{"id":5364,"date":"2021-10-08T09:35:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T23:35:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=5364"},"modified":"2021-10-08T12:12:46","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T02:12:46","slug":"my-sense-of-joy-persists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/?p=5364","title":{"rendered":"MY SENSE OF JOY PERSISTS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Poets seem to be able to capture the flash, the illuminating instant, the second when an emotion – in this case, joy – pierces the heart.<\/p>\n

Walking yesterday to pop a note in a friends letterbox, I noticed blobs of white in the greenery along the fenceline of an empty block. I waded through the long grass to look. Turned out to be these single roses on a rampant climbing bush. And I was surprised by joy.<\/p>\n

Not an original phrase. I looked it up – Wordsworth; “Surprised by Joy”; a poem telling of his impulse to turn to a beloved person to share something wonderful, only to be hit by the realisation that he can’t. They are dead.<\/p>\n

Surprised by joy – impatient as the Wind<\/em>
\nI turned to share the transport – Oh! with whom<\/em>
\nBut thee, long buried in the silent Tomb,<\/em>
\nThat spot which no vicissitude can find?<\/em><\/p>\n

Not the right joy poem, then.
\nJoy and William Blake go together, right?<\/p>\n

He who binds to himself a joy<\/span><\/em>
\nDoes the winged life destroy.<\/span><\/em>
\nHe who kisses the joy as it flies<\/span><\/em>
\nLives in eternity’s sunrise.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Not quite. I am not clutching the moment, though I did photograph it with my mobile.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I turned to one of my notebooks. I used to scribble down little scraps of poetry, though sometimes I didn’t note the details. Like the name of this poem, from which I’d excerpted a few lines<\/p>\n

….and still and still my sense of joy persists.<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes. That’s it. My sense of joy persists. Still.<\/p>\n

I did note the poet’s name, however. He is Vivian Smith, born in Tasmania in 1933, for many years a professor at the University of Sydney, author of many collections of poetry and books on literature.<\/p>\n

…and intertwined with every rooted ‘why’\u00a0<\/em>
\nsuch tenderness, such joy exists.<\/em><\/p>\n

At present, with a “rooted ‘why'” at every turn, there are so many reasons to despair or rage. Or just be incredibly grumpy and turn to chocolate.\u00a0 So it astonishes me that I am still capable of being ambushed by this feeling I call joy. It’s usually small scale. Often, a response to looking at the plants or insects or stones I see on the ground. That goes back to my earliest memory. Three? Four? Squatting on my fat little legs to study bugs in the garden. My source<\/em> of joy persists, too. I thank and bless the star sign or deity or genetic happenstance – whatever it was – which\u00a0 implanted in me\u00a0 this capacity for finding joy in small things. May it continue in its persistence.<\/p>\n

Thank you, Vivian Smith, and I am sorry that I did not note the name of your beautiful and appropriate poem.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poets seem to be able to capture the flash, the illuminating instant, the second when an emotion – in this case, joy – pierces the heart. Walking yesterday to pop a note in a friends letterbox, I noticed blobs of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5364"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5377,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5364\/revisions\/5377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veritysparks.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}