Trees and Undergrowth
A tree rose there. What pure arising.
Oh, Orpheus sings! Now I can hear the tree.
Then all went silent. But even in the silence
was signal, beginning, change.
Out of the stillness of the unbound forest,
animals came forth from dens and nests.
And it was not fear or cunning
that made them be so quiet,
but the desire to listen. Every cry, howl, roar
was stilled inside them. And where
not even a hut stood
or the scantest shelter
to contain their ineffable longing,
you made them, from their listening, a temple.
Sonnets to Orpheus, I, 1
Only in silence can I hear what is Real and True.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a line from a song 'thank you, thank you Silence'.
stilling the noise. listening purposefully and not just hearing. first steps. steven
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI just passed here and I really apreciated your blog. I see you are found of Van Gogh like I am . If you care to read it, on my blog http://manifesto-surrealista.blogspot.com/2010/03/londres-van-gogh-na-royal-academy-of.html
I wrote an article about Van Gogh letters and you have links to the Van Gogh's letters official site which is extraordinary to explore.
You can translate my page with Google translater.
Bye and I'll be following your posts gladly.
Bye
Cris
Yes! Oh, how wonderful this is! The "ta-da!" moment of "seeing" the tree rise up suddenly in the forest in all it's brilliant glory, and then the realization, the reverence of the silence, the quiet, the holy place(s) of the natural world. "Ineffable" is a bit problematic for me, but that is just a matter of translation. Would I be happier with unutterable? The Van Gogh is stunning--what a match to the text. Thanks You.
ReplyDeleteOooh. Some typos in that. Eek. I apologize. Must be my excitement. :)
ReplyDelete