Friday, October 26, 2012

"The road leads to the sea."


Denise Levertov
b. October 24, 1923

This is the year the old ones,
the old great ones
leave us alone on the road.

The road leads to the sea.
We have the words in our pockets,
obscure directions. The old ones

have taken away the light of their presence,
we see it moving away over a hill
off to one side.

They are not dying,
they are withdrawn
into a painful privacy

learning to live without words.
E. P. "It looks like dying"--Williams: "I can't
describe to you what has been

happening to me"--
H. D. "unable to speak."
The darkness

twists itself in the wind, the stars
are small, the horizon
ringed with confused urban light-haze.

They have told us
the road leads to the sea,
and given

the language into our hands.
We hear
our footsteps each time a truck

has dazzled past us and gone
leaving us new silence.
One can't reach

the sea on this endless
road to the sea unless
one turns aside at the end, it seems,

follows
the owl that silently glides above it
aslant, back and forth,

and away into deep woods.

But for us the road
unfurls itself, we count the
words in our pockets, we wonder

how it will be without them, we don't
stop walking, we know
there is far to go, sometimes

we think the night wind carries
a smell of the sea...

Thanks to wood s lot for this poem.

I've been playing my ukulele and, yesterday, was astonished to be able to tune my difficult-to-tune dulcimer.  Continuing to read my long-time favorite blogs but remaining for the most part in quiet mode, gathering energy for painting, drawing and weaving.

And winter walking.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Sunday morning / Shelter from the tempest


The tempest in my mind / doth from my senses take all feeling.
(William Shakespeare -- words spoken by King Lear)

All, everything that I understand, I understand only because of love.
(Leo Tolstoy)

Tolstoy was right.
(Bob Dylan, from the liner notes from the album "Desire")

May your heart always be joyful.
(Bob Dylan, from "Forever Young")

Can't seem to come up with many words of my own recently, except to express a heartfelt thank you to those who continue to widen my horizons by posting on your blogs and who continue to stop by and comment here.  Thank you, too, to those who stop by silently.  

I can feel my creative energy rising as it did in the past during this time of year, but it's nonverbal right now.  Although my health is good, my physical and emotional energy, as always, have their limits.  I have a hard time accepting that, but acceptance is the key.



Thursday, October 4, 2012

Janis Joplin said, "...letting yourself feel all those things that you have already on the inside of you but you're all the time trying to push them aside because they don't make for polite conversation or something ..."

Here is a delightful interview with Janis that I hadn't heard before.  What a shock it was to hear the news of her death on October 4, 1970.  What a shock today realize that was 42 years ago.  

... She once walked right at my side
I'm sure she walked by you ...

(from "In The Quiet Morning," music and lyrics by Mimi Farina)

Bellingham Bay with wind and waves a few days ago: