arnold böcklin the sacred wood
time
has no words
with which to comfort itself
when we leave the whispered essence
of our earthliness
dancing and turning
like so many pieces of paper
caught up
in the currents
of our passage
the ribboned vortices calm
and settle
until there is nothing to suggest we
ever were
but for the tiny soundless ridges and
drifts of dust-covered words
that gather at the feet
of the consecrated fullness
of the knowing trees
13 comments:
i read this again and again and the first part, time has no words with which to comfort itself. linear time doesn't, does it? it seems to rip through the world. perhaps this is where our pain lies, in that we don't/CAN'T recognize that there is a greater time resting beyond linear time. perhaps (great) time and being is without words, or is ALL words, a great convergence of all things, thoughts, emotions, souls. i don't know. what do i know? not a thing. but it seems like we are both born of linear time and gouged by it.
it is to let go of our egos, isn't it, to let those ribboned vortices to calm and settle until there is nothing to suggest we ever were, that is essential? god, we have to accept this. here is the crux of our second greatest failing, for if we could realize and then accept this, what peace might be born.
you are an interesting sort, steven.
xo
erin
I can only say that this is brilliant writing, which I just sank into being a part of. Your poem is beautiful and profound. Thank you!
"the ribboned vortices calm and settle..." I like that line - oceanic/resonant field... or something!
It's a great blessing you've published today, Steven. Thank you!
erin thanks for your thoughtful comment. you've laid bare the thinking that i am. as a process i am working to release so much of what i have accumulated and not only called "my own" but even more terribly "me". but it's a necessary stage of the process as i can see now, to recognize that there is so much more to this place that exists outside of any quantitative descriptors and then also that the many shields i've acquired have been as much to protect me as they have been to harm others. its a painful beautiful process. steven
aguja - thankyou for your generous comment. steven
valerianna - i have a visual in mind when i think of my place in this entirety and it is of a glowing cloud of coloured points . . .they are fractal and so limitless in complexity. each is a matrix of energy that manifests as a root, a human, a droplet of water . . . . as one is consumed or dies so the cloud changes. the calming and settling describes the letting go of the energies accumulated through a lifetime of gathering and protecting personality, material objects, and so on. it all drifts back into the cloud of entirety. steven
reya this writing was an amazing experience to be a part of. it has opened up a little window for me, part of which you can see out of in my comments to erin and valerianna. thanks for your kind words. steven
Reading this makes me breathe a bit deeper this morning, and helps me to calm my own internal ribboned vortices.
It gives me the same exact feeling as placing myself in the center of the tall sea pines here in South Carolina...the midst of the "consecrated fullness of the knowing trees".
You are so very wise.
jo i love being in the woods or anywhere near trees and plants. i find that the stillness of their bodies and the fluttering of their leaves is the perfect music for the life i know. steven
"...until there is nothing to suggest we ever were...that gather at the feet of the consecrated fullness of the knowing trees", brilliant & beautifully written.
lizzy i'm grateful for your kind comment. steven
Beautiful.
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