Swallows trail across the sky, ferns extends to the limits of each frond. I know blue. Lilac now reaches even beyond the first story. Side yard gutters left untended fill with chipmunks and husks of seed. The bark of any tree becomes you.
Afternoons sitting by the brook, reading Wittgenstein, grateful nobody asks what I think. A conversation is an event, and events have effects, usually measurable ones. Want eclipses need, as any contemplative knows. More and more there are no words. Honeysuckle bouquet all over us.
I take Sophia the old orchard and the secret cemetery, both several miles into the forest at the edge of town. Instruments of regret compose sorrowful songs to nobody's surprise. Because we don't talk going in, we surprise the bears who tumble over stone walls away from us. Hills rolling west into New York where I literally saw Jesus but didn't realize it until several months after. Join the triumph of the skies, indeed.
The ducks chatter as we refill waterers. Chickadees assume leadership positions, as I am still learning how to talk without speaking. Emily Dickinson's swimmers forever push the bounds of going under. My muffled cries against her throat, her arms holding me in place long after, and then the earned - the informed - quiet. Not getting anywhere is the only way to go.
Hi Sean
ReplyDeletewhat do you think of Wittgenstien..?
Yours gratefully
Richard
Ha ha! That was brilliant, Richard. I read this at 4 a.m. and gave a great whoop of laughter which was possibly inappropriate given the hour and the small house in which we live but still . . .
ReplyDeleteI love reading Wittgenstein but have a hard time understanding Wittgenstein and - unusual for me - a hard time faking understanding of Wittgenstein, hence the hope that nobody ever asks "what do you think of Wittgenstein . . .
Thank you!
P.S. I started trying to read him because a lot of poets to whom I give serious sustained attention - notably Ron Silliman - were so clearly influenced by him. I think his ideas around "meaning as use" and "don't think but look" are pretty helpful. I almost always come away from him more curious and open, and that's good, but I also am not sure I am getting him at any level resembling the ones where he wrote . . . I can usually hold my own with big brains (unless they're talking mathematics) but Wittgenstein is pretty hard to hold in that way, which doesn't diminish my interest in him, or my gratefulness, but again, I don't do much more than flounder in his presence . . .
ReplyDeleteThanks Sean...
ReplyDeleteMy aikido teacher is a big fan of Wittgenstien.
Aikido and Wittgenstien are apparently quite compatible. I struggled with Wittgenstien and persevere with aikido.
Perseverance I feel, is perhaps necessary for ACIM students as it is for any study.
I will go back and read him again. I always meant to ask Ken Wapnick what his take on Wittgenstien was. Too late.
Thanks for your sustained blog. Very, very helpful for me and my journey through the Course.
best wishes - may God bless your wallet.
Richard