No time to stand and stare. You know the quote, don’t you?
Or do you?
‘What is this life if, full of care/ we have not time to stand and stare?’
[A classic example of the importance of commas, btw, but that’s not what I’m writing about.]
It’s taken from a poem called ‘Leisure’, one of a series of ‘Songs of Joy’ by Welsh poet –and tramp and novelist – William Henry Davies. He died in 1940. The poem was published in 1911.
Among the vagaries of his life was an accident jumping freight trains in Canada that left him without a foot and needing a wooden leg. He came back across the waves at that point, living rough in London doss-houses, writing poetry, self-publishing at a time when it was far from easy.
Out of that experience he drew his book, ‘Autobiography of a Super-Tramp’ – which reminds me of the band of that name. Supertramp did an album, ‘Breakfast in America’ that Davies might’ve liked, being fond of the place. But I’m meandering.
I didn’t know any of this odd, informational spice before today. I discovered it when I looked up the quote in my large, heavy, cardboard-and-paper Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
You see, I’d been thinking of writing a piece about butterflies (yes, the picture’s a butterfly not a dragonfly). About foxes and squirrels and birds. About trees and wind and clouds and – then I thought, why?
The thoughts wouldn’t blend into a coherent whole. It was as if the fairy dust falling from butterflies’ wings had seeped into my brain, turning it into sherbert. Fizzy and sharp and tasty – but not much use. And not for sharing.
Then I read a blog-post by Jennie Saia. I’ll give you the link at the end. She writes some very thought provoking pieces, Jennie. Sometimes I don’t have a clue what she’s saying. That storm-tossed Atlantic can thrash our separate versions of English to a pulp that makes us truly foreigners.
But on this one I was right there with her.
Reading about a world where women – ladies – feel they don’t need feminism because they like to cook, or want their pickle jars opening, or their refrigerators lifting, took me back to the butterfly.
What does it matter if I’ve seen a luscious, orange-brown Silver Washed Fritillary? Seen the Burnet Moth’s wings, red-splashed black? A shiny-furred chestnut fox with a white-tipped tail, or a blue jay mastering a peanut feeder?
What does it matter if a wasp drank from the side of the bird bowl? If a long-eared owl hooted a muted hoot from a perch in the nearest pine tree – in the daylight hours? If a peacock butterfly hesitated long enough for me to take its picture?
That’s why I couldn’t write it.
What does any of it matter?
I thought it mattered that I’d learnt to see and recognise and know these wonders of nature. I suppose it doesn’t.
It matters that they are there. That I had the time to stand and stare.
But you don’t need to know.
Anyway.
One jewel of the world around us was missing from my inventory of joyous nature – the dragonfly. Despite the water, fast evaporating in the decoratively-rusting steel bowl, no rainbow-fluttering, iridescent-winged creature had visited.
Then it did – and I missed it. Someone else saw it.
It doesn’t matter. The dragonfly is there, was there, somewhere.
That poet-tramp-novelist, WH Davies, knew the value of the beauty of things, could tell them in a way I can’t. I still feel, ‘well, so what?’
But, the trail was leading me somewhere.
No such thing as coincidence, of course, but, trudging around the internet, following Davies’ tracks, I wound up with Fleetwood Mac. Listen …
Davies’ words. Fleetwood Mac’s music. Now there’s a reason to sit and stare. To swoon.
It doesn’t matter if I can’t find a way to share my nature-fest with you – because someone else has done it better. Like Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending. John Clare’s bird poems. Thomas Hardy’s Dorset hedgerows.
But it matters that I could, if I wanted. That people like Jennie (and I) can stand and stare at our world, think thoughts, lay them out for others to use as inspiration or incitement. Or dismiss.
Today the world is cool and grey. The double-helix-dancing butterflies are in hiding. And my brain is working. Indoors, where it belongs.
Too much sun doesn’t suit a British native, after all.
[Tip of my tongue blog by Jennie Saia]
MEMOIRS OF A HUSK 
I have so many thoughts! First, I love a good ramble through words and ideas. It’s a joy to read the journey, sometimes, instead of just seeing postcards of the final destination.
What else? I’m tucking away your phrase “informational spice.” Delightful! It was also delightful to be referenced as someone who provoked thoughts about things that matter because, for so much of my life, I was always thought of as the pixie, the optimist, the tree hugger, and not much more. I’m still all those things – and, for reasons I can’t quite express, I have an infinite belief in the importance of you knowing the names of butterflies – but it’s like a vitamin shot to my spirit to think I may have finally brought some metal to mingle with the fairy dust and sunshine.
What else? You made me laugh, because I once had to buy my boss a book on British slang before she took a business trip to London!
In the end, we choose what matters, what is worthwhile to us. Enabling more lives well-lived was always feminism’s ultimate goal.
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Ha – exactly, it was a ramble! Sometimes I have to follow, not lead or I end up stuck in the brambles.
