Sunday, November 13, 2005

Literature of Longing

Painting by Chagall

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From "The Song of Songs"

Like an apple tree among the

trees of the forest

is my lover among the young men.

I delight to sit in his shade,

and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

He has taken me to the banquet hall,

and his banner over me is love.

Strengthen me with raisins,

refresh me with apples,

for I am faint with love ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  A fellow journaler recently expressed some sadness at not having found the perfect lover.  The journaler writes of having unreturned love.   I've found that the best writing comes out of such longing. 

Walt Whitman once wrote of the pain of unreturned love, saying,   "Now I think there is no unreturn'd love, the pay's certain one way or another.  (I loved a certain person ardently and my love was not return'd, yet out of that I have written these songs.)"    

There is nothing else to say:  Channel your longing into your art.

 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Theresa, this is beautiful.

Vicky
http://www.livejournal.com/users/vxv789/

Anonymous said...

    Wow.
Jude
http://journals.aol.com/Jmorancoyle/MyWay

Anonymous said...

What a fabulous teacher you are.  Thank you for being my teacher.  I am in your debt.  Beth

Anonymous said...

...The loudest sound in mankind, is that of a lonely heart...... Marc :)

Anonymous said...

The desire for love and what I dreamed it would be is what got me started as a poet.  It's a significant lesson here.

Anonymous said...

"You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection."
Buddha

Our passions shape our books; repose writes them in the intervals.  
~Proust, The Past Recaptured, 1927

Every second is of infinite value.  
~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death - fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treacherous constant.
- Edna Ferber

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!
- Anne Frank

ggw07@aol.com