Tuesday, October 20, 2009

The invisible bridge...


Well has the name of Pontifex been given

Unto the Church's head, as the chief builder

And architect of the invisible bridge

That leads from earth to heaven.


--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in The Golden Legend (Part V)

A certain day...


"A certain day became a presence to me;
there it was, confronting me--a sky, air, light:
a being. And before it started to descend
from the height of noon, it leaned over
and struck my shoulder as if with
the flat of a sword, granting me
honor and a task. The day's blow
rang out, metallic--or it was I, a bell awakened,
and what I heard was my whole self
saying and singing what it knew: I can."

--Denise Levertov, Variation on a Theme by Rilke

In the orchard




"She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last."


-- Willa Cather