I'm moving to a new blog site - check it out and bookmark it! It should be growing into something very me and a little more polished and mature. Hopefully I will use it intelligently for the development of my life's writing ;)
Thanks.
new website for 'nareia' is now 'idiolalia' (a private or invented language) at wordpress ~
PLEASE VISIT :
http://idiolalia.wordpress.com/
2011-10-29
2010-09-30
:To Still the Striving:
Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendour of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, its message becomes meaningless. ~ abraham heschel
"i have not been called to be successful... but only to be faithful." ~ mother theresa
the nature of faith, true faith, is a mystery to me, excepting that i have experienced it. on rare occasion it felt pure ~ it is like... peace. Being faith-full _is_ being faithful to what you've been given to work with, and we have all been given enough somehow, i think, to Believe in Life and move forward as faithful people, whether we have "all the information" or not / Being faithful is Being, being _connected_ (oneness... with all the pieces of one's life?) How many people, i wonder, live ---INTEGRATED--- "
(sept7,04)
To Still The Striving: Lily
even the lilies of the field
have growth pains-- bursts of
desire:
the touch of sunlight
the nearness of neighbor
the feel of whisping grasses.
their bells, like ears, enjoy
a perpetual tide of soft change:
a)n almost im(perceptible music.
remember sped-up science videos
of growth, of opening flowers?
remember how sometimes
tiny bits of struggling botany got stuck
together? how stretching meant
^ sep ^ par ^ rat ^ ting ^
things that were tangled, meant delicately
detaching disbalanced (s)well(s) where
process had outgrown symmetry, where
millions of the infinite places
flesh|metselfsame|flesh sought freedom
such that still only one remained,
more glorious than had it ceased its struggle.
slowly. silently. quietly content,
tongued petals unfurl.
reach out. invert themselves
vulnerably to elemental warmth,
nature's nourishing.
see? the lilies of the field
desire,
but worry not:
they are content in sure hope,
for our Creator is a loving provider.
why seek the discontented destruction of trust
in unachievable self-sufficiency?
Let Us Be
Still.
marykathryn gough/ edit.jan30.06 / edit.sept30.10
Not consecrated service, but concentrated. Consecration would soon be changed into sanctification if we would only concentrate on what God wants. Concentration means pinning down the four corners of the mind until it is settled on what God wants. The literal interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount is child's play; the interpretation by the Holy Spirit is the stern work on a saint, and it requires concentration. ~ oswald chambers
2009-09-17
Love Divine
Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down;
Fix in us thy humble dwelling;
All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love Thou art;
Visit us with Thy salvation;
Enter every trembling heart.
Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit,
Into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit;
Let us find that second rest.
Take away our bent to sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
End of faith, as its Beginning,
Set our hearts at liberty.
Come, Almighty to deliver,
Let us all Thy life receive;
Suddenly return and never,
Never more Thy temples leave.
Thee we would be always blessing,
Serve Thee as Thy hosts above,
Pray and praise Thee without ceasing,
Glory in Thy perfect love.
Finish, then, Thy new creation;
Pure and spotless let us be.
Let us see Thy great salvation
Perfectly restored in Thee;
Changed from glory into glory,
Till in heaven we take our place,
Till we cast our crowns before Thee,
Lost in wonder, love, and praise.
~Charles Wesley, 1747
O love divine! no soul has e’erThy wondrous depths explored;
O priceless gift! we fain would have
Thy riches on us poured.
Let mortals join with all their might,
Let earth and heaven both unite
To sing thy praise both day and night—
The half can ne’er be told.
O love divine, what treasures yet
Within Thy coffers lie!
The gold and silver of the earth
Would not Thy riches buy.
E’en though the sands upon the shore
Of every sea should turn to ore
Of choicest metal, ’twere no more
Than naught compared to Thee.
O love divine, in Thee our souls
Eternal pleasures find,
Surpassing all that earth could give,
Were all its pow’rs combined.
Thy music sweet we love to sing,
Our spirits e’er to thee would cling,
An off’ring now of praise we bring,
In humble sacrifice.
O love divine, ’tis wonderful
That mortals here below
May share thy grace most excellent,
Thy wondrous power know!
Around our hearts fore’er entwine,
And let Thy beauties in us shine,
That we may be, O love divine,
Completely lost in Thee.
~Echoes from Heaven, 1976 / Faith Publishing House
=======================================
At the risk of sounding old-fashioned (or straight out of the 70s)
Let us Love, Lord. Let us Love with Your Love so
unique, so powerful and wise.
Let us Love like a devoted Mother, a surprising
gift, a trustworthy friend, a beautiful sky, a merciful
victim, a deft and honorable surgeon, a hopeful
gardener, a firm Father, a loyal Child.
Let us Love sincerely in thought, word, and deed, seeing
how it weaves through all our spare time, making sure
to allow it all the room it desires, both earnestly and
unashamedly.
Let us Love one another
in His Love, together
with utter sincerity of heart!
~mkg sept 1 2009 19.31pm london
2007-11-20
>me;finite.
this realization hurts
in the breakingbackaching
heartchafing way that falling to
stone paths from high fences
makes one's ankles
scream -- electrified,
this unwonted epiphany.
as my finitude, so
fleshily r e a l
hits stonilyflatroad,
as i cry out
for the give
and sweet smell
of soil beneath my
feet(testament to
worldwithoutend),
my mind whirls, my heart
dances dirvishes(frenzied
repetition like a caged bird):
how to find
lifegivingRoot
in this
deathdealingplace?
my weakness burns.
11.19.2007
in the breakingbackaching
heartchafing way that falling to
stone paths from high fences
makes one's ankles
scream -- electrified,
this unwonted epiphany.
as my finitude, so
fleshily r e a l
hits stonilyflatroad,
as i cry out
for the give
and sweet smell
of soil beneath my
feet(testament to
worldwithoutend),
my mind whirls, my heart
dances dirvishes(frenzied
repetition like a caged bird):
how to find
lifegivingRoot
in this
deathdealingplace?
my weakness burns.
11.19.2007
2007-11-04
\--wings--/
i.
)watching wings, great w i d e
silverswimming wings overhead
drawing a single shadow
on the ground
in my heart of
hearts, darker
than the pupils of my eyes,
deepdoubletblueand
swimmingly azure with
unshed tears-- i believe that
when the heart tears it bleeds
brightskyblue(the origin
of worldly-wondrous colors
is far wider, far
more v a s t, more
i m m e n s e than anyone does
imagine,says
dreaming me)you
swam, silvery-smooth and
raylike: ~ .slow. ~
through the outpouring of
my He ^ art:
6
ii.
carried
upon that
flow, you must know
that the silver shadow
you(so swimmingly) cast
from above i
carried
heavily,
and its darkly-filled pattern
-:s -:p -:a -:n -:n -:e -:d
dimensions innumerable both
within and
without, was even
in the raindrops
each; and, picking up velocity,
substance, and shape, each also
took upon its nourishing form
the vague and hollow imprint of
remnantly-drawn
you,
through air,
cloud, and
increasing quantities of
Time.
iii.
then, a brightness all afresh left me
awash in newness of love and
wholeness of
blessing filled me with colors all
-hued and glorious: arrayed
and held within falling bits of
sky(mayday!,i had thought,as)
a rainbow's thick-banded jewel-
tones burst in upon my shadowed
consciousness in the midst of
grey rain (its colors putting me
in mind of Jerusalem's stones
reverberating); testimony
to sunshine
and the singularly alluring promise
of song in the skies(our
shamelessly brilliant Future ---
==========================
iv.
inexplicable, this heat
in my heart of hearts(achinglywithincasedinthesetearsmygratitude):
it claps its hands like choirs of angels
ascending and descending here
the sparkling jeweled steps of this stairway,
ladder into heavenly throning presence,
footsteps ringing(with the clear, ringing sounds
stones are yet humble enough to refrain from,
for us) for His incalculable worth. *Jerusalem!*
inarticulate, arrayed and held within falling
bits of sky(mayday!ihadthought,but)
Heaven visited that rare quarter-hour, sang from the skies
with shameless brilliance like i've never seen
before or since. one rainbow, thick-banded with deep
jewel-tones and a multitude coursing up and
down its eternally ungraspable, glorious
arch(mayday!ihadthought,butno)their steps
were sure, and it felt as though they held _me_
in their outstretched hands, as though their tongues
worshipfully transfigured my sorrow, bringing me
before my Maker. *Jerusalem!*
inchoate, even i know the exceptionless Christ was no
madman, but a lover. there is sharply, stunningly, widely
Truth in his tender care for those he loved, healed, taught,
walked with, rebuked, ate with, forgave, and challenged...
and in the purity of his depthless Center, that particular
untamable wholeness, fullness of Integrity(circumspection,
continuity)both bounded and described by love, how(?)could
gentleness with such loyalty, such *joy*
be anything but Peace? this shepherd's every act:
humility. no grasping
for power, for influence but rather a submission to More
than simply what human-he or any other wished:
abundance(was your blood, Emmanuel, peerlessly full
as this rainbow? your intercessions as raindrops
glittering in the light from the throning heavenlies?)...
