Thoughts I've thunk while sippin' at a cup of tea and reading something provoking, often get dropped here for the benefit of humanity and my own hubris.
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Once again Anita inspires me with a new poem, and once again I come up with a different view on it. That’s what I like about poetry… so many right answers. That’s also what I like about my friends (even virtual ones like Anita 
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The Night Abraham Called to the Stars — Robert Bly
Do you remember the night Abraham first called He cried, “You are my Lord!” How destroyed he was We are faithful companions to the unfaithful stars. And no one can convince us that mud is not Walking with muddy shoes in the wet fields. My heart is a calm potato by day, and a weeping, |
My first reading of this poem (like my first reading of most poems) begins with confusion as I try to understand context through symbol. Saturn is the “star” of timeless age and was associated with Yahweh (the god of the Old Testament).
The Dawn Star, however, is Venus, the goddess of love, beauty and often raunchy sex. The two stars (and the two planets) couldn’t be more different. Claiming to worship both can be quite contradictory, and is the base of many of our conflicts in life that start from an early age. In the case of Abraham, how can he honor his father (Saturn), but follow his heart and his soul on a different spiritual path (Venus)?
What happens when our aspirations and lofty dreams wane with the cruel light of the morning’s reality and the stars fall into the day? Where has my initial enthusiasm gone since I started sitting on this worn cushion? This book, loved to dog-eared-ness isn’t respected as much since I read an critical review of it on Amazon. Besides, the stars, though inspirational, don’t provide food… that is found by digging in the dirt.
My body is made of mud, and all our experiences get embedded and hidden in the dirt of our selves. We must dig, but if we don’t look up for breath, we suffocate.
But what’s so wrong with mud? It smells so good when you first turn over a clump. But just because I have to dig to eat, and just because my love wanes, doesn’t mean that my heart won’t love the next rising star.
That’s life.
© 2004-2005, Howard Abrams • Except where otherwise noted, all original content is licensed under a Creative Commons License (see details).
I wasn’t even looking for this, and it’s the most amazing & beautiful thing: an article about making shiny mud balls (found at the March 2nd entry of Ben Hammersley’s site).
Comment posted on Saturday, 13 March 2004
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