Praelude

It is never the same
Even from day to day.
Or even from hour to hour…
Every passing cloud,
Every change in the position of the sun,
Recasts the whole.

- Clarence Dutton

(photo: August 2010, Seneca Lake)

Finding a good poem for me is like finding a rare friend - that person whose personality and way of being feel so familiar that, when I first meet him or her I feel an immediate calm. Something within me, that is so fundamental to who I am, is clarified and validated and seems to ring out of the hairs on my skin.

I can't remember now where online I saw the poem quoted here but it resonated with me immediately. One google search elucidated that it was actually a 'found poem' pieced together from the book, "The Physical Geology of the Grand Canyon District" written by geologist Clarence Dutton (who also studied in Hawaii and wrote a book on Hawaii's volcanoes!). A 'found poem' is a piece of writing extracted from its original context and reworked poetically to expand its significance - the perfect material to frame this blog, for I see this as my chest of found treasures. Here, I will collect the beautiful and intriguing things I encounter that inspire me and, through reflecting on them and sharing them, give them new meaning. Some things will be clippings, some will be collages, some will be my own musings or creative writing. 

We create our own lives one moment at a time. By remembering that nothing is mundane, by always having a collector's eye, and by sharing these moments with you, I hope to live more fully.