"A person should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful that God has implanted in the human soul." - Goethe
I dreamed last night of a lake, dark and blue with ocean waves resembling clouds of white smoke. Each uprising wall of smokey wetness grew wider and higher than the one before. We were barefoot with beach toys and a portable sandcastle, my children and I. Little barefoot girls, foam rolling in and billows at the toes...we backstepped in the sand; the sandcastle floating to keep up, tiny crystals of diamond sand trickling down and out into the lakeocean's black, then green, then blue vastness. We were not afraid. We were giggling girls with sandy wet feet wondering if the ocean was indeed made of clouds. Today was a cloudness bluesky day, and I wondered if, by chance, the sky and the ocean were to touch, would I know the difference...
6:12:40 PM
A nightingale flies nearer the roses. A girl blushes. Pomegranates ripen.
Hallaj will be executed. A man walks a mountain path, solitary and full of prayer.
Trust grows for nine months, then a new being appears.
Narcissus at the edge, creekwater washing tree roots: God is giving a general introductory lecture.
We hear and read it everywhere, in the field, through the branches.
We'll never finish studying. Neither of us has a penny, yet we're walking the jewelers' bazaar seriously considering making a purchase! Or shall I say this with other metaphors?
A barn crowded with souls. Quietness served around a table. Two people talk along a road that's paved with words.
-- Version by Coleman Barks, with Nevit Ergin "The Glance" Viking-Penguin, 1999
Meow!
