Post title from: Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, “Other women don’t tell you,” published in Muzzle. Photo by Xenie Zasetskaya (via See More)
It’s been a long day
October 4, 2018 by 13 Comments
Now the sun begins to swing down. Under the peach-light,
I cross the fields and the dunes, I follow the ocean’s edge.
I climb, I backtrack.
I float.
I ramble my way home.
~ Mary Oliver, “Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches” in West Wind: Poems & Prose
Notes: Poem via The Hammock Papers. Photo: Laurence Demaison. Related Posts: It’s been a long day
Lightly Child, Lightly.
January 25, 2018 by 29 Comments
Everything wants to float.
And yet we move about like weights,
attaching ourselves to everything, in thrall to gravity…
— Rainer Maria Rilke, from “14,” Sonnets to Orpheus.
Notes:
- Photograph: Lori Vrba with ‘The Caretaker’s Balloon’ (via Newthom)
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
Lightly Child, Lightly.
December 21, 2017 by 16 Comments
The thing is to relax and not fret about worldly things
but just let the wings open and be oneself quietly for a bit.
This never fails to renew strength.
~ Iris Murdoch, from a letter to Hal Lidderdale written c. July 1950 in Living on Paper: Letters from Iris Murdoch, 1934–1995
Notes:
- Photo: Czech Dance Information photo of Jarmila Jerabkova (via Hidden Sanctuary). Poem: Violent Waves of Emotion
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
Lightly Child, Lightly.
December 7, 2017 by 17 Comments
I want to rest, to float–
a dust mote in a beam
of light squared by a window–
to sigh and lilt between
the object and the eye,
before the day can catch me
back up into myself,
and through that prism, watch me
– Anna Lena Phillips Bell, from “Midafternoon” in Ornament
Notes:
- Photo: celestial dust motes by Brian Parker. Poem: Memory’s Landscape
- Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
- Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”
It’s been a long day
August 10, 2016 by 10 Comments
My hands.
In the kitchen, at the stove.
In the prairie. The shed.
Under the blanket. In the bath.
Behind the barn. In the garden.
The cornfield. The river.
By stone. By thorn. By childbirth.
Slow. Like fog.
~ Jeanann Verlee, Said the Manic to the Muse
Notes:
- Sources: Art: Johanne Cullen. Poem: decomP Magazine
- Related Posts: “It’s Been a Long Day“
Saturday
August 6, 2016 by 8 Comments
It’s been a long day
July 20, 2016 by 4 Comments
I empty myself with light
Until I become morning.
— Charles Wright, from “33,” Littlefoot: A Poem
Notes:
- Sources: Photo – Candice Swanepoel photographed by Adam Francine for Vogue, Spain July 2016 via Precious Things Between Waves; Poem – The Vale of Soul-Making
- Related Posts: “It’s Been a Long Day“
Feel it. In both directions.
July 15, 2015 by 9 Comments
I like swimming against the current,
but only because it makes me feel
I’ve earned the ease and pleasure
of floating back to where I started.
~ Jan Heller Levi, from “Conversation,” Once I Gazed at You in Wonder
Poem Source: memoryslandscape. Image: Discover Magazine
