By The Landlord
“To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one.” – John Ruskin
"When you say something or sing something enough times, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's almost like casting spells." – Feist
“Those in possession of absolute power can not only prophesy and make their prophecies come true, but they can also lie and make their lies come true.” – Eric Hoffer (American philosopher)
“Persistent prophecy is a familiar way of assuring the event.” – George Gissing
“On the palm of my hand there's a disaster. I must have been born with it. I carry it with me wherever I go.” – Margaret Atwood
“I measured time with geodetic chains
And marched across it, as though it were the Urals.” – Arseny Tarkovsky, Selected Poems
“Every generation witnesses atrocities. People in power try to fulfil prophecy.” – Nas
“Experience is the only prophecy of wise men.” – Alphonse de Lamartine
“Science has not yet mastered prophecy. We predict too much for the next year and yet far too little for the next 10.” – Neil Armstrong
“Indeed, the hereditary gift of prophecy will go to the grave with me.” – Nostradamus
“Caesar: The ides of March are come.
Soothsayer: Ay, Caesar; but not gone.” – Shakespeare, Julius Caesar
Hear ye, hear ye, ’tis written, and is said
All humans may, at times, be unduly led
By predictions seen in stars, or earthly old refuse –
Animal entrails, bones, any bloody excuse,
Shapes in tea leaves, bottoms of glass jars
Bet-spreading odds and sods, in smoky caves to bars,
Candle-lit texts scribbled by ancient seers,
To rumour spread online by hackers or your peers.
Horology, astrology, religion to philosophy,
Disruptions to what seems demonstrably democracy,
Earthquakes to wars, grand opening of hell’s fire pit,
Events coming true? Well, convenient in retrofit.
Yet on this day I will predict, and this is not mere hearsay
There will be playlists published this coming Tuesday,
This 15th day of March, known by Romans as the Ides
Washed up into our port, in waves of musical tides.
Songs then that mention arrays of omens –
Good or bad, and not just those of the Romans,
That date in their tradition as a day to settle debts,
But when big Julius got the sharp end, and very sore regrets,
Forewarned in the crowd press, by a blind soothsayer,
Dramatically portrayed in the quill of the great Shakespeare,
Too big for his sandal-boots, stabbed by 60 in the Senate,
Shocked by the betrayal, caught by the whole tenet.
Ouch! The Death of Julius Caesar (1806) by Vincenzo Camuccini
But who can foresee such things, and who can dispute this?
Who will really know, and then say “Et tu, Brutus?”
The turning tides of history can turn up many shocks,
But also prophet forecasts can also be old bollocks.
Dictators can be brought down, but can this be predicted?
Usually the fear of this means others are affected.
Some believe in destiny, others are refuting,
But will a Brutus step up now and do the same to Putin?
Prophecy seems timeless, a coal seam deep through cultures
Just ways to cope with big events, picked apart by vultures,
It terrified King Laius, and hoped that trend was bucked
But Oedipus killed him, loved mum, so all of them were fucked.
Prophecy can be ignored, then thrives, deprives, connives,
“I Tiresias, though blind, throbbing between two lives,”
says the figure in Metamorphoses, penned of course by Ovid.
But animal slaughter analysts predicted we’d get Covid.
Tiresias addressing Odysseus, by Johann Heinrich Füssli
Prophetic figures turn up in all sorts of religion,
Ancient Chinese chen, to Christian, Jewish, Muslim,
Usually to shape behaviour, providence of populace,
Torah, Qu’ran, Bible, warnings of dire consequence,
Moses to Maimonides, dreams and revelations,
Levels of visions, but broad anticipations,
History’s figures often might be seen as great messiahs,
But often in their utterings as heretics, pariahs.
1863 Iraq – Bahá'u'lláh's visions and ancient myth
1820 Latter Day Saints – divine visit to a Joseph Smith,
But no prophet quite compares to inspire or maybe harm us,
Than the quatrain verses written by France’s Nostradamus,
Whose book of 1555 sparked mass anticipation,
Of world events foreseen in grand rhymes of generalisation.
Deaths of Henry II? JFK? Or the rise of Hitler,
Diana, to the nuclear, Nagasaki and Hiroshima,
The French Revolution to the wars of Napoleon,
The Great Fire of London to bombs of 9/11,
What about this one, what vast range to predict,
Or umbrella can this cover? Climate change in retrospect?
"The sloping park, great calamity,
Through the Lands of the West and Lombardy
The fire in the ship, plague and captivity;
Mercury in Sagittarius, Saturn fading.”
Michel de Nostredame as painted by his son Cesar
So who knows when or where the crystal ball might look,
But one things for certain, through lyrics, riff or hook,
Songs will arrive in a friendly flood and plague,
Hopefully justified, with links and not too vague,
Deadline is this Monday at 11pm UK, usually,
Received in the caring hands of guest guru amylee!
Then on the Ides of March great canticles spectacular,
Playlists on the topic of omens all oracular.
The flipside. Eid Mar coin issued by Brutus in 42 BC, two years after Julius Caesar’s assassination on 15 March.
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