Jon Carroll has a wonderful column today on love of a musical instrument, the violin, of love of playing music in a group, an orchestra.
Check it out: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/27/DDLF177VVL.DTL
I am still with Kay Ryan. We are told to feel our pain and happiness, to truly feel our anger, sorrow, and joy, and let it blow on through. The point is not to "hang on," to not stop movement, change, flow. I like this poem of hers on analyzing the darkness, on making it tangible.
It's Always Darkest Just Before the Dawn
But how dark
is darkest?
Does it get
jet - or tar -
black; does it
glint and increase
in hardness
or turn viscous?
Are there stages
of darkness
and chips
to match against
its increments,
holding them
up to our blindness,
estimating when
we'll have the
night behind us?
- Kay Ryan
