photo by Nicolas Humbert
"...in mountains where sheep are
indistinguishable from snow
the snow from the cloud, the
clouds from the sky..."
and one more,
"no hope of comprehending the whole, no hope
of understanding any one object either, without
some comprehension of the whole.
no hope of solution of these problems;
no possibility of abandoning them either (as
long as one lives)
better to be engaged in them to be engaged by
them, in spirit of play (serious spirit, serious
play) while time passes over one, under one, through
one."
Robert Lax, from something called the "C Journal"
Beth - great post.
ReplyDeleteI love the picture. Kind of mysterious. I see the cliffs in the backround. Was this on Patmos?
Lax's poems are not easy for me to grasp - maybe I look into them to deeply. I believe he speaks of God - being in all places - in all things - and that it is in our nature to contemplate these things - of life, of God. Until one day there will be no need - as we will be with Him.
Yes, Patmos. I think that is where Humbert did all of his photographs of Lax.
ReplyDeleteLax says simple things in very simple ways. That's all. No need to look any further or deeper, it all is just what it is.
This is Michael Philip, describing Lax in the film: "A Window on the Word":
"... The poet speaks: not to the camera, he does not need the camera. Nor does it trouble him either, he simply ignores it. It accompanies him, unobtrusively but intensively - but he lives without it. The poet speaks to himself, but he does not speak of himself; he speaks of the world, his world. He confesses to no belief, he is an observer; he does not describe, he names. His poems are short, clear, pointed; they are polar rather than dialectical, their subtlety does not lie i synthesis; they link opposites without neutralizing them, they create relationships: "Not/from/with/in."
I have ordered the DVD, "Middle of the Moment" about modern nomads. It contains filming of Lax done by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel.
I'll probably have more to say about that when I've viewed the film.