“The pitcher cries for water to carry” | A Poem from the ICF Conference
November 5, 2007 by Andrea J. Lee
Filed under Uncategorized
Thank you to Richard Tarnas, author of The Passion of the Western Mind and the new Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View for his talk at the ICF Conference this past Saturday. I’m in awe of great deep swaths of thinking behind this work; it echoes of Ken Wilber and Joseph Campbell. Not for the faint of heart.
Here’s a crumb I caught and enjoyed immensely. It’s a poem called ‘To Be of Use’ by Marge Piercey which Richard quoted at the end of his presentation. All ye seekers of money and meaning, I think you’ll find a smile here.
To Be of Use
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
Marge Piercy
How are you a Greek amphora, and what water are you crying to carry? Comment below.
