It's thrilling to suppose spirits alive
and circling us in rocks and stars and trees.
Poets have fancied clouds could not but thrive
to see daffodils dancing in the breeze,
conjured gods at hearth where they were living,
fabricated burning bushes speaking
out in tongues of flame expressly giving
promises mankind was sorely seeking.
Feeling at one with spirits makes us high,
as the numinous, glowing perfection
of a poem can that strikes and bids us try
to find some music for its inflection.
But loony bins and churches have a place
for those who actually believe that gnomes
and spirits nod at them and call and chase
from rocks or clouds or trees, or even poems.
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Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean
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Thank you, Morris, for this wonderful synthesis of nature, poetry, and the origins of spirit-seeking. "Loony bins and churches" indeed! A welcome breeze after a month of Christmas carols. Are you going to tell us about the painting?
ReplyDeleteEric, I'm elated that you cited "loony bins and churches," which I myself feel is a keeper. I hoped the poem would convey the fact that it really did come to me (the whole thing except for the specific "inflection") in a flash of less than a minute's duration. I myself no longer get high from supposing that rocks or stars or clouds harbor spirits, but I got VERY HIGH in that minute of poetic inspiration, and remained fairly high while working out the word music. I was disappointed only that the poem didn't seem to want to be a sonnet!
DeleteThere I go, talking as though a spirit inhabits the poem!
Eric, I forgot to say something about the painting. I found it at http://miaerowyntheforestwitch.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/impressionism-oil-painting-daffodil-fields-landscape-bobbie-burgers.jpg, on the blog "Miaerowyn, the Forest Witch." Hmm, Tolkienian?
DeleteI tend to assume that those who see "spirits" have had too much spirits, i.e. Wild Turkey, Jim Beam, Guinness etc.
ReplyDeleteHa, would that that were the main reason!
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