I stand as if blind and in total darkness
because my look no longer finds its way to you.
The mad rush of days is
only a curtain, behind which you exist.
I stare up to see if it is not lifted,
the curtain behind which my life lives.
My life’s strength, my life’s necessity
and yet: my death.
Neither am I the two dark seas,
Nor the sinuous strait.
Neither can I drown in the current
Nor run aground on the high jagged cliffs.
I thought once that I was a navigator.
But the sextant moves eerily upright as if guided
By the hand of some phantom or ghost.
Voices, voices. Listen, my heart, as before now
only saints had listened, while that vast call
raised them off the ground; yet they paid no heed
and kept kneeling, those impossible ones,
listening wholly absorbed. Not that you could bear
God’s voice—by no means. But listen to the wind’s breathing,
that uninterrupted news that forms from silence.
Inside the drum.
Lost in labrinthine halls.
Lost in deafening slumber.
If only you could hear the East wind call.
Hush …
The current will carry my song over the savanna
If I trust as an animal might of its mother.
Why disturb the breath supernal with muddled thoughts?
The ground floor and the upper floor of that battered house are alike deserted, and the inmates keep to the central portion, just as in a dying body all life retires to the heart.
Unto you
Must this winged carapace soar
And alight upon your unclouded brow.
Breathe deep your draughts of solace and redemption.
Here I may fall fathoms even to Olympic peaks …
There is something peculiar in a small boat upon the wide sea. Over the lives borne from under the shadow of death there seems to fall the shadow of madness. When your ship fails you, your whole world seems to fail you; the world that made you, restrained you, had taken care of you. It is as if the souls of men floating on an abyss and in touch with immensity had been set free from any excess of heroism, absurdity, or abomination.
— Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim
I can finally see
When there is nothing to see
When there is no chance of land or shore
Only squalls or tempest
Or placid waters that lap upon the rotting timbers
Of this, my only home.
of, relating to, or resembling twilight, eg: crepuscular light
occurring or active during twilight, eg: crepuscular insects
I recently read the word crepuscular in a lovely passage in Joseph Conrad’sLord Jim. Here is the passage:
The whisper of his conviction seemed to open before me a vast and uncertain expanse, as of a crepuscular horizon on a plain at dawn—or was it perchance, at the coming of night? One had not the courage to decide; but it was a charming and deceptive light, throwing the impalpable poesy of its dimness over pitfalls—over graves. His life had begun in sacrifice, in enthusiasm for generous ideas; he had travelled very far, on various ways, on strange paths, and whatever he followed it had been without faltering, and therefore without shame and without regret. In so far he was right. That was the way, no doubt. Yet for all that the great plain on which men wander amongst graves and pitfalls remained very desolate under the impalpable poesy of its crepuscular light, overshadowed in the centre, circled with a bright edge as if surrounded by an abyss full of flames.
My own sentence(s) using the word crepuscular:
We tarry by the riverside Under the wide crepusculum. It will soon be dark, too dark to see. We’ll stumble like blind men toward the ferry.
Meditations is a remarkable collection of personal reflections by the Stoic Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, who reigned from 161 to 180 AD.
Quote:
… that the longest-lived and those who will die soonest lose the same thing. The present is all that they can give up, since that is all you have, and what you do not have, you cannot lose.
My commentary
What can I tell you, reader
That you do not yet yourself know.
It is all too easy to see
How it all began
And how it will end.
It is all too easy to forget.
To let your mind run roughshod
Over rolling hills and parched prairie,
Over mountainous spires that seem to touch the sun,
And ravines tenebrous with voices and visions.
… I did struggle against forgetfulness.
This land, this land.
It seemed to go on forever.
But must needs to hold that next step dear.
So dear and sacred.
admitting maximum passage of light without diffusion or distortion, eg: a pellucid stream
reflecting light evenly from all surfaces
easy to understand
I recently read the word pellucid in a lovely passage in Joseph Conrad’sLord Jim. Here is the passage:
At that moment it was difficult to believe in Jim’s existence—starting from a country parsonage, blurred by crowds of men as by clouds of dust, silenced by the clashing claims of life and death in a material world—but his imperishable reality came to me with a convincing, with an irresistible force! I saw it vividly, as though in our progress through the lofty silent rooms amongst fleeting gleams of light and the sudden revelations of human figures stealing with flickering flames within unfathomable and pellucid depths, we had approached nearer to absolute Truth, which, like Beauty itself, floats elusive, obscure, half submerged, in the silent still waters of mystery.
My sentence using the word pellucid:
There was no neither sound nor sight. Neither wave nor wind. I sat in my lonely boat surrounded by all sides by the pellucid lake.
Some pics from my recent trip to Washington DC. Enjoy!
May 28th: Library of Congress FountainMay 29th: Library of CongressMay 30th: East CapitolMay 31st: Supreme CourtJune 1st: CryptJune 2nd: TiresJune 3rd: BatmanJune 4th: Washington CathedralJune 5th: Washington CathedralJune 6th: AsleepJune 7th: Taft Administration BuildingJune 8th: Washington CathedralJune 9th: Healy Hall, Georgetown UniversityJune 10th: Memorial Day ParadeJune 11th: Washington CathedralJune 12th: Potomac RiverJune 13th: Washington CathedralJune 14th: Outlying Building Near the Washington CathedralJune 15th: SuitJun 16th: Near Farragut SquareJune 17th: StrollerJune 18th: Arlington National CemeteryJune 20th: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate ConceptionJune 21st: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate ConceptionJune 22nd: Potomac RiverJune 23rd: Arlington National CemeteryJune 24th: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate ConceptionJune 25th: Arlington National CemeteryJune 26th: Three VeteransJune 27th: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate ConceptionJune 28th: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate ConceptionJune 29th: Georgetown UniversityJune 30th: Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
365 Photo Journey
Apparently, this is a thing. Consider it a challenge, a journal, or a journey (I prefer journey). Take a picture a day and post it to your blog. Here are some reasons why you should try it, too.
May 21st – The SmoochMay 22nd – Zen GardenMay 23rd – Zen GardenMay 26th – Death of the Last CentaurMay 27th – SculptureFlower and WindowMay 25th – FlowersMay 24th – FlowersFu Dog
365 Photo Journey
Apparently, this is a thing. Consider it a challenge, a journal, or a journey (I prefer journey). Take a picture a day and post it to your blog. Here are some reasons why you should try it, too.
