S38

We are capable of resting in a state of mind in which we can abide in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. Keats called this: negative capability.

B10

The ox desires a saddle;
the packhorse eyes the plows.
The she-goat fancies grazing;
the heifer learns to browse.
The dairyman would like a desk;
the stockbroker, some cows.
The married long for freedom;
the single, wedding vows.


Deborah Warren

S39

Close in the nest is folded every weary wing,
Hushed all the joyful voices; and we, who held you dear,
Eastward we turn and homeward, alone, remembering...
Day that I loved, day that I loved, the night is here.

R. Brooke

A20

G8

When I heard the learn'd astronomer;
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;
When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer,
where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air,
and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.


Whitman

S29

January

The days are short,
the sun a spark
hung thin between
the dark and dark.

The river is
a frozen place
held still beneath
the trees’ black lace.



Updike

V5

Demain, des l'aube, a l'heure ou blanchit la campagne,
Je partirai. Vois-tu, je sais que tu m'attends.
J'irai par la foret, j'irai par la montagne.
Je ne puis demeurer loin de toi plus longtemps.

Je marcherai les yeux fixes sur mes pensees,
Sans rien voir au dehors, sans entendre aucun bruit,
Seul, inconnu, le dos courbe, les mains croisees,
Triste, e le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit.

Je ne regarderai ni l'or du soir qui tombe,
ni les voiles au loin descendant vers Harfleur,
Et quand j'arriverai, je mettrai sur ta tombe
Un bouquet de houx vert et de bruyere en fleur.


V.Hugo

V60

D22

Memories of Dogtown

lkj




















Ja15

Si no pudimos ser unanimes
moviendo tanto nuestras vidas,
tal vez no hacer nada una vez,
tal vez un gran silencio pueda
interrumpir esta tristeza,
este no entendernos jamas
y amenazarnos con la muerte,
tal vez la tierra nos ensenie
cuando todo parece muerto
y luego todo estaba vivo.

Neruda

If we were not so singleminded about keeping our lives moving, and for once could do nothing, perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness of never understanding ourselves and threatening ourselves with death. Perhaps the earth can teach us, as when everything seems dead and later proves to be alive.

F1

JA16

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun, and hide in cooling trees,
a voice will run from hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
that is the grasshopper’s—he takes the lead in summer luxury,—
he has never done with his delights; for, when tired out with fun,
he rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
on a lone winter evening, when the frost has wrought a silence,
from the stove there shrills the cricket’s song,
in warmth increasing ever, and seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
the grasshopper’s among some grassy hills.

John Keats

D11

Twyla Tharp wrote that when you create something, whether it's a dance, a novel, or a painting, you have to keep its "spine" in mind the whole way through. By "spine" she meant: the statement you make to yourself outlining your intentions for the work. "If you stick to your spine, the piece will work. When you lose your way, it will show you the way home.
You might not think you want spine. You might think you don't need a supporting mechanism for the art you're constructing, a controlling image, a collateral idea to guide you.
You might think that getting lost is a big part of the adventure.

You might think that,
but you'd be wrong."

G17

Winslow Homer fell in love with a woman, but his offer was not accepted. He remained a bachelor the rest of his life, painting in his isolated studio overlooking the Maine surf. After he became famous, to discourage snoops from going down the path to his studio, he put a sign that read : "Snakes".

R18

F17

Gravity

D3

The days are at last getting longer and the darkness starting to recede. But here we hardly know what darkness is.
John Muir grew up in Wisconsin, under the thumb of a cruel fundamentalist father who forced John to memorize the entire Bible. He wouldn't allow any heat in the children's bedroom. They woke up on winter mornings with ice on their blankets where their breath had frozen. In those days, by law, children had to work dawn to dusk for their parents until they were 21. John finally grew up, was able to leave, and came to California. He wrote that in California we have two seasons: Spring and Summer.
So now we're just starting to come out of our Spring.

C12