>>>>Jane Through The Seasons

No one in their right mind shoots around noon because the light is too strong and shadowy.  But I happen to love shooting around that time. I am peeping at Karma (my camera) and not really thinking about you, but let's say I was thinking of you and therefore looking at you. If so I am doing this through my old bug eyes. This fun sunglasses was gotten from one of the first flea markets I vended at. They are now full of prescription so I can actually see you through them. Talking about Karma, I have gotten around to naming my new tripod, she is to be known as Dharma. ;) My good friend from junior high school gifted me the dress I am in. I have had it since 2011. It was originally much longer, but I removed a tier, hemmed it, and ta-da! It makes a wonderful summer dress as it is quite good at befriending that rare summer breeze. Another gift is the necklace. My best friend from high school made it for me! ^_^ The beads are really pretty and I like how the strands twist around each o…

The sun was setting and I stepped out onto the verandah to watch the day give into the night. Everything around me bathed in reddish golden hues made richer by the wetness that had sunk into the pavements and buildings from a marvelous storm a few hours previous. It felt good to be able to see the lovely music that only the eyes could hear. Before I came out for the sunset, I had been on the verandah to watch finer strings of rain, remnants of a furious storm, thread down to knit into the ground. I had thrust my hand from under the canopy into the rain to watch and feel the fine sprays splash my palms and hands. It felt wonderful. It is quite strange how a ferocious storm becomes a fine sweet rain that at some point also disappears. It is quite odd that a day will come when it shall be impossible to feel rain on skin or have eyes drink in the setting sunset. And although I do not know what it all means, surely being able to enjoy and appreciate rain on skin is a purpose of life?

Today…

I Am!
By John Clare

I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;
My friends forsake me like a memory lost:
I am the self-consumer of my woes—
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes
And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;
Even the dearest that I loved the best
Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man hath never trod
A place where woman never smiled or wept
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.

---

Analysis

This poem of John Clare's is quite exquisite. It is and it is not and it says just so and explains just so. As is often the case, the complication and resolution of the poem reside in its title, which is the same …

Andrew Beccone, Reanimation Library, 2002-2016
Also on birds but noÖo birds electronic windpipes flound-e[r]rings mad muddy muTTerings [sic]  echo-yay-ing drown-yay-ing dron-yay-ings
but bird-elle-s by  nooÔ bird-elle-s at  bird-elle-YAY-ing -- Jane

I wish you everything beautiful. -- Jane

"A whole world will envelop you, the happiness, the abundance, the inconceivable vastness of a world. Live for a while in these books, learn from them what you feel is worth learning, but most of all love them. This love will be returned to you thousands upon thousands of times, whatever your life may become—it will, I am sure, go through the whole fabric of your becoming, as one of the most important threads among all the threads of your experiences, disappointments, and joys"

(Rainer Maria Rilke. Letters to a Young Poet. Trans. Stephen Mitchell. NY: Modern Library,2001, p.17).
For the second commentary on Rilke’s Letters, (you may read the first here) I choose the above quote for its depth and subtlety. On one level this quote does not seem to say much except to give favorable remarks on two books: Six Stories and Niels Lyhne by Jens Peter Jacobsen. But there are some few questions here: why would Rilke recommend these books to Kappus––the young poet to whom he addresses––…

Lately, encountering that popular line from the marriage liturgy, “till death do us part," is accompanied by the realization that the relationship shared by the body, its emotions, and mind is an embodiment of this phrase. For is it not only in death that body parts with its emotions and mind? This means one is in a relationship with one’s being, from birth till death, for better or for worse! So if one is already married to one's body and mind then is it not in one’s very best interest to make great friends with these aspects of one's being? It appears that too many of us are uncomfortable in our bodies and minds.  And yet seek to find and establish the sort of relationship we should have with ourselves with others. To our disappointment, although we ought not be surprised, these relationships fail. That we cannot teach others to love us could be, not only because they do not know how to love, but also because we do not know how to act in true love of self and thus of o…