{"id":218,"date":"2021-03-15T14:13:31","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T14:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/?page_id=218"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:36:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T09:36:02","slug":"the-sea-in-just-two-moods","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/march-2021-volume-503\/the-sea-in-just-two-moods\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sea, in Just Two Moods"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jill Green<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Oxford must be one of the places furthest from the sea in the British Isles. We are relatively small islands so lots of places are much nearer to it. Like many people, I have spent hours contemplating its ongoing timelessness, its power and movement, its rhythmic sounds, its human-damaged wildlife, and its plastic contamination. Perhaps above all, its increasing depth, reminding us constantly of our failings. It seems always to have a way of reminding us of things eternal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Original Painting by Jill Green<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We Oxfordians have not visited it as much as usual recently, for obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Original Painting by Jill Green<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I have found a poem that has taken me back to it, from a volume of the American poet Galway Kinnell\u2019s selected poems, published in 1982 by Houghton Mifflin\/ Boston. His poetry has extraordinary range, is marked by a richness of language, a devotion to the things and creatures of the world, and makes supreme efforts to transform our understandings into the universality of art. It gives me so much pleasure to share it (in part, as it is too long for this article) with you.<\/p>\n

Inspired by, and with thanks, to Alexander Westmacott
\n(43 Newsletter February 2021)<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Spindrift<\/b><\/p>\n

4<\/b><\/p>\n

I sit listening<\/p>\n

To the surf as it falls,<\/p>\n

The power and inexhaustible freshness<\/p>\n

of the sea,<\/p>\n

The suck and inner boom<\/p>\n

As a wave tears free and crashes back<\/p>\n

In overlapping thunders<\/p>\n

going away down the beach.<\/p>\n

It is the most we know of time,<\/p>\n

And it is our undermusic of eternity.<\/p>\n

7<\/b><\/p>\n

What does he really love,<\/p>\n

That old man,<\/p>\n

His wrinkled eyes<\/p>\n

Tortured by smoke,<\/p>\n

Walking in the ungodly<\/p>\n

Rasp and cackle of old flesh?<\/p>\n

Nobody likes to die<\/p>\n

But an old man<\/p>\n

Can know<\/p>\n

A kind of gratefulness<\/p>\n

Toward time that kills him,<\/p>\n

Everything he loved was made of it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2014Excerpt from Galway Kinnell <\/b><\/p>\n

\n

Back to March 2021 Newsletter Main Page<\/a><\/p>\n

Forty-Three<\/em> e-Newsletter \u2022 Number 503 \u2022 March 2021
\n<\/strong>Oxford Friends Meeting
\n43 St Giles, Oxford OX1 3LW<\/p>\n

newsletter@oxfordquakers.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jill Green Oxford must be one of the places furthest from the sea in the British Isles. We are relatively small islands so lots of places are much nearer to it. Like many people, I have spent hours contemplating its ongoing timelessness, its power and movement, its rhythmic sounds, its human-damaged wildlife, and its plastic … Continue reading The Sea, in Just Two Moods<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"parent":182,"menu_order":202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1240,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/218\/revisions\/1240"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}