Enga mellom fjella

Mourning, mourning cloak. One eternal morning.

I guess we shouldn't mourn excessively. I do and I can attest to how the resulting depression sucks me down like quicksand. My poem today and quote reflect on mourning. My poem: a lament. The quote: how one shouldn't wallow in sadness.

I use the image of a "mourning cloak". It's the state insect of Montana, known as Camberwell Beauty on the other side of the pond, or sørgekåbe/sørgekåpe/sorgmantel in Scandinavia where it is common.

Wiki-article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nymphalis_antiopa

youtube and poetry

The mourning cloak butterfly on YouTube:

(very short but well shot) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu9icj6hIyk&feature=related
(shows how they blend into environment) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T_2GE21QtQ&feature=related
(from California in high definition [my computer can't handle it well]): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y54_Du9ZE8I&fmt=22

An interesting instrumental (no visual) from Canada: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m4EWt2VQ-o

A verse from a poem:

Come, mourning cloak, and settle on my hand
a touch of grace in grief. You mourn
for spring and summer, for the dying land
and I, the dead, the suffering, the unborn.

~ Tiel Aisha Ansari, an excerpt found at: http://knockingfrominside.blogspot.com/2006/10/mourning-cloak.html

May Swenson (1913-1989) wrote "Unconscious came a beauty" in the form of a mourning cloak. It appeared in the New Yorker in June 22, 1968 which means that on-line it cannot be found without paying for the privilege. Her poetry is known for a mix of nature and sexuality. Born and buried in Logan, Utah, her self-avowed lesbian inclination doesn't seem to show up on the Utah websites. Imagine that!

One eternal morning

I sat in mourning
cloak and camas fields,
pale moon buttercups and
snowdrop stars.

I grieved your passing
from my life, could wait
no longer.

Now,
sun slants higher
as my roots dig deeper
until they breach Earth's core.

Perhaps some warmth remains
there from your presence.
Perhaps no more.

© 2009 Kåre Enga [165.475] 2009-03-06

Another 50-word poem. The line breaks mourning/cloak and passing/ are intentional to give weight to those two words essential to this poem. It speaks to me of Spring and 'death' of a relationship. When I scribbled the first two lines in my notepad the line break mourning/cloak intrigued me so I kept it and the poem flowed from there. I'm not certain about the title; that may change.

blAH-blAH-blAH:

Friday afternoon I moseyed over to the library and edited and made copies of Michelle's poem "Tales told over scones and hot tea"  and gave copies to her (green, lime & orange, of course). The evening went well there, but I just didn't have any oomph left.

At Butterfly Herbs I composed a poem for Emily whose art work was featured on the walls.

Saturday: Le basketball game ... sat next to Linda who was a delight (even when she was cursing out the ref). Lady Griz won 70-60 and will host the Big Sky playoff. I did some blog reading then came back for the men's game which the Griz lost. The women's team is much better than the mediocre men this year. "Images": "After halftime at the basketball game"  and a poem: "Linda at the Lady Griz game" 

My writing has been going well this past week.

The snow clouds are drifting between the mountains in a dance with sunlight. Very beautiful. It is cold.

quote for the day

"Therefore be thou not disconsolate, do not languish, do not sigh, neither wail nor weep; for agitation and mourning deeply affect his soul in the divine realm." ~‘Abdu’l-Bahá

entire passage

O thou beloved maidservant of God, although the loss of a son is indeed heart-breaking and beyond the limits of human endurance, yet one who knoweth and understandeth is assured that the son hath not been lost but, rather, hath stepped from this world into another, and she will find him in the divine realm. That reunion shall be for eternity, while in this world separation is inevitable and bringeth with it a burning grief.

Praise be unto God that thou hast faith, art turning thy face toward the everlasting Kingdom and believest in the existence of a heavenly world. Therefore be thou not disconsolate, do not languish, do not sigh, neither wail nor weep; for agitation and mourning deeply affect his soul in the divine realm.

That beloved child addresseth thee from the hidden world: ‘O thou kind Mother, thank divine Providence that I have been freed from a small and gloomy cage and, like the birds of the meadows, have soared to the divine world—a world which is spacious, illumined, and ever gay and jubilant. Therefore, lament not, O Mother, and be not grieved; I am not of the lost, nor have I been obliterated and destroyed. I have shaken off the mortal form and have raised my banner in this spiritual world. Following this separation is everlasting companionship. Thou shalt find me in the heaven of the Lord, immersed in an ocean of light.’

Selections From the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá [171]

Montana: 28º at 14:00

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