Ah! This poem and its backstory do turn my head. Jay, your soothing voice takes me right to the riverside with you, staring at that stone while the water washes over and past. I love how many phrases "hold still" like the rock, surrounded by motion, like this one: "You will try to hold it / in the palm you stretch / between the sediment and sun." Did you know you would leave me saying, "Ah, yes! Exactly that"? Thank you for sharing this original.
Jay, This poem, and your reading, touch on the ineffable nature of our existence on this earth--and how the unfeeling stone will outlast us while our memory of that moment we hold as long as we live. I own your book _Waiting for Word_ and encourage others to buy it: So well worth the money for wisdom outlasts the cost.
Thank you, Mary, for reading, for buying the book -- earlier on in my time on Substack -- and for this generous comment. Such a simple yet profound experience for me: my task in writing -- to communicate it as simply as I could. You help me feel I succeeded.
Ah! This poem and its backstory do turn my head. Jay, your soothing voice takes me right to the riverside with you, staring at that stone while the water washes over and past. I love how many phrases "hold still" like the rock, surrounded by motion, like this one: "You will try to hold it / in the palm you stretch / between the sediment and sun." Did you know you would leave me saying, "Ah, yes! Exactly that"? Thank you for sharing this original.
Thank you, Tara, for the whole poetic enterprise. Happy to be a part of it and to soothe to the best of my ability. :)
Lovely.
.
“…stillness at the bottom
of motion
with substance at the center
of light.”
That. That is what is sought. So perfectly understood and expressed.
Yes!
Thank you. It was important moment in my life. And it continues. :)
Jay, This poem, and your reading, touch on the ineffable nature of our existence on this earth--and how the unfeeling stone will outlast us while our memory of that moment we hold as long as we live. I own your book _Waiting for Word_ and encourage others to buy it: So well worth the money for wisdom outlasts the cost.
Thank you, Mary, for reading, for buying the book -- earlier on in my time on Substack -- and for this generous comment. Such a simple yet profound experience for me: my task in writing -- to communicate it as simply as I could. You help me feel I succeeded.