Every artistic creation is an attempt to recover something of the original sense of order, of right proportion. Our capacity for wonder, for awe, our sense of the magical and the sacred, has its source here—in what we can call a state of grace, equilibrium. I suppose that what we refer to as sacred is so because of some primal relation between ourselves and the world. We feel that a part of our being is hallowed or blessed by this, that some acts of ours enhance this feeling, while others violate it.
~ from "The Creative Spirit in Art and Literature" by John Haines, in THE NATURE OF NATURE, edited by William H Shore
Beside a river, in a spell Of utter silence, there am I. Alone I sit within a cell: The midnight hours are passing by ... I gaze into the distance, staying Focused on night's formlessness; The heart is begging to be praying -- In holy calm, how effortless! All problems seem so far from me; The world seem foreign and unreal. Up in the heavens, You I see; Within my heart, deep peace I feel.
