E-Reflections

A word from the light, a flash from the dark

2010-08-31T08:00:48+00:00

The light flows toward the earth,
the river toward the sea,
and these do not change.
The air changes, as the mind
changes at a word from the light,
a flash from the dark

Sabbaths 2000 VI (extract) in Given by Wendell Berry

Choosing a Way

2010-08-24T08:17:54+00:00

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost

The Beginnings of Identity

2010-08-17T13:34:19+00:00

I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.

When I am among the trees. Mary Oliver, Thirst

Identity and Expectations

2010-08-10T14:08:07+00:00

It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognised as your own.

The Journey, Mary Oliver

Dawn and a New Opening

2010-08-03T08:59:04+00:00

It’s time.
The air is ready.
The sky has an opening.

A piece of storm, Mark Strand

Marking the Way

2010-06-29T08:37:48+00:00

A need for inns on roads, islands in seas,
Halts for discoveries to be shared,
Maps checked, notes compared;
A need, at times, of each for each,
Direct as the need of throat and tongue for speech.

Not Love Perhaps, ASJ Tessimond

You are lovely

2010-06-21T08:04:38+00:00

The bud
stands for all things,
even those things that don’t flower,
for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing;
though sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness.

St. Francis and the Sow, Galway Kinnell

Beauty and the obscured image

2010-06-15T08:15:28+00:00

There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,
The earth and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and freshness of a dream.

Intimations of Immortality, William Wordsworth

Pursued by symbols

2010-06-08T00:31:09+00:00

He called a little child and had him stand among them.
And he said: ‘I tell you the truth,
unless you change and become like little children,
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’

Matthew 18:2-3

Journeying with Innocence and Imagination

2010-06-01T12:33:05+00:00

As a child I imagined the life beyond this life
as one enormous room, all mist and kinship,

now I would have to insist on walls and factions,
hidden compartments, corridors leading off
to secret gardens seeped in changing light

John Burnside, Retractationes from Gift Songs