bLOGOS/HA HA: Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

19 December 2021

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Today is Sunday.

Three Sundays ago in New York, members of the Broadway theatre community gathered in tribute to Stephen Sondheim.

Together they sang 'Sunday' from 'Sunday in the Park with George.'

ALL

Sunday,
By the blue,

Purple, yellow, red water
On the green,

Purple, yellow, red grass
Let us pass
Through our perfect park,

Pausing on a Sunday
By the cool,

Blue, triangular water
On the soft,

Green, elliptical grass
As we pass

Through arrangements of shadows
Towards the verticals of trees

Forever ...

By the blue

Purple, yellow, red water
On the green

Orange violet mass
Of the grass
In our perfect park,

Made of flecks of light
And dark,

And parasols ...

GEORGE

(Hums as he works)
Bumbum bum bumbumbum
Bumbum bum ...

ALL
People strolling through the trees
Of a small suburban park
On an island in the river
On an ordinary Sunday
Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Below, Lin-Manuel Miranda reads from 'Look, I made a hat : Collected Lyrics (1981-2011)'.

"This is the only lyric I've written that consists of one long incomplete sentence. I wanted it to be like the descriptive caption you might read in a museum next to the painting."

- Stephen Sondheim