“The mechanics of the ear is one thing, but the art of hearing and the development of listening is the whole body.”
–Evelyn Glennie
Submitted by Filip who writes: “If you didn’t know, she’s a deaf percussionist(!) Heard her say this in a Swedish radio program called Musikmagasinet (The Music Magazine).”
Thank you, Filip.
“Again did the earth shift. Again did the nights grow short, and the days long and the people of the earth were glad and
celebrated each in their own ways.”
—Diane Lee Moomey
Another gem courtesy of Kirsten. Thank you.
Over cherry blossoms
white clouds
over clouds
deep sky
over cherry blossoms
over clouds
over the sky
I can climb on forever
once in spring
I with god
had a quiet talk.
–Shuntaro Tanikawa (from Earth Prayers, Roberts and Amidon editors)
Thank you to my good friend, Kirsten Liske for submitting.
“Again and again in history some people wake up. They have no ground in the crowd and move to broader deeper laws. They carry strange customs with them and demand room for bold and audacious action. The future speaks ruthlessly through them. They change the world. “
~Rainer Maria Rilke
Submitted by my good friend, Kirsten Liske. Thank you, and Happy New Year!
Saul Leiter, A Walk with Bob, c.1954.
When I was in New York a few days ago at The Strand, I came across a book by Leiter and opened it up to this stunning photograph. I have regretted not buying the book ever since. This evening, I thought to myself: “Well if there’s anyone on this great blue earth who would have it, it would be firsttimeuser.” Lo and behold, here it is. Nothing short of magical. Thank you.
“In summer, the song sings itself.” ~William Carlos Williams.
Beautiful. Thank you, Kirsten.
Again did the
earth shift
Again did the nights grow
short,
And the days long
And the people
of the earth
were glad
and celebrated
each in their
own ways.
—Diane Lee Moomey
Thanks again to Kirsten Liske for submitting.
Tent tethered among jackpine and blue-
bells. Lacewings rise from rock
incubators. Wild geese flying north.
And I can’t remember who I am supposed to be.
I want to learn how to purr. Abandon
myself, have mistresses in maidenhair
fern, own no tomorrow nor yesterday:
a blank shimmering space forward and
back. I want to think with my belly.
I want to name all the stars animals
flowers birds rocks in order to forget
them, start over again. I want to
wear the seasons, harlequin, become
ancient and etched by weather. I
want to snow pulse, ruminating
ungulating, pebble at the bottom of the
abyss, candle burning darkness rather
than flame. I want to peer at things,
shameless, observe the unfastening,
that stripping of shape by dusk.
I want to sit in the meadow a rotten
stump pungent with slimemold, home
for pupae and grubs, concentric rings
collapsing into the passacaglia of
time. I want to crawl inside someone
and hibernate one entire night with
no clocks to wake me, thighs fragrant
loam. I want to melt. I want to swim
naked with an otter. I want to turn
inside out, exchange nuclei with the
Sun. Toward the mythic kingdom of
summer I want to make blind motion,
using my ribs as a raft, following
the spiders as they set sail on their
tasseled shining silk. Sometimes
even a single feather’s enough
to fly.
~ by Robert MacLean
Thank you to Kirsten Liske for submitting.
The ocean said to me once,
“Look!
Yonder on the shore
Is a woman, weeping.
I have watched her.
Go you and tell her this —
Her lover I have laid
In cool green hall.
There is wealth of golden sand
And pillars, coral-red;
Two white fish stand guard at his bier.
“Tell her this
And more —
That the king of the seas
Weeps too, old, helpless man.
The bustling fates
Heap his hands with corpses
Until he stands like a child
With a surplus of toys.”
—Stephen Crane
Thank you for submitting, campanadeviento
“When the Japanese mend broken objects, they aggrandize the damage by filling the cracks with gold. They believe that when something’s suffered damage and has a history it becomes more beautiful.”
~Barbara Bloom. Thank you, Kirsten Liske for the submission.
