December's black-veined blue. The landscape is whittled to its framework.In the new issue of American Poetry Review, they reprint a passage from Stanley Kunitz's 1994 Commencement Address at St. Mary's College. Within that passage are these wonderful lines:
Poetry, I have insisted, is ultimately mythology, the telling of the stories of the soul. This would seem to be an introverted, even solipsistic, enterprise, if it were not that these stories recount the soul's passage through the valley of this life -- that is to say, its adventure in time, in history.
-- Stanley Kunitz
Where is your soul wandering on this windy December morning? Where is it headed at the end of the year on its "adventure in time?" I wish you a poetic journey in 2009.
Photo taken at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation, Cross River, NY, December 2008.
6 comments:
I don't think there would be self-discovery without some kind of poetry...
I think you are right! I know you are. Happy New Year!
Creating the mythology of one's life via poetry, another Kunitz idea, seems a good project for the coming year. Thanks for posting this Chris and for your words and images. All best in the coming year!
So many projects luring us forward into 2009. I want to believe it will be a year to foster creativity on all fronts. I'm counting on it. All the best to you, too, Pam.
Dear Christine,
I'm trying to learn how to leave comments, such as this one, in
the wonderful, yet still fairly incomprehensible, at least to me, world of cyber space.
I've never been much of a winter person, yet I have always wondered why people in Toronto, where basically all my relatives are from, can handle driving in a foot
of snow, whereas the New York City area becomes crippled traffic wise
if it rains.
I'm not sure if that observation has anything to do with the state or existence of one's soul, though
much soul searching can go on, I suppose, while trapped on the George Washington Bridge.
Ever onward, hope all is well,
Derek
Hello, Derek! Well, thanks for practicing leaving comments here. I like that thought: soul searching while trapped on the George Washington Bridge. Letting your deep thoughts swirl in stopped traffic. I hope all is well. Yes, onward ... here we go into 2009.
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