Broken Lord, please! Remember me(servantKingwithoutequal)
when you come into your Kingdom! *Jerusalem!*
7/4/07 2.44 am scmnts. timvisit.
~(c) Marykathryn Huffman
draft iv
)watching wings, great w i d e
silverswimming wings overhead
drawing a single shadow
on the ground
in my heart of
hearts, darker
than the pupils of my eyes,
deepdoubletblueand
swimmingly azure with
unshed tears-- i believe that
when the heart tears it bleeds
brightskyblue(the origin
of worldly-wondrous colors
is far wider, far
more v a s t, more
i m m e n s e than anyone does
imagine,says
dreaming me)you
swam, silvery-smooth and
raylike: ~ .slow. ~
through the outpouring of
my He ^ art:
6
ii.
carried
upon that
flow, you must know
that the silver shadow
you
from above i
carried
heavily,
and its darkly-filled pattern
-:s -:p -:a -:n -:n -:e -:d
dimensions innumerable both
within and
without, was even
in the raindrops
each; and, picking up velocity,
substance, and shape, each also
took upon its nourishing form
the vague and hollow imprint of
remnantly-drawn
you,
through air,
cloud, and
increasing quantities of
Time.
iii.
then, a brightness all afresh left me
awash in newness of love and
wholeness of
blessing filled me with colors all
-hued and glorious:
and held within falling bits of
sky(mayday!,i had thought,as)
a rainbow's thick-banded jewel-
tones burst in upon my shadowed
consciousness in the midst of
grey rain (its colors putting me
in mind of Jerusalem's stones
reverberating); testimony
to sunshine
and the singularly alluring promise
of song in the skies(our
shamelessly brilliant Future ---
==========================
iv.
inexplicable, this heat
in my heart of hearts(achinglywithincasedinthesetearsmygratitude):
it claps its hands like choirs of angels
ascending and descending here
the sparkling jeweled steps of this stairway,
ladder into heavenly throning presence,
footsteps ringing(with the clear, ringing sounds
stones are yet humble enough to refrain from,
for us) for His incalculable worth. *Jerusalem!*
inarticulate, arrayed and held within falling
bits of sky(mayday!ihadthought,but)
Heaven visited that rare quarter-hour, sang from the skies
with shameless brilliance like i've never seen
before or since. one rainbow, thick-banded with deep
jewel-tones and a multitude coursing up and
down its eternally ungraspable, glorious
arch(mayday!ihadthought,butno)their steps
were sure, and it felt as though they held _me_
in their outstretched hands, as though their tongues
worshipfully transfigured my sorrow, bringing me
before my Maker. *Jerusalem!*
inchoate, even i know the exceptionless Christ was no
madman, but a lover. there is sharply, stunningly, widely
Truth in his tender care for those he loved, healed, taught,
walked with, rebuked, ate with, forgave, and challenged...
and in the purity of his depthless Center, that particular
untamable wholeness, fullness of Integrity(circumspection,
continuity)both bounded and described by love, how(?)could
gentleness with such loyalty, such *joy*
be anything but Peace? this shepherd's every act:
humility. no grasping
for power, for influence but rather a submission to More
than simply what human-he or any other wished:
abundance(was your blood, Emmanuel, peerlessly full
as this rainbow? your intercessions as raindrops
glittering in the light from the throning heavenlies?)...
Broken Lord, please! Remember me(servantKingwithoutequal)
when you come into your Kingdom! *Jerusalem!*
7/4/07 2.44 am scmnts. timvisit.
~(c) Marykathryn Huffman
draft iv
2007-06-06
.Continental, Love.
Continental, Love.
i would swallow mid-
ocean ridges, playing
sand-box
with its
f l o o r; i would reverse the
~drift~ of Continents, Love,
sewing lonesomeshelvestogetherwithmy
song -- perhaps, even, perhaps --
Yes. i would
i could pull Planets out of
Orbit with a poem, and
Galaxies off their
Axes, (if Grace would
allow)
love,
if it would
slide
me,you closer to
L o v e------>
(afterall, it's nothing
but earth now, isn't it
Sweet).
marykathryn huffman 12/8/06 7.40 pm santa cruz mtns.
draft iii 6/5/07 8.49 pm
==================================
so, it is approximately 9.30 pm, and since i can't find anything else to put in here at the moment (i've essentially cleared out my laptop and transferred it to my desktop, which is upstairs (yay), i am going to say that this has been an absolutely insane spring and i've loved every minute of it. well, not really every single little minute, but ... point being TIM AND I HAVE GOTTEN ENGAGED!!!!! AND HE'S COMING TO SEE ME IN JULY!!!!! (Joy To The World... well, to me anyway, and it may as well be Christmas -- oo he might be coming at Christmas too!) we got engaged march 26th, 2007, and we're to marry this coming january '08 Life is therefore maddening and temper-trying but WONDERFUL!!!!! *hugehugeGRIN* i should also put up a little picture of a couple of my favoritest little girls in all the world :) {sends hugs to cakes and twy}
must go ~ mum needs me....
love,
kate
i would swallow mid-
ocean ridges, playing
sand-box
with its
f l o o r; i would reverse the
~drift~ of Continents, Love,
sewing lonesomeshelvestogetherwithmy
song -- perhaps, even, perhaps --
Yes. i would
i could pull Planets out of
Orbit with a poem, and
Galaxies off their
Axes, (if Grace would
allow)
love,
if it would
slide
me,you closer to
L o v e------>
(afterall, it's nothing
but earth now, isn't it
Sweet).
marykathryn huffman 12/8/06 7.40 pm santa cruz mtns.
draft iii 6/5/07 8.49 pm
==================================
so, it is approximately 9.30 pm, and since i can't find anything else to put in here at the moment (i've essentially cleared out my laptop and transferred it to my desktop, which is upstairs (yay), i am going to say that this has been an absolutely insane spring and i've loved every minute of it. well, not really every single little minute, but ... point being TIM AND I HAVE GOTTEN ENGAGED!!!!! AND HE'S COMING TO SEE ME IN JULY!!!!! (Joy To The World... well, to me anyway, and it may as well be Christmas -- oo he might be coming at Christmas too!) we got engaged march 26th, 2007, and we're to marry this coming january '08
must go ~ mum needs me....
love,
kate
2007-02-17
Love effects faith and holds hope by overflowing with itself.
1 Corinthians 13
Love
1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the
gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and
if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am
nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to
the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not selfseeking, it is
not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not
delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects,
always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease;
where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is
knowledge, it will pass away. 9For we know in part and we prophesy in
part, 10but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11When I
was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned
like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.
12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see
face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I
am fully known.
13And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the
greatest of these is love.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89). Poems. 1918.
God’s Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.
“To the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.” 1 Timothy 1:17
2007-02-04
frightful night
can't sleep. i don't know what's wrong with me right now. but i'm going to turn out the light again and try to sleep soon. again. gah. i am rather wretched tonight.
born
an old woman
full of aches and pains; death
visited this child
early.
~marykathryn huffman
7/27/04
throat
flesh clenches,
strangling a cry, a
*wail*
of dark despair, crazed
helplessness and rage
a caged animal
stalking, crouched
eyes wild
muscles bunched
knowing there is no
breaking free and
suffering scars as it
sits
motionless: afraid---
i wail, and the tears fall freely
hot, but slow and constant
never stopping,stopping
throat clenches but still
i keen, rocking
rocking
rocking, i don't wish to face this
always,alwaysgive me a book and
sit me in the corner may i live in the
mountains with monks may i go wild
and live in the forest, bathe in the streams can i please may i FREE ME. i am tired of being scarred; a mass of fleshy blood and brain, i wish the status of the living but can never quite attain there's a slow death rattle i carry 'round on my back, crackling, popping, scratching, rattling out the approach of my demise. slow.... so slow.... father give me my new tent
~ romans 12 ~ 1 corinthians 13 ~
'O God, who didst send Thine only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to
live among men, who during His life was tempted in all points like as
we are, yet without sin; enable us to live as He lived. So fill us
with His Spirit that we may rise above the temptations that
continually beset us. Enable us to remain pure in heart, holy in our
motives, and clean in our living... "We would be true, for there are
those who trust us; we would be pure, for there are those who care; we
would be strong, for there is much to suffer; we would be brave, for
there is much to dare." Thou hast promised we should never be tempted
above that which we are able to bear. Fulfill in us Thy promise.
