December 7, 2004
Pieces of culture that belong together
This image of the foolish virgin by Martin Schongauer:
reminds me of the last few lines of Renascence by Edna St. Vincent Millay:
The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky,—
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat—the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.
And both address this strange fact of humans being empty.
How I stumbled into your blog is far too complicated to recall. Link after link......and here I am. I scroll down to see what you have to say, only to find familiar words... and it makes me gasp. There they are..the last lines of a poem I've had for many years. I look at it from year to year wondering if it makes different sense to me this time. I love the images that poem in its entirety portrays, and I would welcome dialogue.
Posted by: jan at December 14, 2004 3:22 AM