P/P Photoweek: Rock in Flow! (XII.25.2006)

Formative movement is mysterious.
Is the rock in the flow an obstruction, or an opportunity?
Perhaps we could say that a rock in a stream is like
a problem in its root sense, 'a thing thrown at us.' *
How we respond creates the shape of culture, of
personality, or who we are.

Perhaps water in flowing movement reveals something
of this to us. As does the sound of music and poetry.
In the Rilke verse below, the key word and sound
is rush (in the German, rauscht). Listen to how it feels
a bit like a wave striking stones and breaking happily
into a thousand sparkling drops:

Progress

And once again the depths of my life rush onward,
as if they were moving in wider channels now.
Things are becoming more close to me
and all images more thoroughly looked upon.
I feel more comfortable with that which is nameless:
With my senses, as with birds, I reach up
into the windy heavens out of the oak,
and in those pools broken off from the day,
my feeling, as if standing on fishes, descends.

Rainer Maria Rilke (tr. Cliff Crego)

| go to the original German text |


		PURCHASE ONLINE PICTURE/POEM CliffCards *Sun Rise / Moon Set— send a* friend an image from North America or the European Alps \| large view \| Box of 12 Note Cards $12.00 + shipping \| other CliffCards \|