Sunday, March 17, 2013






























... because truly being here is so much: because everything here
apparently needs us, this fleeting world, which in some strange way
keeps calling to us. Us, the most fleeting of all.















Once for each thing. Just once; no more. And we too,
just once. And never again. But to have been
this once, completely, even if only once:
to have been at one with the earth, seems beyond undoing.

 
And so we keep pressing on, trying to achieve it,
trying to hold it firmly in our simple hands,
in our overcrowded gaze, in our speechless heart.















Trying to become it.--Whom can we give it to? We would
hold on to it all, forever... Ah but what can we take along
into that other realm? Not the art of looking,
which is learned so slowly, and nothing that happened here. Nothing.















Perhaps we are here in order to say: house
bridge, fountain, gate, pitcher, fruit-tree, window--















But to say them, you must understand,
oh to say them more intensely than the Things themselves
ever dreamed of existing.




























Here is the time for the sayable, here is its homeland.
Speak and bear witness. More than ever ...















Look, I am living. On what? Neither childhood nor future
grows any smaller.... Superabundant being
wells up in my heart.

-Rilke, from "The Ninth Elegy" (Steven Mitchell trans.)
.
Point and shoot--North Carolina, March, 2013.

On this day, I felt a surreal sense of timelessness--everything seemed "lit" even though it was all wet and grey. I should have been gloomy. Maybe it was the wonderful food we got in the city the night before, or maybe the color and rhythm danced me awake. Sometimes the mind, in a state of semi-exhaustion, finds something of Spirit and runs on ahead, loose and unafraid across the fields of our gaze. It feels like inner flight...

You understand.  I hope you are all well.
.
 Note to self: Anne Carson NYT

Peace to all who enter here.
.

18 comments:

lynne h said...

my goodness, M.!!! woo!

and yes!!!

xoxo

Judy Shreve said...

beauty found -- oh my goodness - indeed!
lovely post - we are here!
xx

Caterina Giglio said...

that is a big fat Yes! and ohhh such beauty and so happy to see a post by YOU in my sidebar... yummy .. thanks for the beauty break... xox

ArtPropelled said...

It feels like inner flight.... indeed! I love those glimpses of Spirit. Thanks M. Hope you are having a glorious Easter. Our Autumn weather is just perfect.

rivergardenstudio said...

Glorious verse and photographs, ending with this glimpe of Spirit that appears in some moments. I am so glad I could visit when I had a chance to really read your words and soak them in. They will stay with me today, and through a weekend of teaching at the ocean.
xoxo roxanne

Laura said...

beautiful images... so perfect with the poem... timeless indeed!

Christine Clemmensen said...

Beautiful words. Rilke's and yours. And wonderful pictures. Rain and grey can be so luminous.
I hope you are well :-)
xo

rivergardenstudio said...

I am back again to re-read your post and see your dancing shadow photographs... hope you are well and finding more and more magic each day.
roxanne

Erin Curry said...

the images of the street reflections are really striking. A little Gerhard Richter, a little something I can't quite put my finger on . . .

Marjojo said...

You've reminded me of Anne Carson - how could I forget about her? And about popping in here on a regular basis? Mien from Redredday introduced me to AC, The biography of red - need to go back to it now, read again and wait in suspense until Red Doc> appears.
Re: speaking. understanding. Last week I learned by heart article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for a performance project in which in the end unfortunately I couldn't take part. But: with each re-reading and speaking out loud, trying to remember the words, I understood something about the precise formulation, one word relating to another, calling forth, emphasising, re-iterating, and I think I absorbed their meaning in a much deeper way than if I'd just read the article.
Glad I came and still found you here!

india flint said...

it was good to read this today.

Laura said...

I wonder about you ... where you are, how you are, so stopping by perhaps you'll see this message and know you are missed.

Laura said...

still so beautiful to look at again… miss you.

Christine Clemmensen said...

I miss your posts, M. I hope you are well, wishing you a delightful new year.

Laura said...

thanks for stopping by… miss your presence here.

layers said...

Beautiful images to go with beautiful words.. what a wonderful pairing.

Judy Martin said...

The greenness is what I feel in you.

Moisture and greenness is all we really need - said Hildegarde of Bingen -

Glad that I stopped by to see this.
x

Laura said...

such a joy to hear from you… may you be well.