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EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING

EVERY ANGEL IS TERRIFYING

Duino Elegies–Ranier Maria Rilke

A Small Matter

A Small Matter

July 1, 2026 Jerry King Comments 0 Comment

The Great Way runs
to left, to right,
the ten thousand things
depending on it,
living on it,
accepted by it.

Doing its work,
it goes unnamed.
Clothing and feeding
the ten thousand things,
it lays no claim on them
and asks nothing of them.
Call it a small matter.
The ten thousand things
return to it,
though it lays no claim on them.
Call it great.

So the wise soul
without great doings
achieves greatness.

Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu, verse 34, rendition Ursula K. Le Guin

I cannot describe a rationale for featuring this song. Intuition suggests the lyric and the melody points to something fundamental, essential and true. Attending to small things, cultivating one’s own garden is productive, that’s enough…

Grass is not more green somewhere else…

The small, to pull one weed at a time.

Silver Springs by Stevie Nicks.

 

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