Lola Ridge (1873-1941) was an Irish born American poet who wrote about the immigrant communities in early 20th century America. She wrote both as an outsider (writing about other ethnicities) and as one who shared the experience of being displaced and shifted. This poem is from The Ghetto and Other Poems, published around 1920.

THE FIDDLER

In a little Hungarian cafe
Men and women are drinking
Yellow wine in tall goblets.

Through the milky haze of the smoke,
The fiddler, under-sized, blond,
Leans to his violin
As to the breast of a woman.
Red hair kindles to fire
On the black of his coat-sleeve,
Where his white thin hand
Trembles and dives,
Like a sliver of moonlight,
When wind has broken the water.

— Lola Ridge

Amazing. She describes a medicine wheel, a holistic rendering in a tiny picture of passion. Yellow wine, red hair, black sleeve, white hand. Men and women drinking together. This fiddler working for all his worth, scraping out gypsy music, melodies and rhythms that tremble and dive like his hand, like the surface of a lake at night, the unity of human creation and nature, both emerging out of motion, the bow across the strings, the wind on the water.

Beauty arises out of subtle motion, scattering notes and light everywhere.

Oh, lay my ashes on the wind
That blows across the sea.
And I shall meet a fisherman
Out of Capri,

And he will say, seeing me,
“What a Strange Thing!
Like a fish’s scale or a
Butterfly’s wing.”

— Edna St. Vincent Milay

A couple of weeks ago, in my little rant about leaving the war to the warbloggers I mentioned something about wanting to pursue to purposeful exploration of beauty as my gesture of peace in the world. Since then, I have really been looking for some kind of manifesto to hang a renewed blog practice on, and today I found it, serendipitously, as always.

In this article in today’s Globe and Mail [link rot warning], the architects Frank Gehry and Daniel Libeskind visit the University of Toronto to provide advice to graduate students.

In dispensing advice, the sages held nothing back, and in their comments sometimes sounded like Buddhist abbots reprimanding monks:

The student who attempted to present a yoga and mental wellness centre as the exoskeleton of an insect faced harsh words from Mr. Gehry: “Your premise is precarious from the beginning. An insect is infinitely more beautiful than anything you can produce — so where can you go with this? ”

Indeed. Where can I go with this?

Why the hell am I keeping this blog anyway, except perhaps to notice and propagate small things of beauty and peace, be they auroras or poems, conversations with my son or cabinets. In fact, I came to the realization today, reading this article that in fact this weblog could choose as it’s mission an exploration of the architecture of beauty. Daniel Libeskind:

Mr. Libeskind’s design studio at U of T began with a red book. He gathered 140 ideas, one for each day of the spring session. The book was assembled with studio assistant Robert Claiborne and bound in Berlin. It includes musings by W. S. Burroughs, images of the Milky Way spiral by Charles and Ray Eames, a falling cat from Scientific American and a map of Treasure Island. Handed copies of the little book at the beginning of the term, the students were asked to choose an image or quote that would allow them to enter what Mr. Libeskind calls “their worlds of architecture.”

This interests me greatly. The idea of compiling a source book on the architecture of beauty, a commonplace book of inspiration. And so I am thinking that this might be the new direction for this blog. This is in some ways the purpose I have been trying to find.

I have an innate compulsion to write in this space, but I have rejected out of hand the chimerical identities of the metabloggers, the a-list types, the warbloggers, and the design gurus. Instead I am drawn to those blogs which I consider my inspiration, like The Obvious, wood s lot, riley dog and, more recently, In A Dark Time (where, coincidentally, Loren is wondering similar things), Caterina and This Public Address. And what those blogs do for me is offer something and give me a way into it, although ironically wood s lot and riley dog have a minimum of interpretation. So much of what they suggest is in the context of how it is presented.

I don’t claim any authority to discern beauty or even to provide interpretations that are earth shatteringly astute. But things catch my eye, and then they catch my breath, and that sensation is something to treasure and reflect upon. Because in a world like this, one which comes streaming through phone lines and cables to whirl turbidly on my desktop, a little clear vision is always a welcome thing.

I don’t pretend that this shift in parking lot’s mission will be discernable instantly. There will be no design tinkering, and no shift in basic approach. There may be a little more of me here, and a little more room for you.

Frank Gehry has some advice for me:

For another student, Mr. Gehry suggested there were brave beginnings but: “You lost the fantasy. You got scared. Admit it.”

At Mr. Gehry’s request, the student removed part of a football-shaped building from his model and positioned it on the floor.

“Hey, it’s all there,” Mr. Gehry said. “Throw all this stuff out and start again.”

Interested in joining me?

From a talk given by Palden Gyatso, the second-longest serving political prisoner in Tibet:

Despite the torture while in prison, Gyatso said he does not hold any grudges against the Chinese, even those who tortured him. “According to Buddhist philosophy, it behooves me to control my anger. Being angry will not return my 33 years; they are spent. To educate in a nonviolent, constructive manner, that might bring a peaceful end,” he said.

Gyatso said advocates for a free Tibet hope for constructive negotiations with Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao in June when they will ask for Tibet to become an “autonomous region rather than an independent nation.”

Since his 1992 release, Gyatso has toured the world, testifying to the human rights violations in Tibet and promoting nonviolent negotiations to end Chinese occupation. He appealed to the crowd to work constructively on his behalf.

“The future is in your hands. Some of you,” Gyatso said, “may become representatives or even president of the United States. How you use your knowledge is important. You have great freedom and facilities here to accomplish great aims. Use them.”

Via The Buddha Project

The Physics of Space Gardens

A tiny bubble of air hangs suspended inside a droplet of water. The droplet rests in the cup of a delicate green leaf, yet the stalk doesn’t bend at all.

Courtesy of NASA