You've got to dig to dig it, you dig?
I dreamt last night
the fright was over, that
the dust came, and then water,
and women and men, together
again, and all was quiet
in the dim moon’s light.
A paean of such patience—
laughing, laughing at me,
and the days extend over
the earth’s great cover,
grass, trees, and flower-
ing season, for no clear reason.
For No Clear Reason, Robert Creeley
What
has happened
makes
the world.
Live
on the edge,
looking.
Here, Robert Creeley
Bertrand Russell on useless knowledge and idleness via The Marginalian.
“a certain richness and freedom in art and speculation”
“Perhaps the most important advantage of “useless” knowledge is that it promotes a contemplative habit of mind. There is in the world too much readiness, not only for action without adequate previous reflection, but also for some sort of action on occasions on which wisdom would counsel inaction…”
“A habit of finding pleasure in thought rather than in action is a safeguard against unwisdom and excessive love of power, a means of preserving serenity in misfortune and peace of mind among worries.”
“it is a matter of individual psychology, is to be found in history, biology, astronomy, and all those studies which, without destroying self-respect, enable the individual to see himself in his proper perspective. What is needed is not this or that specific piece of information, but such knowledge as inspires a conception of the ends of human life as a whole: art and history, acquaintance with the lives of heroic individuals, and some understanding of the strangely accidental and ephemeral position of man in the cosmos — all this touched with an emotion of pride in what is distinctively human, the power to see and to know, to feel magnanimously and to think with understanding. It is from large perceptions combined with impersonal emotion that wisdom most readily springs.“
In-between the sun and moon,
I sit and watch
and make some room
for letting light and twilight mingle,
shaping hope
and making single glances last eternity,
a little more,
extending love beyond the doors of welcoming,
while wedding all the parted people,
even sons to violent mothers,
and searching all the others finding light
where twilight lingers,
in-between the sun and moon.
In-between the sun and moon, Pádraig Ó Tuama
The Sandbaggers, British spy television series, 1978 – 1980.
How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously, by Gideon Lewis-Kraus (NewYorker, 2021)
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r, E. E. Cummings
it fills him with a great and irresistible longing, the bright, leaping colour, the blast of warmth to his face, the array of fascinating implements to stoke and poke and grip.
It seems extraordinary to him to be in such close proximity to a creature which is so emphatically from another element, from wind or sky or perhaps even myth.
can usually be persuaded with a few words
(Maggie O’Farrell)
The Morning Star flies from the clouds and the bird cries to the dawn.
Amaryllis, awake! Lead your snowy sheep to pasture while the cold grass glitters with white dew.
To-day I will pasture my goats in a shady valley, for later it will be very hot.
Among those distant hills lies a very great valley cut by a fair stream.
Here there are cold rills and soft pasture and the kind wind engenders many-coloured flowers.
Dear, there I shall be alone, and if you love me, there you will come alone also.
Fête Gallante, Marcantonio Flaminio, translated from Latin by Richard Aldington
Fêtes Vénitiennes, Jean-Antoine Watteau. 1718-1719
Chicle y Polvo, Tunnel Projects.
won’t you celebrate with me
what i have shaped into
a kind of life? i had no model.
born in babylon
both nonwhite and woman
what did i see to be except myself?
i made it up
here on this bridge between
starshine and clay,
my one hand holding tight
my other hand; come celebrate
with me that everyday
something has tried to kill me
and has failed.
won’t you celebrate with me, Lucille Clifton
How exquisitely human was the wish for permanent happiness,
after she spoke, the smile that followed made the sun look like a fool.
“Then you’re all mine.” “Oh, yes.”
(TM)