Poetry remembers that language is shaped air; it remembers ashes to ashes, dust to dust, wind to wind; it knows we don’t own what we know.It knows the world is, after all, unnameable, so it listens hard before it speaks, and wraps that listening into the linguistic act. ~ Don McKay
I came across this lovely evocation in Robert Bringhurst’s book “Everywhere Being is Dancing”. I find something completely profound in this little snippet…Bringhurst goes on to write about it for several hundred more pages, bringing in other themes and uniting the whole in quite a staggering way. Meanwhile, I remain immersed in the idea of wrapping listening into language…
And here is the Chinese character for listening: on the left, the sign for ears, while on the right, from top to bottom, the signs for eyes, full attention, and heart. What a beautiful visual metaphor for the engagement of listening.
And that is what I have been doing, my imaginary friend, listening to the sounds of the world and pondering the ineffable beauties of poetry.
Me, and my imaginary friend 
wow! thats how one should listen. with whole being.
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I find the Chinese character so beautiful! As I write this, I am thinking about how I slow down and pay more attention when I read poetry. No wonder poetry can soothe the savage in me. Good day, Sharmishtha Basu, and thank you for visiting 🙂
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i feel the same soothing effect through songs/music. no matter how turbulent my mind is i can soothe it through songs/music.
visiting you is my pleasure.
that challenge was interesting was not it? I am reposting those poems to save a little fresh writing energy.
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I love this! Love that you included the Chinese character – fascinating!
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Thank you! There are some things that seem to deep for words…
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Where’s the like button? I need five of them! 🙂
Subhan Zein
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Why thanks, Subhan. It is such a pleasure to meet new friends 🙂
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