{"id":5796,"date":"2013-04-26T01:17:50","date_gmt":"2013-04-26T05:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=5796"},"modified":"2013-04-26T01:17:50","modified_gmt":"2013-04-26T05:17:50","slug":"day-25-of-national-poetry-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/04\/day-25-of-national-poetry-month.html","title":{"rendered":"day #25 of National Poetry Month ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a>Last night I walked a metaphor. Staying here on Mauie, with a close friend, at her mother’s house is certainly cool enough. But an inward journey? Under a full Maui moon? Pardon the pun, but celebrating the rebuilding (& ‘reframing’) of the newly restored Sacred Gardens labyrinth was amazing.<\/p>\n

Listening to the history of this labyrinth — and the Chartres labyrinth from which it was modeled — was its own circuit. A labyrinth differs from a maze, in serious significant ways. A maze is an attempt to confuse the walker — blind ends, switchbacks. A labyrinth, on the other hand, is a pilgrimage. Some say the Chartres labyrinth was a way for Crusade-era Christians to replicate the physical journey to Jerusalem metaphorically — and escape the frequent deaths befalling pilgrims.<\/p>\n

Others say the labyrinth was always a metaphor for the inner journey to a spiritual center. Either way, you are walking in a metaphor.<\/p>\n

Today’s poem — another by Auden — is actually referencing a maze, but that’s a small error, and nothing to reproach Auden for. He still captures the feeling of last night: epiphany, re-framing of lives, and spiritual journey. Good to contemplate.<\/p>\n

Here’s Auden’s ‘The Labyrinth”:<\/p>\n

The Labyrinth<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anthropos apteros for days
\nWalked whistling round and round the Maze,
\nRelying happily upon
\nHis temperment for getting on.<\/i><\/p>\n

The hundreth time he sighted, though,
\nA bush he left an hour ago,
\nHe halted where four alleys crossed,
\nAnd recognized that he was lost.<\/p>\n

“Where am I?” Metaphysics says
\nNo question can be asked unless
\nIt has an answer, so I can
\nAssume this maze has got a plan.<\/p>\n

If theologians are correct,
\nA Plan implies an Architect:
\nA God-built maze would be, I’m sure,
\nThe Universe in minature.<\/p>\n

Are data from the world of Sense,
\nIn that case, valid evidence?
\nWhat in the universe I know
\nCan give directions how to go?<\/p>\n

All Mathematics would suggest
\nA steady straight line as the best,
\nBut left and right alternately
\nIs consonant with History.<\/p>\n

Aesthetics, though, believes all Art
\nIntends to gratify the heart:
\nRejecting disciplines like these,
\nMust I, then, go which way I please?<\/p>\n

Such reasoning is only true
\nIf we accept the classic view,
\nWhich we have no right to assert,
\nAccording to the Introvert.<\/p>\n

His absolute pre-supposition
\nIs – Man creates his own condition:
\nThis maze was not divinely built,
\nBut is secreted by my guilt.<\/p>\n

The centre that I cannot find
\nIs known to my unconscious Mind;
\nI have no reason to despair
\nBecause I am already there.<\/p>\n

My problem is how not to will;
\nThey move most quickly who stand still;
\nI’m only lost until I see
\nI’m lost because I want to be.<\/p>\n

If this should fail, perhaps I should,
\nAs certain educators would,
\nContent myself with the conclusion;
\nIn theory there is no solution.<\/p>\n

All statements about what I feel,
\nLike I-am-lost, are quite unreal:
\nMy knowledge ends where it began;
\nA hedge is taller than a man.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Anthropos apteros, perplexed
\nTo know which turning to take next,
\nLooked up and wished he were a bird
\nTo whom such doubts must seem absurd<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night I walked a metaphor. Staying here on Mauie, with a close friend, at her mother’s house is certainly cool enough. But an inward journey? Under a full Maui moon? Pardon the pun, but celebrating the rebuilding (& ‘reframing’) of the newly restored Sacred Gardens labyrinth was amazing. Listening to the history of this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[310,22],"tags":[173,11,1181,1187,262,318,1190,528,527],"class_list":["post-5796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-here-now","category-poetry","tag-auden","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-national-poetry-month","tag-poetry","tag-stillness","tag-the-labyrinth"],"yoast_head":"\nday #25 of National Poetry Month ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last night I walked a metaphor. Staying here on Mauie, with a close friend, at her mother's house is certainly cool enough. But an inward journey? 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Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. 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