Autumn Again the wind flakes gold-leaf from the trees and the painting darkens— as if a thousand penitents kissed an icon till it thinned back to bare wood, without diminishment. — Jane Hirshfield
On pain and solace
There can be no beauty without the ghost of pain held within it. Although the wind … BY IZUMI SHIKIBU – TRANSLATED BY JANE HIRSHFIELD from The Ink Dark Moon (Vintage Books, 1990)
Colder days, darker nights
Things to look forward to – — bad weather, great literature = a perfect match!
Life?!
I found this wonderful little piece at Austin Kleon’ blog. It illustrate a problem I have been contemplating for as long as I can remember – never quite understanding how we came to live like this …
Unbelievable beauty
Don’t think: look!— Ludwig Wittgenstein It’s a mystery to me, how some art, some artists, makes us see – sense – the unbelievable beauty of ordinary things. Vija Celmins is such an artist, the mysterious one, capable of transforming reality into something even more real. ‘When you work on a piece for a good long…
To illuminate that darkness –
Perhaps the primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid; the state of being alone. That all men are, when the chips are down, alone, is a banality—a banality because it is very frequently stated, but very rarely, on the evidence, believed. Most of…
Double vision
I have posted these poems before, but being a lover of ekphrastic poetry, I feel it will do you all good to read them again … Musée Des Beaux Arts By W.H. Auden About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters: how well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else…
Growing older
I have been reading the Jungian analyst James Hollis on and off for a year now, and he’s still my favourite thinker/writer when it comes to reflecting upon growing older, or more specific, what he calls; the second half of life. The first decades of our life are mostly spent in making adaptations to the world and…
Looking for the subtle signs –
Here is a great poem for you: Peak Summerby Eric Nixon We’re steeped deep in summerAnd everything around meSeems to indicate it’ll never endBut still I’m spending timeLooking for the subtle signsTrying to figure out whenWe’ve reached peak summerWhen the billion green treesStart to dull ever so slightlyWhen the bounty of vegetablesFound at all the…
Sunday Sketch
Say hello to our new family member, Reks! This 10 week old Boston Terrier entered our house & hearts a week ago. His name is Reks – with ‘ks’ – because he is named after a dear friend called Reksten, who passed away in the spring. She was a BIG dog-lover, and I think she…
