Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Tuesday Poem | Variation on a Theme by Rilke


Oil sketch  |  CB  2013


                     Variation on a Theme by Rilke
                     (The Book of Hours, Book 1, Poem 1, Stanza 1)

                     A certain day became a presence to me;
                     there it was, confronting me - a sky, air, light:
                     a being. And before it started to descend
                     from the height of noon, it leaned over
                     and struck my shoulder as if with
                     the flat of a sword, granting me
                     honor and a task. The day's blow
                     rang out, metallic or it was I, a bell awakened,
                     and what I heard was my whole self
                     saying and singing what it knew; I can. 

                     Denise Levertov


I love the music and measure of this fine woman's fine writing. She's a pleasure to listen to, too. . .







This week's editor on the Tuesday Poem hub is the inimitable and fiercely eloquent Zireaux (his the title of this blog is Immortal Muse) with Pigs by Australian poet Les Murray.

Please click on the quill.




4 comments:

  1. Love the poem and the painting Claire!

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  2. Exactly what I was going to say, the volcanic-seeming glow in the painting, the emphatic affirmation in the poem. Nothing is sitting still, is it? Here we are, with ourselves. What shall we make of us? xo

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  3. Drat. Google is being a dunce. I was going to say the same thing as Kathleen. Exactly. Then I said something about a volcanic glow in your painting, the emphatic affirmation in the poem, then something about we are here with ourselves a resource, what will we make of us? Or close to that. xo

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  4. certain days do become a presence don't they? especially when we are as "a bell awakened"....beautiful.

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