Happiness

Crystal, 2013, Elizabeth Forbes, Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN

Happiness is like a crystal,

Fair and exquisite and clear,

Broken in a million pieces, 

Shattered, scattered far and near.

Now and then along life's pathway,

Lo! some shining fragments fall;

But there are so many pieces

No one ever finds them all.

You may find a bit of beauty,

Or an honest share of wealth,

While another just beside you

Gathers honor, love or health.

Vain to choose or grasp unduly,

Broken is the perfect ball;

And there are so many pieces

No one ever finds them all.

Yet the wise as on they journey

Treasure every fragment clear,

Fit them as they may together,

Imaging the shattered sphere

Learning ever to be thankful,

Though their share of it is small;

For it has so many pieces 

No one ever finds them all.

Thinking Glass Figure, 2012, Daniel Arsham, detail, broken glass, resin

~ Pricilla Leonard

Take the World As It Is

Daniel Sprick, Still Life & Mirror, 2004, Oil & Board

TAKE the world as it is!—there are good and bad in it,
  And good and bad will be from now to the end;
And they, who expect to make saints in a minute,
  Are in danger of marring more hearts than they ’ll mend. If ye wish to be happy ne’er seek for the faults,        5
  Or you ’re sure to find something or other amiss;
’Mid much that debases, and much that exalts,
  The world’s not a bad one if left as it is.

Daniel Sprick, Peeled Orange, 1999, Oil & Board

Take the world as it is!—if the surface be shining,
  Ne’er rake up the sediment hidden below!        10
There ’s wisdom in this, but there ’s none in repining
  O’er things which can rarely be mended, we know.
There ’s beauty around us, which let us enjoy;
  And chide not, unless it may be with a kiss;
Though Earth’s not the Heaven we thought when a boy,         
  There ’s something to live for, if ta’en as it is.

Daniel Sprick, Landscape & Pansies, 2003, Oil & Board

Take the world as it is!—with its smiles and its sorrow,
  Its love and its friendship,—its falsehood and truth,
Its schemes that depend on the breath of to-morrow,
  Its hopes which pass by like the dreams of our youth:         
Yet, oh! whilst the light of affection may shine,
  The heart in itself hath a fountain of bliss;
In the worst there ’s some spark of a nature divine,
  And the wisest and best take the world as it is.

Daniel Sprick, Release Your Plans, 2001, Oil & Board

~ Charles Swain (1803–74)

I could think of no better images for this poem than a set of 'Still-Life' images/paintings.  A Still-Live painting comprises inanimate, yet many common objects, which upon close inspection remind us of vanitas (life's fleeting moments/quality). Like this poem, 'Take the World As It Is', these paintings incorporate both the beauty as well as what truly lies beneath the initial view. All things are beauty and all things are fleeting. 

Francesco Salviati, 1552/54, Kairos (Caerus), Fresco, Audience Hall of the Palazzo Sacchetti, Rome, Italy

This notion is not new, nor are 'Still-Lives' and similar to Kairos (or Caerus) the Greek god (youngest divine son of Zeus and in Roman gods is known as either Tempus or Occasio), Kairos never gets old, is always beautiful, is always opportune and flourishes in its season yet, is always on the run.  Kairos holds balanced schales with sharp edges alluding to the instant when opportunity is available, much like life's opportunities and moments are available...Only for a moment, then they are past. 

Aesop's Fable 536 (from Phaedrus 5. 8) (trans. Gibbs) (Greek fable C6th B.C.) : "Running swiftly, balancing on the razor's edge, bald but with a lock of hair on his forehead, he wears no clothes; if you grasp him from the front, you might be able to hold him, but once he has moved on not even Juppiter [Zeus] himself can pull him back: this is a symbol of Tempus [Kairos, Opportunity], the brief moment in which things are possible." [N.B. This fable is associated with famous statue of Kairos at Olympia by the Greek sculptor Lysippos of the C4th B.C. The Greek name Kairos is rendered as Tempus in this Latin version of Aesop's fable.]" Kairos

Seize the moments, the beauty, the opportunity and yet do not deny what makes it so. All things have something lying beneath. ~ Fred

Ars Poetica and Allegory of Poetry

Allegory of Poetry, Oil on Canvas, circa 1750, Eustache Le Sueur,
at Noortman Master Paintings Gallery

 A poem should be palpable and mute

As a globed fruit, 

Dumb

As old medallions to the thumb, 

Silent as the sleeve-worn stone

Of casement ledges where the moss has grown -- 

Two Women at a Window, c. 1655/1660, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C.

A poem should be wordless

As the flight of birds.

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs,

Leaving, as the moon releases

Twig by twig the night-entangled trees,

Leaving, as the moon behind the winter leaves,

Memory by memory the mind--

A poem should be motionless in time

As the moon climbs.

Romantic Moon

A poem should be equal to 

Not true.

For all the history of grief

An empty doorway and a maple leaf.

For love

The leaning grasses and two lights above the sea--

A poem should not mean

But be.

~ Archibald MacLeish (1892-1982)

Poetry should inspire, influence gently, and tell a story.... Not unlike the Two Women at the Window by Murillo this poem suggests the stories and perspectives of the individual viewers as life passes by their window. Poems have a life of their own, like all art, they are read during differing life stages, from various perspectives, and during different times of history.  

The meaning of poetry will always change over time and place.  Like the moon, the changes will be slow and so subtle that they appear to not be changing, yet the moon is crossing the night sky. 'Being' a poem is immortality  in 'meaning' it is transient and because of that a poem should not 'mean' it should 'Be'. 

I Wish You Enough

I read this on the blog 24 hour Paradigm and I wanted to share this with you because it was so amazing:


"Recently I overheard a mother and daughter in their last moments together at the airport. They had announced the departure. Standing near the security gate, they hugged and the mother said, 'I love you and I wish you enough.' The daughter replied, 'Mom, our life together has been more than enough. Your love is all I ever needed. I wish you enough, too, Mom.'


They kissed and the daughter left. The mother walked over to the window where I was seated. Standing there I could see she wanted and needed to cry. I tried not to intrude on her privacy but she welcomed me in by asking, 'Did you ever say good-bye to someone knowing it would be forever?'


Yes, I have,' I replied. 'Forgive me for asking, but why is this a forever good-bye?'


'I am old and she lives so far away. I have challenges ahead and the reality is - the next trip back will be for my funeral,' she said 'When you were saying good-bye, I heard you say, 'I wish you enough'. May I ask what that means?'


She began to smile. 


'That's a wish that has been handed down from other generations. My parents used to say it to everyone'. She paused a moment and looked up as if trying to remember it in detail and she smiled even more. 


'When we said , 'I wish you enough,' we were wanting the other person to have a life filled with just enough good things to sustain them'. Then turning toward me, she shared the following as if she were reciting it from memory.


I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting. 
I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger. 
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.


She then began to cry and walked away. 


They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them but then an entire life to forget them."


The art in our lives comes in many forms and for some I think they feel that it must be hanging on a wall, played in a concert hall, performed on a stage.... but art comes from the heart and is made with emotion..... just as this is..... so to all of you 'I wish you enough'