tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post7331464250355905074..comments2024-03-23T20:37:37.891-07:00Comments on First Known When Lost: BoatStephen Pentzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-9594042753102892612017-03-01T14:46:32.201-08:002017-03-01T14:46:32.201-08:00Andrew: Thank you for those thoughts. In a note ...Andrew: Thank you for those thoughts. In a note to Shinkei's poem, Steven Carter states that it is "an echo of" Sami Mansei's poem that appears at the beginning of the post. The linking image is, of course, the departing boat and its disappearing wake. We, and everything around us, are as evanescent as the boat and its wake. But I fear I am missing your point.<br /><br />Thank you very much for visiting, and for sharing your thoughts.<br /><br />Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-36340841774469831662017-02-28T18:01:31.597-08:002017-02-28T18:01:31.597-08:00I find myself increasingly perplexed by the shinke...I find myself increasingly perplexed by the shinkei poem. <br /><br />I suppose a passing is acknowledged only after it has passed Andrewnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-57856798886763963422017-02-19T10:09:34.234-08:002017-02-19T10:09:34.234-08:00Billyboy: Thank you very much for those lovely th...Billyboy: Thank you very much for those lovely thoughts. I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. I can understand why the playing of "Raglan Road" would bring tears to your eyes. I've always loved the version by Van Morrison and the Chieftains. (Which is liable to bring tears to my eyes even when there is nothing sad in my life!)<br /><br />You and I are on the same wavelength when it comes to that passage from Wittgenstein: most of what he has written goes over my head, but that section of the Tractatus is one that I have never forgotten. (The sentence beginning "If we take eternity to mean . . ." has appeared here on several occasions, in fact.) It is a wonderful passage.<br /><br />As you probably know, Wittgenstein's two sentences about death parallel an observation made by Epicurus. Matthew Arnold rendered Epicurus's thoughts as follows in a fragment from his unfinished poem "Lucretius":<br /><br />For while we are, Lucretius, death is not,<br />And when death is, why, we have ceased to be --<br />So death can touch us never.<br /><br />As for living in the present: I fail at that daily! But I will never stop trying.<br /><br />Thank you again. I hope you'll return soon.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-59008936755309719532017-02-19T01:41:39.490-08:002017-02-19T01:41:39.490-08:00I attended the funeral of an old friend yesterday....I attended the funeral of an old friend yesterday. An old man .... a wit, a raconteur, a lover of the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh. The playing of the Raglan Road on the fiddle as the coffin left the Chapel, brought tears to my eyes. He would have loved it.<br />On the subject of eternity Stephen .... I find comfort in this comment attributed to Wittgenstein: "Death is not an event in life. We do not live to experience death. If we take eternity to mean, not infinite temporal duration, but timelessness, then eternal life belongs to those who live in the present". <br />I try, and often fail, to live in the present each day! But where is my friend? The priest's words about eternal life leave me confused.<br />BillyboyBillyboyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18258071824867607924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-36534527949942290472017-02-17T21:15:44.324-08:002017-02-17T21:15:44.324-08:00Mr. Guirl: I greatly appreciate your kind words. ...Mr. Guirl: I greatly appreciate your kind words. Thank you very much. What I post here is my own attempt to find perspective. It sounds like you have more fortitude than me: you'll rarely find me with a newspaper in hand! What I find there disturbs me too much.<br /><br />I agree that "This too shall pass" is a fine piece of wisdom to bear in mind. As you can tell from the post, I have been reading Marcus Aurelius recently, and this passage comes to mind: "All things are transitory, and, as it were, but for a day; both those who remember, and the things and persons remembered." Meditations, Book IV, Section 35. I consider statements such as these to be (to borrow from you) "timeless truths" that we ought not to forget.<br /><br />As always, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-54645532011634290492017-02-17T20:49:20.250-08:002017-02-17T20:49:20.250-08:00erin: I appreciate your kind words about the blog...erin: I appreciate your kind words about the blog. Thank you. And thank you as well for the poem by Kim Stafford. I have never read any of his poems, but I have read a few prose pieces he wrote about his father. I can hear a bit of his father in the poem. The poem puts things in lovely perspective, doesn't it? I think it goes well with the Japanese poems in the post as well.