Notes from the Common Era

[David W. Parsley]

NOTES FROM THE COMMON ERA

 

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Dedication

 

To my father, who communicated to me his own passions and ideals, and an abiding thirst for knowledge.

 

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Prefatory quotes

 

A great waterfall I climbed. I stood on the shore of Balki the pool, which is the place of most awe in all worlds. The walls of it go up for ever and ever and huge and holy images are cut in them, the work of old times.

Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis

 

So that when Kings are dead and all their deeds forgotten the harpers of the future time shall awake from these golden chords those deeds of thine.

The Cave of Kai, Lord Dunsany

 

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Preface (proem) and List of Books (bold blue when link active)

 

Proem

 

Cornerstones

House of the Dead

The Trials

The Spheres

 

 

 

previously unpublished

© 2013 David W. Parsley

Parsley Poetry Collection

[Tinker]

Hi David, The quotes are inspiring but I am a little confused, were they meant to lead to a poem? And the "bold blue links" are missing?

 

~~Tink

[David W. Parsley]

Hi Tinker,

 

Thanks for comments on the quotes. I am trying a different approach to incrementally disclosing this very long poem. My original intention was to simply populate a sub-poem at a time using my Member Archive page. An inconvenient complication enters when I bring in the other elements of the "Notes." In addition to the 29 individual pieces divided amongst four distinct books, I also intended a Preface to explain the nature of this experiment (it seems to virtually be a new poetic form) and wished to place a quote or two at the beginning of each book, including a general set given here. There also simply had to be a dedication. None of this really worked as an entry in the archive.

 

So I have elected to present it hierarchically as individual topics at the overall level of organization, as well as for the individual books. Each will have a clickable table of contents. As each poem or book is posted, the link will go active in the appropriate topic posting, as well as in the archive. Think of it as a growing storyline in the tradition of "The Old Curiosity Shop," by Charles Dickens, which published as individual chapters in a monthly periodical. A chief difference here is that the story is not being written or posted in time-linear sequence, though in truth the progression is not one of that kind in any case.

 

Still, I acknowledge that I may have jumped the gun, so to speak, by posting this before at least the Preface is available (not to mention, "Cornerstones," which will contain the recently posted Golgotha). My only defense is to protest that my career gives me only a few hours at a time to come here and contribute works and commentary. I take such opportunity as I find, perhaps not always to best effect.

 

As of this writing, the Preface is partially completed and I have some notion as to the content of all 29 individual entries. Four total are in a state of completion. Two more are completed initial drafts being reviewed by an amateur historian of my acquaintance. Another four have a complete set of notes (ahem), one of which (Canterbury) even has the opening lines composed. Under such cirumstances, it is likely that some adjustments to the Table of Contents could occur before completion, though the book titles and sequence are settled. Suffice it to say that the poem and I are still creating each other. I hope you and many others will be pleased with the outcome.

Thanks for Your Patience,

- Dave