-wallace stevens"I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after."
-blackbird, william lewin
loosely related thoughts for today:
dieter uchtdorf endeared himself to me tonight in his address to the women of the church at the general relief society broadcast. i can't quote him (my memory's not so good right now--or ever), but i can say that he talked mostly about the creative nature of man/woman. as he said, he wasn't giving a "pep talk"--just recognizing, honoring and encouraging our human impulse to make something that wasn't there before.
-small group, annie gedicks
when i was studying poetry in college i sometimes wondered if it wasn't a little bit...wasteful. i had friends doing important things, like beginning careers in social work and therapy. once i realized the good that comes of trying to beautify the world, i stopped feeling guilty. (although i should totally apologize to the world for some of the poetry i created.)
5 comments:
He endeared himself to me as well. What a great talk!
At that time in your life I was a bookseller. Not a lot was going on for me. BUT I was a really good bookseller. I was ashamed only on very rare occasions. I loved my work, mostly. And helped may people. And that makes it all good. So not everyone you knew was doing important things. Just things they felt were important.
Well I am a social worker and I am important. Wait, that wasn't what I wanted to say. I mean I guess I take every opportunity to tell people I'm important. Call me vain, I call it desperate. My life's creed: "Fake it until you make it!"
Okay so that comment got really off track. Here's the deal: social work is important; accounting is important; medicine is important, etc, etc, etc. The thing about any profession, role, kingdom, phylum, class, is that you have to be motivated to continue to do what you do. I can't tell you how often one of my fellow social workers or I have quoted poetry to describe our emotions, to say the seemingly 'un-sayable,' to explain why we do what we do, to validate what we do. Most of us aren't as prolific in our capacity to pontificate on paper. Let's face it, as a social worker, often the only thing I put on paper are my dreaded case notes. And even that is usually done a week or two behind schedule.
Point being, thank goodness for you creative types who create a space in my life that the intensity of my job often keeps me from reaching on a day-to-day basis. Were it not for your words and the words of the world's other great writers and poets, I would probably need a social worker myself.
I love that poem. . .
My favorite way of looking at a blackbird is number 9:
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
it's so good, isn't it? i would make the whole thing my poem for october, but it's too long.
normally i totally ignore long poems, but this one is just too good.
great talk by uchtdorf, huh! i was just telling scott last night that there are all types of prophets for all types of people. this one is for my type. very refreshing.
thanks for beautifying the earth krista, i like what you do.
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