I love seeing your notebook, but the thought of my undertaking such a practice makes me anxious. I've tried similarly detailed task management, but it doesn't work for me. I use a simple Leuchttrum weekly planner and only list the tasks I feel MUST be done that week. I also keep a long run to do list that I refer to occasionally. I miss the structure I had from being in grad school. I'm working on trying to establish a new order for my days wherein I write most afternoons.
Everybody needs a system that works for them. Some people use Google Calendar alerts exclusively. All essential tasks are schedule, etc. for me, I just love drawing and making physical things, but it takes time. That’s the huge drawback. But I schedule that time in my notebook too. Some days I miss out on scheduling and I have an empty looking schedule so I just doodle. That works too.
Thanks for this. My comment is going to go off on a tangent... The title "Hope for the Drowning" couldn't help but remind me of a book title I'd seen somewhere, "Hymns for the Drowning". I've looked it up, and it's a book in the Penguin Classics series with poems from the Tamil Vaishnava poet-saint Nammalvar, translated by A.K. Ramanujan. I don't have a copy of that book to hand, so I'm not sure why it has that title, but I can hazard a couple of guesses... the ocean is a common image in Indian religious texts. Often it's the ocean of samsara, the world of suffering and rebirth, which the spiritual seeker needs to cross or be saved from. But it can also be a metaphor for divinity and for attaining oneness with God, like a drop or river lost in the ocean (I leave aside the question of whether this metaphor is always meant in a pantheistic sense or, perhaps as poetic hyperbole, intended by some poets to be compatible with other perspectives.) So is it hymns for those drowning in the world and who need to be saved, or hymns by those who are drowning in the fullness of God? Unfortunately I don't know!
That’s really interesting! There are certain images I have used in poetry that was told mean specific things in English poetry. For example, fire being synonymous with desire (they even rhyme). I had once used it to mean sacrifice and material loss. Apparently I can talk about ash, immolation, charcoal, etc. and still mean what I want it to mean, but the actual word “fire”? Nope. That’s Eros. I wonder if “drowning” is one of those culturally laden words?
It’s true that “fire” and “desire” are one of those happy rhyming pairs in English with perfect end rhyme and a thematic connection (along with “breath” and “death”, “womb” and “tomb”). But I would never say that the word or image always suggests desire. It just as easily suggests destruction. A third possibility is a symbol of hope, think of the father’s instruction to “carry the fire” in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. If you go deeper into the mythic and religious backgrounds of Western literature, you get even more: fire as enlightenment (Prometheus), fire as a symbol of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), etc.
As for drowning — words associated with forms of dying are usually going to be negative. Though they can be made less serious through hyperbole (“I’m drowning in work!”) or subverted by using them as a metaphor for some more positive experience. I can imagine a phrase like “drowning in pleasure” in erotic writing, and of course there is the use of metaphors of dying and self-annihilation in mystical literature from different religious traditions. If I come across an example which uses “drowning” I’ll come back to this comment.
I tend to think of fire as sacrifice. Even if the rhyme with fire is so strong. I agree with you. It’s a very tricky poem I’m working on. I may just have to put it away for a while.
Fire as sacrifice reminds me of the children's picture book by Tomie de Paola: the Legend of the Bluebonnets.
Also T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding:
"And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living."
"Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire."
To me it makes sense because sacrifices are immolated.
Think of the Psalms.
Psalm 40: "In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open iear.1
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required."
Psalm 50: "Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me."
Psalm 51: "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering."
Or Isaiah: "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;"
The Greeks also offered burnt offerings to the gods. It's a pretty common idea.
I think it's wrong to claim that fire always means passion and eros, and I think the connection with sacrifice is widespread. But it is good to recognize those as strong associations that many readers will have and that you might want to temper the associations or avoid confusing imagery that can be read in a way you don't want. I like how Eliot tempers the passionate nature of fire by pairing it with water. (I think he's also thinking of water dousing fire after air raids have started fires burning in the city.)
Drowning as a mystical metaphor: “I thought that one moment more and I would have drowned in the ocean of love.” (Diary of St Faustina Kowalska, 1776). “God fills my being to the brim/ with floods of his immensity./ I drown within a drop of Him/ whose sea-bed is infinity.” (Poem titled Doxology by Sr Miriam of the Holy Spirit, Jessica Powers: https://carmelitequotes.blog/2022/06/26/jessica-doxology/ .)
I am obsessed with your notebook and pretty handwriting. So many years of trying to bullet journal. The thought of planning life into 15 minute chunks is like…. My dream… but it would take me so long to plan!! When do you do that? I always make so many lists and then do things spontaneously anyway.
I do the planning first thing in the morning (usually). If I make it pretty I will want to look at it again, hence the beautiful aspect to it. It’s a challenge. I also spontaneously do things BUT I have so many horribly urgent/important things to do that I need to do the list or else I am in super huge trouble.
I love seeing your notebook, but the thought of my undertaking such a practice makes me anxious. I've tried similarly detailed task management, but it doesn't work for me. I use a simple Leuchttrum weekly planner and only list the tasks I feel MUST be done that week. I also keep a long run to do list that I refer to occasionally. I miss the structure I had from being in grad school. I'm working on trying to establish a new order for my days wherein I write most afternoons.
