INTRODUCTION TO PART 4 OF KEN’S JOURNEY
Helga Jaque’s painting, “Moon Over the Lake” features many facets found in Ken’s writing: water, mountains, boats, a church and a sense of mystery. After Lorelie and I purchased this painting, Helga wrote us a note about the painting that included, “This “Castle Church” is close to my home town. I used to swim in that lake as a little girl. I visit my mother twice a year and admire its beauty.”
In Part 2 & 3 of the posts taken from Ken’s writing, I’ve focused on what Ken finds disturbing about human behavior. The title of this poem does not fully reflect the meaning the poem. The poem selected does lead the reader to consider an alternative direction for humans and the potential for transcendence into a different way of living.
Tim
IN GROANING SIGHS TOO DEEP FOR WORDS
by Ken Olson
If Nature is equated with evolution
(what else can be said?)
and evolution is a flawless system
(and why not?)
then though humans
destroy themselves
they are simply continuing
What might be considered
a benign process.
After all Nature shows little concern
for individuals
or even species
so long as others replace them
continuing the abundance of life.
No, even that makes no difference
for Nature just happens.
That is why Nature is chaste and gracious.
No judgment falls on us.
Freedom to think and choose
is merely an accidental occurrence.
As an unimportant aside
an observer might say
that quite carelessly
Nature has evolved
beyond the unintended
into a passionate reaching
a transcendent possibility
at this insignificant moment in time.
A longing for beauty can be mentioned.
Comments on Ken’s Poem
By Tim Olson
I puzzled over Ken’s title In Groaning Sighs Too Deep For Words until I came across a quote in Salmon Journey. ”I believe there is music in existence that only a few can hear. It calls one, beckons to pain and beauty at the same time.” Then I recalled the first two stanzas from William Wordsworth’s poem “Lines Written in Early Spring.”
I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
Wordsworth published “Lines Written in Early Spring” in 1798, 61 years before Darwin published “The Origin of the Species” in 1859 and launched the theory of evolution. Wordsworth, like the earlier Rousseau, had faith in the goodness of Nature and the natural goodness of children prior to their being corrupted by the adult world. Darwin relied on evidence, not faith, for his theory, now supported by further research and most scientific disciplines. Ken is not a romantic in the tradition of Wordsworth, but he shares Wordsworth’s sadness and grief over the current state of the human species.
In the first four lines of the poem, Ken is having fun with words when he has Darwin’s evolution equated with Wordsworth’s personified ”Nature.” In parentheses he writes “(and what else can be said?)” Wordsworth’s pantheism is wishful thinking. Evolution is “flawless” in the sense that no alternative theory exists as a reasonable, scientific possibility. Ken again uses parentheses, “(And why not?)”
Ken then explores in the next several lines the thought that “. . . though humans destroy themselves,” that event is part of a “benign process.” The possible end of humanity is simply the way evolution happens. “Nature” shows little concern for the individuals, or even species . . .Nature just happens.” Then Ken makes his point about this, “No judgement falls on us.” Our thinking that we are free to “think and choose” is “merely an accidental occurrence.” Regardless of whether humans exist or not, Nature will continue with an “abundance of life.”
Ken writes that “As an unimportant aside an observer might say that quite carelessly Nature has evolved beyond the unintended.” Ken, like in the first four lines of the poem, is having fun here. If Nature equates with evolution, then no “intention” is possible. What happens is all part of a natural process. What is “unintended” is “a passionate reaching”; “a transcendent possibility” for humans. Other animals who share this planet with us don’t search for in their lives what humans passionately pursue in their lives. This “passionate reaching” includes humans’ desire to predominate over others and also “transcendence” towards an existence accompanied by equality, respect, love, and beauty. Ken ends with “A longing for beauty can be mentioned.”
To read previous SALMON JOURNEY III post – click. here
Thanks for posting this , Tim. Hard to believe that nearly a quarter of a century has passed since Ken left this earth to transcend to someplace unknown but sometime to be determined by us. I posted on facebook a picture of Ken on the day before Christmas in Meyers Chuck when Kerri and Dan and Ken and I walked to the muskegs above the Chuck to cut our Christmas tree. In the picture he has a little saw in his hand the he so happily used to cut our tree. When I posted the picture on the 26th (just two days ago) there was a tremendous outpouring of remembrances of people from near and afar. Ken was truly loved and the love and caring he spread is so much felt from all who posted and remembered with fondness. He truly left me with a life of joy and contentment just knowing that I got to spend that decade in his presence sharing such truly amazing adventures.