"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture
and, if possible, speak a few reasonable words." ~Goethe

~ also, if possible, to dwell in "a house where all's accustomed, ceremonious." ~Yeats

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Earth - Proud

EARTH LAUGHS IN DAFFODILS
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS
~ Fair Daffodils ~

Such an unusual poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson
and so perfect for Earth Day & Arbor Day.
Perhaps you've always thought, as I have,
that Earth is laughing with us; but, no!
According to Emerson, Earth is laughing at us!
Read on . . .
HAMATREYA

Bulkeley, Hunt, Willard, Hosmer, Meriam, Flint,
Possessed the land which rendered to their toil
Hay, corn, roots, hemp, flax, apples, wool, and wood.
Each of these landlords walked amidst his farm,
Saying, “’Tis mine, my children’s and my name’s.
How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees!
How graceful climb those shadows on my hill!
I fancy these pure waters and the flags
Know me, as does my dog: we sympathize;
And, I affirm, my actions smack of the soil.”

Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:
And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough.
Earth laughs in flowers, to see her boastful boys
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet
Clear of the grave.
They added ridge to valley, brook to pond,
And sighed for all that bounded their domain;
“This suits me for a pasture; that’s my park;
We must have clay, lime, gravel, granite-ledge,
And misty lowland, where to go for peat.
The land is well, —lies fairly to the south.
’Tis good, when you have crossed the sea and back,
To find the sitfast acres where you left them.”

Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds
Him to his land, a lump of mould the more.
Hear what the Earth say:—

EARTH-SONG
“Mine and yours;
Mine, not yours.
Earth endures;
Stars abide—
Shine down in the old sea;
Old are the shores;
But where are old men?
I who have seen much,
Such have I never seen.

“The lawyer’s deed
Ran sure,
In tail,
To them and to their heirs
Who shall succeed,
Without fail,
Forevermore.

“Here is the land,
Shaggy with wood,
With its old valley,
Mound and flood.
But the heritors?—
Fled like the flood's foam.
The lawyer and the laws,
And the kingdom,
Clean swept herefrom.

“They called me theirs,
Who so controlled me;
Yet every one
Wished to stay, and is gone,
How am I theirs,
If they cannot hold me,
But I hold them?”

When I heard the Earth-song
I was no longer brave;
My avarice cooled

Like lust in the chill of the grave.


~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, (1803 - 1882)
American essayist, poet, transcendentalist

A few connections:

1.
Emerson: "Where are these men? Asleep beneath their grounds:
And strangers, fond as they, their furrows plough. . . . "


A. E. Houseman: Is My Team Ploughing

“Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?”

Ay, the horses trample,
The harness jingles now;
No change though you lie under
The land you used to plough.

“Is football playing
Along the river shore,
Now I stand up no more?”
With lads to chase the leather,

Ay the ball is flying,
The lads play heart and soul;
The goal stands up, the keeper
Stands up to keep the goal.

“Is my girl happy,
That I thought hard to leave,
And has she tired of weeping
As she lies down at eve?”

Ay, she lies down lightly,
She lies not down to weep:
Your girl is well contented.
Be still, my lad, and sleep.

“Is my friend hearty,
Now I am thin and pine,
And has he found to sleep in
A better bed than mine?”

Yes, lad, I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.

2.
Emerson: "Ah! the hot owner sees not Death, who adds
Him to his land, a lump of mould the more."


E. L. Doctorow: from Homer and Langley

"We had a joke, Langley and I: Someone dying asks if there is life after death. Yes, comes the answer, only not yours" (100 - 01).

3.
Emerson: " . . . boastful boys
Earth-proud, proud of the earth which is not theirs;
Who steer the plough, but cannot steer their feet
Clear of the grave.
They added ridge to valley, brook to pond,
And sighed for all that bounded their domain . . . "


Percy Bysshe Shelley: "Ozymandias"

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
[ellipses in original]

4.
Emerson:“They called me theirs,
Who so controlled me;
Yet every one
Wished to stay, and is gone,
How am I theirs,
If they cannot hold me,
But I hold them?”


