Hello, Everyone!

I have missed my Xanga friends so much! Thanks to Landen and Michel for giving me an extra "command" to show my face round here again.

Je suis revenu! I am back!

I have spent most of this year overseeing the construction of the addition to our school, and now that it is finished (end of July), I am teaching fulltime along with Sarah, Rosemary and Libby... It's a family affair.

Our teaching interns, all three of them, were forced to return home (to Kenya, and Tasmania and Western Sahara) to help support their families in this global economic downturn.

To Michel: Je n'ai pas été pris au piège dans un cachot, mais pris au piège d'enseigner l'école!

We’re enjoying autumn break presently, so I will definitely be visiting my old friends. We don’t return to school until after Samhain.

Speaking of which, here’s a ghoulish poem for the season that I wrote last year, but…

WARNING! Danger, Will Robinson!

This is not for the faint of heart nor for children under thirteen years of age.

I’ll talk with everyone soon!

Allison 

gh

vampires and other neck romancers

(c)2009

by

Allison February McKinley

it’s here it’s here that night of fear when ghouls like me all senses shed

at Halloween on All Saint’s Eve to recreate with your un-dead

like B. Lugosi getting cosy with the lust that makes me crave

their skinless squalor lifeless pallor I’ll go out and rob a grave

delight in fright and dance all night where skeletal remains abound

in watery clubs of worms and grubs flesh decomposing underground

and she’ll bemoan that she’s alone enduring mortuary rape

but ere she rots she’s pretty hot I’ll take her where she can’t escape

while up above blood suckers love the juice that’s not of rotting flesh

and arteries without disease pump fallow blood and billow fresh

a vampire whispers evening vespers voice decrees above the pall

while playing bones like xylophones “it’s neck romance or none at all”

below earth’s crust by hungry thrusts I’ll ravage these nocturnal throngs

through rotting teeth their souls bequeath in sexual rites to further wrongs

for flesh in tatters knows no matters in this stench the bowels of earth

are nightmares spun for girls undone a world devoid of warmth and mirth

thus I French-kiss corpora listless wetly tonguing bloodless napes

while their eyes dull in rotting skulls consider dark and damning shapes

in cemeteries dead un-buried taken on the Eve of Saints

I must confess (although a mess) a dead girl utters no complaints

soon I’ll divorce this lifeless corpse and in my mental rendezvous

as I withdraw her lipless jaw will whisper softly I love you

O! it’s here it’s here that night you fear when ghouls like me arrive to bed

at Halloween on All Saint’s Eve your pretty corpses done and dead

gh

Are you in a spiritual cul-de-sac?

And, what the heck are sugar plums?

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads.

I have heard the poem “‘Twas the night before Christmas” many times. The actual name of the poem is “A Visit from St. Nicholas”; and although I have even read it to my children, I never questioned the words…

…until last Sunday evening before Christmas, when my four year old daughter Elle, asked, “What are sugar plums?”

We are a funny lot, aren’t we?

Oh, and by “we”, I’m mean to indicate us Earth People.

We are quick to ascribe memory to inanimate objects (memory foam, memory steel), yet slow to recognise intelligence in the universe.

We can recite a poem about sugar plums year after year and never know what we are actually saying.

We can read the bible and preach it to others without ever actually understanding the meaning of the words ourselves.

Sugar plums are not plums at all. They are confections rolled into the shape of plums.

The Bible we read today is not the Bible that was written.

I find this interesting: We demand precision in our automobiles and watches, yet will easily accept a sloppy, perhaps even purposely slanted, translation of the Bible.

Two billion, or so, of us Earth People believe in the words of a text that has been twisted beyond recognition.

Does the Bible have “memory”? Can it bounce back? Can we help in retrieving its meaning? Or will we continue to recite the Bible incorrectly and allow misinterpretation to guide our own spiritual paths?

Many Christians and Jews might be quite surprised to read the original text of Genesis; because nowhere does it say

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”

That is a big point, don’t you think?

Further, let us realise that the division of the books of the bible into verses with numbers is an arbitrary division. Those numbers were added by men who wanted to reference particular lines. I can understand that. The same has been done with Jane Eyre, but we don’t read that annotated version and accept that Charlotte Bronte wrote it that way.

Moreover, ancient writing contains no punctuation marks. Those were added my men as well.

So, let us look at Genesis, sticking as nearly as possible to the actual words of the original text. (Even Young’s Literal Translation of the Bible contains inconsistency: at times he is known to translate the exact same word differently.)

Genesis 1:1 actually reads:

In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth –

This is not a declarative statement. This is not a sentence on its own. This is an introductory phrase. So let us add to it more of that sentence:

In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth – the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters…

Wow. What does that mean?

This is the text of Genesis translated as nearly as possible word for word from the original text.

