tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post2136963555024191430..comments2024-01-23T03:58:02.422-08:00Comments on oriana-poetry: MARK STRAND: OLD MAN LEAVES PARTYUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-87072875121336117132016-01-05T14:40:43.459-08:002016-01-05T14:40:43.459-08:00So true: this is a poem for the older reader, one ...So true: this is a poem for the older reader, one who has stayed at the party for a while and has gotten used to the idea of leaving. There is no more striving for accomplishment; we've done what we've done, and it is enough. Now it's time to see, at last, how beautiful we are and how amazing life is. No wonder older age has been called the "great liberator." Finally we are happy to be alive, to have our amazing bodies, and to have had the fascinating lives (so many lifetimes just in this one life!) we can now view in the mirror of memory.orianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209366167129773052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-59501097491110079532016-01-05T14:32:39.064-08:002016-01-05T14:32:39.064-08:00Miranda via Oriana: I agree that it is a marvelous...Miranda via Oriana: I agree that it is a marvelous poem and also agree that it is unusual that you would have read it and forgotten it. Your hunch that maybe you were too young for it at the time may, indeed, be true, because I don't think a young person can easily and deeply feel what life is like after the ego quiets down and ego-projects are over. Life lived more fully in the right brain is a gift that old people can enjoy and appreciate, if they have the capacity. The demands of development (youth) and surviving/thriving (early adulthood/middle age) are over and the bliss and thrill of complete right-brain engagement of the moment is finally revealed. <br /><br />I really love this poem. Thanks for sending it along. It is upliftingorianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209366167129773052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-19476979547907597882015-09-16T14:59:33.919-07:002015-09-16T14:59:33.919-07:00Thank you, Joanna. It's comments like yours th...Thank you, Joanna. It's comments like yours that keep me going. Yes, the primacy of the body. The body is an animal, and animals are more beautiful than prayers. <br /><br />You are probably receiving a lot of unsolicited advice because of your diagnosis. All I'll say is that these days a lot of cancer is survivable, and the most potent medicine is joy. <br /><br />Still, about two weeks from now I'll have a blog in part about fucose and fucoidan. Those strange sugars -- galactose, mannose, xylose, ribose, fucose -- it turns out they are major players in the body. The wild mushroom soup that my grandmother made -- the closest I can get to that is shiitake mushroom soup. I recognize the smell! Using at least some dried shiitake (or other dried mushroom) makes it more intense. <br /><br />Rilke taught me seriousness. That was the dividing point: I left facile juvvenile humor behind and started my journey toward real poetry. And now Rilke is bringing me readers from around the world. Yes, just to be here is magnificent. Just to exist is transcendent.<br /><br />Wishing you much joy, Orianaorianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209366167129773052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-41011313517977466262015-09-16T09:16:26.727-07:002015-09-16T09:16:26.727-07:00what a gift, finding you. I was looking for Rilke&...what a gift, finding you. I was looking for Rilke's Unicorn, arrived here and started with your beginning, which in a way I shared [legs too thin in '45 ;-)] though I wasn't prodded like the testing of doneness in a cake :-),<br />This poem is delicious, as is your analysis. I was diagnosed with cancer a few months back and now have life with a stoma/ my own personal rosebud: Worthy of celebration, and leading me back to my body in the way you explain. <br />Amazing that Rilke would make me the gift of finding you here; you with the pen of an angel.<br />joannanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-29704038518374076042015-09-10T13:05:15.843-07:002015-09-10T13:05:15.843-07:00What an unexpected pleasure, this comment that act...What an unexpected pleasure, this comment that actually addresses the poem, and does it well at that! Thank you!! Much has happened since that time at Rooster Moans -- a lot more practical chores have fallen on me, as if to say, Welcome to the REAL adulthood! But life is too short to waste any of it on complaining. As Strand teaches, there is so much still ahead, the beauty of each moment, the beauty of the night and winter included. Let's feast on the beauty of nature and the beauty of our bodies while there is still a chance.<br />orianahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04209366167129773052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7760986403290352152.post-59701774334449082192015-09-10T12:41:57.841-07:002015-09-10T12:41:57.841-07:00This is a very interesting post. I love the way th...This is a very interesting post. I love the way the old man celebrates his aged yet beautiful body. and why not? It's a liberating concept to be 80 years old and still be able to see yourself as beautiful. I wish to be so liberated. The stark winter day, contrasts the humble, fragile, human body... aging just as the earth does through it's wintery cycle. The man leaves this world, and moves on to the next, perhaps. the party of surviving... and accepting oneself. I love your writing...I had the pleasure of being in an online class with you a couple years back with the Rooster Moans.d ramoshttp://www.risinggoddessart.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com