Everybody needs a system that works for them. Some people use Google Calendar alerts exclusively. All essential tasks are schedule, etc. for me, I just love drawing and making physical things, but it takes time. That’s the huge drawback. But I schedule that time in my notebook too. Some days I miss out on scheduling and I have an empty looking schedule so I just doodle. That works too.
Thank you. I do love Szymborska and thought I would share the post I wrote on her last year https://jeffrich.substack.com/i/148794798/wisława-szymborska
Jeff, thank you for sharing! I’m happy to know another admirer of Wisława Szymborska!
Thanks for this. My comment is going to go off on a tangent... The title "Hope for the Drowning" couldn't help but remind me of a book title I'd seen somewhere, "Hymns for the Drowning". I've looked it up, and it's a book in the Penguin Classics series with poems from the Tamil Vaishnava poet-saint Nammalvar, translated by A.K. Ramanujan. I don't have a copy of that book to hand, so I'm not sure why it has that title, but I can hazard a couple of guesses... the ocean is a common image in Indian religious texts. Often it's the ocean of samsara, the world of suffering and rebirth, which the spiritual seeker needs to cross or be saved from. But it can also be a metaphor for divinity and for attaining oneness with God, like a drop or river lost in the ocean (I leave aside the question of whether this metaphor is always meant in a pantheistic sense or, perhaps as poetic hyperbole, intended by some poets to be compatible with other perspectives.) So is it hymns for those drowning in the world and who need to be saved, or hymns by those who are drowning in the fullness of God? Unfortunately I don't know!
That’s really interesting! There are certain images I have used in poetry that was told mean specific things in English poetry. For example, fire being synonymous with desire (they even rhyme). I had once used it to mean sacrifice and material loss. Apparently I can talk about ash, immolation, charcoal, etc. and still mean what I want it to mean, but the actual word “fire”? Nope. That’s Eros. I wonder if “drowning” is one of those culturally laden words?
It’s true that “fire” and “desire” are one of those happy rhyming pairs in English with perfect end rhyme and a thematic connection (along with “breath” and “death”, “womb” and “tomb”). But I would never say that the word or image always suggests desire. It just as easily suggests destruction. A third possibility is a symbol of hope, think of the father’s instruction to “carry the fire” in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. If you go deeper into the mythic and religious backgrounds of Western literature, you get even more: fire as enlightenment (Prometheus), fire as a symbol of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost), etc.
As for drowning — words associated with forms of dying are usually going to be negative. Though they can be made less serious through hyperbole (“I’m drowning in work!”) or subverted by using them as a metaphor for some more positive experience. I can imagine a phrase like “drowning in pleasure” in erotic writing, and of course there is the use of metaphors of dying and self-annihilation in mystical literature from different religious traditions. If I come across an example which uses “drowning” I’ll come back to this comment.
I tend to think of fire as sacrifice. Even if the rhyme with fire is so strong. I agree with you. It’s a very tricky poem I’m working on. I may just have to put it away for a while.
Fire as sacrifice reminds me of the children's picture book by Tomie de Paola: the Legend of the Bluebonnets.
Also T. S. Eliot's Little Gidding:
"And what the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead: the communication
Of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living."
"Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire."
To me it makes sense because sacrifices are immolated.
Think of the Psalms.
Psalm 40: "In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
but you have given me an open iear.1
Burnt offering and sin offering
you have not required."
Psalm 50: "Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you;
your burnt offerings are continually before me."
Psalm 51: "For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering."
Or Isaiah: "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;"
The Greeks also offered burnt offerings to the gods. It's a pretty common idea.
I think it's wrong to claim that fire always means passion and eros, and I think the connection with sacrifice is widespread. But it is good to recognize those as strong associations that many readers will have and that you might want to temper the associations or avoid confusing imagery that can be read in a way you don't want. I like how Eliot tempers the passionate nature of fire by pairing it with water. (I think he's also thinking of water dousing fire after air raids have started fires burning in the city.)
Drowning as a mystical metaphor: “I thought that one moment more and I would have drowned in the ocean of love.” (Diary of St Faustina Kowalska, 1776). “God fills my being to the brim/ with floods of his immensity./ I drown within a drop of Him/ whose sea-bed is infinity.” (Poem titled Doxology by Sr Miriam of the Holy Spirit, Jessica Powers: https://carmelitequotes.blog/2022/06/26/jessica-doxology/ .)
I am obsessed with your notebook and pretty handwriting. So many years of trying to bullet journal. The thought of planning life into 15 minute chunks is like…. My dream… but it would take me so long to plan!! When do you do that? I always make so many lists and then do things spontaneously anyway.
I do the planning first thing in the morning (usually). If I make it pretty I will want to look at it again, hence the beautiful aspect to it. It’s a challenge. I also spontaneously do things BUT I have so many horribly urgent/important things to do that I need to do the list or else I am in super huge trouble.
Worth a second read about Wislawa!
She was a fascinating woman!
Jane Kenyon and Ray Bradbury is a genius pairing.
Yeah, they are pretty great together. Thanks!