Through Christ we pray. Amen.'
~rev. harlin m. campbell.
born
an old woman
full of aches and pains; death
visited this child
early.
~marykathryn huffman
7/27/04
throat
flesh clenches,
strangling a cry, a
*wail*
of dark despair, crazed
helplessness and rage
a caged animal
stalking, crouched
eyes wild
muscles bunched
knowing there is no
breaking free and
suffering scars as it
sits
motionless: afraid---
i wail, and the tears fall freely
hot, but slow and constant
never stopping,stopping
throat clenches but still
i keen, rocking
rocking
rocking, i don't wish to face this
always,alwaysgive me a book and
sit me in the corner may i live in the
mountains with monks may i go wild
and live in the forest, bathe in the streams can i please may i FREE ME. i am tired of being scarred; a mass of fleshy blood and brain, i wish the status of the living but can never quite attain there's a slow death rattle i carry 'round on my back, crackling, popping, scratching, rattling out the approach of my demise. slow.... so slow.... father give me my new tent
~ romans 12 ~ 1 corinthians 13 ~
'O God, who didst send Thine only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to
live among men, who during His life was tempted in all points like as
we are, yet without sin; enable us to live as He lived. So fill us
with His Spirit that we may rise above the temptations that
continually beset us. Enable us to remain pure in heart, holy in our
motives, and clean in our living... "We would be true, for there are
those who trust us; we would be pure, for there are those who care; we
would be strong, for there is much to suffer; we would be brave, for
there is much to dare." Thou hast promised we should never be tempted
above that which we are able to bear. Fulfill in us Thy promise.
Through Christ we pray. Amen.'
~rev. harlin m. campbell.
2006-12-03
2006-10-30
billy collins quote
"As I'm writing, I'm always reader conscious... I have one reader in mind, someone who is in the room with me, and who I'm talking to, and I want to make sure I don't talk too fast, or too glibly. Usually I try to create a hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem. Stepping from the title to the first lines is like stepping into a canoe. A lot of things can go wrong... I think my work has to do with a sense that we are attempting, all the time, to create a logical, rational path through the day. To the left and right there are an amazing set of distractions that we usually can't afford to follow. But the poet is willing to stop anywhere. The ur-poem for this is Frost's 'Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.' There's no reason to stop there; the horse knows that. But the human is willing to stop for some reason that is beyond the comprehension of the horse. And it's that willingness to slow down and examine the mysterious bits of fluff in our lives that is the poet's interest." http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/121999collins-publish-war.html
There's a glory in everything around us, if we'd just let the Light leak out through pupils colored by irises formed by lives uniquely visioned... Being good caretakers -- of anything or anyone, earth or animal, leaf or human -- means putting something there that wasn't before.
Any good gardener notes his or her surroundings, the climate, the soil type, and natural tendencies of their very particular place -- so many feet or meters square... but then will apply vision, ingenuity, and experience such that color and texture and light are arranged just slightly -so- --- appealingly like home for a heart.
Rose-colored glasses are not necessary in life. Glory truly appears when we take our place. When we learn to love our place.
~mkh 11/1/06 8.51pm santa cruz mtns
2006-09-25
:El Mar:
neruda.... mmm. some of his stuff just astounds and continues to astound.
went to the ocean yesterday and ended up at a bookshop reading poetry for some time...
here's one of my favorite finds of the evening:
Deber del Poeta (the poet's obligation)
To whoever is not listening to the sea
this friday morning , to whoever is cooped up
in house or office, factory or woman
or street or mine or dry prison cell,
to him I come, and without speaking or looking
I arrive and open the door of his prison,
and a vibration starts up, vague and insistent,
a long rumble of thunder adds itself
to the weight of the planet and the foam,
the groaning rivers of the ocean rise,
the star vibrates quickly into its corona
and the sea beats, dies, and goes on beating.
So, drawn on by my destiny,
I ceaselessly must listen to and keep
the sea's lamenting in my consciousness,
I must feel the crash of the hard water
and gather it in a perpetual cup
so that, wherever those in prison may be,
wherever they suffer the sentence of the autumn,
I may be present with an errant wave,
I may move in and out of windows,
and hearing me,
eyes may lift themselves,
asking "How can I reach the sea?"
And I will pass to them, saying nothing,
the starry echoes of the wave
a breaking up of foam and quicksand,
a rustling of salt withdrawing itself,
the gray cry of sea birds on the coast.
So, through me, freesom and the sea
will call in answer to the shrouded heart.
~Pablo Neruda, "On the Blue Shore of Silence", trans. by Alastair Reid <--- a fabulous edition, though I haven't yet had a concentrated look at the translation, I will soon. I don't know who my favorite translator is really... Anyway, another of my fav poems in there is Strangers on the Shore....
The ocean has ever been my home, and it is a JOY to be back!!!
2006-05-30
:when the river runs ice:
Sometime when the river runs ice, ask me
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt -- ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
~William Stafford, "Ask Me"
The whole of silence is filled, even though
sounds can be heard, with a dense silence
which is not an absence of sound but is a
positive object of sensation; it is the secret
word, the word of love, who holds us
in his arms from the beginning. ~Letter
mistakes I have made. Ask me whether
what I have done is my life. Others
have come in their slow way into
my thought, and some have tried to help
or to hurt -- ask me what difference
their strongest love or hate has made.
I will listen to what you say.
You and I can turn and look
at the silent river and wait. We know
the current is there, hidden; and there
are comings and goings from miles away
that hold the stillness exactly before us.
What the river says, that is what I say.
~William Stafford, "Ask Me"
The whole of silence is filled, even though
sounds can be heard, with a dense silence
which is not an absence of sound but is a
positive object of sensation; it is the secret
word, the word of love, who holds us
in his arms from the beginning. ~Letter
95 Poems, 77
i am a little church(no great cathedral)
far from the splendor and squalor of hurrying cities
--i do not worry if briefer days grow briefest,
i am not sorry when sun and rain make april
my life is the life of the reaper and the sower;
my prayers are prayers of earth's own clumsily striving
(finding and losing and laughing and crying)children
whose any sadness or joy is my grief or my gladness
around me surges a miracle of unceasing
birth and glory and death and resurrection:
over my sleeping self float flaming symbols
of hope,and i wake to a perfect patience of mountains
i am a little church(far from the frantic
world with its rapture and anguish)at peace with nature
--i do not worry if longer nights grow longest;
i am not sorry when silence becomes singing
winter by spring,i lift my diminutive spire to
merciful Him Whose only now is forever:
standing erect in the deathless truth of His presence
(welcoming humbly His light and proudly His darkness)
2006-05-23
:growing pains:
impaled
on the sword of truth
how would you
fare?
cleaves soul from
flesh, flesh from
lie when lost to
truth it pierces
red, beating hearts,
iron tip tinged with
sweetness unbearable.
Desiring Peace
even the lilies of the field
have growth pains,
burst,
desire the touch
of sunlight, the nearness of neighbor
the feel of whisping grasses
the bells, like ears,
Listening to the music of their home.
slowly,
quietly content;
unfurl, reach out,
not anxious yet
Desiring:
the lilies of the field.
(Remember
videos of growing, opening flowers,
slow, gracious: Time-wise...
but sometimes bits are
stucktogetherand S t r e c h i n g
means separating things that are tangled,
detatching what has grown
from the many places where it meets itself.
and only One remains: Source.
(must be fed)
date? 2005 sometime...
1 john 4: 16-17
i am wanting courage to move again.
on the sword of truth
how would you
fare?
cleaves soul from
flesh, flesh from
lie when lost to
truth it pierces
red, beating hearts,
iron tip tinged with
sweetness unbearable.
Desiring Peace
even the lilies of the field
have growth pains,
burst,
desire the touch
of sunlight, the nearness of neighbor
the feel of whisping grasses
the bells, like ears,
Listening to the music of their home.
slowly,
quietly content;
unfurl, reach out,
not anxious yet
Desiring:
the lilies of the field.
(Remember
videos of growing, opening flowers,
slow, gracious: Time-wise...
but sometimes bits are
stucktogetherand S t r e c h i n g
means separating things that are tangled,
detatching what has grown
from the many places where it meets itself.
and only One remains: Source.
