JOY

Below, the black and white drawing was made by the poet Tagore and he applied this "seal" on most of his manuscripts...a version beside stories and poems. It caught my attention because it is so similar to the art work I grew up with of Haida culture
.
Rabindranath Tagore was born in 1861 and was a Bengali poet, visual artist, philosopher, activist and the first Nobel Prize winner from Asia. He was outspoken rejecting colonialism, the caste system and poverty in India. He visited over 30 countries between 1878 and 1932 introducing his political ideas and Indian culture to people unfamiliar with it's roots.


The following poem I find to be utterly mysterious and gives me pause...

Consider, now: which of these joys are you prepared to embrace?

`The joy that makes the earth flow over in the riotous excess of the
grass,
The joy that sets the twin brothers, life and death, dancing over
the wide world,
The joy that sweeps in with the tempest, shaking and waking all life
with laughter,
The joy that sits still with its tears on the open red lotus of pain,
And the joy that throws everything it has upon the dust, and knows
not a word.'