{"id":15023,"date":"2013-12-13T11:59:58","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T16:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=15023"},"modified":"2013-12-13T11:59:58","modified_gmt":"2013-12-13T16:59:58","slug":"the-clarity-of-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2013\/12\/the-clarity-of-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"The Clarity of Surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'Sign<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: “Sign in Woods,” by user dibytes (Diane Hammond) on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons License. For more information, see the photographer’s note on the photo’s Flickr page<\/a>.]<\/em><\/p>\n

From\u00a0whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Reverse Side<\/strong>
\nThe reverse side also has a reverse side<\/span> — Japanese proverb<\/p>\n

It’s why when we speak a truth
\nsome of us instantly feel foolish
\nas if a deck inside us has been shuffled
\nand there it is—the opposite
\nof what we said.<\/p>\n

And perhaps why as we fall in love
\nwe’re already falling out of it.<\/p>\n

It’s why the terrified and the simple
\nlatch onto one story,
\njust one version of the great mystery.<\/p>\n

Image & afterimage, oh even
\nthe open-minded yearn for a fiction
\nto rein things in—
\nthe snapshot, the lie of the frame.<\/p>\n

How do we not go crazy,
\nwe who have found ourselves compelled
\nto live with the circle, the ellipsis, the word
\nnot yet written.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Stephen Dunn [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a> (italicized portion):<\/p>\n

…“astonishing” is an epithet concealing a logical trap. We’re astonished, after all, by things that deviate from some well-known and universally acknowledged norm, from an obviousness we’ve grown accustomed to. Now the point is, there is no such obvious world. Our astonishment exists per se and isn’t based on comparison with something else<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Granted, in daily speech, where we don’t stop to consider every word, we all use phrases like “the ordinary world,” “ordinary life,” “the ordinary course of events” … But in the language of poetry, where every word is weighed, nothing is usual or normal. Not a single stone and not a single cloud above it. Not a single day and not a single night after it. And above all, not a single existence, not anyone’s existence in this world.<\/p>\n

It looks like poets will always have their work cut out for them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Wislawa Szymborska [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

There are moments when a kind of clarity comes over you, and suddenly you can see through walls to another dimension that you’d forgotten or chosen to ignore in order to continue living with the various illusions that make life, particularly life with other people, possible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Nicole Krauss [source<\/a><\/em>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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

I Looked Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

I looked up and there it was
\namong the green branches of the pitch pines—<\/p>\n

thick bird,
\na ruffle of fire trailing over the shoulders and down the back—<\/p>\n

color of copper, iron, bronze—
\nlighting up the dark branches of the pine.<\/p>\n

What misery to be afraid of death.
\nWhat wretchedness, to believe only in what can be proven.<\/p>\n

When I made a little sound
\nit looked at me, then it looked past me.<\/p>\n

Then it rose, the wings enormous and opulent,
\nand, as I said, wreathed in fire.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Mary Oliver [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

I passed all the other courses that I took at my University, but I could never pass botany. This was because all botany students had to spend several hours a week in a laboratory looking through a microscope at plant cells, and I could never see through a microscope. I never once saw a cell through a microscope. This used to enrage my instructor. He would wander around the laboratory pleased with the progress all the students were making in drawing the involved and, so I am told, interesting structure of flower cells, until he came to me. I would just be standing there. “I can’t see anything,” I would say. He would begin patiently enough, explaining how anybody can see through a microscope, but he would always end up in a fury, claiming that I could too<\/em> see through a microscope but just pretended that I couldn’t. “It takes away from the beauty of flowers anyway,” I used to tell him. “We are not concerned with beauty in this course,” he would say. “We are concerned solely with what I may call the mechanics<\/em> of flars.” “Well,” I’d say, “I can’t see anything.” “Try it just once again,” he’d say, and I would put my eye to the microscope and see nothing at all, except now and again a nebulous milky substance — a phenomenon of maladjustment. You were supposed to see a vivid, restless clockwork of sharply defined plant cells. “I see what looks like a lot of milk,” I would tell him. This, he claimed, was the result of my not having adjusted the microscope properly, so he would readjust it for me, or rather, for himself. And I would look again and see milk…<\/p>\n

“We’ll try it,” the professor said to me, grimly, “with every adjustment of the microscope known to man. As God is my witness, I’ll arrange this glass so that you see cells through it or I’ll give up teaching. In twenty-two years of botany, I— ” He cut off abruptly for he was beginning to quiver all over, like Lionel Barrymore, and he genuinely wished to hold onto his temper; his scenes with me had taken a great deal out of him.<\/p>\n

So we tried it with every adjustment of the microscope known to man. With only one of them did I see anything but blackness or the familiar lacteal opacity, and that time I saw, to my pleasure and amazement, a variegated constellation of flecks, specks, and dots. These I hastily drew. The instructor, noting my activity, came back from an adjoining desk, a smile on his lips and his eyebrows high in hope. He looked at my cell drawing. “What’s that?” he demanded, with a hint of a squeal in his voice. “That’s what I saw,” I said. “You didn’t, you didn’t, you didn’t<\/em>!” he screamed, losing control of his temper instantly, and he bent over and squinted into the microscope. His head snapped up. “That’s your eye!” he shouted. “You’ve fixed the lens so that it reflects! You’ve drawn your eye!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(James Thurber [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee<\/strong><\/p>\n

I am a feather on the bright sky
\nI am the blue horse that runs in the plain
\nI am the fish that rolls, shining, in the water
\nI am the shadow that follows a child
\nI am the evening light, the lustre of meadows
\nI am an eagle playing with the wind
\nI am a cluster of bright beads
\nI am the farthest star
\nI am the cold of dawn
\nI am the roaring of the rain
\nI am the glitter on the crust of the snow
\nI am the long track of the moon in a lake
\nI am a flame of four colors
\nI am a deer standing away in the dusk
\nI am a field of sumac and the pomme blanche
\nI am an angle of geese in the winter sky
\nI am the hunger of a young wolf
\nI am the whole dream of these things
\nYou see, I am alive, I am alive
\nI stand in good relation to the earth
\nI stand in good relation to the gods
\nI stand in good relation to all that is beautiful
\nI stand in good relation to the daughter of Tsen-tainte
\nYou see, I am alive, I am alive<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(N. Scott Momaday\u00a0[source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: “Sign in Woods,” by user dibytes (Diane Hammond) on Flickr. Used under a Creative Commons License. For more information, see the photographer’s note on the photo’s Flickr page.] From\u00a0whiskey river: The Reverse Side The reverse side also has a reverse side — Japanese proverb It’s why when we speak a truth some of us […]<\/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":[247,1393,250,5,36,251,713],"tags":[179,595,921,1544,3691,3692,3693],"class_list":{"0":"post-15023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-ruminations","7":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","8":"category-art","9":"category-06_writing","10":"category-reading","11":"category-poetry-writing_cat","12":"category-humor-writing_cat","13":"tag-stephen-dunn","14":"tag-mary-oliver","15":"tag-wislawa-szymborska","16":"tag-james-thurber","17":"tag-nicole-krauss","18":"tag-n-scott-momaday","19":"tag-diane-hammond","20":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-3Uj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15023","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=15023"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15030,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15023\/revisions\/15030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}