Obligatory Autumnal Poetry

The Earth is closing her eyes
Like a beautiful lover lying
Next to me in bed.

Her deep, regular sighs are leafwinds
Stripping the coloredbranches
Of her mind.

Sleep, Earth: the carved, wretched
Faces of pumpkins keep watch
Over our bedroom.

Sleep, Earth: this blanket of leaves
Will shield your skin from
The frosty air.

Sleep, Earth, sleep with me:
For the night is as lovely
As the day;

But the twilight is still more beautiful!

Freude, schöner Götterfunken!

Today, I performed Beethoven’s 9th symphony with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Westminster Symphonic Choir. The performance was spectacular. Each movement was introduced with an inspirational speech read by Avery Brooks (famous for portraying Capt. Benjamin Sisko on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), with the last movement preceded by “I Have a Dream,” by Martin Luther King Jr.

So, with that in mind, we began the last movement, which opens and closes with text by Friedrich Schiller: “Freude, schöner Götterfunken,” which means “Joy, beautiful God-spark.” Now, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the full text of the “Ode to Joy,” give it a read, albeit in translation:

Joy, beautiful God-spark

Daughter of Elysium,

We enter, drunk with fire,

Into your sanctuary, heavenly daughter!

Your magic reunites

What custom strictly divided.

All men become brothers,

Where your gentle wing rests.

Whoever has had the great fortune

To be a friend's friend,

Whoever has won a devoted wife,

Join in our jubilation!

Indeed, whoever can call even one soul,

His own on this earth!

And whoever was never able to, must creep

Tearfully away from this band!

Joy all creatures drink

At the breasts of nature;

All good, all bad

Follow her trail of roses.

Kisses she gave us, and wine,

A friend, proved in death;

Pleasure was given to the worm,

And the cherub stands before God.

Glad, as His suns fly

Through the Heaven's glorious design,

Run, brothers, your path,

Joyful, as a hero to victory.

Be embraced, millions!

This kiss for the whole world!

Brothers, above the starry canopy

Must a loving Father dwell.

Do you bow down, millions?

Do you sense the Creator, world?

Seek Him beyond the starry canopy!

Beyond the stars must He dwell.

Singing it in the context of civil rights and unification of mankind, it’s easy to see it as simply a proclamation of the brotherhood of mankind, which is how I’ve always thought of it until today. During the last moments of the symphony, the choir repeats the phrase “Freude, schöner Götterfunken” several times.

Suddenly, as the orchestra broke into a furious frenzy of jubilation in the final coda, it hit me like a ton of bricks: the Götterfunken—the divine spark of God in every person… that thing that makes us human! As a Christian, I believe that God is divinely singular and divinely plural… three in one. And I believe that as a creative being, God desires companionship of many beings like Himself, which is why humans (created in His image) likewise desire companionship and communion with one another. “Do you bow down, millions? Do you sense the Creator, world?”—surely, this drive for connection to each other is a self-evident proclamation of the existence of the creator!

Surely the day when all people will know both their fellow people and their creator will be the most joyous day of all… and Jesus taught exactly that when he named the two greatest commandments… love of God, love of neighbor.

To say that I experienced pure Joy upon realizing this truth today is no overstatement.

I'm almost certain she was only visible to me.

Today I watched an old woman wander through a grove of trees in the autumn wind. She crept along the path at a very slow pace, then stopped next to a statue of the Virgin Mary, looked around in all directions, and then slowly turned around and went back the way she came. There was a hill between her and I, and as she walked away, I watched her until her head descended beneath the horizon of the hill. I'm pretty much positive that she was the spirit of the forest.

Three ecstasies

A creature shrieks in the street tonight.
I sit and wonder if those shrieks are of ecstasy or pain or longing (or)...

For me there is often little difference [and so, I wonder]
Have I known pain in longing? (I must answer 'of course')

But more mysteriously:
Do I know the most exquisite ecstasy by feeling the most agonizing pain?

So strange that I always cry in sadness, happiness, and awe.

Corky

Back in high school, some friends and I "broke into" an old abandoned house out in the country. I hesitate to use the term "broke into" because the house really had been abandoned for some time, and the door was disintegrated enough that getting in didn't require breaking anything. The contents of the house were diverse.... it looked like it had been abandoned for at least 10 years, and the woman who had lived there (we believe her name was Josephine) was quite elderly, and probably suffering from Alzheimer's disease, judging from the level of organization.

The visit was really unspectacular, but it's always stuck in my mind as being rather otherworldly... strangely quiet and disjointed from the world. For some reason, I picked up a letter from the kitchen table that was still folded nicely in its envelope. I don't remember reading it at the time (it's quite long), and I must have set it aside after I got home that evening.

Anyway, I found it this summer when cleaning out my old bedroom for the last time. You can see some of the other treasures I found in earlier posts....

This one is really special, though, which is one reason I waited until now to post it. First of all, the return address has a house number and city, but no name. The letter itself is signed only "Sis". So I have no ideal who this is from. It's postmarked January, 1974 atop an 8-cent stamp that reads "LOVE" in bright red letters.

The contents of the letter are remarkably dramatic. Although "Sis" opens the letter with "I wish I had [...] news to write [...] but my life just isn't that exciting," she manages to describe in seven riveting pages her plans to coax a man named "Corky" into marrying her, her recent dabbling in architecture, her acquisition of an injured falcon (and a falconer's license), and her return to college. Sounds pretty exciting for a nameless women writing to her friend in rural Coldwater, MI.

The contents of the letter seem almost hilarious at first, but after one realizes that they are really and truly serious, they are actually pretty profound. It's really a testament to the mystery of life, and the beauty of individuality. I don't know this woman, and I probably never will. For all I know she could be dead. Or made up. But the letter is amazing. If you have a few minutes, read it. It's worth your time.

CLICK HERE TO READ IT

Before the Internet

This is what kids did before the internet. Pitiful.

Pocahontas

The post-college room cleaning has begun. Here are the first fruits. I have no idea where this came from. More to come soon.