Crashingly Beautiful

"I would like to house my spirit within my body, to nourish my virtue by mildness, and to travel in..."

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:45:51 -0400

“I would like to house my spirit within my body, to nourish my virtue by mildness, and to travel in ether by becoming a void. But I cannot do it yet … And so, being unable to find peace within myself, I made use of the external surroundings to calm my spirit, and being unable to find delight within my heart, I borrowed a landscape to please it. Therefore, strange were my travels.”

- T’u Lung (T’u Ch’ihshui) translated by Lin Yutang, The Travels of Mingliaotse. Courtesy of Whiskey River.

Within light there is darkness, But do not try to understand...

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:20:46 -0400

Within light there is darkness,
But do not try to understand that darkness.
Within darkness there is light,
But do not look for that light.
Light and darkness are a pair,
Like the foot before and the foot behind in walking.

–Shih’tuo, a verse from the Sandokai

Photograph: George Seeley, Black Bowl, 1907

"Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have. I walk out to the pond and..."

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:06:29 -0400

“Another morning and I wake with thirst for the goodness I do not have. I walk out to the pond and all the way God has given us such beautiful lessons. Oh Lord, I was never a quick scholar but sulked and hunched over my books past the hour and the bell; grant me, in your mercy, a little more time. Love for the earth and love for you are having such a long conversation in my heart. Who knows what will finally happen or where I will be sent, yet already I have given a great many things away, expecting to be told to pack nothing, except the prayers which, with this thirst, I am slowly learning.”

- Mary Oliver, Thirst. And the river flows…

A young couple peers over the edge of Hopi Point into the Grand...

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:54:58 -0400

A young couple peers over the edge of Hopi Point into the Grand Canyon, May 1955.

Photograph by Justin Locke, National Geographic

Thank you, natgeofound:

Arnold Genthe (German, 1869-1942). Autochrome. Thank...

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:24:40 -0400

Arnold Genthe (German, 1869-1942). Autochrome. Thank you, arsvitaest.

A deer!—nibbling on the few green thingsthat grow in my strawy...

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:22:31 -0400

A deer!—nibbling on the few green things
that grow in my strawy meadow.
Mine, we say here: my studio, my meadow, my road.
It is as it is. We were born
to possess it all and more. There’s no longer
a chance to change direction. So have one. Have a meadow,
Try it on—there are black-eyed Susans in your hair.
Have a deer. Have a deer fly—(I had two
of them yesterday. My stained tablet backs me up).
Have a swallow. Try to hold it in your throat
as it goes down beyond the pines of your forest.
But first feel its presence, try to catch
its essence. Before the words intrude.

—Joan Murray, from “Possession”
Art Credit Wolfgang Tillmans

from theparisreview.

Wassily Kandinsky, Murnau - Coastline II, 1908 (bofransson)

Wed, 15 May 2013 05:58:00 -0400

Wassily Kandinsky, Murnau - Coastline II, 1908 (bofransson)

As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth … the...

Sat, 11 May 2013 19:11:09 -0400

As a poet I hold the most archaic values on earth … the fertility of the soil, the magic of animals, the power-vision in solitude, the terrifying initiation and rebirth, the love and ecstasy of the dance, the common work of the tribe. I try to hold both history and the wilderness in mind, that my poems may approach the true measure of things and stand against the unbalance and ignorance of our times.

—Gary Snyder

Paul Burty Haviland (1880-1950), The Japanese Lantern, 1912....

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:44:38 -0400

Paul Burty Haviland (1880-1950), The Japanese Lantern, 1912. Thank you, les-sources-du-nil.

Duane Michals, Madame Schroedinger’s Cat, 1998

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:39:31 -0400

Duane Michals, Madame Schroedinger’s Cat, 1998

We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We wantwhoever to call or not call, a letter, a...

Sat, 11 May 2013 18:31:45 -0400

We want the spring to come and the winter to pass. We want
whoever to call or not call, a letter, a kiss - we want more and more and then more of it.

But there are moments, walking, when I catch a glimpse of myself in the window glass,
say, the window of the corner video store, and I’m gripped by a cherishing so deep

for my own blowing hair, chapped face, and unbuttoned coat that I’m speechless:
I am living…

–Marie Howe

Today in the River.

What we really have to share is not any spiritual treasure we...

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:42:11 -0400

What we really have to share is not any spiritual treasure we imagine we have stored up, but our poverty, our common human situation, our inability to know.

–Tracy Cochran, from THE NIGHT I DIED: A brush with death leads to a glimpse of Light, from the new summer issue of PARABOLA: “Heaven and Hell.”

Photograph: Ernst Haas, The Cross, NYC, 1966

Vintage Photo, 1930s

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:40:46 -0400

Vintage Photo, 1930s

Lucien Levy-Dhurmer, The Lake at Night. Thank you,...

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:14:00 -0400

Lucien Levy-Dhurmer, The Lake at Night. Thank you, artemisdreaming.

I think of you often. Especially in the evenings, when I am on...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:18:00 -0400

I think of you often. Especially in the evenings, when I am on the balcony and it’s too dark to write or to do anything but wait for the stars. A time I love. One feels half disembodied, sitting like a shadow at the door of one’s being while the dark tide rises. Then comes the moon, marvelously serene, and small stars, very merry for some reason of their own. It is so easy to forget, in a worldly life, to attend to these miracles.

—Katherine Mansfield, The Collected Letters of Katherine Mansfield: Volume 1: 1903-1917

Photograph: Max Dupain, Magnolia at Night, 1983

Drifting pitifully in the whirlwind of birth and death,As if...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:26:20 -0400

Drifting pitifully in the whirlwind of birth and death,
As if wandering in a dream,
In the midst of illusion I awaken to the true path;
There is one more matter I must not neglect,
But I need not bother now,
As I listen to the sound of the evening rain
Falling on the roof of my temple retreat
In the deep grass of Fukakusa.

—Eihei Dōgen (1200 - 1253)

Image by Hasui Kawase, Rainy Night at Maekawa, 1932

from parabola-magazine.

Maia Flore, from the Situations series [via Le Journal De La...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:35:56 -0400

Maia Flore, from the Situations series [via Le Journal De La Photographie]. Thank you, liquidnight.

via: therainanditshands:

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:32:33 -0400

via: therainanditshands:

Fritz Henle - Nieves, a model of Diego Rivera, Cuernavaca,...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:31:00 -0400

Fritz Henle - Nieves, a model of Diego Rivera, Cuernavaca, Mexico. 1943 via mapetitemelancolie

Lehnert & Landrock, Hat weaver in Tunis, 1920s. Thank...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 22:30:00 -0400

Lehnert & Landrock, Hat weaver in Tunis, 1920s. Thank you,
firsttimeuser