Poem
Some are too much at home in the role of wanderer,
watcher, listener: who, by lamplit doors
that open only to another’s knock,
commune with shadows and are happier
with ghosts than living guests in a warm house.
They drift about the darkening city squares,
coats blown in evening winds and fingers feeling
familiar holes in pockets, thinking: Life
has always been a counterfeit, a dream
where dreaming figures danced behind the glass.
Yet as they work, or absently stand at a window
letting a tap run and the plates lie wet,
while the bright rain softly shines upon slates,
they feel the whole of life is theirs, the music,
"colour, and warmth, and light"; hands held
safe in the hands of love; and trees beside them
dark and gentle, growing as they grow,
a part of the world with fire and house and child.
The undertone of all their solitude
is the unceasing question, "Who am I?
A shadow’s image on the rainy pavement,
walking in wonder past the vivid windows,
a half-contented guest among my ghosts?
Or one who, imagining light, air, sun,
can now take root in life, inherit love?"
-Denise Levertov
-Christine Valters Paintner @ Abbey of the Arts
(images by Christine, from top to bottom: near Klosterneuberg, Museum of Military History in Vienna, view from Danube river cruise in Wachau Valley, same as previous, Melk, view again from Danube, same as previous, Krems — all in Austria)
Excellent window views and photography — so full of wonder! And Denise Levertov wows me again. I think my favorite line is "…absently stand at a window". A image we often see in others and ourselves but Denise explains it so perfectly.
oh, i just want to wallow in both the poem and the images. right off hand, the first photo is my favorite, but i love the ladies at the end. oh, the stories they could tell! how many thousand photos do we have left to peruse?
absolutely beautiful all!!!
Ahhh…. more doors and windows… how wonderfully matched with words! Thank you!
So glad you like them!
Bette, I found this poem today and I love it as I love all of her work.
lucy, the first is my favorite as well, but I do love the women in the last one.
Mmmm, the poem is as fiercely visual as your beautiful images. And I believe the poem has many things to say to me. I will come back to it often.
these are beautiful.
thanks for taking time to share them with us Christine!