<br /><br />It's always nice to hear from you. Thank you for stopping by again.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-83980262352982373772017-02-16T22:45:21.077-08:002017-02-16T22:45:21.077-08:00Mr. Pentz--One of the reasons I read here is to be...Mr. Pentz--One of the reasons I read here is to be reminded of what is important in our lives, to discover a perspective that balances universal truths with the the hubbub of daily life. It is helpful for my perspective to hold the daily newspaper in one hand and timeless truths in the other. A favorite aphoristic antidote to the present is, "This too shall pass".<br /> Tim Guirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04273546542482255916noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-75378449505390331142017-02-16T18:38:06.588-08:002017-02-16T18:38:06.588-08:00in a world which celebrates meaninglessness, i alw...in a world which celebrates meaninglessness, i always find pleasure and meaning here.<br /><br />"Our time here is short. Were we placed here to repeat meaningless clichés?"<br /><br />a wonderful poem which demonstrates time and maybe teaches us a little about how we measure inside it, "A Lesson in Time" by Kim Stafford. i wonder if you've encountered it before.<br /><br />A Lesson in Time<br /> <br />We stood on a forest road at the meadow’s edge<br />so Joe could teach the story of geologic time.<br />Mateo set a little flag—red tatter<br /><br />on a rusted wire—to mark the miasmic<br />gathering when earth first clenched dust<br />by the stern affection we call gravity.<br /><br />In the meadow, grass wavered, and was still.<br />Then Charles began to step off eons<br />through the Hadean Period, as low sun<br /><br />lit the pines gold. We arrived at<br />the Iron Catastrophe. Mateo set a flag<br />and Ruby laid down a stem of grass.<br /><br />Under a sky made blue by oxygen<br />bacteria had formed, once volcanism<br />spewed steam from burnt stone, we<br /><br />marched on. At each extinction, or<br />new creation, Mateo set a flag<br />and Ruby placed her stem of grass,<br /><br />until Joe pulled two hairs from<br />my head to set in the dust. “The thickness<br />of these two strands,” he said, “we’ll call<br /><br />the span of civilization.” Mateo set a flag,<br />and Ruby placed a stem of grass. erinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16636371927224076866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-88828615431736163612017-02-14T20:21:51.723-08:002017-02-14T20:21:51.723-08:00Jeff: Thank you very much for those thoughtful ob...Jeff: Thank you very much for those thoughtful observations. We all have to establish our priorities, and I am with you: I will not let politics "crowd out poetry, art, and nature" from my life. The emotional and mental energy that some people expend on politics appalls me. But perhaps I simply have a lower level of energy available to me.<br /><br />I completely disagree with those who espouse the view that "not getting sufficiently worked up about politics is a privilege or a luxury." Such a concept is, from my view, based upon the erroneous presumption that the political is an essential part of human life. It isn't. But that's only my opinion. (Although I won't be shamed into thinking otherwise by the politicized. There is a puritanical, shaming element in many of the politicized which is quite off-putting, and of which they are oblivious.)<br /><br />I also agree with you (and this has certainly been made clearer than ever in the aftermath of Brexit and the presidential election) that the end result of the politicization of life is often hatred (and stereotyping and superciliousness). As you say, no one is ever "ennobled" in such circumstances.<br /><br />In a recent post (February 12), Nige of the blog Nigeness notes that Brexit has shown "how completely many of our fellow citizens have lost all sense of proportion, let alone basic human decency." This is absolutely true, and it is equally true of the aftermath of our presidential election. It is dismaying and disheartening (although, alas, not surprising) to see the disappearance of "basic human decency" in some quarters. Which is why we each have to make our choices, and establish our priorities. <br /><br />It turns out that a Roman Emperor from the 2nd Century A. D. has had it right all along: "I cannot be angry at my kinsmen, or hate them. . . Opposition to each other is contrary to nature: All anger and aversion is an opposition."<br /><br />Again, thank you very much for sharing your perspective on these things, which I greatly value. As ever, it is a delight to hear from you. Thank you for stopping by.