Oxbow Blue

A Pause For Beauty


One ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture,
and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
- Goethe

. . .

The quality of the emotion you put into it

Hegel said, “Behind the facade of the familiar, strange things await us.” Familiarity enables us to tame, control and ultimately forget the mystery.
- John O’Donohue,
Anam Cara, A Book Of Celtic Wisdom

As a musician ... what you do is mess around with silence.
-Keith Richards, lead guitarist, The Rolling Stones

As an artist, what you do is try to improve on silence, on a blank sheet of paper or chunk of stone. Often you don’t succeed. Often silence was better.

When you do succeed, it generally has to do with the emotion you put into it -- the quality of the emotion.

 Only emotion survives... Nothing counts save the quality of the emotion.
- Ezra Pound

Soft Belly, Open Heart

We think the fire eats the wood. We are wrong.
The wood reaches out to the flame.    
- Jack Gilbert

Soft belly, open heart, let what flows
flow uninhibited. Let the helical curve

of the ear be kissed, the structure of bones
be lightly stroked. Open now to the intelligence

carried by a taste, or in light shaping a divan.
You can know what holds you beyond this bright

falling of matter, and you may be penetrated.
The cells are ready—they will blink more messages

than you can comprehend. And when life comes
to what bleeds, what burns, don’t wait

for the fire. It is waiting for you.
- James Bertolino

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