The last of all days

Posted by yseult on Jun 8, 2005 in Poetry

As the last light of the weakened sun slowly washes over the roofs,
as it starts dancing between the dimly green leaves of some forgotten branches,
rushes to the heights of heavy foundations, stone cold in the history breathing through them,
crashes to the dark paved alleys and the lonely flowers on the side walk,
and finally hits the golden tips of an airy messenger,
splinters into a thousand glimmering shards,
collected in a mass of angry clouds,
and at long last dies the glorious death of all things.

As the distant rush from shores far away washes over the highest tower of forgotten dreams,
full of the whispers of now broken illusions and cast down hopes,
steadily makes is way to the abandoned fore post of all expectation
and drowns out the last thought with the deafening force of a thousand voices.

As all things are drawn to their rest,
and every grain of light is drawn,
the world closes its eyes in earnest,
but the willows are still dancing… oblivious…

Bastogne

Posted by yseult on Jun 5, 2005 in Personal

I just got in from my quick trip to Bastogne to meet my fellow "Lion of the Lowlands"-Comany (LotL) of the WBG community comrades and after a nice shower and a good cuppa am downloading the pictures from the meeting.

Since I am too tired to write up the whole day right away, I'll treat everyone willing to two highlights of a day that was to be my quick escape from the big city of Paris and the nagging workload of my text edition.

The Comical Highlight of the Day or unexpected company

Wandering through the Bois Jacques cracking a joke about breaking knees and legs on the soft forest floor and the hidden leftover foxholes…

Bart: "Well, if that happens at least you can claim to have been wounded in Bastogne…"
Y.: "Wounded? 'It's called injured, peanut. …" not wounded… 'Wounded is when you're hit by a bullet or something…'

Bart *turns around in shock*: "PEANUT?"

And before I can even say the quote, guess who we find where?

The Emotional Highlight of the Day or how it feels to enter Bois Jacques

When Bart asked me somewhere during the afternoon how many times I have been to Bastogne, I really had no precise answer for him. My parents used to take us on vacation to the Belgian Seaside for almost 15 years, twice a year and everytime you drive north, you're bound to pass Bastogne. We used to stop there once a year to pay our respect and remember the ultimate sacrifice of the Allied Forces in this special place.
And even if I do know the place well, I have never managed to actually find the precise location of Easy's placement in the Bois Jacques. Until yesterday.
At first – upon entering the forest – nothing points you to the fact that this is such a special place. After all pine trees do look fairly the same all over the world, don't they?
Suddenly, after about 6 meters you stumble upon the first indications of leftover foxholes… and you're hit by a wave of all the stories, the history, the tactical informations, the pictures and films you've ever seen about Infantry warfare in general and the Battle of the Bulge in particular. While the wave of absorbed historical material rushes through your mind, your imagination starts to piece it together with the details of the pictures your eyes are seeing … the snow… the cold… the night shellings… the fog over the Ardennes and between the miles and miles of trees… the need of rest and food… the closeness of the enemy all around… and then the pictures and names of the ones that lie buried in the distant graves… and all your mind can come up is this: "how could anybody live through that and hold the thin line and still run all the way to Foy and then actually take it?" and then everything fades into a simple, heartfelt "Thank you…" as your thoughts go out to those valiant men that 60 years ago went through a chilled hell.

Links:
Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge II
Overview
the 506th, 101st Airborne in WWII
The 101st Airborne, Screaming Eagles

Where the mind moves…

Posted by yseult on May 31, 2005 in Poetry

I laughed the other day, when hit by a cool breeze, I was reminded…
… of the last words that never get to be spoken,
of the one feeling that never seems to come,
of the longings we once shared,
of a lifetime spent apart, when all it took was a word,
of sighs once shared and
tears that, now forgotten, have lost their weight and calm at last.

Once the world was empty…
once all things intertwined were waiting for the one song.
Once anticipation was all that there was left.
Once all I had was this lost emotion.
Once all you were was a shadow.
Once, all the leaves where a darker shade of green…
Once all we were was but a dream.
An unthought wisp of a clouded memory.
A stormy breeze over a sea of blue…

And wherever the air moves, the mind will follow…

…Clarity

Posted by yseult on May 29, 2005 in Poetry

Speckles of unknow intensity,
streaks of lights across the only surface left,
fading stars over some remaining impressions,
last sounds of the dying darkness…
… and deep breaths of cristaline clarity.

It’s the last moment of serenity,
just before rationality has fought its way back
towards the wavering mind.
The last memory of…
…peace, probably.

And just before the birds start their welcoming song,
at last greeting the light,
guiding it back into the world,
drawing on and on…
… just then…
The last of all broken thoughts is made whole at last.

~
For Krys – I missed you terribly, Sis.

The best of all possible worlds

Posted by yseult on May 27, 2005 in Personal

The last few weeks have been exhausting and envigourating at the same time. A lot of conferences, talks, presentations and a race quarter-way across Europe to hear one of my Masters, John Searle, speak at my home university of Fribourg (which was wonderful in itself and well worth 10h of train ride).

The semester here has wrapped up nicely, all of a sudden summer is here without having passed the spring-stage and the city is buzzing as usual and while in Fribourg some things have started to pan themselves out nicely (although very unexpectedly) and it seems that ‘il leader maximo’ (ie. my boss, cheers to i. for that title…) is really planning on integrating me and has asked me to move to Fribourg for the next year. She was happy with my progress and that offered me a good night’s sleep as I always fell like I am not really getting anywhere. I’ve seen colleagues and friends I haven’t seen in months or even years. And for the first time I really got a feeling of people being happy to see me back, which usually isn’t the case…
Another conference, another city and I did get the confirmation that my PhD Thesis is necessary and not a simple repetition of things already been done. That of course offered my another week of good and peaceful sleep. *grin*

And of course I am already starting my bottom line analysis of my stay here, the things I did or did not do, the papers I did or did not write etc.

But at the moment: all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds… The demons are banned for now, the sunlight has won and the light is shining into all the dark places of the valley… no immediate danger in sight. What an unusual thing for me to write…

Now, I have the pleasure to organise my trip to Bastogne.