{"id":2392,"date":"2013-10-09T14:39:42","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T18:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2015-09-19T16:01:17","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T20:01:17","slug":"dreaming-the-streambottom-tides","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/barefootandpregnant\/2013\/10\/dreaming-the-streambottom-tides.html","title":{"rendered":"Dreaming the Streambottom Tides"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Simcha posted this today<\/a>. I clicked on it idly, needing to work but exhausted. Exhausted not by the endless work of each day, but the turmoil beneath it all. The tension we all inhabit, now, with the government and the economy, the Church and Pope Francis, the culture, the world, these uncertain, esoteric times. Days like today, when I glance out the window I am surprised to see the sun shining and the grass growing. I\u2019m surprised that the world keeps turning like always when the spirit of the age has caught me up in a whirlwind of chaos. I\u2019m surprised that the trees just stand there, their branches responding serenely to the movement of the wind. I wish I could do that.<\/p>\n

Listen to the crickets. <\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

My junior poet was Richard Wilbur, which means I fell in love with him and found, in his poetry, an answer to every question, every mood, every state of being. There is a poem called \u201cWater Walker\u201d that has enchanted me for years, in part because the more I read it, the less I understand it. I read it just now, while I listened to the crickets, and now I know<\/em>. I don\u2019t understand, you know, I couldn\u2019t explain it with words, but I know what it means. It\u2019s the same thing the crickets mean, the same thing the trees mean, the same thing the world means by turning, turning, steadily turning. I think if I could know this always, in every moment, then I would know the still point of the turning world.<\/p>\n

\u2026Armored the larva rests<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dreaming the streambottom tides,<\/p>\n

Writhing at times to respire, and<\/p>\n

Sealing to him flat stones,<\/p>\n

He closely abides, abides:<\/p>\n

One night<\/p>\n

I sat till dawn on a porch, rocked in a cane-bottom chair,<\/p>\n

In Geneseo, in Illinois,<\/p>\n

Rocking from light to light;<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Silent and out of sight<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I saw the houses sleep<\/p>\n

And the autos beside them sleeping,<\/p>\n

The neat plots, the like trustful houses,<\/p>\n

Minute, armoreal, deep;<\/p>\n

Wind went<\/p>\n

Tamely and samely as puppies, tousling the Japanese maples,<\/p>\n

Lawnsprays and tricycles waited for sun,<\/p>\n

Shyly things said what they meant:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

An old man stitching a tent<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Could have been Saul in Tharsos,<\/p>\n

Loved and revered; instead<\/p>\n

He carried Jew visions to Greeks<\/p>\n

For adoration or curses;<\/p>\n

For he<\/p>\n

Troubled them; whether they called him \u201cbabbler\u201d or hailed him \u201cMercurios\u201d<\/p>\n

(Scarcely restrained from killing him oxen),<\/p>\n

His wasn\u2019t light company:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still pearled with water, to be<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ravished by air makes him grow<\/p>\n

Stranger to both, and discover<\/p>\n

Heaven and hell in the poise<\/p>\n

Betwixt \u201cinhabit\u201d and \u201cknow\u201d;<\/p>\n

I hold<\/p>\n

Here in my head Maine\u2019s bit speech, lithe laughter of Mobile blacks,<\/p>\n

Opinions of salesmen, ripe tones of priests,<\/p>\n

Plaints of the bought and sold:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Can I rest and observe unfold<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The imminent singletax state,<\/p>\n

The Negro rebellion, the rise<\/p>\n

Of the nudist cult, the return<\/p>\n

Of the Habsburgs, watch and wait<\/p>\n

And praise<\/p>\n

The spirit and not the cause, and neatly precipitate<\/p>\n

What is not doctrine, what is not bound<\/p>\n

To enclosured ground; what stays?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lives that the caddis fly lays<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Twixt air and water, must lie<\/p>\n

Long under water \u2014 how Saul<\/p>\n

Cursed once the market babblers,<\/p>\n

Righteous could watch them die!<\/p>\n

Who learns<\/p>\n

How hid the trick is of justice, cannot go home, nor can leave,<\/p>\n

But the dilemma, cherished, tyrannical,<\/p>\n

While he despairs and burns<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Da capo da capo returns.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Richard Wilbur, Collected Poems 1943-2004<\/em><\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simcha posted this today. I clicked on it idly, needing to work but exhausted. Exhausted not by the endless work of each day, but the turmoil beneath it all. The tension we all inhabit, now, with the government and the economy, the Church and Pope Francis, the culture, the world, these uncertain, esoteric times. Days […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1110,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[301,199,300],"class_list":["post-2392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crickets","tag-poetry","tag-richard-wilbur"],"yoast_head":"\nDreaming the Streambottom Tides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Simcha posted this today. I clicked on it idly, needing to work but exhausted. 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