Some Solace

I have known despair at the state of the world, or more specifically these days, the dismal state of our politics. But I took solace today when I came across this William Carlos Williams poem, "Nantucket," with its quiet statement of beautiful evidence, directly experienced, as opposed to the way we experience politics, which is usually as media noise.

Flowers through the window
lavender and yellow

Changed by white curtains --
Smell of cleanliness

Sunshine of late afternoon --
On the glass tray

a glass pitcher, the tumbler
turned down, by which

a key is lying -- And the
immaculate white bed.

And I thought of Bob Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell," and how the injustice of the world is so vexing, and how it is only aesthetic facts that can be known, including in the simple, emotional, haiku-like truth of the blues.

Well, God is in His heaven
And we all want what’s His
But power and greed and corruptible seed
Seem to be all that there is
I’m gazing out the window
Of the St. James Hotel
And I know no one can sing the blues
Like Blind Willie McTell

 Read my related piece from 2014 called "The Blues Is a Haiku."