Nighthawks on the Internet

You've all been there: you're bored, a tad unfocused because you're not exactly awake, but not yet ready for bed. Now is not the time to go back and finish reading Naomi Klein's "Baghdad Year Zero," nor should you be trying your hand at Plameology. It's a night for brief and witty, not for deep and pithy.

You daydream of what might be on the cover should someone figure out how to package the internet's allmighty powers in magazine format. Sure, cursory reading is cursory reading, but magazines are easier to explore. Plus, they end eventually. But since you can't exactly thumb through the internet, you do the next best thing:

Blogroll Roulette

Send your browser to a blog - your favorite, the first one that comes to mind, whatever - just to get a blogroll in front of you. Pick a blog name that strikes your fancy, click away and hope to land on that perfect post for late-night reading. If you at least liked what you found, pick a random blog from their blogroll. And so on and so forth. Hyperlinks count and the posts don't have to be humorous to count as a "win;" the important thing is that they're not overly intricate.

Serious and succinct works quite well, which is why this post was definitely a winner:

To The Warmongers

I'm back again from Hell
With loathsome thoughts to sell;
Secrets of death to tell;
And horrors from the abyss.

Young faces bleared with blood,
Sucked down into the mud,
You shall hear things like this,
Till the tormented slain
Crawl round and once again,
With limbs that twist awry
Moan out their brutish pain,
As the fighters pass them by.

For you our battles shine
With triumph half-divine;
And the glory of the dead
Kindles in each proud eye.

But a curse is on my head,
That shall not be unsaid,
And the wounds in my heart are red,
For I have watched them die.

- Siegfried Sassoon, 1917

Do read the whole thing; there's a lot of background info on Sassoon, and Once Upon a Time is just a great blog anyway. And no; I don't say that just because of the name. This is the second time blogroll roulette has landed me there and I must say I feel lucky for it.




For more writings from that war, this website is a great reference. It includes the works of Wilfred Owen, author of "Dulce et Decorum Est" and "Anthem for Doomed Youth."

I am reminded of the Christmas Truce of 1914, which is at once one of mankind's greatest moments and worst tragedies. If the enmity can be put aside for one day, why not forever?

Peace on earth, goodwill towards man and love to Tom Waits