I Will Give Them Rest in Safety

Wall hanging, Coptic, 4th-6th Century

I will make a covenant for them on that day,

with the wild animals,

With the birds of the air,

and with the things that crawl on the ground.

Bow and sword and warfare

I will banish from the land,

and I will give them rest in safety.

--Hosea 2:20

                     

Ash Wednesday Haiku

Loose Mardi Gras beads

Brilliant gold, purple, and green

Harvested by crows

The World Must Be Romanticized

Die Welt muss romantisiert warden (The world must be romanticized), Novalis wrote.  What did he mean by this?  He described the romanticized world as one where the ordinary was extraordinary, and the extraordinary ordinary. To create such a world is precisely the task of literature, especially poetry, which is why Novalis styled the Golden Age that would be ushered in when the world was romanticized a poetic Golden Age.

Ginnistan

Es liegt nur an der Schwäche unsrer Organe und der Selbstberührung, daß wir uns nicht in einer Feenwelt erblicken. Alle Märchen sind nur Träume von jener heimatlichen Welt, die überall und nirgends ist. Die höhern Mächte in uns, die einst als Genien unsern Willen vollbringen werden, sind jetzt Musen, die uns auf dieser mühseligen Laufbahn mit süßen Erinnerungen erquicken.

It is only because of the weakness of our sensory organs and our self-inculcation that we do not see ourselves in a fairy world.  All fairy tales are just dreams of our true home that is everywhere and nowhere.  The higher powers within us, that will one day--like genies--accomplish whatever we will, are, at the present, muses who refresh us with sweet memories on this arduous journey.                                                                                                 --Novalis

We Are near Waking When We Dream That We Dream

When I slept, I was somewhat consoled by my dreams; but all the time I dreamed, I knew that I was only dreaming. But one night, at length, the moon, a mere shred of pallor, scattered a few thin ghostly rays upon me; and I think I fell asleep and dreamed. I sat in an autumn night before the vintage, on a hill overlooking my own castle. My heart sprang with joy. Oh, to be a child again, innocent, fearless, without shame or desire!

                                                                          --George MacDonald Phantastes