I think “me” is a perfect answer, especially if one understands oneself in concert with the whole.
Maybe the self is like a bass line, on which the harmonies of attention can be built. Occasionally, our focus flows into that lower register, as when we contemplate who we are. But often it’s a tonic, framing and upholding the melodies of attention.
What is love in this analogy? I think it’s like the key: that which binds our actions in a meaningful relation with others. And, in the absence of a divine conductor, something more: it’s what enables us to keep in sync with the lives and needs of others.
Without love—or the sickly inversion of love, which is cruelty—there can be no moral improvisation.
A beautiful analogy! I suppose I was thinking on a larger, yet also smaller, scale (pun possibly intended...?). I can certainly say what love makes whole for ME. But the answer will be different for each person in each scenario, no matter how often I assert myself as an "expert."
I love (no pun intended) the conceit that we speak much of light/love, but there is another truth accessible in darkness and silence. Although whether either good or bad is difficult to say, one may be an idealised empire of broken temples, the other the silence of a bedroom with your cooling lover turned away. In three stanzas you’re developed something intriguing with some arresting and universal images. I turned it over, reading it a few times.
It also kind of felt like a poem a particularly cultured vampire would quite like.
Last stanza gave me chills.
Haunting.
Excellent compression! I am an admirer of Oppen and this is just as good. Better!
"Who’s to say what
love makes whole?"
It's so hard not to incorrectly answer, "Me, obviously." 😆
I think “me” is a perfect answer, especially if one understands oneself in concert with the whole.
Maybe the self is like a bass line, on which the harmonies of attention can be built. Occasionally, our focus flows into that lower register, as when we contemplate who we are. But often it’s a tonic, framing and upholding the melodies of attention.
What is love in this analogy? I think it’s like the key: that which binds our actions in a meaningful relation with others. And, in the absence of a divine conductor, something more: it’s what enables us to keep in sync with the lives and needs of others.
Without love—or the sickly inversion of love, which is cruelty—there can be no moral improvisation.
A beautiful analogy! I suppose I was thinking on a larger, yet also smaller, scale (pun possibly intended...?). I can certainly say what love makes whole for ME. But the answer will be different for each person in each scenario, no matter how often I assert myself as an "expert."
Niiiiiiice.
I love (no pun intended) the conceit that we speak much of light/love, but there is another truth accessible in darkness and silence. Although whether either good or bad is difficult to say, one may be an idealised empire of broken temples, the other the silence of a bedroom with your cooling lover turned away. In three stanzas you’re developed something intriguing with some arresting and universal images. I turned it over, reading it a few times.
It also kind of felt like a poem a particularly cultured vampire would quite like.
Wonderful.