Not just dreams…Aine.

I can’t really be touched by a dream…can I?
It is outside of me.

But, what I can feel inside of me is pathos.

I want to feel something familiar to me…
whether sad or mischevious or romantic.

I read and enjoy poetry because it allows me to revisit my feelings…and it stirs up some memories as well.

I just applaud you and r.w. for how well the both of you do that so beautifully. Thank you.

Pathos, in the sense of “to feel deeply” should be the aim of the arts, including poetry. It’s opposite is apathy, a most insidious poison of the soul, imho.

r.w. dean/lughshand… I don’t really know how he found me on the internet, but I consider that a very fortunate thing that he did. His words of encouragement, his quiet support, his passion for words and emotion… all of that is a gift he gives to all of us. I feel both honored and fortunate to know him. He is, indeed, a gifted poet.

You feel incredible when you find someone,
who really makes a difference in your life.

I found such a person, and now I don’t know where she is.
But she was my muse.
And now my life has a few less strings in it, with her parting.
But, even fleeting, pathos is the only way to live…
to sense and dance with the music…
the rhythms that make up our lives.

My favorite poem of all time:

Love Song
by Rainer Maria Rilke

How can I keep my soul in me, so that
it doesn’t touch your soul? How can I raise
it high enough, past you, to other things?
I would like to shelter it, among remote
lost objects, in some dark and silent place
that doesn’t resonate when your depths resound.
Yet everything that touches us, me and you,
takes us together like a violin’s bow,
which draws *one* voice out of two separate strings.
Upon what instrument are we two spanned?
And what musician holds us in his hand?
Oh sweetest song.

I don’t believe I have ever read any of Anais Nin…I guess that is something I should explore since you say it is good stuff. Thank you, Aine.