I found this beautiful slide show collection of woodcuts and music depicting Jewish life from The Book of Customs by Scott-Martin Kosofsky. Woodcuts have always appealed to me, these are wonderful. As the days grow longer and little more light seeps into our lives let the light of inspiration transform you.
A Few Words On The Soul
We have a soul at times.
No one's got it non-stop,
for keeps.
Day after day,
year after year
may pass without it.
Sometimes
it will settle for awhile
only in childhood's fears and raptures.
Sometimes only in astonishment
that we are old.
It rarely lends a hand
in uphill tasks,
like moving furniture,
or lifting luggage,
or going miles in shoes that pinch.
It usually steps out
whenever meat needs chopping
or forms have to be filled.
For every thousand conversations
it participates in one,
if even that,
since it prefers silence.
Just when our body goes from ache to pain,
it slips off-duty.
It's picky:
it doesn't like seeing us in crowds,
our hustling for a dubious advantage
and creaky machinations make it sick.
Joy and sorrow
aren't two different feelings for it.
It attends us
only when the two are joined.
We can count on it
when we're sure of nothing
and curious about everything.
Among the material objects
it favors clocks with pendulums
and mirrors, which keep on working
even when no one is looking.
It won't say where it comes from
or when it's taking off again,
though it's clearly expecting such questions.
We need it
but apparently
it needs us
for some reason too.
—Wislawa Szymborska(translated from the Polish by Stanislaw Baranczak and Clare Cavanagh)
Once again, thanks Artella for the link :)
Japanese maple ~ Queens, NY 2008
A Few Words On The Soul ~ Perceval Press
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