Saturday, September 28, 2024

while everything else continues, unexplained and unexplainable

What is there beyond knowing that keeps calling to me?

I can't turn in any direction but its there. 


I don't mean the leaves' grip and shine or even the thrush's

silk song,  but the far off fires,

for example,  or the stars, heaven's slowly turning theater of light,


or the wind playful with its breath;


or time that's always rushing forward,or standing still 

in the same - what shall I say - moment.


What I know I could put into a pack as if it were bread and cheese,

and carry it on one shoulder, important and honourable, but so small!


While everything else continues, unexplained and unexplainable.


How wonderful it is to follow a thought quietly to its logical end.

I have done this a few times.


But mostly, I just stand in the dark field in the middle of the world, breathing in and out.


Life so far doesn't have any other name but breath and light, wind and rain.


If there's a temple, I haven't found it yet.

I simply go on drifting,



In the heaven of the grass and the weeds.


What is there beyond knowing, by Mary Oliver 

from New and Selected Poems volume two published 2005


These images are from the road trip through northern and mid Western Wales that Ned and I did the second week of August.  

All of them were taken from the passenger seat of a moving vehicle by me.  


We enjoyed this trip together very much.


The feeling of being with him in the middle of this fairy world

will stay with me for a long time and I am grateful.

5 comments:

Julierose said...

What lovely photos echoing the poem's words...Wales is certainly beautiful and serene looking...thanks for sharing hugs, Julierose

Anonymous said...

This combination of your photos and Mary Oliver's words are so perfect together. Trusting that the road continues beyond the bend or into the fog. Such an illustration of "the unexplained and unexplainable". Thank you. This is Beth (Still Life Pond)

Stephanie said...

What a splendid matching of images and words. What treasures of memory you and Ned share.

Anonymous said...

As I saw your first photo I knew it was north Wales where I live. The lovely words remind me of my mother. When she was 94 we asked if she had plans for where she should live as she had been falling at night. She smiled and said she had never made plans but just blown with the wind. She was the most liberal-minded light-of-touch mother I could have wished for who loved mountain walks. Thank you for the thoughts and the photos. Next time you visit Wales come and visit us on Ynys Môn, the Isle of Anglesey!

Nancy said...

I am always so fond of the ways you pair images and words twined together. I am grateful I can come here and breathe. Thank you. Nancy