Black & Whyte
Since I became uninstalled my emotional state seems to work on a toggle switch that can flip back and forth between opposite poles several times a minute.
There is no in-between. It's all black, or all white.
There's a piece in this morning's Globe & Mail Careers section about the work of poet David Whyte, author of The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America.
Whyte quotes from two poems that perfectly illustrate the diametric ends of my mood spectrum:
- Black -
"In the middle of the road of my life,
I awoke in a dark wood,
Where the true way was wholly lost."
- the opening lines of Dante's Divine Comedy
- White -
"How should I not be glad to contemplate
The clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
And a high tide reflected on the ceiling.
There will be dying, there will be dying, But there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
And the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
And the far cities are beautiful and bright
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
Watching the day break and the clouds flying
Everything is going to be all right."
- by Derek Mahon
Last couple of days, I think I'm leaning more towards Mahon...
There is no in-between. It's all black, or all white.
There's a piece in this morning's Globe & Mail Careers section about the work of poet David Whyte, author of The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America.
Whyte quotes from two poems that perfectly illustrate the diametric ends of my mood spectrum:
- Black -
"In the middle of the road of my life,
I awoke in a dark wood,
Where the true way was wholly lost."
- the opening lines of Dante's Divine Comedy
- White -
"How should I not be glad to contemplate
The clouds clearing beyond the dormer window
And a high tide reflected on the ceiling.
There will be dying, there will be dying, But there is no need to go into that.
The poems flow from the hand unbidden
And the hidden source is the watchful heart.
The sun rises in spite of everything
And the far cities are beautiful and bright
I lie here in a riot of sunlight
Watching the day break and the clouds flying
Everything is going to be all right."
- by Derek Mahon
Last couple of days, I think I'm leaning more towards Mahon...