(must be fed)
date? 2005 sometime...
1 john 4: 16-17
i am wanting courage to move again.
2006-05-17
Stanley Kunitz
In honor of Stanley Kunitz
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pulitzer Prize-winner Stanley Kunitz, a former U.S. poet laureate remembered as a mentor to young writers and a devoted gardener, has died [Sunday May 14th, 2006] at the age of 100 in New York, his publisher said on Tuesday.... "You see that ability to make an experience so vivid and it translates somehow into the same capacity for understanding people's lives," Tree Swensen said....~Claudia Parsons
hm. poets are fascinating people. yep... need to read more poetry. don't know enough. could learn so much from them...
"Touch Me"
Summer is late, my heart.
Words plucked out of the air
some forty years ago
when I was wild with love
and torn almost in two
scatter like leaves this night
of whistling wind and rain.
It is my heart that's late,
it is my song that's flown.
Outdoors all afternoon
under a gunmetal sky
staking my garden down,
I kneeled to the crickets trilling
underfoot as if about
to burst from their crusty shells;
and like a child again
marveled to hear so clear
and brave a music pour
from such a small machine.
What makes the engine go?
Desire, desire, desire.
The longing for the dance
stirs in the buried life.
One season only,
and it's done.
So let the battered old willow
thrash against the windowpanes
and the house timbers creak.
Darling, do you remember
the man you married? Touch me,
remind me who I am.
Former US poet laureate Stanley Kunitz dies at age 100
2006-05-14
:ill matched threads:
ill-matched threads indeed. . . may i be blessed with the gift of weaving. and the ability to be grateful for these (terribly) raw materials. . . i wish i could be like this. ~me
She who reconciles the ill-matched threads
of her life, and weaves them gratefully
into a single cloth--
it's she who drives the loudmouths from the hall
and clears it for a different celebration
where the one guest is you.
In the softness of evening
it's you she receives.
You are the partner of her loneliness,
the unspeaking center of her monologues.
With each disclosure you encompass more
and she stretches beyond what limits her,
to hold you.
~R.M. Rilke
She who reconciles the ill-matched threads
of her life, and weaves them gratefully
into a single cloth--
it's she who drives the loudmouths from the hall
and clears it for a different celebration
where the one guest is you.
In the softness of evening
it's you she receives.
You are the partner of her loneliness,
the unspeaking center of her monologues.
With each disclosure you encompass more
and she stretches beyond what limits her,
to hold you.
~R.M. Rilke
2006-05-13
V a s t, this)night
==================
my ink Grows
greenly
in the deep blue Sea of
(V a s t, this)night.
sending roots
down deep, tendrils
up and out
-- a r OUnD
in anticipation of the break
(ing of soil,) of dawn and
s w e e t a i r ---|
but for now, Rest
satisfied in soily blackness; Rest
swept by weeping curtains of
Rain this night in the resorvoir.
you see,
you must understand: a river
runs, maze-like
within my flesh-- R - u - S - h
- e - S in, between,
t Hhr OU gH, over and
around my Veins
(--sTrAinIng--(but
not to bReAk; capillaries
coping, coping,
coping)with aged, Sorrowing Salt
...vein-deep blue
is my color yet.
and black, like the night of a
sightless embryo,
adrift in a windless sea.
==============
my ink Grows
with an Invisible
hue; its living color
fades into nightly
black-and-blue
Pain.
...feels like all the
growth is in
Vain.
3/2/05 1.52 pm
edit: 5.13.06 10.36 am london
edit: 5.13.06 5.39 pm london
===================
my ink Grows
greenly
in the deep blue Sea of
(V a s t, this)night.
sending roots
down deep, tendrils
up and out
-- a r OUnD
in anticipation of the break
(ing of soil,) of dawn and
s w e e t a i r ---|
but for now, Rest
satisfied in soily blackness; Rest
swept by weeping curtains of
Rain this night in the resorvoir.
you see,
you must understand: a river
runs, maze-like
within my flesh-- R - u - S - h
- e - S in, between,
t Hhr OU gH, over and
around my Veins
(--sTrAinIng--(but
not to bReAk; capillaries
coping, coping,
coping)with aged, Sorrowing Salt
...vein-deep blue
is my color yet.
and black, like the night of a
sightless embryo,
adrift in a windless sea.
==============
my ink Grows
with an Invisible
hue; its living color
fades into nightly
black-and-blue
Pain.
...feels like all the
growth is in
Vain.
3/2/05 1.52 pm
edit: 5.13.06 10.36 am london
edit: 5.13.06 5.39 pm london
===================
Every once in a while, life feels like you've been moon-walking to nowhere.
Sometimes seasons of our lives are like that. But turning the other side of the coin is possible-- and fatalism is such folly!
~*~**~*~
Sometimes seasons of our lives are like that. But turning the other side of the coin is possible-- and fatalism is such folly!
~*~**~*~
:Scarred Sky Weeping:
this cool breeze reaches me through crAcked
this window, freshly filled
my lungs, with oxgyen-laden
truths. my ears taste
tiny drops of rain, so many
millions hit smooth decking at
Once: jump,
lay still.
my senses are soothed, surrounded
by the joining of guitar chords dancing
heart-to-mind-to-fingers and the sound of
rain-drip-droping, pat-a-rat-tatting, sky
rushing grey, rolling clouds; the breeze
follows me, filling the vacuum left
by my leaving, slowly waving
branchedly knobbled arms
goodbye ~
somehow knowing
i cannot
stay.
~*~**~*~
God plants raindrops for me whenever I leave
a place, and one day
wild roses will rise, full of
color and life, and someone
else will enjoy
the smiling face of the sun, sharing a
hope in which I have(Here)
no deep-seated belief.
While I (irrevocably, irretreivably Here),
solidly set upon this aching earth(for what
i hardly yet know),
I often embrace this darkened sky's tears,
clouds veiling its face from cruelty,
from injustice: the lack-of-love this world
exudes. And yet
I dance also, dance among
drops of an annointing I have a whole Life yet
to understand in full.
)Grace and life are just around the corner, always,
in our pockets, in the eyes of the homeless,
the abused, the lost and weary -- if we could just
See the chemical change from death to life
occuring all around us
in every heart,
it would begin in our own...(
crAcked, they call me.
i feel Open, Open to join this wind, covering
the sky's scarred face
from further marring.
my love rests with the heart of this sorrowing sky; vast
compassion, she Understands, waits on the workings of
Salvation (which we insist
is already here, Universal.)Not true! Redemption is so
personal, so
unique and 'lone-- gloriously so-- and yet
Here i find the universe
is honest enough to Mourn
for the Broken. . .
{They Shall Be Comforted.}
11/03/05 12.01 pm
3/30/06 11.32 am London
5.13.06 6.36 pm London
2006-05-11
.:Nereid:.
:Rhode, long lost, reaches open Ocean:
rocks roaring on the rough-beaten coast,
and i, atop the highest possible point
--- gazing down.
the low, roiling roll drags
at my ears, my mind my
throat --- over
and over and over and over
and over; the silence rings
audibly, my gut stretched taut
as the substance of which I'm made
plucks at me, softly
lapping, saying 'Come',
then ---
backing away, slowly
~beckoning~
as it washes out (wave by wave) the defined feet
of criss-crossing birds and beasts --- ]hu[man's best friend,
four-legged, and the rays of He]lios[
who ought to have been my own companion... now
Obliterated:
smoothed.
Peace in my troubled mind.
...and then, again his long, low voice
crashes round me, plays
my heart strings with
Unutterably deep knowledge,
saying 'Come,
you belong here...
Creature of the Sea.'
10/27/05 5.02 pm
edit: 2/14/06 12.40 pm
edit: 5/11/06 3.22 pm london
~*~~**~~*~
Pablo Neruda
Poetry
And it was at that age ... Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.
I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names,
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire,
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.
And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.
rocks roaring on the rough-beaten coast,
and i, atop the highest possible point
--- gazing down.
the low, roiling roll drags
at my ears, my mind my
throat --- over
and over and over and over
and over; the silence rings
audibly, my gut stretched taut
as the substance of which I'm made
plucks at me, softly
lapping, saying 'Come',
then ---
backing away, slowly
~beckoning~
as it washes out (wave by wave) the defined feet
of criss-crossing birds and beasts --- ]hu[man's best friend,
four-legged, and the rays of He]lios[
who ought to have been my own companion... now
Obliterated:
smoothed.
Peace in my troubled mind.
