The focus on poetry this month gives us opportunity to think about our relationships — to everything. Yesterday, I gave Coleridge’s quote that “Poetry is the best words in the best order.” Today, I would like to consider a smidgen of William Wordsworth’s ideas from the “Book Twelfth” in The Prelude.
He says, “I had known…/ Visitings of imaginative power…/ and again In Nature’s presence stood, as now I stand, / A sensitive being, a ‘creative’ soul. / There are in our existence spots of time, / That with distinct pre-eminence retain / renovating virtue, whence…/ our minds are nourished and invisibly repaired… .” Paying attention to Nature awakens imagination and creativity. Then, he says that these “spots of time” in our mind of special memories when Nature spoke to us can be a catalyst, a means to feed and even repair our minds.
I hope that this month in particular we will give some time to allow ourselves to enjoy that power of Nature expressed in poetry. The following poem is one of my “spots of time.”
The Universe Has Eyes
Two mute witnesses,
Intensely bright witnesses,
Give ample testimony on this dusky late winter evening --
No vestige of winter on this day — 70 degrees at 7:30 p.m.,
No vestige but the position of Jupiter and Venus.
Their soothsaying this Ides of March
Announces not the death of Julius but rather
The eruption of life renewed; vigor
Is near, yet they, the planets, are far,
So far that they know not their prophecy
Is already fulfilled, here at 38th Parallel N.
For the insistent trill of the little peeper,
For the longing call of the flamboyant male cardinal,
For the pretty, varied song of the spirited, sassy mockingbird,
For the soft, throaty coo of the mourning dove --
All lend assent that life springs forth
Once again, strengthened by the winter’s end,
All participating, each one,
In that verdant, luxurious
Rebirth.
The mute but brilliant reflecting planets,
Now set so close,
Wink
down on me,
Wink
the satisfaction of the Universe.
Questions and Thoughts
How do I fit into the pattern of the re-creation of Spring?
How do I choose to use that pattern of nature, based on who I am and what I want?
In what other ways do I choose to learn from nature and the order of the universe?
What other spots of time do I have in my memory from nature?
What simple, pure, utter delight I experienced reflecting on this evening scene!
He says, “I had known…/ Visitings of imaginative power…/ and again In Nature’s presence stood, as now I stand, / A sensitive being, a ‘creative’ soul. / There are in our existence spots of time, / That with distinct pre-eminence retain / renovating virtue, whence…/ our minds are nourished and invisibly repaired… .” Paying attention to Nature awakens imagination and creativity. Then, he says that these “spots of time” in our mind of special memories when Nature spoke to us can be a catalyst, a means to feed and even repair our minds.
I hope that this month in particular we will give some time to allow ourselves to enjoy that power of Nature expressed in poetry. The following poem is one of my “spots of time.”
The Universe Has Eyes
Two mute witnesses,
Intensely bright witnesses,
Give ample testimony on this dusky late winter evening --
No vestige of winter on this day — 70 degrees at 7:30 p.m.,
No vestige but the position of Jupiter and Venus.
Their soothsaying this Ides of March
Announces not the death of Julius but rather
The eruption of life renewed; vigor
Is near, yet they, the planets, are far,
So far that they know not their prophecy
Is already fulfilled, here at 38th Parallel N.
For the insistent trill of the little peeper,
For the longing call of the flamboyant male cardinal,
For the pretty, varied song of the spirited, sassy mockingbird,
For the soft, throaty coo of the mourning dove --
All lend assent that life springs forth
Once again, strengthened by the winter’s end,
All participating, each one,
In that verdant, luxurious
Rebirth.
The mute but brilliant reflecting planets,
Now set so close,
Wink
down on me,
Wink
the satisfaction of the Universe.
Questions and Thoughts
How do I fit into the pattern of the re-creation of Spring?
How do I choose to use that pattern of nature, based on who I am and what I want?
In what other ways do I choose to learn from nature and the order of the universe?
What other spots of time do I have in my memory from nature?
What simple, pure, utter delight I experienced reflecting on this evening scene!