<br />Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-49374119557552923282017-02-13T22:32:48.332-08:002017-02-13T22:32:48.332-08:00I agree with you, Stephen, about attempting to lif...I agree with you, Stephen, about attempting to life a good life without letting politics diminish it, but in recent months I've seen claims that not getting sufficiently worked up about politics is a privilege or a luxury. Interestingly, these claims always come from highly privileged people, and I've yet to see a persuasive argument, only professions of faith.<br /><br />I would wither and become useless to my community, my loved ones, and the world if I allowed the clods and monsters of our national politics to crowd out poetry, art, and nature from my already too-cluttered mind. I lived in D.C. for 21 years, and I can't remember ever having met anyone there who was ennobled by the futile hatred that arises when they give awful people attention they don't deserve. People who doubt that, say, a pensive and enlightening poetry website isn't on their side may wish to reconsider what their "side" actually is.Jeffhttp://www.quidplura.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-4765300375953082622017-02-10T09:30:23.929-08:002017-02-10T09:30:23.929-08:00Venetia: Thank you very much for sharing those th...Venetia: Thank you very much for sharing those thoughts. I entirely agree that poetry can help us to place things in perspective, to reorient ourselves, to retrace our steps, or to follow a new path. And you recalled a wonderful poem: "Ithaka" is moving and inspiring, so I can understand why it had the impact it did on you.<br /><br />Thank you for visiting, and thank you again for sharing your thoughts.<br /><br />Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-18922141816628000622017-02-09T23:37:24.364-08:002017-02-09T23:37:24.364-08:00This morning, after a tumultuous five weeks of mar...This morning, after a tumultuous five weeks of marital turmoil and disclosure I arrived, on waking to recalling Cavafy's Ithaca, and sought it and read it. This is what poetry and your site is for. This morning the monsters are faint and have their backs turned away. Thank you.Venetianoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-52962033005821642942017-02-09T20:44:18.408-08:002017-02-09T20:44:18.408-08:00James: Thank you very much: that is a wonderful ...James: Thank you very much: that is a wonderful way of putting things. I completely agree with your thoughts: the truths have always been there, in all ages and in all places. Not just in Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, of course, but (to cite just a few examples that immediately come to mind) in Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, the Buddha, Bashō, Saigyō, et cetera. <br /><br />If you have been visiting the blog in the past, you will know that I disagree with the common modern notion that humanity is embarked on a steady course of "progress," and that modernity represents the pinnacle of human development. This is an absolutely false notion. As you state, we continually forget the truths, head off on "detours," have to retrace our steps, and then have to begin again. Fortunately, as you say, the first step is always there to be taken, and we do have guides from the past.<br /><br />Thank you again for sharing your thoughts. I hope you will return soon.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-82325002903660203772017-02-09T15:17:41.784-08:002017-02-09T15:17:41.784-08:00Do we not already know the ancient truths... they ...Do we not already know the ancient truths... they are always here with us while we set them aside for the latest word. And then come back to them, changed, humbled, accepting what we know and what we dont know on equal terms and know now we are truly at just the beginning. Much of our life a detour sometimes and then the first step is it had to be just like this, just like it was, everything already in that perfect balance. Thanks for the reminder... like you I am forever straying from the path I already know by heart!Jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06050093972036952056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-73609079361350362542017-02-09T10:57:38.643-08:002017-02-09T10:57:38.643-08:00Laura D: Thank you very much. That's kind of...Laura D: Thank you very much. That's kind of you to say. Of course, I am most definitely no saint, and, as I stated in the post, I fail each day to follow the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and others. But I do know that I have had my fill of politics for a lifetime.<br /><br />Thank you again. I appreciate your taking the time to comment.Stephen Pentzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14882220887712092005noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5010170380967519230.post-71554334581324340332017-02-09T09:38:33.468-08:002017-02-09T09:38:33.468-08:00Thanks for your voice of reason, Stephen, and for ...Thanks for your voice of reason, Stephen, and for redirecting our attention to what is universal in humanity and away from what is trivial and partisan.Laura Dnoreply@blogger.com