tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post6379700217654626545..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: Noted In PassingStephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-57483961373286082322021-02-22T21:33:49.004-08:002021-02-22T21:33:49.004-08:00Esther: Thank you very much for sharing those love...Esther: Thank you very much for sharing those lovely thoughts on blue. Ah, yes, Chagall's blues are wonderful, aren't they? Thank you for reminding me of that. Your friend's thought is a fine one, although I'm torn between green and blue myself. For instance: standing or lying beneath a tree in summer, looking up into the green boughs swaying against the blue sky: I wouldn't know how to choose. A beautiful quandary.<br /><br />As always, it's good to hear from you. Thank you very much for stopping by. I hope that all is well. Take care.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-414019590012369682021-02-21T20:23:57.190-08:002021-02-21T20:23:57.190-08:00In her book, Colors For Your Every Mood, Leatrice ...In her book, Colors For Your Every Mood, Leatrice Eiseman writes, "My wise color-theory professor at UCLA once advised: 'Study the blues carefully...somewhere in there is the precise shade of heaven.'"<br /><br />The blue of Chagall's paintings has the same effect on me as the blue in your patch of sky. Picasso said of Chagall, "He must have an angel in his head."<br /><br />I greatly enjoyed your profound musings on the color blue. As a friend of mine once said, "Is there any other color?" :D<br />Esthernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-42393496291039712212021-02-19T22:20:54.465-08:002021-02-19T22:20:54.465-08:00Bruce: Thank you very much for that wonderful medi...Bruce: Thank you very much for that wonderful meditation, and for sharing "Angel Surrounded by Paysans": one of those poems by Stevens that I always feel escapes me, but which I still find beautiful, even though it eludes me. But you bring out its meanings and implications wonderfully, and I now feel more at home with it. (A side-note: I appreciate being reminded of where the title of The Necessary Angel, his collection of essays, comes from.) <br /><br />The lines you quote in your closing paragraph get to the heart of the matter: "the angel of reality" and "the necessary angel of earth" -- so evanescent, yet so essential to what living in the World means. I think also of the lovely and inscrutable (for me at least): "I am one of you and being one of you/Is being and knowing what I am and know." Those lines seem to me to be the heart of the poem, but I can't say that I have ever fully gotten to the bottom of them. But the relationship they posit between the angel and each of us is wonderful. On another note, it also occurs to me that the poem seems to encapsulate Stevens' key themes and preoccupations throughout his life, and inspires me to spend more time with it. <br /><br />As ever, thank you very much for sharing your thoughts, which always take us deeper into things. I greatly appreciate your kind words about the blog. Thank you. Take care.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-59409495474298911752021-02-19T21:19:17.000-08:002021-02-19T21:19:17.000-08:00labraski: Thank you very much for sharing those lo...labraski: Thank you very much for sharing those lovely words from Yves Klein. They articulate well the magic of blue, and of the blue sky: "the invisible becoming visible" is quite apt when it comes to looking up into the blue sky, as is "blue has no dimensions." Thank you as well for the link to the Jackson's Art Supplies article on the new blue pigment: the history of blue is fascinating.<br /><br />Thank you for visiting, and for sharing your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-56202922649664512932021-02-19T20:58:02.261-08:002021-02-19T20:58:02.261-08:00Mr. Hanson: "Fragmentary Blue" goes per...Mr. Hanson: "Fragmentary Blue" goes perfectly here, particularly with the two poems by Andrew Young. Thank you very much for sharing it. I should have thought of it! I just read it over the holidays. Whenever I read it, I usually also read his "Blue-Butterfly Day" (which I'm sure you know): "It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,/And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry . . ." <br /><br />I'm happy to hear from you again, and pleased to know you are still stopping by. I hope that all is well with you and your loved ones. Take care.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-80634375200694596902021-02-17T22:44:02.432-08:002021-02-17T22:44:02.432-08:00gretchenjoanna: Thank you for sharing those obser...gretchenjoanna: Thank you for sharing those observations. I agree with your thoughts about "nothing" and "silent appreciation" (and with Emerson's "daily bread of the eyes" -- which is new to me). This blog relies upon the words of poets, so it is perhaps odd of me to speak of the inadequacy of words (my own included, of course), and the need to be silent. But it is true: words are ultimately inadequate. Perhaps this is why (unconsciously) I started including paintings with each post, without having thought about doing so when I first began the blog.<br /><br />As always, thank you very much for visiting.<br /><br />Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-5811612226598192612021-02-17T22:15:08.753-08:002021-02-17T22:15:08.753-08:00Mr. Ahern: You're welcome. I'm pleased y...Mr. Ahern: You're welcome. I'm pleased you liked the post. Thank you for visiting, and for your kind words.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-44527612756800908462021-02-17T22:11:35.752-08:002021-02-17T22:11:35.752-08:00hart: You're welcome. It is a wonderful pain...hart: You're welcome. It is a wonderful painting, isn't it? One can spend a great deal of time in that world. The branches against the sky, of course. Unforgettable. But also the small details: the wildflowers in the lower right foreground; the glimpse of the lovely small green meadow on the distant hillside, beyond the sheep.<br /><br />It's good to hear from you again. Thank you very much for stopping by, and for sharing your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-76958601455278076652021-02-17T09:32:52.597-08:002021-02-17T09:32:52.597-08:00Angel Surrounded by Paysans
