{"id":13322,"date":"2013-05-03T14:38:05","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T18:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=13322"},"modified":"2020-10-16T11:22:17","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T15:22:17","slug":"drawing-and-writing-illuminating-musing-upon-infinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/05\/drawing-and-writing-illuminating-musing-upon-infinity\/","title":{"rendered":"Drawing (and Writing, Illuminating, Musing<\/em>) Upon Infinity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wenceslas<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: the first page — the first letter, a capital <\/em>L — of the so-called Wenceslas Bible. It’s not the Bible referenced in Jennifer O’Grady’s poem, below (for one thing, the text is in German, not Latin). But I have a feeling it’s in the same general neck of the illuminated-manuscript woods. It’s worth viewing full-size, and while you can do so by clicking the image above, a better way is by clicking this link<\/a>. I couldn’t find one single authoritative page of information about this Bible edition, but numerous discussions<\/a> of its “bathhouse babes” entertained me greatly.]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

When I Met My Muse<\/strong><\/p>\n

I glanced at her and took my glasses
\noff — they were still singing. They buzzed
\nlike a locust on the coffee table and then
\nceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
\nsunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
\nknew that nails up there took a new grip
\non whatever they touched. “I am your own
\nway of looking at things,” she said. “When
\nyou allow me to live with you, every
\nglance at the world around you will be
\na sort of salvation.” And I took her hand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(William Stafford [source<\/em>: quoted all over the place, including here<\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This grand show<\/em> is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(John Muir [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and (same post as above):<\/p>\n

The door to infinity is somewhere in the room with you, right now.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Gina Rocca)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from\u00a0whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Of what happened later in the evening nothing definite can here be stated. None of the guests later on had any clear remembrance of it. They only knew that the rooms had been filled with a heavenly light, as if a number of small halos had blended into one glorious radiance. Taciturn old people received the gift of tongues; ears that for years had been almost deaf were opened to it. Time itself had merged into eternity. Long after midnight the windows of the house shone like gold, and golden song flowed out into the winter air.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Isak Dinesen [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and (excerpt):<\/p>\n

from Sonata<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went to hear a Lecture just last year
\nAbout some things which I hold very dear:
\nThe smallest pieces of the universe.
\nThe Lecturer referred to them as Quarks.
\nHe seemed impervious to the mystery
\nSurrounding their invisibility.
\nI asked, when he concluded his remarks,
\n“But are Quarks physical?”
\nYou’d think that he<\/span>
\nWere someone nearly martyred and I’d said
\nOur duty’s to die peacefully in bed.
\nHe took his glasses off and blinked at me.
\nWere I John Milton, I would now destroy
\nThis moment of high drama and deploy
\nA thirty-line Homeric simile.
\nBut I\u2019m not Milton, nor was meant to be.
\nHe put his glasses on, and said, “Of course.”<\/p>\n

Now, I may be the south end of a horse,
\nBut logically and analogically,
\nAnd physically, and metaphysically,
\nAnd, if it gets to that, religiously,
\nAnd absolutely scientifically,
\nI don’t believe that Quarks can pass the test
\nOf Being There, and since they’re fundamental,
\nWhy, then, the world’s a dream, and dreams are mental…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Gjertrud Schnackenberg [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Zen reveals itself in the most uninteresting and uneventful life of a plain man on the street, recognizing the fact of living in the midst of life as it is lived. Zen systematically trains the mind to see this; it opens a man’s eye to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed; it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of space in its every palpitation; it makes us live in the world as if walking in the garden of Eden.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(D. T. Suzuki [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Illuminated Page<\/strong><\/p>\n

A gold box of Latin words
\nrests in a dazzling, fanciful field
\nsomeone raised to life, lavishing
\nflowers with untraceable roots, histories
\ntoo distant to discern,
\nupon skin-pale, palm-sized vellum.<\/p>\n

Imagine the one who did this, lost
\nin dwindling light, a trembling flame
\nand painstakingly lovely colors:
\nblood red, violet, heavy yellow
\nand fierce, unnatural green.
\nFramed like a window<\/p>\n

to the artist’s heart, the mother
\nand child, uncomprehending men
\noffering what they can: the infant
\ntouches a tiny, gold-leaf casket.
\nAll around him the dark, heraldic blue
\nof angel winds, night sky, her veil.<\/p>\n

And below him, you can see
\nthe word God printed
\nover infinitely
\ncareful erasures.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Jennifer O’Grady [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: the first page — the first letter, a capital L — of the so-called Wenceslas Bible. It’s not the Bible referenced in Jennifer O’Grady’s poem, below (for one thing, the text is in German, not Latin). But I have a feeling it’s in the same general neck of the illuminated-manuscript woods. It’s worth viewing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,95,223,250,5,36,251],"tags":[1210,1345,2127,2485,3450,3451,3452,3453,3454,3455,3456,3457],"class_list":{"0":"post-13322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-science-medicine","9":"category-books-as-books","10":"category-art","11":"category-06_writing","12":"category-reading","13":"category-poetry-writing_cat","14":"tag-john-muir","15":"tag-william-stafford","16":"tag-the-muse","17":"tag-illuminated-manuscripts","18":"tag-wenceslas-bible","19":"tag-gina-rocca","20":"tag-isak-dinesen","21":"tag-gjertru-schnackenberg","22":"tag-d-t-suzuki","23":"tag-jennifer-ogrady","24":"tag-infinity","25":"tag-eternity","26":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-3sS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13322"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23604,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13322\/revisions\/23604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}