Tuesday, July 14, 2009

the way through the woods

in houses i have lived in - sometimes set on the edge of town - the town has eventually grown and overshot my home. what was once the edge of town has become middle suburbia. where once i could bike to the fields and watch the sun set. is now a carefully manicured, precisely organized curving street-formed range of houses.

happily, at this moment i am one hundred metres from farmland. the same distance from woodland.

kipling knew this same quandary - how to live amongst his kind whilst also being available to the countryside?

"autumn path through the woods" camille pissaro

weather and rain have undone it again,
and now you would never know
there was once a road through the woods
before they planted the trees.
it is underneath the coppice and heath,
and the thin anemones.
only the keeper sees
that, where the ring-dove broods,
and the badgers roll at ease,
there was once a road through the woods.
"lane near a small town" sisley

yet, if you enter the woods
of a summer evening late,
when the night-air cools on the trout-ringed pools
where the otter whistles his mate,
(they fear not men in the woods,
because they see so few)
you will hear the beat of a horse's feet,
and the swish of a skirt in the dew,
steadily cantering through
the misty solitudes,
as though they perfectly knew
the old lost road through the woods . . . .
but there is no road through the woods.



excerpted from "the way through the woods"
rudyard kipling

12 comments:

Delwyn said...

Hello Tuesday Steven

These images are so beautiful - peaceful, end of summer colours
and the Kipling is great.

thank you for today's treats - this is so exciting - you come up with lovely bits and pieces...

I am going to look up the full poem now...see what you do...send me on rewarding expeditions...
thanks Steven

Happy days

Aleks said...

Thank you for inspiration,Im very greatfull to find such a wonderful places as your blogs,peace and love and lots of biking trough your enchanted landscape. Ciao

steven said...

hi delwyn, the full poem is lovely but i picked out what i most liked. enjoy the journey. have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

hi sandra, i'm glad you enjoy your visits here and then through the places that i find and share. have a peaceful day. steven

Reya Mellicker said...

What a beautiful post. The paintings are exquisite as are the snips of poetry... as is the quandary of countryside/civilization.

Give me the country or give me the city; I enjoy both locations. Suburbs, however, truly creep me out.

Keep on putting your beautiful vibrations into the world, Steven. I salute you!

steven said...

hi reya, thanks for the generous compliments.

i can find goodness in either city or country. i choose to hover right at the meeting place of both - if possible! i love the electric energy of cities and i also love the natural energy of the countryside. there's something of both braided in me. have a peaceful day. steven

The Weaver of Grass said...

Love that Sisley steven - reminds me a bit of Hobemma's Avenue.
I too have had the experience of living in the country and then it growing into a town. I went back to my birthplace (a small Lincolnshire village) a few years ago and it was a small town - the effect was quite disturbing.

Tess Kincaid said...

I am incredibly lucky to live on four wooded acres along the river, right in town. I don't have access to the perks of the big city, though, living in the midwest.

Travis Erwin said...

trout ringed pools

I like the sound of that.

steven said...

hi willow, you really are incredibly lucky. i'll hazhard a guess that you are deservedly so!!
i have dreamed for much of my adult life of living on enough land that i could sit in solitude somewhere by a pond or under a tree. the dream ain't dead yet!!!! have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

hi travis, thanks for visiting. i'm guessing from your picture that fishing is a priority for you. i love fishing. just the casting and reeling in. not the actual catching. i know that's strange to a fisherman but i love the relaxation of fishing without actually catching anything. have a peaceful day. steven

steven said...

hi weaver, i hadn't seen hobemma's work before so i looked it up and the connection is really obvious. thanks for opening my eyes to hobemma's work. you know you can't go back to where you were born or grew up. i've done it and it's difficult. have a peaceful day. steven