...and then, again his long, low voice
crashes round me, plays
my heart strings with
Unutterably deep knowledge,
saying 'Come,
you belong here...
Creature of the Sea.'
10/27/05 5.02 pm
edit: 2/14/06 12.40 pm
edit: 5/11/06 3.22 pm london
~*~~**~~*~
Pablo Neruda
Poetry
And it was at that age ... Poetry arrived
in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where
it came from, from winter or a river.
I don't know how or when,
no they were not voices, they were not
words, nor silence,
but from a street I was summoned,
from the branches of night,
abruptly from the others,
among violent fires
or returning alone,
there I was without a face
and it touched me.
I did not know what to say, my mouth
had no way
with names,
my eyes were blind,
and something started in my soul,
fever or forgotten wings,
and I made my own way,
deciphering
that fire,
and I wrote the first faint line,
faint, without substance, pure
nonsense,
pure wisdom
of someone who knows nothing,
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened
and open,
planets,
palpitating plantations,
shadow perforated,
riddled
with arrows, fire and flowers,
the winding night, the universe.
And I, infinitesimal being,
drunk with the great starry
void,
likeness, image of
mystery,
felt myself a pure part
of the abyss,
I wheeled with the stars,
my heart broke loose on the wind.
2006-05-08
The Transcendental Deduction
3/9/04
Kant Journal 3
The Transcendental Deduction:
A Defense of the Objective Validity of the Categories of the Understanding
Kant takes up the defense of the objective validity of his 'categories of the understanding' in the very beginning of The Transcendental Analytic, laying out a ground for his thesis to stand on by shaping a kind of 'transcendental self-consciousness'. This transcendental self-consciousness is a consciousness that is able to look down from above in self-reflection, a capability that allows it the creative spontaneity needed to synthesize its apprehensions and all the separate, jumbled sense data it receives. His argument actually centers around the fact that these apprehensions are initially separate, jumbled, and in need of an ordering framework of rules if they are to have any meaning at all in my experience. A priori concepts provide that framework, allowing for all the separate data to become intelligible parts of my experience. As he states, “The transcendental deduction of all a priori concepts therefore has a principle toward which the entire investigation must be directed, namely this: that they must be recognized as a priori conditions of the possibility of experiences (whether of the intuition that is encountered in them, or of the thinking)." (p.224-225).
Kant says that any object, if it is to be an object of my experience, must conform to the conditions of my experience, my knowledge-gaining capacities and limitations—and further, that these conditions are themselves pure, a priori concepts. In first setting out to show that there is a pure synthesis of apprehension, one that originates in the subject, Kant introduces the transcendental faculty of the imagination. He shows how it functions and why it is necessary as a bridge between sensory perception and the understanding, explaining its place within the original, transcendental unity of apperception. This transcendental unity is able to make a whole out of what the imagination reproduces, each piece being referenced back and gathered to a single entity.
Kant holds that cognition is impossible without the spontaneous reproductions of representations by the imagination, or (in other words) knowledge can't come into being unless the imagination reconstructs for itself the manifold of available bits and pieces of raw sensory information it has received over time. We gather this information bit by bit as each present moment full of its own data passes into the next, becoming the past; without this faculty of the imagination allowing us to reproduce representations, the past sensory data we received would be lost to us and it wouldn’t be there for the transcendental self-consciousness (or ‘one’ consciousness) to incorporate into our present understanding, thus synthesizing a whole intelligible experience within the subject.
This transcendental faculty of the imagination is necessary for "even the purest and most fundamental representations of space and time [to] ever arise" (p.230). Take the example of a musical score. As it is played, we hear each note over a stretch of time, and each phrase over an even longer stretch of time. If we were only able to hold a single point of the music in our minds at any one point time however, lacking the imaginative faculty to reconstruct what had already gone by in order that they might be grouped together and connected into a whole, we would have no experience of music as we know it. No one momentary point of experience would ever remain with me to be made an intelligible part of my experience. Kant says that if,
“in counting, I forget that the units that now hover before my senses were successively added to each other by me, then I would not cognize the generation of a multitude through this successive addition of one to the other, and consequently I would not cognize the number; for this concept consists solely in the consciousness of this unity of the synthesis. The word "concept" itself could already lead us to this remark. For it is this one consciousness that unifies the manifold that has been successively intuited, and then also reproduced, into one representation” (p.230-231).
In examining the word concept and Kant’s use of it here, it becomes clear that it is a very important part of the deduction. Up to now he has been expounding on the necessity of the faculty of the imagination in order to pave the way to describe the transcendental self-consciousness and show that only with the collected data the imagination provides is it able to generate whole, understandable, and meaningful experience. He spends some time describing this ‘one consciousness’, and then grounds its ability to function in a priori concepts, showing that they are essential and absolutely necessary for the unification process to take place, and therefore for the fashioning of meaningful experience/ knowledge within the human mind.
In the end of the above quotation, he transitions into this description, saying “it is this one consciousness that unifies the manifold that has been successively intuited, and then also reproduced, into one representation” (p.231). And again, later on, it is
“that unity of consciousness that precedes all data of the intuitions, and in relation to which all representation of objects is alone possible. This pure, unchanging consciousness I will now name transcendental apperception… thus the original and necessary consciousness of the identity of oneself is at the same time a consciousness of an equally necessary unity of the synthesis of all appearances in accordance with concepts” (p.233, emphasis added).
The objects of my experience, as stated previously, in order to be such at all, must conform to the conditions inherent in the structure of my mind. "The unifying connection stems not from the object but from the subject, and (1) from a source of knowledge distinct from sensibility, which (2) is not receptive but itself active" (Höffe, p.76). This is classically Copernican— my experience originates within me, is shaped to my previous Being, and is created actively, rather than passively. This is achieved by making use of concepts as rules with which to unify and sculpt the gathered data into coherent wholes, the product of which action is the object of our experience. And hence, says Kant,
“concepts of objects in general lie at the ground of all experiential cognition as a priori conditions; consequently the objective validity of the categories, as a priori concepts, rests on the fact that through them alone is experience possible (as far as the form of thinking is concerned). For they then are related necessarily and a priori to objects of experience, since only by means of them can any object of experience be thought at all.” (p.224).
However, these concepts must be a priori in order to be used in this way, arising prior to experience. Otherwise they would have no authority from out of which to order experience. In this way it is made clear that Kant’s previously outlined ‘pure concepts of the understanding’ are necessary, bringing our everyday concepts into their most general, universal, and pure form: the categories of the understanding which make thought itself possible.
The categories make thought possible just as the pure concepts of space and time make intelligible experience (givenness) possible for me. Once one sees that the faculty of human understanding is essentially the same as the faculty of judgment, it becomes clearer why this is the case. With the pure concepts, we are able to have an initial grasp of certain properties and then move on to make judgments of the relationships existing between those properties ("the copula "is," which combines subject and predicate into the unity of a judgement" (Höffe, p.79)), i.e., thinking. And the making of inferences comes naturally right behind that, and thus the development of knowledge.
Kant says that the categories necessarily apply and has proceeded, in this objective deduction, to defend his position. The central piece that one finds oneself returning to again and again to explain why the categories do necessarily apply, is that we only experience representations of things, not things-in-themselves, and therefore experience is self-referential. We actively experience by reproducing the representations that appear to us with the imagination, then unifying those collected representations in our transcendental self-consciousness. The central piece is clearly revolutionary in the Copernican sense: that the experience is to be mine. The fact that we must use the already-existing (pure) concepts of the understanding as a rule by which to extract meaning from (and, might I say, inflict order on?) that which we observe is due to this. The understanding is, according to Kant,
"not merely a faculty for making rules through the comparison of appearances; it is itself the legislation for nature, i.e., without understanding there would not be any nature at all, i.e. synthetic unity of the manifold of appearances, as such, cannot occur outside us, but exist only in our sensbility" (p.242).
Once again, in order for any object to be an object of my experience, it must conform to the conditions of my experience, my knowledge-gaining capacities and limitations—and further, these conditions are themselves pure, a priori concepts .
Kant Journal 3
The Transcendental Deduction:
A Defense of the Objective Validity of the Categories of the Understanding
Kant takes up the defense of the objective validity of his 'categories of the understanding' in the very beginning of The Transcendental Analytic, laying out a ground for his thesis to stand on by shaping a kind of 'transcendental self-consciousness'. This transcendental self-consciousness is a consciousness that is able to look down from above in self-reflection, a capability that allows it the creative spontaneity needed to synthesize its apprehensions and all the separate, jumbled sense data it receives. His argument actually centers around the fact that these apprehensions are initially separate, jumbled, and in need of an ordering framework of rules if they are to have any meaning at all in my experience. A priori concepts provide that framework, allowing for all the separate data to become intelligible parts of my experience. As he states, “The transcendental deduction of all a priori concepts therefore has a principle toward which the entire investigation must be directed, namely this: that they must be recognized as a priori conditions of the possibility of experiences (whether of the intuition that is encountered in them, or of the thinking)." (p.224-225).
