.
We have asked Deborah, today, on her birthday, March 20, to see if she might obtain permission to post Michael Ondaatje's beautiful poem
here on this web page, and while she is awaiting his reply, below, we are posting two other poems.
.
He said to Ruth & I one day " Make something unique for the universal design ".
.
The small beautiful prose like writing about the Earth by Pliny from the first century gives just a little taste; flavor, of Paul's way of looking at the Earth; seeing what the Earth is; what the Earth is about.
.
" It is certainly the case that a soil which has a taste of perfume will be the best soil.
If we need an explanation as to what is the nature of this odour from such soil,
it is that which often occurs even when the ground is not being turned up, just towards
sunset, at the place where the ends of rainbows have come down to Earth,
and when the soil has been drenched with rain followng a long period of drought.
The Earth then sends out that divine breath of hers, of quite incomparable
sweetness, which she has conceived from the sun. "
.
Pliny, 23-79 A.D. Natural History, Book XVII.
click below please to see a little about the font used here, Frank Lloyd Wright's " Eaglefeather "
.http://www.spice-work.com/eaglefeather.1932.html
If you look at the reference of June 1 in our Daily Spice Journal, you'll see where Ruth saw a
rainbow that day. When we met Paul , for an entire year we saw rainbows; Ruth & I, many of them.
.
The last time we were to see him, in January of 1997, as we left his home in the foothills of the
Valley of Gold ... Valle D'Oro ... just outside Tucson in the foothills of the mountains there ...
we saw a beautiful double rainbow immediately upon leaving him & his Asian wife Udon.
It lasted for some hours as we traveled from Tucson to Phoenix and then on to Sedona.
.
One day in September 1984 we received an envelope from him. In it was a hand written poem.
It was sent to all his other pupils too, Darwin Tichenor of Madison, Myron Kowalski who stayed
there at Northeon Forest, and the others too.
.
It was dated Sept. 14. This happens to be Ruth's birthday. As the next few years passed, each
time we took his poem out to read it, I said to Ruth, " You know Honey, you should really try to write
Paul a poem in return. Isn't that what his teaching is about? He plays beautiful music, and then
we try to play beautiful music back? " She did write a poem back. His is first ... then hers:
.
.
I rejoice in the rain and the rainbow, the sun, the stars
and the holy breath that is the wind;
.
I rejoice in the sight and sound of birds, the song in the
voices of women and in the smile of friends;
.
I rejoice in the earned sweat of the body, the upturned
faces of flowers and in the peek of the shy racoon;
.
I rejoice in the scent of grasses, the feel of watered earth,
the thousand perfumes of flowers and fruit;
.
I rejoice in the peace that comes from prayers, the joy
in children's voices and the whisper in the shade of trees;
.
I rejoice in the lust of the body and the yield of a
lusty response and in the grain that makes bread;
.
I rejoice that the moon must wane in its time and that
after the darkness comes the new moon - glorious.
.
o o o o o o o
.
I rejoice that no one can abide upon the earth
so long as to grow weary of its riches.
.
Sept. 14, 1984
.
.
.
9-14-91
.
I rejoice in the darkness of the storm,
and the colors of the rainbow.
.
I rejoice in the sharp angle of the arm
in motion and the gentle curve of
the cheek at rest.
.
I rejoice in the glow of approval
and the heat of anger.
.
I rejoice in the discipline of training
and the freedom of play.
.
I rejoice in the structure of learning
and the openess of understanding.
.
I rejoice in the energy of the day,
and the serenity of the night.
.
I rejoice in unqualified love and
earned friendship.
.
.
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb