tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514947804232497503.post5055882611142402157..comments2023-11-19T20:15:13.057-05:00Comments on Anchorhold: As Spirit Descends Into FleshDavid Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11981494782508348500noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514947804232497503.post-12880894643922036512022-08-03T01:30:08.379-04:002022-08-03T01:30:08.379-04:00Haha, to tell the truth I chuckled at your recanta...Haha, to tell the truth I chuckled at your recantation of (what seems to be) your first crush as a queer man. Even so, the deliberate separation of faith and eroticism is called out excellently here…I face the same situation now: my faith and my desires for carnal lust often battle each other within me.<br /><br /><br />- HenryAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514947804232497503.post-30868981840986083072010-08-26T21:38:48.815-04:002010-08-26T21:38:48.815-04:00This is utterly charming, and if it was never set ...This is utterly charming, and if it was never set as a lute song, it should have been. (Where are the Musicians in Ordinary when you need them?) And I see your point about irony--the coyness doesn't undermine the seriousness of the presupposed understanding that we grasp the transcendent through the flesh, not in spite of it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4514947804232497503.post-11019253982840700902010-08-25T15:03:56.497-04:002010-08-25T15:03:56.497-04:00Thank you for a beautiful and moving account of ho...Thank you for a beautiful and moving account of how closely devotion and sexuality are braided together. Whether our religion requires us to deny the pleasure of the body (as Paul insists), or to acknowledge it as part of God’s intentions for mankind (as the Qur’an makes clear), the tremendous power of that pleasure is always what powers the injunction, whether denial or acknowledgement. There is a rich literary history of the power of sexuality and its alignment with devotion to be found in medieval and early modern literature: the usual suspects are John Donne, Dante (see especially the rime petrose), and some of the troubadours (not to mention Persian and Arabic lyric), but here’s a particularly enchanting example from Philip Sidney’s intimate friend, Fulke Greville. Some people read it as parodic (which it isn’t) or ironic (which it is), but I wouldn’t lose sight of its insistence that the divine is only present through the medium of the flesh – if you can grasp it. Maybe sex lets you find the divine by making the sense of time disappear:<br />Caelica 56: "All My Senses, Like Beacon's Flame" <br />All my senses, like beacon's flame, <br />Gave alarum to desire <br />To take arms in Cynthia's name<br />And set all my thoughts on fire:<br />Fury's wit persuaded me,<br />Happy love was hazard's heir, <br />Cupid did best shoot and see<br />In the night where smooth is fair;<br />Up I start believing well<br />To see if Cynthia were awake;<br />Wonders I saw, who can tell?<br />And thus unto myself I spake:<br />"Sweet God Cupid, where am I,<br />That by pale Diana's light,<br />Such rich beauties do espy,<br />As harm our senses with delight?<br />Am I borne up to the skies?<br />See where Jove and Venus shine,<br />Showing in her heavenly eyes<br />That desire is divine.<br />Look where lies the milken way,<br />Way unto that dainty throne,<br />Where while all the Gods would play,<br />Vulcan thinks to dwell alone."<br />I gave reins to this conceit,<br />Hope went on the wheel of lust;<br />Fancy's scales are false of weight,<br />Thoughts take thought that go of trust.<br />I stepped forth to touch the sky,<br />I a God by Cupid dreams;<br />Cynthia, who did naked lie,<br />Runs away like silver streams,<br />Leaving hollow banks behind<br />Who can neither forward move,<br />Nor, if rivers be unkind,<br />Turn away or leave to love.<br />There stand I, like Arctic pole,<br />Where Sol passeth o'er the line,<br />Mourning my benighted soul,<br />Which so loseth light divine.<br />There stand I like men that preach<br />From the execution place,<br />At their death content to teach<br />All the world with their disgrace.<br />He that lets his Cynthia lie<br />Naked on a bed of play,<br />To say prayers ere she die,<br />Teacheth time to run away.<br />Let no love‑desiring heart<br />In the stars go seek his fate,<br />Love is only Nature's art.<br />Wonder hinders Love and Hate.<br />None can well behold with eyes<br />But what underneath him lies.Suzannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08327248861097858131noreply@blogger.com