Nine lines about Thought

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thought is the green grass of heaven,
spread before us
like the lap of an infinite mother.

Walk in it barefoot
to refresh your nefesh,
and the grass will give out song,

the breath of the singer,
the voice of his absent parents
in an orphan's ear.

[AuntShecky]

Well, this is lovely.
The tone reminds me of Mr. Yeats, about whom we were just talking.
Two questions: 1. "Nefesh"?
2. When I was a student several Presidential
administrations ago, more than one professor taught us that emotion can never precede thought. What do you think of notion?

[PrinceMyshkin]

Well, this is lovely.
The tone reminds me of Mr. Yeats, about whom we were just talking.
Two questions: 1. "Nefesh"?

"Nefesh" is soul in Hebrew, so what was the point, you might ask, in using that instead of "soul"?

1) I got a cheap bit of alliteration, and
2) given the prior reference to walking barefoot, "soul" might have sounded like an intended pun on "sole," which I would have thought silly.


2. When I was a student several Presidential
administrations ago, more than one professor taught us that emotion can never precede thought. What do you think of notion?

WAY too complex for me to attempt an answer other than Yes, it does sometimes seem like that to me. However, the emotion might not be discernible until it has articulated itself in thought, spoken or otherwise.

[Hawkman]

As always, my prince, inspiring and educational. You are the shaduf at the well of souls.

[MorpheusSandman]

I really, really like this but there's also something that bugs me about that I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps it's that the simile of the opening line seems to get lost as the poem progresses; especially when you wrap it another simile with "the lap of the mother", and then in another about singing and song. So I guess I'm torn in liking it from an aesthetic standpoint but struggling with the content/form somewhat.


When I was a student several Presidential
administrations ago, more than one professor taught us that emotion can never precede thought. What do you think of notion?I know this was addressed to Prince, but I'll take a crack at it: I would say it would depend on how we define thought. If we're talking about conscious thought which we process in our brand of logic and reasoning then I'd say emotion precedes and even shapes that. If we're talking about abstract thought as in any outside stimuli our brain process then I'd think that form of thought would shape emotion. Babies may not can think logically but they can certainly react emotionally.

[Virgil]

I think this is excellent. The more I read it, the better it gets. Very good Prince.

[qimissung]

I agree with the inestimable Virgil, Prince. This is like the best soup your mother ever made two days later. I laughed aloud a little upon first reading it, at the idea of walking barefoot in the green lush grass of my thoughts.

[billl]

I like it a lot, too. Great poem. I don't know what to make of the final line being relatively short, though. This is a really profound bit of poetry, and the reverberating stillness at the end seemed to me to be trying for something that had already been achieved--or something like that. I don't like typing this, though, because it is a hastily delivered opinion about a great poem, and just a debatable quibble at best.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Hawkman:
As always, my prince, inspiring and educational. You are the shaduf at the well of souls.


Thank you. One lives or at any rate writes for appreciation such as this.

MorpheusSandman:
I really, really like this but there's also something that bugs me about that I can't quite put my finger on. Perhaps it's that the simile of the opening line seems to get lost as the poem progresses; especially when you wrap it another simile with "the lap of the mother", and then in another about singing and song. So I guess I'm torn in liking it from an aesthetic standpoint but struggling with the content/form somewhat.


Yes, I acknowledge the looseness of the progression from image to image but think (hope) that it all returns to the beginning, to the governing image, with “the voice of his absent parents” &c., where the voice is intended to be seen as the product of thought.

Virgil:
I think this is excellent. The more I read it, the better it gets. Very good Prince.

Many thanks. I hardly dare suggest you read it even one more time or my already swollen head might get too heavy to carry.

Qimissung:
I agree with the inestimable Virgil, Prince. This is like the best soup your mother ever made two days later. I laughed aloud a little upon first reading it, at the idea of walking barefoot in the green lush grass of my thoughts.


What a lovely analogy, to the soup! I have no doubts re “in the green lush grass “ of your thoughts.

billl:
I like it a lot, too. Great poem. I don't know what to make of the final line being relatively short, though. This is a really profound bit of poetry, and the reverberating stillness at the end seemed to me to be trying for something that had already been achieved--or something like that. I don't like typing this, though, because it is a hastily delivered opinion about a great poem, and just a debatable quibble at best.


The short final line is, perhaps, something of a mannerism of mine inasmuch as I hope it has a desired surprise effect, the absence of amplification or extension intended to heighten the effect of the final image.

