On Seeing with New Eyes

A mesostic on Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Nature. (The small font is necessary so the lines display without breaks. Unfortunately, it won’t display correctly on a smartphone. If you’re using a tablet, you should put it in landscape view.)



                   thinking about the paiR of
                               revolutionAry thinkers from concord massachusetts 
                         consider that raLph waldo emerson was the stodgy figure 
                 thoreau the rebellious uPstart reading
                                        tHeir

                                         Writings
                                        pArticularly
                             their journaLs which
                                are recorDs
                                         Of

                                       thEir raw thoughts one can see that
                                        eMerson
                                  was morE methodical
                                  and thoReau more elegiac
                                  but thiS
               masks that fact that emersOn was
                                a rebel iN

                                 his own Right just one
                                         A
                        bit more straightLaced than
                                his disciPle 
                emerson seemed to funnel His

                              feelings inWard unlike
                             the more expAnsive thoreau 
                               in his earLy life
                                         Death
                            changed emersOn

                          his young wife Ellen 
                                 died froM
                                      tubErculosis when
                               she was meRely 20 after her
                               death emerSon visited her grave nearly every day
                               in 1832 wrOte
                                        iN his

                                      jouRnal I visited ellen's tomb  opened
                         the coffin this Approach to
                            death this fuLl
                                     accePtance
                                     of tHe impermanence of

                                    life Was
                             to mold his Actions in the future
                                    shortLy after this time he began rebelling 
                              thoughts haD certainly been in
                                    emersOn's mind for

                                      somE
                                       tiMe but
                                        pErhaps the
                           incandescent gRief
                         prompted him to Search his
                                        sOul for a
                                         New

                                       diRection
                                       thAt direction came in
                        1836 with the pubLication of nature 
         the transcendental club the grouP of intellectuals
                                        tHat revolved around emerson 

       nature set the tone for emerson's Work through the rest of his life
                                in some wAys
                          nature stands aLone being a more mystical work 
a subtle framework for the many essays anD
                           lectures he wrOte

                                         Emerson began
                       by stating the priMacy
                                    of thE individual 
      to go into solitude a man needs to Retire
                                        aS much
                                       frOm his chamber as from society
                          this exhortatioN to look within

                                         Rather
                                       thAn without
                                     a caLl for men to seek the truth in themselves
                      rather than in scriPture 
        emerson writes about looking at tHe stars

            about poetry and says that feW
                                         Adult persons can see nature 
  the eyes of most men and women were veiLed
                              emerson lauDed
                                    the sOlitude

                                     and Energy of nature
              in the wilderness I find soMething
                                      morE
                                      deaR and
                         connate than in Streets
                                         Or villages
                                        iN

                                    the tRanquil
                                        lAndscape
                              and especiaLly in the distant line of the horizon 
                            a mystical exPerience
                                        tHat nature inspired in him

                                  in the Woods we return
                                    to reAson and faith there
                                    I feeL that nothing can befall me in life  
                                      no Disgrace
                                        nO calamity

                                        lEaving
                                         Me
                                      my Eyes
                               which natuRe cannot
                                  repair Standing
                                         On
                            the bare grouNd

          my head bathed by the blithe aiR
                                         And
                                       upLifted into infinite
                                        sPace  all mean
                            egotism vanisHes I become a transparent eyeball 


                         it is a oneness With the
                                  universAl being with god and with
                              nature itseLf because for emerson nature is all of this
             the vital energy of the worlD
                               even the gOd 

                           many of us havE had such epiphanies and
                   we tend to ascribe theM
                                    to thE
                                      appRopriate element of our belief
                                         System
                                        fOr
                                 christiaNs they

                                   come fRom god or jesus for buddhists these
                          kensho moments Are as dogen said dropping off of body and mind
                                 to the uLtimate nature of the world
   his church had taught nature with a caPital n
                                         Had become the godhead being the fount of

                             energy that Was
                                        tAppable by
                                        aLl not just by the select few
        for emerson this experience openeD his eyes
          made them transparent lucid allOwed

                                       thEm to see beyond seeing
                               allowed hiM
                                     to fEel
                   beyond feeling he exhoRted all
                                      to See in the same way
                                        sO
 shall we come to look at the world with New

                                eyes natuRe
                                      is Always
                                  there aLways full of energy full of life
                               full of hoPe we just need to open our eyes
                                        wHen thinking about