Doors of Perception

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, til he sees all things through narrow chinks in his cavern.

#William Blake

Matthaei Gardens, Michigan

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We learn from history that we do not learn from history.

G.W.F. Hegel

Newburgh Lake, Michigan

Graceful Is as Graceful Glides

There’s a double beauty whenever a swan swims on a lake with her double thereon.
–Thomas Hood

As We See the World

We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.

Anais Nin

Matthaei Woods, Michigan

Our Memories, Our Stories

Every person’s memory is their own private literature.

— Aldous Huxley

And I have memories that stretch across several decades of early evenings at Hartwick Pines state park in northern Michigan.

Hartwick Pines, Michigan

 

Truly Light the World

In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country.

John F Kennedy, Inaugural Address, 1961

Poetry in Nature’s Prose

Always be a poet, even in prose.

Charles Baudelaire

Nature’s  verses can now be heard, whispered in the waters of a rushing brook or sung by a summer breeze across the expanse of a rolling river.

 

Au Sable River, Michigan

 

The Possible Dream

Some people see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.

George Bernard Shaw, and oft quoted by Robert Kennedy

River Rouge, 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

Knowing Yourself and Patience

The more you know yourself,
the more patience you have for what you see in others.

Erik Erikson

Kensington Park, Michigan

Matthaei Gardens, Michigan