Life, blindly made

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura
ché la diritta via era smarrita

In the middle of the road of my life
I awoke in a dark wood
Where the true way was wholly lost

- Dante Alighieri, La Divina Commedia, Inferno: Canto I
trans Dorothy Sayers and Barbara Reynolds

For a Nightingale

Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breaths. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or brush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
- David Wagoner from a Native American teaching tale

Life and Grad School

The way through the world
Is more difficult to find than the way beyond it
- Wallace Stevens
"Reply to Papini"