the porous city

On Percy Bysshe Shelley
West Wind, 8
The young, tall English poet–soon to die, soon to sail on his small boat into the blue haze and then the storm and then under the gray waves’ spinning threshold–went over to Pisa to meet a friend; met him; spent with him a sunny afternoon. I love this poet, which means nothing here or there, but is like a garden in my heart. So my love is a gift to myself. And I think of him, on that July afternoon in Pisa, while his friend Hunt told him stories pithy and humorous, of their friends in England, so that he began to laugh, so that his tall, lean body shook, and his long legs couldn’t hold him, and he had to lean up against the building, seized with laughter, abundant and unstoppable; and so he leaned in the wild sun, against the stones of the building, with the tears flying from his eyes–full of foolishness, howling, hanging on to the stones, crawling with laughter, clasping his own body as it began to fly apart in the nonsense, the sweetness, the intelligence, the bright happiness falling, like tiny gold flowers, like the sunlight itself, the lilt of Hunt’s voice, on this simple afternoon, with a friend, in Pisa.

  • Mary Oliver


last modified: 23:57:41 14-Feb-2021
in categories:Arts/Poetry

Comment

name*

email

homepage

No html.

what's the second letter of your name?

This is Lukas Bergstrom's weblog. You can also find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Tech
Web, Medical, Open, Audio, Development, Visual, Social, Security, Wearables, Shopping, barcamp, Hardware, Crowdsourcing, AI, Net, s60, Energy, Javascript, WRX, Android, MacOS, Storage, Product Management, Web analytics, Data, a11y, Automobile, RSS, OS, Business, Collaboration, PIM, Mobile

Other
Toys, Statistics, Housing, Transportation, San Francisco, Video, Travel, Sports, Surfing, Games, California, NYC, Bicycling, Clothes, Activism, Agriculture, Geography, Personal care, Quizzes, L.A., CrowdFlower, Boston, Feminism, History, Friday, Law, Minnesota, Food & Drink, Life hacks, Podcasts, Berlin, Politik

Music
Shopping, House, History, Mailing lists, Mp3s, Business, Booking, L.A., Lyrics, Making, Labels, Good tracks, Reviews, Musicians, Boston, Streams, Mixes, Videos, Hip-hop, Events

People
Subcultures, Me, Family, Weblogs, Meditation, Working with, Life hacks, Health, Stories, Enemies, Gossip, ADD, Exercise, Vocations, Friends, Languages, MOTAS, Buddhism, Heroes

Commerce
Investing, Personal finance, International Development, Marketing and CRM, Web, Macroeconomics, Personal services, IP Law, Management consulting, Shopping, Non-profit, Microfinance, Insurance, Taxes, Real Estate

Arts
Sculpture, Visual, Animation, Poetry, Humor, iPad bait, Movies, Spoken Word, Events, Literature, Outlets, Desktop wallpaper bait, Comix, Rhetoric, Burning Man

Design
User experience, Presentations, Data visualization, Web, Tools, Cool, IA, Process, Algorithmic, Type, Architecture, Furniture

Science
Statistics and Data, Networks, Cognition, Zoology, Environment, Psychology, Physics

Travel
Uganda, Kingdom of Siam, Vagabond '08, Kenya

Photos
Friends, Photos I Wish I'd Taken, Moblog

Philosophy
Mind

Internet classic

Mathematics

One Acre Fund

Subscribe to this site's rss feed