Today's poem:
Nothing Gold Can Stay
- by Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
#RobertFrost #poetry #evanescence #gold #value #gifts #temporality
Tied to a fence on a blocked off path in Linn Park on the Southside of Glasgow. You've got to love a city where people take it upon themselves to go around doing things like this!
#glasgow #linnpark #peoplemakeglasgow #poetry #streetart #streetpoetry #robertfrost
Excellence
… excellence is not a law of physics. Excellence is a moral act.
You create excellence by deciding to do so, nothing more. It doesn’t matter if you went to the wrong school, or were born on the wrong side of the tracks, or working the wrong job.
You go into the situation and you go the extra mile. Your decision. You own it. You own the potential downsides as well.
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I have a hard time distinguishing when I’m in the pursuit of excellence from when I’m in the paralysis of perfection. In my mind I can see so many options, permutations and problems, and my thinking wants to race down every path. Which path leads to excellence? Which path leads only to perfection? I spent a lot of time—let’s say the ’90s and ’00s—checking every available path to see where they led.
But I don’t want to do that any more. Here are things I’m doing, and of course I’ll do them with excellence. And over there? Over there are the rest of the paths throughout the entire universe which I’m perfectly fine leaving to others. The universe did just fine before I was here, and it will continue to be fine after.
You know that great Robert Frost poem about two paths diverging in a wood? Turns out that it does not matter which path you choose… until you’ve gone so far down that path that you cannot return and go the other way. Only then have you actually chosen.
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#Apogee #HughMacLeod #MeaningOfLife #RobertFrost§3 – The rose that grew from concrete
This entry is part 9 of 37 in the series Study inspired by Pakour & Art du Déplacement by V. ThibaultResilience.
Why does Parkour so effectively teach resilience? Because your regular world and your regular life are DESIGNED for your interaction. Stairs are a certain height, walking surfaces are smooth and even, door knobs are convenient, chairs, air conditioning, trains and autos; Everything you interact with is designed for human interaction. In a very real sense, that’s what “civilized” means.
Have you ever stopped to consider something as simple and common as doorways? What would life like, if – just for some historic reason – every doorway was only 4 feet high? Life would be much better simply because everyone would have to bend over regularly!
What if stairs were the norm? What if walking was the norm?
When you begin exploring your world through the lens of Parkour, you are told to intentionally seek out challenges. In Parkour practice, you’re exposing yourself to a hard choice: Bend your mind and body to the challenge, or face pain and injury. A good coach sets you up for success, but you’re still told to go under that railing, climb over that wall, and put your hands on that rough concrete. You have to teach your mind and body how to be resilient so that you can rediscover the ways already within yourself to interact with an environment that is, at best, indifferent to your wellbeing.
Once you see things differently, you can start interacting with things that were specifically designed for some reason other than human interaction. You start by looking at your world this way as part of a specific practice; “I’m going to class and the instructor makes us do this”. Eventually, the mindset becomes comfortable on its own without prompting, and you begin to automatically practice a mindful resilience in your daily life.
How could I get to that place over there without using that obvious pedestrian route? How would I get down there, or up there? Why am I eating inside when it’s so nice outside? What would I do if an emergency happened right now?
Once you are well and truly comfortable with the resilient mindset, your body relaxes and the physical uncertainty, or even fear, that you were unconsciously feeling goes away. In it’s place wells up good old natural Human Curiosity. Your mind says, “Sure, let’s go this other way,” and, “Let’s take this road less travelled.” It really does make all the difference.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
~ Robert Frost, from The Road Not Taken
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#Parkour #ParkourArtDuDeplacementByVThibault #RobertFrost #Writing“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩.”
- Robert Frost
https://greatnewspodcast.com/robert-frost-the-only-way-out-is-through/
‘A Prayer in Spring’ by Robert Frost
Looking for some peace and quiet? Robert Frost’s poem ‘A Prayer in Spring’ just might give you some inspiration.
As I often mention in my poetry posts, try to read this poem out loud—it has a great rhythm that you might completely miss out on if you read it silently. And that would be unfortunate, because the rhythm is intentional: it contributes to the message of the poem. Its stable consistency adds to the sense of calm.
How did Frost create this effect? You will notice the steady AABB rhyme pattern, but there’s more. The poem is written in iambic pentameter, which is a five-set series of iambs (an iamb is a metrical unit consisting of two syllables, where the first one is unstressed and the second one stressed).
English language learners can do a simple vocabulary exercise found below the poem, and there’s also a selection of additional resources on Robert Frost and iambic pentameter.
Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day; And give us not to think so far away As the uncertain harvest; keep us here All simply in the springing of the year. Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white, Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night; And make us happy in the happy bees, The swarm dilating round the perfect trees. And make us happy in the darting bird That suddenly above the bees is heard, The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill, And off a blossom in mid air stands still. For this is love and nothing else is love, The which it is reserved for God above To sanctify to what far ends He will, But which it only needs that we fulfil.VOCABULARY EXERCISE FOR ESL LEARNERS
Match the following words found in the poem with their definitions:
ORCHARD (n.) | DILATE (v.) | THRUST (v.) | SWARM (n.) | SANCTIFY (v.) | DART (v.)
To check your answers, please click here.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
‘A Prayer in Spring’ read by Robert Frost
Iambic pentameter – an Encyclopedia Britannica entry
‘October’ by Robert Frost
#AmericanLiterature #English #EnglishLiterature #EnglishVocabulary #learningEnglish #poetry #readingSkills #RobertFrost
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