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104 the best words yet

Michelle gave this poem in her comment on yesterday's post and they are the most perfect and best yet in my life.  and a testament to writing, how they are not complex or long, but to me, words put together in an exactly perfect way that says very plainly what i have never been able to say…

so…Thank You so much Michelle.  and i changed the gender of the pronoun from he to she

           Love by Czeslaw Milosz

Love means to learn to look at yourself                                                                                                                           The way one looks at distant things                                                                                                                                   For you are only one thing among many.                                                                                                                         And whoever sees that way heals her heart,                                                                                                                    Without knowing it,  from various ills……                                                                                                                      A bird and a tree say to her:  Friend.

Then she wants to use herself and things                                                                                                                          So that they stand in the glow of ripeness.                                                                                                                      It doesn't matter whether she knows what she serves:                                                                                              Who serves best doesn't always understand.

i have never had an urge to memorize a poem.  i want to memorize this.

and then today 

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14 responses to “104 the best words yet”

  1. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Intersection and the interesting thing to me is that the cloth strips that intersect are that deep earth red – blood lines, heart lines… “whoever sees that way heals her heart…”

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  2. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    how lucky i saved those unremarkable scraps. perfect.

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  3. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    So happy you were pleased by C.M.’s poem. ot’s one of my ‘keepers’ too. And, I know it’s only a white pin on that beautiful rust red piece on the left, but I see a pony with a clipped mane.

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  4. yvette Avatar
    yvette

    yes Michelle….a pony
    and a great poem
    Grace your work besides the pony , hurts me…touches me in a sad manner
    that’s good
    it touches

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  5. Cynthia Avatar
    Cynthia

    i don’t think you have any unremarkable scraps grace..or perhaps it is simply what happens to them in your hands…it was quite something to read this perfect complete poem and then come down to your cloth ..the intersection and the face..being here after a brief interruption..is intense
    to be reading over at what iffing …to be caught up and touched so deeply by houses and windows,,,boundaries and intersection..it has become such a personal convergence for me..
    and always there are the goats..it is good to be back among them..that i know..right now i have a huge pot of goat cheese becoming in the kitchen..huge jars of yesterdays whey to add to the pig food…and it seems impossibly far from the life that i am shedding…the rain has finally stopped..and i need to go out and weed or go in and paint…the Stamina of the past few days seems to have ebbed…we will see what the day has in store…may yours be full and good xox much cynthia

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  6. jude Avatar
    jude

    the first part of the poem i feel. the serving part confuses me. that is some red there. it bleeds.

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  7. Julie Avatar
    Julie

    so you do, Grace, stand in the glow of ripeness

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  8. Laura R Avatar
    Laura R

    Thank you, Michelle and Grace, for sharing the wonderful poem. I’m going to paint it into my journal, and copy it for my daughter, Ivy. I may change it back to masculine for my son.
    Your new piece has so much potential, what with straight lines, and organic shapes and colors, and a face! I really like the art you make.

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    more than pleased. it is the precise and exact words
    in the precise and exact order. perfect.
    i am very grateful to you

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i don’t know what kind of sad manner yvette…what part
    of it is sad? i’d like to know.
    love….

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i think maybe that’s a very real part of the concept of
    stamina…that there is an ebb and flow, but just not
    the fragmented bursts ?????
    what kind of cheese??????
    and yes…everywhere says feed the whey to the pig.
    oh…do i need a pig? then? NO! i do not need a pig!
    but i do love them, their sounds…i went again to water
    and Allen’s, fill the hummingbird feeder, feed and pet
    the cat, check on the chickens and again, i am so tempted
    by the verbalizations of the chickens, how the fix one eye or the other on me when i try to imitate their sounds. i always come away wanting chickens…

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    yes. the red surprised. but it is going to stay.
    the “serving part”….that’s part of the reason i love it so much, it is stated exactly SO, to me….leaving it totally
    open to any individual interpretation
    and really…serve….as used here to me also is precisely
    correct…serve. What do i serve, What do we serve?
    Serve here refers to Purpose. what i feel to be my Purpose.
    and then…i don’t ever know. but i live with Purpose
    on my mind/heart moment by moment. live mindfully as much as i am able. maybe what I serve is just that. being
    mindfull. Maybe i serve Looking., the importance of Looking, the benefit for the Whole of Looking. I know i
    serve Just Going. and i serve Life itself. I serve this
    Place. and i don’t always or even ever understand. but
    i do know i serve.
    serve…to care for, at Least equally to oneself????

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    and you.

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Laura…thank you Laura…i know you look very thoughtfully,
    so…Thank you….
    and yes. that poem. if i ever can figure out how to
    put something in the side bar here, that would be IT.
    love

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