Than Heaven more remote
Than Heaven more remote,
Emily Dickinson -
Than Heaven more remote,
For Heaven is the root,
But these the flitted seed.
More flown indeed
Than ones that never were,
Or those that hide, and are.
What madness, by their side,
A vision to provide
Of future days
They cannot praise.
My soul, to find them, come,
They cannot call, they're dumb,
Nor prove, nor woo,
But that they have abode
Is absolute as God,
And instant, too.
Of all the poems to come to me, "The heaven more remote" is especially meaningful. For me, this is about how we try to capture heaven or this concept of God and bottle it and make it a commodity. But we can't. This isn't something to be held in the hands or sold at markets. Emily Dickinson was more cynical as she was writing, I believe, in that these things don't exist. I think she was trying to talk about how some people spend all their time focusing on heaven when, she (the speaker) is here and in the present.
Dickinson talks about the remoteness of heaven but the last line says it all, " But that they have abode Is absolute as God, And instant, too." For me, this means within reality, the real world, God exists.
And so, my illustration Friday is based on "Heaven more remote" by Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson -
Than Heaven more remote,
For Heaven is the root,
But these the flitted seed.
More flown indeed
Than ones that never were,
Or those that hide, and are.
What madness, by their side,
A vision to provide
Of future days
They cannot praise.
My soul, to find them, come,
They cannot call, they're dumb,
Nor prove, nor woo,
But that they have abode
Is absolute as God,
And instant, too.
Of all the poems to come to me, "The heaven more remote" is especially meaningful. For me, this is about how we try to capture heaven or this concept of God and bottle it and make it a commodity. But we can't. This isn't something to be held in the hands or sold at markets. Emily Dickinson was more cynical as she was writing, I believe, in that these things don't exist. I think she was trying to talk about how some people spend all their time focusing on heaven when, she (the speaker) is here and in the present.
Dickinson talks about the remoteness of heaven but the last line says it all, " But that they have abode Is absolute as God, And instant, too." For me, this means within reality, the real world, God exists.
And so, my illustration Friday is based on "Heaven more remote" by Emily Dickinson
Comments
Emily Dickinson was a perfect choice of inspiration for remote!
"The valley's deep and the mountain's so high - if you want to see God you've got to move on the other side." (Barclay James Harvest)
cheers,
kerry