Voices in the Air

But then there comes that moment rare
When, for no cause that I can find,
The little voices of the air
Sound above all the sea and wind.

The sea and wind do then obey
And sighing, sighing double notes
Of double basses, content to play
A droning chord for the little throats—

poets.org/poet/katherine-mansfield?mc_cid=db63561618&mc_eid=bd0372c859

Comments

Dinesh ^club

The mind evolved in the sea. Water made it possible. All the early stages took place in water: the origin of life, the birth of animals, the evolution of nervous system and brains, and the appearance of the complex bodies that made brains worth having. The first ventures onto land probably took place not long after the history charted -- certainly by 420 million years ago, perhaps earlier -- but the early history of animals is a history of life in sea. When animals did crawl onto the dry land, they took the sea with them. All the basic activities of life occur in water-filled cells bounded by membranes, tiny containers whose insides are remnants of the sea. . . . .

The features that made the sea productive life and mind are invisible to us most of the time. They exist on a tiny scale. The sea does not change visibly as we do things to it -- not in the way that cutting down forest is immediately, undeniably visible. Waste poured into the sea just seems to drift and dilute away. As a result th sea rarely appears urgent as an environmental problem, and measures we might take to help it often achieve little that’s readily seen. ~ Page 201

There are many reasons for us to appreciate and care for the oceans, and I hope this book has added one. When you dive into the sea, you are diving into the origin of us all. ~ Page 204 (

21 months ago. Edited 21 months ago.

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