"the world that you inhabit has not yet been created"

Shells

Reaching down arm-deep into bright water
I gathered on white sand under waves
Shells, drifted up on beaches where I alone
Inhabit a finite world of years and days.
I reached my arm down a myriad years
To gather treasure from the yester-milliennial sea-floor,
Held in my fingers forms shaped on the day of creation.

Building their beauty in three dimensions
Over which the world recedes away from us,
And in the fourth, that takes away ourselves
From moment to moment and from year to year
From first to last they remain in their continuous present.
The helix revolves like a timeless thought,
Instantaneous from apex to rim
Like a dance whose figure is limpet
or murex, cowrie or golden winkle.

They sleep on the ocean floor like humming-tops
Whose music is the mother-of-pearl octave of the rainbow,
Harmonious shells that whisper forever in our ears,
The world that you inhabit has not yet been created.

KATHELEEN RAINE


you, dear reader, will remember when I used the inspiration gained from the Hepworth Museum to research her involvement with the poet Raine, a book of whose I had had since my teens, how I tracked down first editions of two of Raine's books, how I rebound two volumes for entry into a bookbinding exhibition I'd been invited to show work at after winning that prize, how I overpriced them so ridicuously that noone would buy them as I wanted to keep them, they didn't sell and I kept them; they are on the shelf to my left as I sit typing this. . .
.
. . .memories from a lost past
.
can a past ever be lost if you have memories?
.
"the world that you inhabit has not yet been created"
might be a beautiful turn of phrase but it doesn't work for me - I live in a world of my own creation

15 comments:

Dave said...

Odd. It appears to overlap with mine. Here, at least.

I, Like The View said...

Mel's wise words for the day were these:

At the end of every storm is calm.
At the end of every argument is silence.
At the end of one relationship there is another.

Although life is composed of many endings, there are just as many new beginnings.

Just as the day's activities will end, so the evening's activities will begin.
And when those activities are over, there will be new experiences the next day.


X

Mel said...

(((((((( ILTV )))))))))

(((((( Dave )))))))

And today's a brand new day with all sorts of new experiences just waiting to be had!

So far the experience includes coffee from a cleaned out coffee pot.
Yum!
k...it's a good experience if you're me! :-)

The world I inhabit has not yet been created...it's still under construction.
Okay, okay...I might need more coffee and a bucket of sidewalk chalk.
(the chalk is all about avoiding clearing out the garage, dontchaknow.....LOL)

Mel said...

I'm so glad you kept the books.
They're so beautifully done.

Zig said...

I live in my own fantasy too, shall we swap and see if we like the other's any better?!

thanx for card Honey xx

Dave said...

From my imaginary world I wave and say 'good morning'.

Mel said...

*waving*

Got my whitecup.

Yup.
Practicing.

(that's my story and I'm sticking to it.....LOL)

Mel said...

Ah, well.......we'll hope your day was a grand one, filled with peaceful moments and warmth.

I was graced with some.....and it was wonderful.

Dave said...

In my world it's now Monday. Morning.

Mel said...

Whoa.......

It's Monday in my world, too.

Wow--I think Dave and I might be in parallel universes!

;-)

Mornin' ma'am!!

I, Like The View said...

Mel Monday here too - that makes three of us!

Dave good morning

Mel I'm so glad you had some wonderful moments. . .

my next one needs to have some coffee in it!

Dave it's imaginary? so your winter won't be full of tomato soup then?

ZigZ let's swap - it might be fun (for us. . . not sure about our nearest and dearests! well, yours - mine would have a blast with you. . .)

Mel I gave a way the prize winner, but kept the others: it's lovely to take them out and read them; to use them as ordinary books, not works of (ahem) art

Mel and we're back onto the coffee again (I need some this morning!)(well, I need some every morning. . . only it's already gone two o'clock in the afternoon!)

I cleaned out a couple of cupobords the other day - does that get me some artistic time? oh, and I weeded the front wall - does that qualify me for pavement chalk?!

big hugs to everybody

XXX

Mel said...

Well, hello?!
Definitely doing the front wall qualified you.

*sigh*
Cleaning out the garage--notsomuch.
*sigh*

katherine. said...

the past is an interesting place to visit....it is kinda the garage of my mind.

probably needs a bit of cleaning out...

smile.

Sorrow said...

I suppose if I believed that Time was linear, then the past would not be present, but since it is all simultaneous in my little world, I shall say Hold the memories in song...
and the moment will resonate forward and backward on the wind.

mig said...

I remember those lovely books.
Pasts are never lost - they're just presents which have passed. But when you remember them they pass by again.