A Little Madness

Posted on April 25, 2011 by literarylee

Emily Dickinson

A little madness in the Spring
Is wholesome even for the King,
But God be with the Clown —
Who ponders this tremendous scene —
This whole Experiment of Green —
As if it were his own!

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One More Example (for now) of the Literary Coinciding with Devotion

Posted on April 24, 2011 by literarylee

Here is another example of the literary coinciding with spirituality:

Come, let us drink, not miraculous water drawn forth from a barren stone, but a new vintage from the fount of incorruption, springing from the tomb of Christ.  In Him we are established.
Christ is risen from the dead.

Now all is filled with light: heaven and earth and the lower regions.  Let all creation celebrate the rising of Christ.  In Him we are established.
Christ is risen from the dead.

Yesterday I was buried with Thee, O Christ.  Today I arise with Thee in Thy resurrection.  Yesterday I was crucified with Thee.  Glorify me with Thee, O Savior, in Thy kingdom.

(From the Matins of Pascha – what Orthodox Christians call Easter)

The reference in the first stanza is to Moses striking a large stone in the wilderness so the thirsty Children of Israel could drink (Numbers 20:8).  The hymn compares that stone to the risen Christ who quenches thirst in this wilderness of life.  Use of the word vintage suggests a thirst quenching of an entirely different dimension and turns the image into a metaphor for communion.

How nicely this spirituality is expressed literarily.

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Garden Naming Post Script (The Lorelei)

Posted on April 24, 2011 by literarylee

April 2011

In September, 2009, after a season of gardening in Smith and Jones, we moved to a new apartment, a ground-level one bedroom affair with a door directly leading outside.  The apartment managers said I could plant anything I wanted in the beds on either side of the door which added about 100 square feet of garden space to my gardening domain.  I moved herbs from Jones to that area which made them much more convenient to retrieve for cooking.  I also planted daffodils and tulips, Jerusalem Artichokes, tomatoes and cucumbers.  Last fall I planted spinach and lettuce, both of which we’re eating and enjoying now.  At some point, I realized I was the proprietor of three gardens, but I found myself referring to them like this: Smith, Jones, and The-Garden-At-Home.

Continue reading →

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More Devotion and Literary Coinciding

Posted on April 23, 2011 by literarylee

Here is another portion of a hymn, sung in the Orthodox Church in a Holy Saturday (between Good Friday and Easter) service.  More good writing, the use of juxtaposition and imagery, to drive home a point.

Today a tomb holds Him who holds
creation in the hollow of His Hand.
A stone covers Him who covered the heavens with glory.
Life sleeps, and hell trembles.
Adam is set free from his bonds.
Glory to Thy plan of salvation!
By it Thou hast fulfilled all things,
granting us an eternal Sabbath rest:
Thy most holy resurrection from the dead.

(from The Matins of Holy Saturday)

Here is another image from Holy Saturday Orthodox hymnody that is especially vivid for me:  Continue reading →

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I Declare the Garden Produce Eating Season Officially Underway

Posted on April 23, 2011 by literarylee

April 22, 2011

We’ve been eating red leaf lettuce and spinach I planted in the Lorelei for several weeks now, yet I didn’t feel like we were really eating produce from the garden.  Is that odd?  I think I was waiting to harvest things I had actually planted this season.  I declare today, the day.  We each ate a huge bowl of salad, brimful with red leaf, buttercrunch, and yes, even a few leaves of my precious Spotted Trout romaine lettuce, with chopped radishes and green onions, all harvested from Jones, all planted this year.

Washing newly picked lettuce, I nibble pieces of it as I go along.  Like sneaking licks of icing from the bowl, they’re sweet and satisfying and fun.  I still can’t believe what happens in a garden.  My mind can not take it in that any particular leaf of lettuce came from a particular plant that grew from a single, particular seed I planted.  I consider it a miracle, and like someone who has lost his or her short-term memory, I am amazed all over again, every time I see my garden, every time I take a sweet, lettucey bite. Continue reading →

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Literary Events

Posted on April 23, 2011 by literarylee

In my experience, a literary event or party surprises everyone who attends.  Who expects a meal where people read poems or sing songs to be anything great?  What amazes me, and what I enjoy watching, is how the guests at a literary party rise to the occasion to read or recite a poem, participate in a song, share something original, and end up accepting, enjoying, and maybe even being transformed by being “on stage.”

