tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post951876873407322584..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: The Unclouded DayUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-79919394559618159702011-11-24T23:21:46.419-08:002011-11-24T23:21:46.419-08:00Vassilis, I am grateful to know you, my distant fr...Vassilis, I am grateful to know you, my distant friend from the Argolid.<br /><br />Steve, I am grateful to know you and Johnny, my not quite so distant friends from the Great Mesa and the Little Lagoon. <br /><br />Yes, I have heard there was actually a bit of light chinking through the redwood here today... though alas I am shamed to say I was not awake to clamp my weary glims upon more than the first dim inklings of it.<br /><br />Still those were swell.<br /><br />The Staple Singers version of Uncloudy Day, on their first album (1959 on Vee-Jay, a local Chicago label), is a tune imprinted forever -- or at least for one more night, touch wood -- on the mind of someone for whom it evokes particularly vivid memories -- and the vivid ones are getting scarcer than the blurry, any more -- of getting to know an all time very best friend. <br /><br />It's that friend to whom I'm forever most grateful. <br /><br />She's asleep in the dark ten feet away.<br /><br />One foot away a large hyperactive cat is also miraculously sleeping.<br /><br />The freeway-feeder, reduced temporarily to a mere two lanes and pitted with ruts by road graders and anyway very little trafficked on this least busy cold midnight of the year, is for once almost as silent as a mere street.<br /><br />Good time to say goodnight to another Thanksgiving, with thanks again to all the fine fair friends who are so kind as to waste time coming around here.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-54660250007508116152011-11-24T14:08:56.828-08:002011-11-24T14:08:56.828-08:00No Thanksgiving Day here in Hellas but that's ...No Thanksgiving Day here in Hellas but that's no reason not to give thanks for this post.vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras)https://www.blogger.com/profile/14515165428574974933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-91962531197042111172011-11-24T10:42:33.001-08:002011-11-24T10:42:33.001-08:00Tom,
Wow, Johnny & I just listened to Myrna S...Tom,<br /><br />Wow, Johnny & I just listened to Myrna Summers doing "Uncloudy Day" (sun now breaking through clouds up there, is it any wonder?). And Ralph Stanley before that, followed by the Staple Singers -- thanks so much for these and the poem and photos on this Thanksgiving morning -- much for which to be thankful for (even though clouds still there against top of ridge. . .<br /><br />11.24<br /><br />first grey light in cloud against still<br />dark ridge, drops falling from branches<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> place transferred to placed,<br /> selected “this sketch”<br /><br /> this that being is, is what<br /> is stated, “is being”<br /><br />orange of sunlight in cloud above ridge,<br />pelican gliding toward point on horizonSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-280642038380071502011-11-24T08:50:13.346-08:002011-11-24T08:50:13.346-08:00Nin,
All aspects of church seemed to me, as a chi...Nin,<br /><br />All aspects of church seemed to me, as a child, dark, archaic, and God-whispery. The votive candles, the kneeling pads in the pews, the women & girls with hankies draped over their heads (so as not to offend God by using their heads, I guess).<br /><br />I can still remember the Latin part of the liturgy. The English, not so much. Now why is that?<br /><br />By the way, the selection of the top photo for this post was somewhat influenced by your Suzanne. And by my Somalian friend Mohamed.<br /><br />Though I fear Mo might be somewhat less than thrilled by the "Christian" elements of the context, here.<br /><br />Guess maybe we're all to be caught now and then reaching out for something to believe in, amid the blowing sand & wind & rain & c.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-31347077110935036082011-11-24T08:34:46.972-08:002011-11-24T08:34:46.972-08:00Wow! Beautiful. We only went to church for the hy...Wow! Beautiful. We only went to church for the hymns and the liturgy, which took up the first half hour of the service. Then my father insisted on leaving "before the bellyaching about God begins." <br />It was an Episcopalian church with old stained glass windows and very few people attending, and I had very little understanding of what was going on. My father said when I was old enough to think, I could learn the details, but until then he was giving us a cultural exposure to its archaic aspects . . .<br />At home we would play minister and run around in bathrobes shouting out, Let your lights so shine before men . . . .<br />But I digress. Thanks for the post and Happy Thanksgiving!Nin Andrewshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12643167108589844026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-26633466646076667212011-11-24T07:28:51.759-08:002011-11-24T07:28:51.759-08:00Don,
I too was brought up Catholic. That great pa...Don,<br /><br />I too was brought up Catholic. That great participatory swelling of emotion that we see in the Myrna Summers & co. rendition, we didn't have anything like that.<br /><br />I'm reminded of certain performances of the poem-songs of Mahmoud Darwish by Marcel Khalifa, in which the entire large audience seems to be included in, and joining in, the totality of the expression.<br /><br />Dr Ralph Stanley, a genius. <br /><br />A glorious day to you, Don.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-8958888791890142932011-11-24T07:12:18.414-08:002011-11-24T07:12:18.414-08:00Tom:
Coming from a religious background of little...Tom:<br /><br />Coming from a religious background of little joy and no hymns(Roman Catholic), this has a power I can't begin to even wrap my wits (and guts) around. <br /><br />This is the first time I've encountered it.<br /><br />If ever anyone questioned song as poetry, one has only to point here. Glorious words.<br /><br />And the Ralph Stanley version has great appeal to me ...<br /><br />Happy Thanksgiving.<br /><br />DonIssa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-21858363672731976762011-11-24T06:58:12.922-08:002011-11-24T06:58:12.922-08:00Curtis,
The top and bottom pictures remind us tha...Curtis,<br /><br />The top and bottom pictures remind us that not everyone is feasting today. There's a world going on, we stand at the edge of it, apprehensively reflecting. But the tree of life seems to want to keep on blooming, perhaps miraculously, in the wasteland that's been made of much of the earth.<br /><br />We require gentle blessings be scattered from the sky upon you and Caroline and Jane, on this holiday.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-5396275921895108712011-11-24T06:50:35.770-08:002011-11-24T06:50:35.770-08:00Dale,
Wonderful to hear from you. It's a dark...Dale,<br /><br />Wonderful to hear from you. It's a dark rainy pre-dawn morning here, but thinking of you and Hoa and Waylon and Keaton causes a bright ray of light to break through the clouds of the mind. Angelica and a posse of demented felines send along their divers forms of love to you all from here, as, for sure, do I.<br /><br />(By the by, about the hymn, check out that Myrna Summers sea-of-voices rendition...)TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-2635667384150152512011-11-24T06:43:37.202-08:002011-11-24T06:43:37.202-08:00The only words I can muster are to say that the lo...The only words I can muster are to say that the lowermost image is about the most striking thing I've ever seen and that quality is enhanced by the words-and-pictures company it keeps here on Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to the Clarks. Curtis, Caroline and JaneACravanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00315707533118640284noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-86963777527127596272011-11-24T06:28:06.909-08:002011-11-24T06:28:06.909-08:00Tom, thanks for reminding me of this hymn. It stre...Tom, thanks for reminding me of this hymn. It streaks across the continent of my childhood.<br /><br />Happy Thanksgiving to you and Angelica!Dalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13285558511682553411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-65255078124131938802011-11-24T06:13:09.858-08:002011-11-24T06:13:09.858-08:00Transcendence:
The Staple Singers: Uncloudy Day
...Transcendence:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7V7OMw7tg8" rel="nofollow">The Staple Singers: Uncloudy Day</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-XbkAGuA9U&feature=related" rel="nofollow">Myrna Summers & VOBB: Uncloudy Day</a><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBPegJDc8do&feature=related" rel="nofollow">Ralph Stanley: Uncloudy Day</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com