The Last Songs We Sing wisdom about what really matters key insights from kiwiconnexion poetry

The Last Songs We Sing wisdom about what really matters key insights from kiwiconnexion poetry 0:00 Poem by Hermann Hesse 0:39 Poem by Jospeh von Eichendorff 1:47 Bach improvisation Michael Bell View more poetry insights here https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe72sN03RK4H3NAom3VLJqqRZ9p6Wiymn David Bell's notes on these two short poems We like to see the days, the costly ones, diminish, To watch something more precious reach maturity: A rare plant that is growing in the garden, A child that we bring up, a little book we write. Translated by Heidi Wilson This short poem is found in Hermann Hesse’s The Glass Bead Game, (1946) read by Richard Lawrence. I like this poem very much, because we live in a time where the proliferation and distribution of knowledge has changed beyond measure from previous eras. How we live now was unimaginable when Hesse wrote his masterwork during world war two. Technology has changed everything. Yet the poem itself speaks to a deeper wisdom in us. In that inner world, some things haven't changed. We still live by values that have stood the test of time, transcended time as it were, spiritual truths. The poem suggests that we long to see an end to “costly” days. Why? What is it that we give up and what do we gain? For me, I imagine when I stand at the end of my life and look back, I will find that God was in all those things I willingly gave up. Through those acts others could themselves live and gain the wisdom of years. It is, I suppose, obvious through bringing up a child, but even projects and creative impulses done by ourselves for others can have that life. The Indian poet and seer, Rabindranath Tagore, a Nobel laureate in literature, puts it this way I asked the tree, Speak to me of God, And it blossomed. This is not readily accepted in a materialistic society. An interviewer said to Rollo May, the distinguished American psychologist, “Much of our modern culture seems to be an attempt to cope with a fundamental anxiety by diversions and what you have called banal pleasures”. To which May answered, “Well you have just put your finger on the most significant aspect of modern society. We try to avoid anxiety by getting rich, by making $100,000 by the time we are 21, by becoming millionaires. Now, none of those things lead to the joy, the creativity that I am talking about. One can own the world and still be without the inner sense of pleasure, of joy, of courage, of creation.” Hesse, saw all of that all too clearly, and his poem—The Glass Bead Game in miniature—shows us how to create that inner world. Delight in the emerging development of others and all the things that matter. The great composer Richard Strauss, who died in 1948 at the age of 84, used three Hesse poems and one by Joseph von Eichendorff for his Four Last Songs. It has been said that the music conveys a deep sense of calm and peace. And, acceptance. Something more precious has been attained. Heidi Wilson's translation is: We have travelled hand in hand through good times and bad; we both rest now from wandering over the silent land. The valleys all around bow to the night, The air darkens already. Only two larks climb still higher, dreaming of the fragrant day. Come here and let them frolic, for soon it is time to sleep, that we may not lose our way in this solitude. Stay longer, silent rest time! So deep in the red sky. How weary we are from wandering, May this indeed be the end? All these and a John McWade reading of the Glass Bead Game can be found on kiwiconnexion The Last Songs We Sing https://kiwiconnexion.nz/view/view.php?id=145 This channel promotes kiwiconnexion and AIM publishing, outreach from Trinity-at-Waiake Methodist Church. Here we hope you will find wisdom choices for better daily living. Spirituality, Christian thought and church history, as well as a special emphasis on John Wesley and Methodism are our touchstones. Art, printmaking, etching, intaglio and relief, and artist books feature in our creative outputs.outputs. Visit us and connect fopr great content https://kiwiconnexion.nz/