The Longest Journey

The Longest Journey
encaustic mixed media
16×12 inches

A few weeks ago my husband showed me one of his favorite poems “The Ship of Death” by D.H. Lawrence. The first time I read it through I thought, this is a bit morbid. But then I read it again. And again and I saw the strength and the beauty in the words. And a certain couple of lines stood out to me.

VIII

And everything is gone, the body is gone
completely under, gone, entirely gone.
The upper darkness is heavy as the lower,
between them the little ship
is gone

It is the end, it is oblivion.

IX

And yet out of eternity a thread
separates itself on the blackness,
a horizontal thread
that fumes a little with pallor upon the dark.

Is it illusion? or does the pallor fume
A little higher?
Ah wait, wait, for there’s the dawn
the cruel dawn of coming back to life
out of oblivion

It’s in that 9th verse or stanza, or whatever it’s called. I haven’t sat in an English class in a long time….but anyway, forgive my ignorance. “And yet out of eternity a thread….”

I have been working the thread so much in my current work on bowls and vessels, that immediately I knew that I needed to bring this poem into the studio with me the next day.

And so I wrote it right on my table, which I cover with paper for easy cleanup. What would I do without my husband sharing some of his favorite writings? My whole bowl series was inspired by by a Raymond Carver poem he showed me back in January 2011.

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I just updated my encaustic workshops page on my website. Take a look and hope you’ll join me at one of these three offerings this year.