Star Gazing

 

Closing the curtains last night, my eyes were drawn to the sky which was a mass of glittering stars.  So I went outside and 

"I stood and stared; the sky was lit,

The sky was stars all over it,

I stood, I knew not why,

Without a wish, without a will, 

I stood upon that silent hill

And stared into the sky until 

My eyes were blind with stars and still 

I stared into the sky."

(Ralph Hodgson,1871-1962)

I stayed for quite a while, mesmerised by the scene above my head.  How many times have I seen stars across my life? - yet, a star-filled sky moves me, affects me as though each sighting was the first.  

The gems twinkling under the lights of their display cases in jewellers' shop windows don't arrest my attention or stop me in my tracks as I pass by.  But these heavenly bodies that are so far away draw me to them, have a magnetic pull on my heart and soul that have me standing or sitting until my neck hurts and I am numb with cold.  Even then, it is difficult to leave their company and go back indoors.  

I opened the curtains before getting into bed so that I could fall asleep with my last memory of yesterday being a glimpse of that star-filled sky.

Contemplating Nature

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.”

Rachel Carson in Silent Spring

http://kathyroscoe.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/going-home.html

 http://kathyroscoe.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/the-face-of-flower.html

 http://kathyroscoe.blogspot.co.uk/2014_12_01_archive.html

 http://kathyroscoe.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/time-to-stop-and-stare.html

John Clare Birthday

John Clare 

born 13th July1793

  Today is the birthday of John Clare, a poet of nature.  His poems are simply beautiful.  His love of the natural world flows from every line and his works are more like love letters than poems so filled are they with affection, wonder and care. A simple, honest man of the earth.  A sensitive soul touched and moved by nature to convey in words the most wonderful images, feelings and emotions.

 

ETERNITY OF NATURE

 

 All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal: and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books;
There's nothing mortal in them; their decay
Is the green life of change; to pass away
And come again in blooms revivified.
Its birth was heaven, eternal it its stay,
And with the sun and moon shall still abide
Beneath their day and night and heaven wide. 

John Clare

Article on John Clare http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jul/09/john-clare-poetry