Thor's Videos thormay.net

thormay.net

Thor's Videos [ also see Thor's Media at http://thormay.blogspot.com ]

These videos are just quick constructions for YouTube.com . They mostly reuse various materials already found on this site in print and photographs. The advantage is brevity and spoken commentary. I have also included some recitations by well-known poets as well as my own poems, partly for students learning English. The videos will run on this page. Direct YouTube.com links are also in brackets.

1. Thor's "The Ages of Man" series :

a selective autobiography in five parts.

a) Part One - 1945 to 1965 - The early years in Australia
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

b) Part Two - 1966 to 1987 - First wandering - Australia, NZ, PNG, Asia overland, London
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

c) Part Three - 1987 to 1996 - Second wandering - Fiji, Australia
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

d) Part Four - 1998 to 2000 - Third wandering - China
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

e) Part Five - 2000 to 2007 - Fourth wandering - South Korea
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

2. Thor's Travels in Cambodia 1996 (direct YouTube.com link for this video)

3. Recitation of Henry Lawson's The Lights of Cobb & Co

4. Recitation of John Masefield's Sea Fever

5. Recitation of Thor's Tiger in the Night (a memory of Korea)

6. Recitation of Thor's love poem Extraordinary

6. Recitation of Thor's poem Times Sixty on Frosty Gyemyeongsan

Thor's The Ages of Man - Part One - 1945 to 1965 - The early years in Australia
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

Thor's The Ages of Man - Part Two - 1966 to 1987 - First wandering - Australia, NZ, PNG, Asia overland, London (direct YouTube.com link for this video)

Thor's The Ages of Man - Part Three - 1987 to 1996
- Second wandering - Fiji, Australia
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

Thor's The Ages of Man - Part Four - 1998 to 2000 - Third wandering - China
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

Thor's The Ages of Man - Part Five - 2000 to 2007
- Fourth wandering - South Korea
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

Thor in Cambodia 1996

Thor in Cambodia 1996 : video snaps
(direct YouTube.com link for this video)

The Lights of Cobb & Co by Henry Lawson

Recitation by Thor of a ballad poem by Australia's best loved storyteller.
The setting is western New South Wales, Australia, in the late nineteenth century.
You can see the words on this site . Painting by Ivor Hele .

player :

Sea Fever by John Masefield

This poem is terrific for learning the rhythm of English (if you are an English language learner). For those of us who have steered a boat under sail, it catches something magical.

John Masefield (1878-1967) was the British poet laureate (the Queen's poet) for many years. As a young man he had indeed sailed on a tall ship. The words of Sea Fever can be seen here.

Tiger in the Night

This is one of my own poems (for the rest see my main poetry page on thormay.net). "Tiger in the Night" tries to capture some of Korea's spirit, ancient and modern. There's a lot to this place, for those who care to look, but without the magic key of Korea's own language we are apt to hear just our own voices, see just our own footprints, and perilously forget the tiger on the mountain tracks.

Extraordinary

Extraordinary is a love poem I wrote in 1995. The words are here.

Times Sixty on Frosty Gyemyeongsan

Times Sixty on Frosty Gyemyeongsan -.a poem of age and ageing, ugliness and beauty, and the ageless peak of Gyemyeongsan in South Korea. I wrote it in 2006. The words are here.

The Passionate Skeptic
[and what this website stands for ..]

Doubt well, do what you can, then let it be. Presidents, priests, wage slaves, hustlers, men and women, kids, we all live by the grace of those we love to despise...

I don't care what you believe in, so long as you don't believe in it too strongly. A belief is a weapon in the armoury of your heart, and its razor edge will murder the innocent. The ice, the fire of your passion will seduce mundane men and women. Your clarity will excite respect. And the first demagogue who comes along with a key to your heart's armoury will wrest the weapon from your moral grasp. The first cause which wears the colours of your belief will enlist you as a soldier in ravaging crusades. Peace friend. Keep your passion to doubt with. Our civilization is a simple matter of live and let live, of giving dreams a go, but stepping back with a wry smile when we get it wrong. Let the fundamentalists perish in their own pillars of fire. Spare a dollar for the living, and have a nice day.

- Thor @1 November 1991

Direct Link to Thor's Aphorisms