“Know all the theories, master all the techniques …

Cover to “Blue Beetle” #1, Paris Cullins & Bruce Patterson, 1986

DC Comics.

 

 

Cover to “Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman” Deluxe Edition, Jim Lee, 2019

DC Comics.

“Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief.”

Cover to “Superman” #675, Alex Ross, 2008

DC Comics.

That poem in Episode 3 of “Masters of the Air” (2024)

If you enjoyed the poem/prayer invoked by the priest in Episode 3 of “Masters of the Air” (2024), I’ve pasted it below.  (I am referring to the benediction that the character gives to the 100th Bomb Group airmen before they embark on their mission.)

Its title is the same as its opening line, and it was written by Mary C. D. Hamilton in 1915.  (Thanks to Hymnary.org for the info.)

All three stanzas are shown below, though only the first two are heard in the episode.


Lord, guard and guide the men who fly

through the great spaces of the sky.

Be with them traversing the air

in darkening storms or sunshine fair.

Thou who dost keep with tender might,

the balanced birds in all their flight.

Thou of the tempered winds, be near,

that having thee they know no fear.

Control their minds with instinct fit

What time, adventuring, they quit

The firm security of land;

Grant steadfast eye and skillful hand.



Cover to “Ragman” #1, Pat Broderick, 1991

DC Comics.

“The Second Coming,” by William Butler Yeats

“By using words well they strengthen their souls.”

“Socrates said, ‘The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.’  He wasn’t talking about grammar.  To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean.  Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies.

“Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth.  A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it.  Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight.  By using words well they strengthen their souls.  Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well.  And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”

— Ursula K. Le Guin


Source: Psyche’s Call With Donna May on Facebook



Photo credit: Marian Wood Kolisch, Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

Nurse Your Favorite Heresies in Whispers