The next passage in my journey is a love affair.
I am in love with Montana.
For other states I have admiration, respect,
recognition, even some affection, but with
Montana it is love, and it's difficult to analyze
love when you're in it ... It seems to me that
Montana is a great splash of grandeur. The
scale is huge but not overpowering. The land
is rich with grass and color, and the mountains
are the kind I would create if mountains were
ever put on my agenda.
John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley
Not Easily
When we get beyond beauty and pleasure,
to the other side of the heart(but short
of the spirit), we are confused about what
to do next. It is too easy to say arriving
is enough. To pretend the music
of the mountain needs only to be heard.
That the dance is known by the dancing;
and the lasagna is realized by eating it.
Not in this place on the other side
of desire. We can swim in the Aegean,
but we can't take it home. A man finds
a melon by the road and continues up
the hill thinking it is the warm melon
that will remain after he has forgotten
the ruins and sea of the summer. He tells
himself this even as the idea of the taste
is replacing what the melon tasted like.
A Drinking Song
Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes in at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.