LITTLE GIDDING
(No. 4 of ‘Four Quartets’)

I

Midwinter spring is its own season
Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown,
Suspended in time, between pole and tropic.
When the short day is brightest, with frost and fire,
The brief sun flames the ice, on pond and ditches,
In windless cold that is the heart’s heat,
Reflecting in a watery mirror
A glare that is blindness in the early afternoon.
And glow more intense than blaze of branch, or brazier,
Stirs the dumb spirit: no wind, but pentecostal fire
In the dark time of the year. Between melting and freezing
The soul’s sap quivers. There is no earth smell
Or smell of living thing. This is the spring time
But not in time’s covenant. Now the hedgerow
Is blanched for an hour with transitory blossom
Of snow, a bloom more sudden
Than that of summer, neither budding nor fading,
Not in the scheme of generation.
Where is the summer, the unimaginable
Zero summer?

---

This poem by T. S. Eliot came to mind as we drove west toward the sunset several days ago.  The expanse of frozen fields, covered with snow, was grey as the sun set, painting the sky with fire.  The juxtaposition was emotionally moving.  I felt like crying.  Fire and ice seem like antithesis.  At a certain time and place it is apparent these certainly are not.

They are iconic of life’s hysteresis within the human heart.

The photo of the sunset was taken from the moving vehicle.  A photo of the  Buddha seated impassively on the hill, was taken after a snowfall.

---

What of a tune for the day?  This one I’ve loved for quite some time.  You may recognize immediately the driving beat, the rhythm of fire and ice… Listen to the story.  The story is your story and my story is it not?

Livin’ On A Prayer

By Bon Jovi

Once upon a time not so long ago

Tommy used to work on the docks
Union’s been on strike
He’s down on his luck
It’s tough, so tough

Gina works the diner all day
Working for her man
She brings home her pay
For love, for love

She says, “We’ve gotta hold on to what we’ve got
It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not
We’ve got each other and that’s a lot
For love we’ll give it a shot.”

Whoa, we’re half-way there
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer
Take my hand, we’ll make it. I swear
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer

Tommy’s got his six string in hock
Now he’s holding in
What he used to make it talk
So tough, it’s tough

Gina dreams of running away
When she cries in the night
Tommy whispers
“Baby, it’s okay, someday

We’ve gotta hold on to what we’ve got
It doesn’t make a difference if we make it or not
We’ve got each other and that’s a lot
For love we’ll give it a shot

Whoa, we’re half-way there
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer
Take my hand and we’ll make it. I swear
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer

Livin’ on a prayer

We’ve gotta hold on ready or not
You live for the fight when it’s all that you’ve got

Whoa, we’re half-way there
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer
Take my hand and we’ll make it, I swear
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer

Whoa, we’re half-way there
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer
Take my hand and we’ll make it, I swear
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer

Lyrics by Desmond Child, Jon Bon Jovi, Richard S. Sambora