, 2025 at 6:28 PM
#WhitmanWednesday 🌾
"A heroic person walks at his ease through and out of that custom or precedent or authority that suits him not."
-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
"A heroic person walks at his ease through and out of that custom or precedent or authority that suits him not."
-Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, c. 1855
#HeartofDarkness #JosephConrad
"They were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade."
"They were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade."
November 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM
#HeartofDarkness #JosephConrad
"They were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade."
"They were going to run an over-sea empire, and make no end of coin by trade."
#HeartofDarkness #JosephConrad
"The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
November 18, 2025 at 10:56 PM
#HeartofDarkness #JosephConrad
"The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"The yarns of seamen have a direct simplicity, the whole meaning of which lies within the shell of a cracked nut."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
#HeartofDarkness
"It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
November 18, 2025 at 4:36 PM
#HeartofDarkness
"It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
November 18, 2025 at 3:00 PM
#HeartofDarkness
"It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
"It was just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a great scale, and men going at it blind—as is very proper for those who tackle a darkness."
- Joseph Conrad, 1902
#MelvilleMonday
"I have a voice that helps to shape eternity; and my volitions stir the orbits of the furthest suns. In two senses, we are precisely what we worship. Ourselves are Fate."
- Melville, White-Jacket (1850)
Arkhyp Kuindzhi. Night. 1908.
"I have a voice that helps to shape eternity; and my volitions stir the orbits of the furthest suns. In two senses, we are precisely what we worship. Ourselves are Fate."
- Melville, White-Jacket (1850)
Arkhyp Kuindzhi. Night. 1908.
November 17, 2025 at 9:50 PM
#MelvilleMonday
"I have a voice that helps to shape eternity; and my volitions stir the orbits of the furthest suns. In two senses, we are precisely what we worship. Ourselves are Fate."
- Melville, White-Jacket (1850)
Arkhyp Kuindzhi. Night. 1908.
"I have a voice that helps to shape eternity; and my volitions stir the orbits of the furthest suns. In two senses, we are precisely what we worship. Ourselves are Fate."
- Melville, White-Jacket (1850)
Arkhyp Kuindzhi. Night. 1908.