The great affair, the love
affair with life,
is to live as variously as possible,
to groom one's curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred,
climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day.
Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding,
and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours,
life will seem to have none of its magnificent geography, only a length.
is to live as variously as possible,
to groom one's curiosity like a high-spirited thoroughbred,
climb aboard, and gallop over the thick, sun-struck hills every day.
Where there is no risk, the emotional terrain is flat and unyielding,
and, despite all its dimensions, valleys, pinnacles, and detours,
life will seem to have none of its magnificent geography, only a length.
It began in mystery, and it
will end in mystery,
but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.
~ Diane Ackerman
~
("found poetry" from A Natural
History of the Senses)
Web archive of Panhala postings:
www.panhala.net/Archive/Index.html
To subscribe to Panhala, send a blank email to Panhala-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
(left button to play, right button
to save)