Kant says that any object, if it is to be an object of my experience, must conform to the conditions of my experience, my knowledge-gaining capacities and limitations—and further, that these conditions are themselves pure, a priori concepts. In first setting out to show that there is a pure synthesis of apprehension, one that originates in the subject, Kant introduces the transcendental faculty of the imagination. He shows how it functions and why it is necessary as a bridge between sensory perception and the understanding, explaining its place within the original, transcendental unity of apperception. This transcendental unity is able to make a whole out of what the imagination reproduces, each piece being referenced back and gathered to a single entity.
Kant holds that cognition is impossible without the spontaneous reproductions of representations by the imagination, or (in other words) knowledge can't come into being unless the imagination reconstructs for itself the manifold of available bits and pieces of raw sensory information it has received over time. We gather this information bit by bit as each present moment full of its own data passes into the next, becoming the past; without this faculty of the imagination allowing us to reproduce representations, the past sensory data we received would be lost to us and it wouldn’t be there for the transcendental self-consciousness (or ‘one’ consciousness) to incorporate into our present understanding, thus synthesizing a whole intelligible experience within the subject.
This transcendental faculty of the imagination is necessary for "even the purest and most fundamental representations of space and time [to] ever arise" (p.230). Take the example of a musical score. As it is played, we hear each note over a stretch of time, and each phrase over an even longer stretch of time. If we were only able to hold a single point of the music in our minds at any one point time however, lacking the imaginative faculty to reconstruct what had already gone by in order that they might be grouped together and connected into a whole, we would have no experience of music as we know it. No one momentary point of experience would ever remain with me to be made an intelligible part of my experience. Kant says that if,
“in counting, I forget that the units that now hover before my senses were successively added to each other by me, then I would not cognize the generation of a multitude through this successive addition of one to the other, and consequently I would not cognize the number; for this concept consists solely in the consciousness of this unity of the synthesis. The word "concept" itself could already lead us to this remark. For it is this one consciousness that unifies the manifold that has been successively intuited, and then also reproduced, into one representation” (p.230-231).
In examining the word concept and Kant’s use of it here, it becomes clear that it is a very important part of the deduction. Up to now he has been expounding on the necessity of the faculty of the imagination in order to pave the way to describe the transcendental self-consciousness and show that only with the collected data the imagination provides is it able to generate whole, understandable, and meaningful experience. He spends some time describing this ‘one consciousness’, and then grounds its ability to function in a priori concepts, showing that they are essential and absolutely necessary for the unification process to take place, and therefore for the fashioning of meaningful experience/ knowledge within the human mind.
In the end of the above quotation, he transitions into this description, saying “it is this one consciousness that unifies the manifold that has been successively intuited, and then also reproduced, into one representation” (p.231). And again, later on, it is
“that unity of consciousness that precedes all data of the intuitions, and in relation to which all representation of objects is alone possible. This pure, unchanging consciousness I will now name transcendental apperception… thus the original and necessary consciousness of the identity of oneself is at the same time a consciousness of an equally necessary unity of the synthesis of all appearances in accordance with concepts” (p.233, emphasis added).
The objects of my experience, as stated previously, in order to be such at all, must conform to the conditions inherent in the structure of my mind. "The unifying connection stems not from the object but from the subject, and (1) from a source of knowledge distinct from sensibility, which (2) is not receptive but itself active" (Höffe, p.76). This is classically Copernican— my experience originates within me, is shaped to my previous Being, and is created actively, rather than passively. This is achieved by making use of concepts as rules with which to unify and sculpt the gathered data into coherent wholes, the product of which action is the object of our experience. And hence, says Kant,
“concepts of objects in general lie at the ground of all experiential cognition as a priori conditions; consequently the objective validity of the categories, as a priori concepts, rests on the fact that through them alone is experience possible (as far as the form of thinking is concerned). For they then are related necessarily and a priori to objects of experience, since only by means of them can any object of experience be thought at all.” (p.224).
However, these concepts must be a priori in order to be used in this way, arising prior to experience. Otherwise they would have no authority from out of which to order experience. In this way it is made clear that Kant’s previously outlined ‘pure concepts of the understanding’ are necessary, bringing our everyday concepts into their most general, universal, and pure form: the categories of the understanding which make thought itself possible.
The categories make thought possible just as the pure concepts of space and time make intelligible experience (givenness) possible for me. Once one sees that the faculty of human understanding is essentially the same as the faculty of judgment, it becomes clearer why this is the case. With the pure concepts, we are able to have an initial grasp of certain properties and then move on to make judgments of the relationships existing between those properties ("the copula "is," which combines subject and predicate into the unity of a judgement" (Höffe, p.79)), i.e., thinking. And the making of inferences comes naturally right behind that, and thus the development of knowledge.
Kant says that the categories necessarily apply and has proceeded, in this objective deduction, to defend his position. The central piece that one finds oneself returning to again and again to explain why the categories do necessarily apply, is that we only experience representations of things, not things-in-themselves, and therefore experience is self-referential. We actively experience by reproducing the representations that appear to us with the imagination, then unifying those collected representations in our transcendental self-consciousness. The central piece is clearly revolutionary in the Copernican sense: that the experience is to be mine. The fact that we must use the already-existing (pure) concepts of the understanding as a rule by which to extract meaning from (and, might I say, inflict order on?) that which we observe is due to this. The understanding is, according to Kant,
"not merely a faculty for making rules through the comparison of appearances; it is itself the legislation for nature, i.e., without understanding there would not be any nature at all, i.e. synthetic unity of the manifold of appearances, as such, cannot occur outside us, but exist only in our sensbility" (p.242).
Once again, in order for any object to be an object of my experience, it must conform to the conditions of my experience, my knowledge-gaining capacities and limitations—and further, these conditions are themselves pure, a priori concepts .
Arg. for the Subjectivity of Space
2/27/04
Kant Journal 2
The Argument for the Subjectivity of Space
Kant believes that space, as we conceive of it, does not exist outside of our own minds. The shape of perceptions in the human mind are determined by the shape or constitution of that mind. Objects in the world appear to our minds as existing in the context of space simply because the human mind fixes on what is presented to it based on its own form, and one of the forms of human sensibility is space. This creates the 'illusion' of space existing externally in the objective world when really, according to Kant, it is an already-existing pure intuition of the mind which shapes our experience of sensory perception. Kant's most recognized argument for the subjectivity of space, the one that is most nearly acceptable to commentators, is the so-called argument from geometry. In the beginning of The Transcendental Aesthetic, he lays out the defining boundaries of the argument and explains the terms he will be using and exactly what space is and is not in his estimation of things. He then moves on to the structure of the argument itself.
Kant explains that 'space' is "to be regarded as the condition of the possibility of appearances, not as a determination dependent on them, and is an a priori representation that necessarily grounds outer appearances" (B 39, emphasis added). He focuses on geometric principles in particular, explaining that they would be impossible if they were not "grounded in this a priori necessity. For if this representation of space were a concept acquired a posteriori which was drawn out of general outer experience, the first principles of mathematical determination would be nothing but perceptions" (B39). Once this is clearly seen, it makes perfect sense that Kant wants to make "the possibility of geometry as a synthetic a priori cognition comprehensible" in this argument; doing so will have the very implications he wishes to prove for space itself (p.176 emphasis added).
Kant begins by positing geometry as an existing and valid science-- a move no one would dare dispute or even hold a hope of disproving. However in the same breath he describes it as "a science that determines the properties of space synthetically and yet a priori," and though most scholars of his day would have allowed that it did so a priori, most would have denied its synthetic nature (p.176, emphasis added). We can tell that geometrical propositions are gleaned a priori and therefore originate in intuition, Kant says, because they are all "apodictic, i.e. combined with consciousness of their necessity" (B41).
