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Steve Ott

Coming Back

  
By:  Steve Ott  •   •  6 years ago  •  13 comments

Coming Back

Snarkiness is still here. I hope I have gotten over my own snarkiness. It is why I took some time away from here.

I do find it interesting that those who bemoan the loss of civility, are themselves most guilty of non-civility. It isn't just here, it is everywhere. 

So go on. Keep being the wonderful epitome of that which you decry in others. I will be there to point it out and make you whine even more.


The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot


Mistah Kurtz - he dead.

A penny for the Old Guy


I

We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when 
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar

Shape without form, shade without colour, 
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;

Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death's other kingdom 
Remember us - if at all - not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men 
The stuffed men. 





II

Eyes I dare not meet in dreams
In death's dream kingdom
These do not appear: 
There, the eyes are
Sunlight on a broken column 
There, is a tree swinging
And voices are 
In the wind's singing 
More distant and more solemn 
Than a fading star.

Let me be no nearer
In death's dream kingdom 
Let me also wear
Such deliberate disguises
Rat's coat, crowskin, crossed staves
In a field
Behaving as the wind behaves
No nearer - 

Not that final meeting 
In the twilight kingdom






III

This is the dead land
This is cactus land
Here the stone images
Are raised, here they receive
The supplication of a dead man's hand
Under the twinkle of a fading star.

Is it like this
In death's other kingdom 
Waking alone
At the hour when we are
Trembling with tenderness
Lips that would kiss
Form prayers to broken stone. 






IV

The eyes are not here
There are no eyes here
In this valley of dying stars
In this hollow valley
This broken jaw of our lost kingdoms

In this last of meeting places 
We grope together
And avoid speech
Gathered on this beach of this tumid river

Sightless, unless
The eyes reappear
As the perpetual star
Multifoliate rose
Of death's twilight kingdom
The hope only
Of empty men. 







V

Here we go round the prickly pear
Prickly pear prickly pear
Here we go round the prickly pear
At five o'clock in the morning. 

Between the idea
And the reality
Between the motion 
And the act
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom 

Between the conception
And the creation 
Between the emotion 
And the response
Falls the Shadow

Life is very long

Between the desire
And the spasm 
Between the potency
And the existence
Between the essence
And the descent
Falls the Shadow

For Thine is the Kingdom 

For Thine is
Life is
For Thine is the

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but with a whimper. 

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Perrie Halpern R.A.
Professor Principal
1  Perrie Halpern R.A.    6 years ago

Hey Steve,

First, Hello old friend. 

I never found you to be snarky.. even in a snarky world. 

That should make you :)

 
 
 
Dean Moriarty
Professor Quiet
2  Dean Moriarty    6 years ago

“I will be there to point it out and make you whine even more.”

I got a chuckle out of that. I thought you were going soft on us until I got to the punchline. Welcome back. 

 
 
 
Steve Ott
Professor Quiet
2.1  author  Steve Ott  replied to  Dean Moriarty @2    6 years ago

Glad you got that. LOL. 

 
 
 
Kavika
Professor Principal
3  Kavika     6 years ago

Welcome back Steve.

No change since you took your sabbatical, same old same old.  

 
 
 
Trout Giggles
Professor Principal
4  Trout Giggles    6 years ago

Hi, Steve. Welcome back

 
 
 
Enoch
Masters Quiet
5  Enoch    6 years ago

Dear Friend Steve Ott: Welcome home.

Peace and Abundant Blessings Always.

Enoch.

 
 
 
PJ
Masters Quiet
6  PJ    6 years ago

Welcome back Steve.  I'm sorry to say but the country will never be civil again.  This is the new America.  Doesn't seem so great, huh.

 
 
 
Raven Wing
Professor Guide
7  Raven Wing    6 years ago

Hey Steve! So glad to see you back with us. You have been sorely missed. I guess I should take some time off from here as well, as I find myself a bit more snarky are times than I like to be. (smile)

 
 
 
CB
Professor Principal
8  CB    6 years ago

 As I look at the front page 'marquees' today, It is with shock and stun that I wondered with a gasp if I - even I - have been forced to blend in with the mockers! Alas! I am undone!

Now comes the soul-searching. . . .

 
 
 
Sister Mary Agnes Ample Bottom
Professor Guide
9  Sister Mary Agnes Ample Bottom    6 years ago

You left NT?  Dang, I'm always the last person to find stuff out.

 
 
 
Steve Ott
Professor Quiet
10  author  Steve Ott    6 years ago

Thanks for the welcome back everyone. I don't think I will ever permanently leave until the day I die.

It is difficult at the moment, to get here with any regularity. The company I worked for was bought out about 9 months ago. Then about 3 months ago, the combined companies were bought out. So it has been quite the ride the last few months. We are now the second largest company in the US in litigation support/legal technology. No one has been laid off, and in fact, we are getting more work than ever.

Now if we just get those raises Trump was so proud of.

 
 
 
sandy-2021492
Professor Expert
11  sandy-2021492    6 years ago

Good to see you're back, Steve.

 
 
 
igknorantzrulz
PhD Quiet
12  igknorantzrulz    6 years ago

“This is the way the world ends”

count me in

as I’m unaccountable4