[Bar22do]

Thought is the green grass of heaven,
spread before us
like the lap of an infinite mother.

Walk in it barefoot
to refresh your nefesh,
and the grass will give out song,

the breath of the singer,
the voice of his absent parents
in an orphan's ear.


Since you used the Hebrew word Nefesh (from the root of the "state of receptivity" or "repose") in your poem, it compels one to read it all with the spiritual background in mind. Nefesh being an instinctive force humans dispose of to live, it is a very first component (the least refined) of a whole, five-fold, concept of the Soul, and indeed needs a continuing refreshment by the Thought. Nefesh-refreshing Thought actually comes from the highest (your "green grass of heaven") realm of Yehida, "unity", which unity, according to this concept, merely reflects the Creating Thought, without claiming ownership. But the "ear" is not an orphan ear, the mother being infinite... So except for this minor remark, I believe this poem is a fine inspiration. From your superconscious?

[PrinceMyshkin]

Since you used the Hebrew word Nefesh (from the root of the "state of receptivity" or "repose") in your poem, it compels one to read it all with the spiritual background in mind. Nefesh being an instinctive force humans dispose of to live, it is a very first component (the least refined) of a whole, five-fold, concept of the Soul, and indeed needs a continuing refreshment by the Thought. Nefesh-refreshing Thought actually comes from the highest (your "green grass of heaven") realm of Yehida, "unity", which unity, according to this concept, merely reflects the Creating Thought, without claiming ownership. But the "ear" is not an orphan ear, the mother being infinite... So except for this minor remark, I believe this poem is a fine inspiration. From your superconscious?


I wish I could claim that any of what you cite had been somewhere in my mind as I wrote the poem or used nefesh in particular, but I don't have the knowledge that you lay out.

But yes, this poem - at least the first three lines - was 'inspired'. I am mystified how those lines came to me and, frankly, am very proud of them.

As for the orphan's ear, there is reality - and there is thought.

Thank you.

[cogs]

i was waiting for the fourth stanza, since no verb was given in the third. i think this poem was great for me, in the things it was lacking that did refresh my 'nefesh'; like how i wanted to know why, or to what end, they were walking barefoot (waiting for a metaphor). what i was satisfied about, was the echo of the mother and parents. perhaps some people related heaven with a feminine god? ok, prince, you need to stop teasing me with unresolved ideas (i'll go crazy).

[Bar22do]

As for the orphan's ear, there is reality - and there is thought.


Thought is reality. How else would you invite the guys to walk on the green grass barefooted to hear the singer sing! - whoever can hear (reflect) Thought is not an orphan anymore...

[PrinceMyshkin]

Thought is reality. How else would you invite the guys to walk on the green grass barefooted to hear the singer sing! - whoever can hear (reflect) Thought is not an orphan anymore...

Oh, I absolutely agree! I am fiercely anti-solipsist, but can we deny that there is a significant difference between the thoughts you have about the present, the future, the aether -- and the screen on which you are reading this?

[PrinceMyshkin]

i was waiting for the fourth stanza, since no verb was given in the third. i think this poem was great for me, in the things it was lacking that did refresh my 'nefesh'; like how i wanted to know why, or to what end, they were walking barefoot (waiting for a metaphor). what i was satisfied about, was the echo of the mother and parents. perhaps some people related heaven with a feminine god? ok, prince, you need to stop teasing me with unresolved ideas (i'll go crazy).

I assure you I have no desire to make you crazy (or any more crazy than I am). I write many of these in a sort of twilight zone, turn the steering wheel over to my phantom self but retain the right to correct the wheel when the car threatens to go right off the road.

[paperleaves]

Oh boy. You've been on a role with these soul cleansers, Jer! They'll pummel us in the gut with guilt because you wrote it, not I, and we're envious of your innate ability to whip these masterpieces up with the collaboration of your unique biography and your knowledge of many things!

love
Kate

[PrinceMyshkin]

Oh boy. You've been on a role with these soul cleansers, Jer! They'll pummel us in the gut with guilt because you wrote it, not I, and we're envious of your innate ability to whip these masterpieces up with the collaboration of your unique biography and your knowledge of many things!

love
Kate

The thing is, l'il genius, that I have fun doing them, more fun than is maybe legal or kosher! Thanks and please give yourself a chaste hug from me.

Jer