----- by Wallace Steve...<br /><br />Angel Surrounded by Paysans<br />----- by Wallace Stevens<br />One of the countrymen :<br />There is<br />A welcome at the door to which no one comes?<br />The angel :<br />I am the angel of reality,<br />Seen for the moment standing in the door.<br />I have neither ashen wing nor wear of ore<br />And live without a tepid aureole,<br />Or stars that follow me, not to attend,<br />But, of my being and its knowing, part.<br />I am one of you and being one of you<br />Is being and knowing what I am and know.<br />Yet I am the necessary angel of earth,<br />Since, in my sight, you see the earth again,<br />Cleared of its stiff and stubborn, man-locked set,<br />And, in my hearing, you hear its tragic drone<br />Rise liquidly in liquid lingerings<br />Like watery words awash; like meanings said<br />By repetitions of half meanings. Am I not,<br />Myself, only half of a figure of a sort,<br />A figure half seen, or seen for a moment, a man<br />Of the mind, an apparition apparelled in<br />Apparels of such lightest look that a turn<br />Of my shoulder and quickly, too quickly, I am gone.<br /><br />Dear Steve,<br /><br />Your current post--indeed an over-riding theme in your superb blog--informs us that Beauty is not hidden in some bejeweled and forbidden land, but is, rather, all around us, just waiting for a sensibility to discern it. And when the keen sensibility stands in the presence of true beauty, its response is often one of silence. We can perhaps hint at beauty, limn it for a moment, but ultimately we understand that words, though they are all we have, are poor devices to capture precisely authentic beauty, as you found when you looked at the highest part of the sky and felt yourself mute at the sheer wonder of the indescribable blue.<br /><br />You emphasize also that one must be attuned to spy beauty: practical and banal eyes fail to see, ignoring Blake's insight that we "must see not with the eye but through it." Wordsworth says the same thing many times. An acute sensibility, one like Wordsworth's half creates beauty.<br /><br />But when I read your post this morning, I was instantly reminded of Wallace Stevens's poem "Angel Surrounded By Paysans." How often, Stevens suggests, we miss the "angel of reality," the "necessary angel of earth, / Since, in my sight, you see the earth again," an earth "Cleared of its stiff and stubborn, man-locked set." This angel is hard to see. Hesitate, and this angel shifts a bit and then is gone.Brucenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-20640723005562157282021-02-17T04:07:18.291-08:002021-02-17T04:07:18.291-08:00When artist Yves Klein developed International Kle...When artist Yves Klein developed International Klein Blue more than 500 years later, he was exploring the transcendent, extra-dimensional quality of the colour. “Blue is the invisible becoming visible”, he wrote, “Blue has no dimensions, it is beyond the dimensions of which other colours partake.”<br /><br />I came across this quote yesterday while reading an article on Jackson's Art Supplies blog about a new blue paint that has been created https://www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2021/02/16/yinmn-blue-the-newest-blue-pigment/labraskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15979590347514992770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-33478737088639056762021-02-17T02:04:00.666-08:002021-02-17T02:04:00.666-08:00Beautiful post. It reminded me of how I feel over ...Beautiful post. It reminded me of how I feel over and over and of Frost’s poem Fragmentary Blue. <br />Why make so much of fragmentary blue<br />In here and there a bird, or butterfly,<br />Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye,<br />When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue?<br /> <br />Since earth is earth, perhaps, not heaven (as yet)—<br />Though some savants make earth include the sky;<br />And blue so far above us comes so high,<br />It only gives our wish for blue a whet.<br />Lee Hansonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-56179154834584919212021-02-16T17:04:14.717-08:002021-02-16T17:04:14.717-08:00I appreciate your efforts to convey the inadequacy...I appreciate your efforts to convey the inadequacy we feel. It takes words to do that, after all. "There is nothing to be said." Your second paragraph is an especially helpful use of that <i>nothing</i>!<br /><br />Emerson's description of the sky as "the daily bread of the eyes" comes to my mind often. It doesn't matter what drab or ugly landscape I might be trapped in, if I can just look up and find the smallest sliver of sky between skyscrapers, or the huge expanse in the middle of the plains, it really is the best "food," which is lovely to feast on, completely focused in silent appreciation.<br /><br />gretchenjoannahttp://www.gretchenjoanna.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-2001893422382520732021-02-16T09:49:34.809-08:002021-02-16T09:49:34.809-08:00Thank you! I will read this again, often.Thank you! I will read this again, often.John Ahernhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17720154285431989521noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-83758856870249015802021-02-16T08:38:25.362-08:002021-02-16T08:38:25.362-08:00A Study in March just speaks to me. Thank you.A Study in March just speaks to me. Thank you.harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17429442912701353172noreply@blogger.com