Continue reading →

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When Devotion and Literary Coincide

Posted on April 22, 2011 by literarylee

Here’s a snippet from a hymn sung in the Orthodox Church on Holy Friday (Good Friday).  It’s good writing.  The devotional and the literary can happen at the same time.  Besides the meaning of the words, I also appreciate the juxtaposing of two seemingly incompatible things.  Effective comparing and contrasting.

Today, He who hung the earth upon the waters is hung on the tree.
The King of the Angels is decked with a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heavens in clouds is wrapped in the purple of mockery
He who freed Adam in the Jordan is slapped on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is affixed to the cross with nails.

(from Holy Friday Matins)

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Bombay Letter 6 – addendum

Posted on April 22, 2011 by literarylee

(Written in early April, 1998.  I added this paragraph to the longer letter Anita wrote.)

Gary here.

Here’s a cute story.  One of our wedding gifts in July of 1981 was a subscription to National Geographic.  We have been receiving it ever since.  By accident, all our past issues, neatly packed in a box, arrived in India.  One day we were looking through them for articles about India.  The July 1981 issue (the first one we received, published the month of our wedding) has an article about Bombay!  Prophetic!  Page 105 shows an aerial view of a major intersection about 5 minutes from our home and work.

The article is still fairly current even though it is 17 years old.  That tells you something about India.   Interestingly, the May 1997 issue on page 24-25 shows the same view of the same intersection at night but 16 years later.  And in an amazing twist of irony, the February 1998 issue of National Geographic (the first one we received after arriving here in Bombay) has a story about the National Pike, U.S. Highway 40, with several pictures of Grantsville, Maryland (the highway runs smack dab through town).  It contains photos of very familiar sights and even some kids our children knew when we lived there.  We move to Bombay, India and Garrett County, Maryland suddenly becomes exotic!

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My Gardens’ Names

Posted on April 21, 2011 by literarylee

Naming the Gardens,  March 2010

It struck me, the day I went to the gardens for the first time this season, that they need names.  Last year we called them The Big Garden and The Little Garden.  That’s sort of like some people I know who named their feline pet Cat; it’s funny on the one hand, but on the other, not very expressive or original.  And why not plant a seed of creativity into the garden mix?

The first thing that popped into my mind was Occident and Orient.  Not bad for a start.  The little garden, lying east of the larger, would, of course, be Orient.  The larger garden, two and a half miles west of here, would be Occident.   Clever, maybe, erudite, sure, but not memorable and certainly not humorous, something I was looking for.

Continue reading →

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Why all this talk of gardens and weddings and life in far-flung places?

Posted on April 20, 2011 by literarylee

A brief word concerning writing about the stuff of life.

The Life Literary’s goal is to be a cafeteria of ideas for living literarily, which is living in a way that celebrates and enjoys words.  These ideas, thoroughly chopped, mixed, fried and baked in the Life Literary Test Kitchens, are doable things anybody could try and maybe even make into a habit.

One way the word chefs at TLL accomplish the goal is to describe things a person can do to stir a dash of word into his or her life.   For example, you could write about the things you do.  Is travel your thing?  Maybe you like knitting.  Mountain climbing?  Cooking?  Natural health?  Whatever it is, you can write about it.  You could write a paragraph or you could write an essay.  Maybe keep a journal about what you do, or a blog.  Go ahead: you could even write a book.  Write whatever amount is comfortable; just write.  It’s one way of living literarily.

Another way this blog promotes literary behavior is to actually serve up dishes of writing about places I’ve lived and things I’ve done and do.  I have lived in fascinating cities such as Bombay and Jerusalem.  I love to garden.  I married off my daughter.  I wrote (and am writing now) about each of these unique and hopefully interesting things.  It’s one part of how I live literarily: cooking up essays and stories and setting them in the steam table for you to sample.

That’s why all this talk of gardens, of Jerusalem and Bombay, of my daughter’s marriage and more.

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