From "Notes on the Art of Poetry"

If you want a definition of poetry, say: "Poetry is what makes me laugh or cry or yawn, what makes my toenails twinkle, what makes me want to do this or that or nothing", and let it go at that. All that matters about poetry is the enjoyment of it, however tragic it may be. All that matters is the eternal movement behind it, the vast undercurrent of human grief, folly, pretension, exaltation, or ignorance, however unlofty the intention of the poem.

The joy and function of poetry is, and was, the celebration of man, which is also the celebration of God.

-Dylan Thomas, from 'Notes on the Art of Poetry', 1951

finding delight

Boredom is not the same as having too much time on our hands. Its root goes much deeper...to what (can be described as) a failure to find the world and each other compelling or interesting. We find the world boring because we don't see very clearly why it is valuable and good or how and why we practically and beneficially belong to it. We are bored with ourselves because we don't think that what we do really matters much or is of life-giving interest to others. And so we become disengaged from each other, wandering about in a fog of diminished hopes and expectations. Not knowing what to do, and having become suspicious of what our society encourages us to do, we sit around, hoping to find some inspiration. What we have here are the ideal conditions for the entertainment industry to pump us up with artificial stimulation, excitement, and false hope...

If we remember that delight is made possible by our loving and deep affirmation and embrace of others..., then it is easier to see how our desire to possess or be entertained by others works against our joy in them...

-Norman Wirzba, Living The Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight

I realize my lack of posting lately may be due to being preoccupied with worldly matters and not taking the time to experience the delight that daily life has to offer. But without this sense of delight, we are the dead walking. Stay tuned for a renewed and refreshed sense of delight and wonder!!!!

an Aldo Leopold quote to ponder

"It would appear, in short, that the rudimentary grades of outdoor recreation consume their resource-base; the higher grades, at least to a degree, create their own satisfactions with little or no attrition of land or life. It is the expansion of transport without a corresponding growth of perception that threatens us with qualitative bankruptcy of the recreational process. Recreational development is a job not of building roads into lovely country, but of building receptivity into the still unlovely human mind."

from "Conservation Esthetic", date unknown

Quote for the day

"Wonder is my second favorite condition to be in, after love--and I sometimes wonder whether there's even a difference: maybe love is just wonder aimed at a beloved. Wonder is like grace, in that it's not a condition we grasp: wonder grasps us. We do have the freedom to elude wonder's grasp. We have the freedom to do all sorts of stupid things. By deploying cynicism, rationalism, fear, arrogance, judgmentalism, we can evade wonder nonstop, all our lives."

David James Duncan, from the essay "Wonder; Yogi; Gladly", in God Laughs and Plays

I hadn't run across any writing lately that really blew me away, until I started reading this book. And this is just the first chapter.

inspiration from strange places, part 2

While randomly paging through a compilation book called Earth Prayers this morning, I came across this meditation from Wendell Berry:

At start of spring I open a trench
in the ground. I put into it
the winter's accumulation of paper,
pages I do not want to read
again, useless words, fragments,
errors. And I put into it
the contents of the outhouse:
light of the sun, growth of the ground,
finished with one of their journeys.
To the sky, to the wind, then,
and to the faithful trees, I confess
my sins: that I have not been happy
enough, considering my good luck,
have listened to too much noise,
have been inattentive to wonders,
have lusted after praise.
And then upon the gathered refuse
of mind and body, I close the trench,
folding shut again the dark,
the deathless earth. Beneath that seal
the old escapes into the new.

I guess I'm not the only one who has had a religious experience cleaning the outhouse.

Kate Wolf quotes

I'm sitting here listening to Kate's album, Lines On The Paper. I have not listened to this album as much as some of her others; although Kate can't write or sing a bad song, these songs just take a bit more time to grow on me. The only song on this album that I have played is Lay Me Down Easy In My Mind. An excerpt:

Now the seasons of my life
They go turning through the days
I've seen bitter winters come and go
And here I am in sunny times
Not feeling like I should
And wondering when the winds will start to blow

From The Trumpet Vine, which I'm going to work on tonight when I seize the moment:

Now as we come and go, in sunshine and in rain,
Some years are seen more clearly than the rest,
And if it weren't for kitchen songs and mornings spent with friends
We all might lose the things we love the best

And from You're Not Standing Like You Used To, some great timely advice:

And I wish I could make you happy some way
But that would be a lie and you know it
Find what you really care about
Then live a life that shows it

Kate left us way too early in her life. For more information visit Kate's website . Or better yet, head on out to northern California for the Kate Wolf memorial festival in late June. Great lineup this year as usual!