Geometry's synthetic nature is shown in that its principles go beyond the intitial, analytic concepts they begin with in a way that understanding simply cannot achieve singlehandedly (although it certainly plays a part in bringing together the manifold and exposing the relations geometry explores). This going beyond of geometrical judgments can only be achieved through the intuition of space as an infinite individual. Kant holds that space is apprehended through intuition and not through concepts. This is because in the formation of concepts we go from individual instances to universals; this is how we apprehend properties. In pure intuitions, however, we go from an immediate grasp of a universal whole to particular instances. This is how we apprehend individuals. We apprehend space in this way: as a huge, infinite, whole (or individual) of which we grasp only certain faces at any given time. In order to place any of these particular faces, a context must first be given, because without a context they could not exist in our minds at all. Therefore space is an infinite individual.
According to Kant then, geometrical propositions, or judgements, cannot be gained only through concepts. And because such propositions come a priori from out of intuition we see that-- necessarily-- our cognition of space must stem from pure intuition as well. This now more clearly synthetic yet a priori gathering of geometrical knowledge is therefore accomplished by drawing upon and combining both pure sensibility and understanding.
Space is, according to Kant, "merely the form of all appearances of outer sense, i.e., the subjective condition of sensibility, under which alone outer intuition is possible for us" (p.177). There are two parts to sensibility: matter and form. Form can be separated from experience because, although it relies upon experience in terms of original source (i.e. we can only imagine combinations of things which we have had some experience with before), "that within which the sensations can alone be ordered and placed in a certain form cannot itself be in turn sensation" (p. 173). Thus we see that matter is "only given to us a posteriori, but its form must all lie ready for it in the mind a priori, and can therefore be considered separately from all sensation" (p.173). The idea is that pure sensibility, stripped of its experiential trappings is pure intuition, and that it is through this intuition that (as our formal constitution dictates) we are affected by objects. Sensibility, as a part of this formal constitution, "is a necessary condition of all the relations within which objects can be intuited as outside us" (p.177). Sourced in sensibility, this outer intuition 'has its seat in the subject', 'inhabiting [its] mind' (p.176) and enabling it to bring an immediate representation to the subject's understanding of the form of the outer objects (p.177). Sensibility being a necessary condition of all relations simply refers to Kant's original thesis, that without sensibility (the existence of which rests in the human and its subjective standpoint), space would be meaningless. Objects in the world appear to our minds as existing in the context of space simply because the human mind fixes on what is presented to it based on its own form; the shape of perceptions in the human mind are determined by the shape or constitution of that mind. This creates the illusion of space existing externally in the objective world when Kant would say it is an already-existing pure intuition of the mind which shapes our experience of sensory perception. In other words, space is subjective.
I think that the argument Kant makes here for the subjectivity of space is very good, as far as such an argument goes. Yet there are several particularly weak points-- for example, his assumption of Euclidean geometry and his position regarding the necessity of intuition. They seem to sort of sneak in, unproven, taken for granted. I don't believe these weak points are simply weak arguments: I think they are pure assumption. I do, however, feel very daunted by the task of trying to explain something which I found lacking (me!) in the amazing work of such a great mind. Since you ask it, I will attempt it-- and also try to construct possible solutions, given the pieces Kant has provided, to the holes I percieve in my reading of the text. But... please don't expect too much! I am truly embarrassed by this part of the assignment...
I was left rather unsatisfied with his use of geometry as an example of mathematics. The secondary text by Ottfried Höffe helped me incredibly with its explanation about the difference between pure mathematics and applied mathematics. Kant seemed to waver between these though, not making consistent use of them even within the structure of his argument. The distinction proposed by Höffe (62) between the three levels of spatiality (transcendental spatiality, mathematical space, and physical space) was also quite useful in understanding the level where Kant felt himself to be working. "Each of the succeeding levels depends upon the preceding without being derivable from it," Höffe says, further stating that in any case, "mere spatiality is not yet the object of geometry.
This object comes to be only by means of the objectification of spatiality; through imagination and by declaration the mathematician conceives the mere form of intuition as an obejct in its own right with certain structural characteristics, which he studies free from experience in the context of pure geometry. An unbridgeable difference exists between space as a transcendental condition and space as an object of geometry... Mathematical and physical propositions do not have transcendental significance, but only-- on a deeper level-- their conditions, which according to the Copernican revolution lie in the "constitution" of the knowing subject free of all experience" (p.61)
I don't know. I need to think about this more to really have an idea about it. I don't know how to talk about it. But that passage really helped me sort some things out, at least.
Kant's terse proof left me wondering as to other things as well, such as what the reason was for his seeming ignorance of non-Euclidean geometry. It had been discovered already by the time he wrote The Critique of Pure Reason, and I cannot believe that he didn't know about it. In fact Höffe states that he acknowledged it in his treatise Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (Höffe, 61). So why did he purposively limit his work in this way? It would seem (on sixth or seventh glance, if one tries to reconcile it with his philosophy as a whole), that Kant believes the human mind to have the form of Euclidean geometry and to be unable, therefore, to comprehend in full or make use of any other kind of geometry. If our minds are 'shaped' like Euclidean geometry, so to speak, then we can only pick up, synthesize, and understand that which fits the mold. This sounds somewhat like wishful thinking, but at least it makes the limitation cohere with the rest of his thought.
We theorize a lot about non-Euclidean geometries; mathematicians have explored the idea for years that perhaps we are not limited to Euclid's geometry. I don't know much about the higher levels of mathematics (though they have always fascinated me), but aren't we finding that non-Euclidean geometries do, in fact, have physical applications? This would be a problem, since Kant made no allowances for this in his philosophy. There's no room for it. He admitted that he was not ignorant of the idea, he simply felt that the human mind held the form of Euclidean geometry only, and that it dictated what we were capable of seeing as real. Kant was sort of gnostic about what was 'out there' apart and away from the human standpoint, stating that "since we cannot make the special conditions of sensibility into conditions of the possibility of things, but only of their appearances, we can well say that space comprehends all things that may appear to us externally, but not all things in themselves" (p.177). The only relevant thing to him was what we experience, or intuit directly. But the question now is whether we can really say any longer that the only perceived space is Euclidean space? .... (concl. cut)
Kant Journal 2
The Argument for the Subjectivity of Space
Kant believes that space, as we conceive of it, does not exist outside of our own minds. The shape of perceptions in the human mind are determined by the shape or constitution of that mind. Objects in the world appear to our minds as existing in the context of space simply because the human mind fixes on what is presented to it based on its own form, and one of the forms of human sensibility is space. This creates the 'illusion' of space existing externally in the objective world when really, according to Kant, it is an already-existing pure intuition of the mind which shapes our experience of sensory perception. Kant's most recognized argument for the subjectivity of space, the one that is most nearly acceptable to commentators, is the so-called argument from geometry. In the beginning of The Transcendental Aesthetic, he lays out the defining boundaries of the argument and explains the terms he will be using and exactly what space is and is not in his estimation of things. He then moves on to the structure of the argument itself.
Kant explains that 'space' is "to be regarded as the condition of the possibility of appearances, not as a determination dependent on them, and is an a priori representation that necessarily grounds outer appearances" (B 39, emphasis added). He focuses on geometric principles in particular, explaining that they would be impossible if they were not "grounded in this a priori necessity. For if this representation of space were a concept acquired a posteriori which was drawn out of general outer experience, the first principles of mathematical determination would be nothing but perceptions" (B39). Once this is clearly seen, it makes perfect sense that Kant wants to make "the possibility of geometry as a synthetic a priori cognition comprehensible" in this argument; doing so will have the very implications he wishes to prove for space itself (p.176 emphasis added).
Kant begins by positing geometry as an existing and valid science-- a move no one would dare dispute or even hold a hope of disproving. However in the same breath he describes it as "a science that determines the properties of space synthetically and yet a priori," and though most scholars of his day would have allowed that it did so a priori, most would have denied its synthetic nature (p.176, emphasis added). We can tell that geometrical propositions are gleaned a priori and therefore originate in intuition, Kant says, because they are all "apodictic, i.e. combined with consciousness of their necessity" (B41).
Geometry's synthetic nature is shown in that its principles go beyond the intitial, analytic concepts they begin with in a way that understanding simply cannot achieve singlehandedly (although it certainly plays a part in bringing together the manifold and exposing the relations geometry explores). This going beyond of geometrical judgments can only be achieved through the intuition of space as an infinite individual. Kant holds that space is apprehended through intuition and not through concepts. This is because in the formation of concepts we go from individual instances to universals; this is how we apprehend properties. In pure intuitions, however, we go from an immediate grasp of a universal whole to particular instances. This is how we apprehend individuals. We apprehend space in this way: as a huge, infinite, whole (or individual) of which we grasp only certain faces at any given time. In order to place any of these particular faces, a context must first be given, because without a context they could not exist in our minds at all. Therefore space is an infinite individual.