Mikhail Bulgakov: from The Master and Margarita

"I'm sorry . . . but in order to be in control, you have to have a definite plan for at least a reasonable period of time. So how, may I ask, can man be in control if he can't even draw up a plan for a ridiculously short period of time, say, a thousand years, and is, moreover, unable to ensure his own safety for even the next day? . . . Yes man is mortal, but that isn't so bad. What's bad is that sometimes he's unexpectedly mortal, that's the rub! And, in general, he can't even say in the morning what he'll be doing that very night."
*******************

So that's why Emerson allows the flowers to laugh at the boastful -- not lovingly because we Earthlings are so adorable, but in dismay because we are so willfully confused. We have trouble understanding that the planet can turn repeatedly from night to day without us. We think the world is ours when it is not. We cannot tell a baby step from a giant stride. We seem perpetually surprised by our mortality, despite ceaseless evidence to the contrary.

These words from my favorite Canadian band of the 1970's provide a timely reminder of our universal laughability:

"You took me by surprise
I didn't realize that you were laughing . . ."

~ The Guess Who ~

*******************

Previous Daffodil Posts
HAPPY EARTH DAY!
"Earth laughs in flowers" ~ Emerson

Next Fortnightly Post
Friday, May 14

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Mindful

BEAUTIFUL BACKYARD GARDEN
WHERE ALL'S ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS
Thriving Decorative Trellis
Cultivated by my brother & sister - in - law,
Dave & Marion

"In the mornings
I drank the dew that fell from the magnolia:
At evening
ate the petals that dropped from chrysanthemums.
If only my mind can be truly beautiful,
It matters nothing that I often faint for famine.
I pulled up roots to bind the valerian
And thread the fallen clusters of the castor plant;
I trimmed sprays of cassia for plaiting melilotus,
And knotted the lithe, light trails of ivy."


Excerpt from "Lament on Encountering Sorrow / Li Sao"
Found in the Songs of Ch'u / Qu Yuan (340 - 278 BC)

This eloquent nature lyric, from so many centuries ago, captures with poetic accuracy the concepts of contemporary mindfulness: cultivating awareness, observing the present moment, returning perpetually to moments of peace, approaching nature without judgment; and remaining curious, calm, and kind.

For many of us, gardening provides the one true path, for others, arranging flowers or merely picking them. Not much of a gardener myself, beyond raking and weeding, I was nevertheless delighted when my friend Len responded, upon reading the above - quoted lines:
"Thank your for sharing this, Kitti; it's beautiful and apt. Before I reached the source I thought it was your own first-person experience in the garden."
How I wish! Yet, I can honestly say that it is my experience in the library, or sitting on a lawn chair, in the garden, re-reading my favorite notebooks of poetry. How fortunate I was, nearly 40 years ago, before I ever knew of "mindfulness" (well, I kind of did know), to jot down Qu Yuan's ancient "Lament." Though he speaks of "fainting for famine," his "lithe, light," lilting imagery is nearly mouth - watering, his flowery descriptions so delicate and delicious! His words remain true to the present day, re - minding the reader of the time - honored quest for peace and beauty of mind: "If only my mind can be truly beautiful . . . ."

Silver Carpet Lamb's Ear
Once again, courtesy of Marion & Dave!

Thanks to my friend Nikki for sharing
these wise words from the ever mindful Mary Oliver (1935 - 2019):
“Teach the children. We don’t matter so much, but the children do. Show them daisies and the pale hepatica. Teach them the taste of sassafras and wintergreen. The lives of the blue sailors, mallow, sunbursts, the moccasin-flowers. And the frisky ones–inkberry, lamb’s-quarters, blueberries. And the aromatic ones–rosemary, oregano. Give them peppermint to put in their pockets as they go to school. Give them the fields and the woods and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit. Stand them in the stream, head them upstream, rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms. Attention is the beginning of devotion.”

Also by Mary Oliver:

Mindful

Everyday
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.
It was what I was born for —
to look, to listen,

to lose myself
inside this soft world —
to instruct myself
over and over

in joy,
and acclamation.
Nor am I talking
about the exceptional,

the fearful, the dreadful,
the very extravagant —
but of the ordinary,
the common, the very drab,

the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar,
I say to myself,
how can you help

but grow wise
with such teachings
as these —
the untrimmable light

of the world,
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made
out of grass?


Next Fortnightly Post
Wednesday, April 28

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com