After the Others by Bruce Weigl
With a new century approaching, Bruce Weigl's twelfth collection of poetry, After the Others, calls us to stand on the millennium's indeterminate edge. This book, opening with the last four lines of Milton's "Paradise Lost," parallels our departure from this century with Adam's fearful exit from Eden, beyond which is "all abyss, / Eternity, whose end no eye can reach" ("Paradise Lost"). Weigl posits that we stand at the century's uncertain gate naked, cold, and greedy; he refers often to a looming future, to give our collapsing present more urgency. We've forgotten, he says, how to love and live simply, how to write honestly and well.
With all this forgetting, we've also forgotten that God gave Adam and Eve a chance to recreate a world mirroring the beauty and goodness of the lost one. Yet, as their heirs, we've constructed an earth where "we live inside a history that no longer remembers us." Weigl wonders if we reinvent history to give ourselves identity, rendering ourselves powerless because we're unconscious of our present. He examines human suffering, hedonism, and desire, wondering if we can re-learn how to love, be loved, and forgive. As a mature poet working at the height of his craft, Weigl writes that we must weed out "the snare of the devil in our hearts" to pass through the visible end of the twentieth century bravely, with grace.
After the Others returns to themes of previous books. In Sweet Lorain (1996), forties America is depicted through life in charred, industrial Ohio, and in What Saves Us (1992) the speaker relies on religious epiphanies to rescue him from what he'll regret. Weigl's conversational language, as in previous books, comes unadorned:
I didn't know
what I didn't know. I didn't want
a life of anything then, only
a life.
Weigl's line and stanzas vary: he uses couplets, tercets and quatrains, as well as undivided lines. He relies on internal and slant rhyme, but occasionally writes infelicitous lines: "She sang out loud about a cloud." His tone is generally ironic, as in "Cult of the Car": "somebody wanted a blow job / on a gorgeous freeway in America" but "it doesn't matter who / this near the millennium.
Erika Dyck provides the reader and interesting view of early historical psychological research on LSD, lysergic acid diethyl-amide. This book is composed of Dyck’s scientific interpretation and dissection of earlier psychedelic psychiatry research by Humphry Osmond, and Abraham Hoffer. A Swiss biochemist named Albert Hofmann dissolved a minimal amount of d-lysergic acid diethyl-amide in a glass of water and digested this new synthetic drug in April 1943. Three hours later he begins to feel dizzy and his vision was distorted. Hofmann recollects this as a surreal journey as if what he saw was created by the famous paintings of Salvador Dali unexplained carnivalesque or at some moments even nightmarish hallucinations. The drug began gaining support from pharmaceutical companies as something that can possibly be beneficial for future scientific study. Saskatchewan soon became one of the epicenters harvesting break through biochemical innovation and experimentation with LSD from the 1950s to 1960s.
In Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand tells the life story of Louie Zamperini, a former Olympian, soldier, and survivor of World War ll. The author opens the book by informing the reader of how World War ll was globally developing through the use of a flashback. Then, she begins to introduce the main character, Louie Zamperini, as a child and leads up to show his motivation and survival of World War ll. Hillenbrand uses these flashbacks to provide background information and show the characters motivation.
In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
Abby: The major cities Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Regina and Saskatoon are mostly in the prairie eco zones.
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"Psychedelic 60s: Illicit Drugs." University of Virginia Library. Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia. Web. 14 Mar. 2010. .
Another strength of the company is the confidence that its investors show in the future growth of the company, 78% of the share outstanding are taken by the institutional investors
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After a publication in Life magazine in 1957, detailing the findings of a plant named the “Psilocybin Mushroom”, it became a major drug craze in the US and England. It was widely used, and still is today, anywhere from recreationally to spiritual enlightenment. It has spurred many great thinkers and works
Both pictures depict what most of the midwest looks like today; fields. Whether it be corn or soybeans, or cover crops, it can be agreed that the land is severely altered. We have changed our landscape so much, getting rid of things that were native to the midwest, in order to be as agriculturally productive as possible. We have great, fertile soil that is wonderful for growing crops, but I think we often forget why we have such great, fertile soil. The prairies took pretty good care of themselves with the dependence on the bison as well as the seasons and the natural burning of the prairie grass. Ignoring what the land was telling them, humans cleared everything out to plant crops. Now, years later, they have figured out that prairie grass, swampland, and other naturally occurring processes are actually a great thing. The process of trying to reintegrate these things back into the environment is seeming much more difficult and costly than anyone would have
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Psychedelic Drugs and their use to treat mental health can be a controversial topic to many but just like every topic there can be several ways to look at the issue. Before one makes a decision on which drugs they can be bad and harmful, they should first look at every aspect of the drug and understand how they might help people who are struggling with mental issues and disorders. It is important that we look at the positives as well as the negative effects of these type of drugs in order to get the full view of their effects. In a journal co-written by József Rácz, he states “Psychoactive drug use shows great diversity” however “due to a disproportionate focus” upon “problematic drug use… remains an understudied phenomenon.” The article continues