According to Kant then, geometrical propositions, or judgements, cannot be gained only through concepts. And because such propositions come a priori from out of intuition we see that-- necessarily-- our cognition of space must stem from pure intuition as well. This now more clearly synthetic yet a priori gathering of geometrical knowledge is therefore accomplished by drawing upon and combining both pure sensibility and understanding.
Space is, according to Kant, "merely the form of all appearances of outer sense, i.e., the subjective condition of sensibility, under which alone outer intuition is possible for us" (p.177). There are two parts to sensibility: matter and form. Form can be separated from experience because, although it relies upon experience in terms of original source (i.e. we can only imagine combinations of things which we have had some experience with before), "that within which the sensations can alone be ordered and placed in a certain form cannot itself be in turn sensation" (p. 173). Thus we see that matter is "only given to us a posteriori, but its form must all lie ready for it in the mind a priori, and can therefore be considered separately from all sensation" (p.173). The idea is that pure sensibility, stripped of its experiential trappings is pure intuition, and that it is through this intuition that (as our formal constitution dictates) we are affected by objects. Sensibility, as a part of this formal constitution, "is a necessary condition of all the relations within which objects can be intuited as outside us" (p.177). Sourced in sensibility, this outer intuition 'has its seat in the subject', 'inhabiting [its] mind' (p.176) and enabling it to bring an immediate representation to the subject's understanding of the form of the outer objects (p.177). Sensibility being a necessary condition of all relations simply refers to Kant's original thesis, that without sensibility (the existence of which rests in the human and its subjective standpoint), space would be meaningless. Objects in the world appear to our minds as existing in the context of space simply because the human mind fixes on what is presented to it based on its own form; the shape of perceptions in the human mind are determined by the shape or constitution of that mind. This creates the illusion of space existing externally in the objective world when Kant would say it is an already-existing pure intuition of the mind which shapes our experience of sensory perception. In other words, space is subjective.
I think that the argument Kant makes here for the subjectivity of space is very good, as far as such an argument goes. Yet there are several particularly weak points-- for example, his assumption of Euclidean geometry and his position regarding the necessity of intuition. They seem to sort of sneak in, unproven, taken for granted. I don't believe these weak points are simply weak arguments: I think they are pure assumption. I do, however, feel very daunted by the task of trying to explain something which I found lacking (me!) in the amazing work of such a great mind. Since you ask it, I will attempt it-- and also try to construct possible solutions, given the pieces Kant has provided, to the holes I percieve in my reading of the text. But... please don't expect too much! I am truly embarrassed by this part of the assignment...
I was left rather unsatisfied with his use of geometry as an example of mathematics. The secondary text by Ottfried Höffe helped me incredibly with its explanation about the difference between pure mathematics and applied mathematics. Kant seemed to waver between these though, not making consistent use of them even within the structure of his argument. The distinction proposed by Höffe (62) between the three levels of spatiality (transcendental spatiality, mathematical space, and physical space) was also quite useful in understanding the level where Kant felt himself to be working. "Each of the succeeding levels depends upon the preceding without being derivable from it," Höffe says, further stating that in any case, "mere spatiality is not yet the object of geometry.
This object comes to be only by means of the objectification of spatiality; through imagination and by declaration the mathematician conceives the mere form of intuition as an obejct in its own right with certain structural characteristics, which he studies free from experience in the context of pure geometry. An unbridgeable difference exists between space as a transcendental condition and space as an object of geometry... Mathematical and physical propositions do not have transcendental significance, but only-- on a deeper level-- their conditions, which according to the Copernican revolution lie in the "constitution" of the knowing subject free of all experience" (p.61)
I don't know. I need to think about this more to really have an idea about it. I don't know how to talk about it. But that passage really helped me sort some things out, at least.
Kant's terse proof left me wondering as to other things as well, such as what the reason was for his seeming ignorance of non-Euclidean geometry. It had been discovered already by the time he wrote The Critique of Pure Reason, and I cannot believe that he didn't know about it. In fact Höffe states that he acknowledged it in his treatise Thoughts on the True Estimation of Living Forces (Höffe, 61). So why did he purposively limit his work in this way? It would seem (on sixth or seventh glance, if one tries to reconcile it with his philosophy as a whole), that Kant believes the human mind to have the form of Euclidean geometry and to be unable, therefore, to comprehend in full or make use of any other kind of geometry. If our minds are 'shaped' like Euclidean geometry, so to speak, then we can only pick up, synthesize, and understand that which fits the mold. This sounds somewhat like wishful thinking, but at least it makes the limitation cohere with the rest of his thought.
We theorize a lot about non-Euclidean geometries; mathematicians have explored the idea for years that perhaps we are not limited to Euclid's geometry. I don't know much about the higher levels of mathematics (though they have always fascinated me), but aren't we finding that non-Euclidean geometries do, in fact, have physical applications? This would be a problem, since Kant made no allowances for this in his philosophy. There's no room for it. He admitted that he was not ignorant of the idea, he simply felt that the human mind held the form of Euclidean geometry only, and that it dictated what we were capable of seeing as real. Kant was sort of gnostic about what was 'out there' apart and away from the human standpoint, stating that "since we cannot make the special conditions of sensibility into conditions of the possibility of things, but only of their appearances, we can well say that space comprehends all things that may appear to us externally, but not all things in themselves" (p.177). The only relevant thing to him was what we experience, or intuit directly. But the question now is whether we can really say any longer that the only perceived space is Euclidean space? .... (concl. cut)
2006-05-07
Toni Morrison ~ Beloved
~Free-Write Response to Morrison's Beloved~
Red. The Hated. Manifestation of Desire. Passion which pulls so many into its pool: helpless, raging, drowning, dying. . . Rememory refusing its offering again and again, finding healing in grey, in brown, in blue, and black, black-and-blue--- Pain: my salvation (long, dark corridor to ressurrection!).
Our every carmine heart is hidden. Hidden for a reason. You can't put your finger on it, can't but wave with absent conviction at a swirl of smoke, of dust, and say there, there it lies. Beneath, around, *within*. . . Substance barely there. But there, nonetheless. . . What hides it, I wonder? Could we be thwarting ourselves?
When I was a teenager, my mother tried to bring me out of my shell by dressing me in beautiful, rich folds of Red fabric. She loved the way it looked against my pale skin and golden hair, the way it made my eyes (with their deeply blue rootedness-- in something, somewhere back behind me, maybe it was my past) jump out and bite you. She had a dress made of this soft, dewy, carmine velvet, a dress most girls would have killed for, and people who saw it said most guys would have killed to see me in it. But it hung in my closet for years, learning the shape of its thin, hard, bare hanger, abandoned and lonely-- and I know my mother shed tears over the waste. Over the rejection-- the split she saw happening within me.
I walked through Junior High and High School, proudly, invisibly-- velvet myself, such that people's vision blurred when they looked at me, and their memories covered over the blurs or ignored them. I made them work *hard* to rememory me. Faded, I wore tan, brown, grey, blues-- and on bold days, black. Unobtrusive and obscure, I made myself scarce, and lived in an inner world haunted by my past and my pain. No one else need know about my struggle. I walked about, proudly. Invisibly. Separate.
I did not know the color Green, did not understand growing things, or why one drinks water.
You cannot truly appreciate Green until you know Red, in all its glory, power, and love. Until you learn to love your heart: glory and power-- manifest the hands and feet of the Son of Man on Earth. Love in the Flesh: Divine Truth. You cannot effectively, knowingly foster the tendriling vines in your life until you've grown to be old friends with Red: red of the heart, of the blood, and of the rose, of the desire for Life that keeps us beating, beating at the obstacles in our path and at the unform-ed-ness of our Selves. At the Hated: the Hate that beats us back and swallows us up. In loneliness. In self-contempt.
It took me a long long while, most of my life, to realize that all the helpless, raging, drowning, dying happens in the echo-empty un-self *around* the carmine borders of the heart, as we try (and die like flies) to reach it. I find I must tell myself every day that the answer to all our fears is Red, slick and juicy-cunning: full-of-Life. Do we dare embrace such a bold and daring color? Such a color as anyone, improperly informed, can slip from, off the wrong side, into an abyss of Nothingnes, no-self? Do we dare risk drowning to learn our Selves and thereby reach and grasp again to claim our Red, Red Hearts?
For it is only after we have made this journey,
and staked our claim,
that we can give
Red we know is truly
ours.
10/27/05 2.20 am
picture: PS edit of stock photo at deviantart website: deviant *Harpiai
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