In Our Own Heart

If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

–Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel laureate for literature, Soviet Gulag survivor

Hartwick Pines, Michigan

 

Beauty’s Persuasion

Beauty itself doth of itself persuade,
The eyes of men without an orator.

William Shakespeare 

The Au Sable River, in northern Michigan.

Au Sable River, Michigan

Beauty Endures

Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art.

Leonardo Da Vinci

(a  summer view in southeast Michigan)

Newburgh Lake, Michigan

Like a Child that Knows Poems by Heart

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”
Rainier Rilke

Michigan is once again alive with that striking yellow-green of early May and the swirling sounds of swollen creeks.  Fleming Creek flows, rapidly now, through a woods near University of Michigan’s Matthaei Gardens.

Fleming Creek, Michigan

A World in a….Drop of Water

 

To see a world in a grain of sand
And a Heaven in a wild flower
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.

William Blake

Or, the visionary poet might have said, in a drop of water, suspended in time on its course  between underground springs and the great river which is its destiny.

for more Blake

Iargo Springs, Michigan

Au Sable River, Michigan

 

Les Fleurs, Toujours–Flowers, Always

There are always flowers for those who want to see them.

Henri Matisse

where flowers bask in the sunshine

 

Matthaei Gardens, Michigan

 

Van Gogh’s Dreams

For my part, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.

Vincent Van Gogh

Even the one star that is closest to us.

Hartwick Pines, Michigan

 

Newburgh Lake, Michigan