Quote of the Post

    "And one who has never gone into the abyss of his own nature and come back with an emblem of shame and glory-- that is, a true work of art-- to show the world, need not envy the artist his role."

    R.V. Cassil That Blue-Eyed Darling Nathaniel essay, in Horizon, summer 1966

The Solitary Person

Among so many people cozy in their homes,
I am like a man who explores far-off oceans.
Days with full stomachs stand on their tables;
I see a distant land full of images.


I sense another world close to me,
perhaps no more lived in than the moon;
they, however, never let a feeling alone,
and all the words they use are so worn.


The living things I brought back with me
hardly peep out, compared with all they own.
In their native country they were wild;
here they hold their breath from shame.


Rainer Maria Rilke
from Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke Robert Bly translator, editor


I don't know if there is a better description of the artist's place in society. Solitary.