Remember, in the original, there were no marks of punctuation, but I consider that the word “and” is a good divider in place of punctuation. It also shows continuity; none of these events happened alone. Creation was an ongoing process over a span of time.

For ease of reading, I have separated the text into the days of creation. You may choose to do otherwise:

In the beginning of God's preparing the heavens and the earth – the earth hath existed waste and void, and darkness on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God fluttering on the face of the waters, and God saith, `Let light be;' and light is. And God seeth the light that good, and God separateth between the light and the darkness; and God calleth to the light `Day,' and to the darkness He hath called `Night;' and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day one.

And God saith, `Let an expanse be in the midst of the waters, and let it be separating between waters and waters.' And God maketh the expanse, and it separateth between the waters which under the expanse, and the waters which above the expanse: and it is so. And God calleth to the expanse `Heavens;' and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day second.

And God saith, `Let the waters under the heavens be collected unto one place, and let the dry land be seen:' and it is so. And God calleth to the dry land `Earth,' and to the collection of the waters He hath called `Seas;' and God seeth that good. And God saith, `Let the earth yield tender grass, herb sowing seed, fruit-tree whose seed in itself making fruit after its kind, on the earth:' and it is so. And the earth bringeth forth tender grass, herb sowing seed after its kind, and tree making fruit whose seed in itself after its kind; and God seeth that good; and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day third.

And God saith, `Let luminaries be in the expanse of the heavens, to make a separation between the day and the night, then they have been for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years, and they have been for luminaries in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth:' and it is so. And God maketh the two great luminaries, the great luminary for the rule of the day, and the small luminary -- and the stars -- for the rule of the night; and God giveth them in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth, and to rule over day and over night, and to make a separation between the light and the darkness; and God seeth that good; and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day fourth.

And God saith, `Let the waters teem with the teeming living creature, and fowl let fly on the earth on the face of the expanse of the heavens.' And God prepareth the great monsters, and every living creature that is creeping, which the waters have teemed with, after their kind, and every fowl with wing, after its kind, and God seeth that good. And God blesseth them, saying, `Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and the fowl let multiply in the earth:' and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day fifth.

And God saith, `Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind:' and it is so. And God maketh the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, and God seeth that good. And God saith, `Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that is creeping on the earth.' And God prepareth the man in His image; in the image of God He prepared him, a male and a female He prepared them. And God blesseth them, and God saith to them, `Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over fish of the sea, and over fowl of the heavens, and over every living thing that is creeping upon the earth.' And God saith, `Lo, I have given to you every herb sowing seed, which upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which the fruit of a tree sowing seed, to you it is for food; and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to every creeping thing on the earth, in which breath of life, every green herb or food:' and it is so. And God seeth all that He hath done, and lo, very good; and there is an evening, and there is a morning -- day the sixth.

This account is certainly given from a geocentric standpoint, but, as far as I can tell, there is nothing in here that contradicts the theory of evolution, and a great deal here that supports it.

Happy New Year!

Allison

Here's a short and simple romantic poem to start your weekend.

I wish everyone love and happiness!

Ripples

©2008

by

Allison February McKinley

 ripples to brooks

are what steps are to strolling--

come walk with me now love

and feel my heart flowing

Good Sunday to all:

Ah, fate takes a hand. I am here with a few moments to spare to post pictures, and Xanga bugs will not allow me to upload them. Well, here are three that I had already uploaded. I'll post more tomorrow. (I hope).

In the locks between lochs.

We boated all the way across Scotland, from Inverness on the North Sea to Fort William near the Irish Sea and then back again.

This is the boatyard where we hired our boats. It looks a bit like Pirates Cove at EuroDisney.

This was one of our brightest days. The lake was very calm most of the time.

Oh, and I posted a new (actually, revamped) poem below that has nothing to do with the pictures.

Mina's site got me quite... well, let's say ready for some cuddling and snuggling. This is a poem that relates more to that than to holiday. The clock is approaching midnight here and I'm off to join Sarah in bed.

Good night!

Dreams of Jofranka

©2008

by

Allison February McKinley

Dark eyes has she that tease what if?

as she directs our own film noir

her gypsy bed a mystery

my web embossed with filigree

and golden rings of candlelight

I sense wet whispers at my ear

and turn to kiss her impish mouth

her skilful hands caress my hair

I clutch my heart… Aha! still there

whilst chains about my waist she slips

To tambourines and violin

her mulled wines dance and soon my will

accepts her body young and lithe

and at our feet two jaguars writhe

organic shadows of the night

‘Crawl back to sleep!’ she warns too soon

my dream recedes to memories

where perfume rides upon the wind

I wake unsure if I have sinned

the name Jofranka on my lips

Thus prisoner I’ll remain of dreams

an ofttime ravaged volunteer

held spellbound by her wanton sway

thus to her arms I shall away

in nightly journeys of delight