I love your ‘postcards of the destination’. And pixie tells me so much about you! I feel an affinity with that – my dad’s comment whenever I was a bit hyper as a child was that I was ‘pixie-lated’ (my interpretation – he’d been an illustrator)- I always assumed it had something to do with pixies – he never enlightened me as to its real spelling and meaning. Thanks again for your original post. M
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What does it matter if I’ve seen a luscious, orange-brown Silver Washed Fritillary? Seen the Burnet Moth’s wings, red-splashed black? A shiny-furred chestnut fox with a white-tipped tail, or a blue jay mastering a peanut feeder?
What does it matter if a wasp drank from the side of the bird bowl? If a long-eared owl hooted a muted hoot from a perch in the nearest pine tree – in the daylight hours? If a peacock butterfly hesitated long enough for me to take its picture?
That’s why I couldn’t write it.
What does any of it matter?
I thought it mattered that I’d learnt to see and recognise and know these wonders of nature. I suppose it doesn’t.
It matters that they are there. That I had the time to stand and stare.
But you don’t need to know.
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL POEM!
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You made me teary. Thanks. It means a lot that you say this, I nearly didn’t post it. xx
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Been waiting to see this since you first mentioned a butterfly, and the bike ride. Thank you. Thank you for daring to post it. Thank you for all of it.
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Thank YOU John. Teary again, m
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hello, memoirs… hey, thanks for the visit. 🙂 hey, i somehow know the feeling, dear. once, i wrote an essay (in my Tagalog site) asking should it matter if i don’t see fireflies in the city, ahaha. hugs. 🙂
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Fireflies – the magical ones! First time I saw them was in Swaziland. Here we only have glow worms – apparently they are around lots of places in the countryside here but I’ve never seen one 😦
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True! I used to catch them when we were small and close-open my palm, hehe. The adults say that holding them shortens their lives. Is this true?
Yes, they could be found in ecologically balanced environments. Thus, none in cities – here or there. 🙂
waving…
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Waving back 🙂
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Reblogged this on MEMOIRS OF A HUSK and commented:
And old post of mine, brought to mind by the sad news of the death of Danny Kirwan of Fleetwood Mac, there’s a link to his magical song about the dragonfly in here.
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I’m so glad you posted this, Mary. We never know who our words will reach and the meaning they might have. I had just finished my morning jotting of words thinking, ‘who on earth would be interested in reading this?’. Yes, it is important it was there, and perhaps that I was able to observe, and perhaps even to describe, but why would anyone read it? Because it is like art… No purpose, but of great value. Well, at least I’m putting it into that category. It enables us to feel our human-ness. I’ve signed up to read Jennie’s blog. xx
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That phrase “no purpose, but of great value” resonate with me. I believe one of the effects of the modernisation of society is we are in danger of losing, have lost, the perception to appreciate the something that is nothing, the nothing that is something. There is unboxed beauty all around us, yet unless it is delivered in a package with instructions so many don’t know what to do with it. There is a great need for people like Mary and you, through whose eyes and words it can be appreciated.
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I’m so glad we all found each other.
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And I’m so glad you wrote this reply, Ardys – we seem to feel the same way rather often! Your point about not knowing the meaning our words may have to someone else – suddenly it feels different, to be writing, as if someone somewhere might find hope or reassurance or just a bit of sunshine on a cloudy day. Or bubble up with a counter argument of course!
I just went over and checked Jennie’s blog. The last time we communicated she was going to do a full time course and taking a break from blogging – not sure she has returned though she said she would. But it does happen – one of the other people I followed with interest has just resurfaced as a different blog persona so who knows. I am glad she stimulated the post though.
Thanks, Ardys, and keep writing AND drawing! You’ve set me off on that but so far they are not fit for publication, nowhere close!
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If you are interested, the drawing course I took is at Creativebug.com They offer hundreds of online courses and I thought the ones I did were quite good.
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I wrote in my other comment re the reblog that I don’t follow news media much these days… much of its content doesn’t seem to signify on my scale of values, and somewhat akin to a soap opera a person can tune in and out and still pick up the gist, which is sufficient, for me anyway.
But personal observation, is what I value, am interested in. How your eyes saw the dragonfly et al, what it meant to you, your wider points of reference. These are the experiences and stories that give form and colour that matter, that burnish and embellish our lives.
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Thanks, Dale, you, like Ardys, make it feel worthwhile writing, in ways I hadn’t really absorbed. It can, as you know, be dispiriting when a carefully thought-through piece garners no responses. And I must say I miss one of my male readers who had his own blog about Land Rovers and often disagreed with me – but very politely! Then again, I rarely stray into overtly political matters these days.
I’m with you on the news. Whenever I spend time in Zambia, in rural areas without our all-penetrating meida, I return to find a few things have happened but, as you say, it’s like a soap opera, it’s so easy to catch up. We humans keep repeating the same scenarios again and again and again – and nature has a few of her own repeats in there too.
Thanks, Dale, as ever for reading and commenting on the ones that matter! 🙂
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