<p>There is a phrase Hart Crane, the difficult but magnificent American poet, uses to interpret the relationship between the ocean and the sky, in a most penetrating manner: “Infinite consanguinity.”
There is a phrase Hart Crane, the difficult but magnificent American poet, uses to interpret the relationship between the ocean and the sky, in a most penetrating manner: “Infinite consanguinity.” No wave seen without the tempering of the sky, and no sky seen but as a reflection of the ocean.
One could say there exists a similar symbiotic relationship between our citizens and immigrants awaiting citizenship, and the nation, two bodies in perpetual relationship with each other.
Our country has been described as always seeking freedom.
Our people have been described as always seeking freedom.
We don’t have a country set in stone, nor are our people — we and it are fluid, expanding, open and attempt to be just. The country fought itself for that direction, and to a large degree prevailed.
That we don’t always agree is a part of the freedoms we admire.
What we would fight for again is a country that does not reflect who we have become.
My generation saw our nation change and grow on the words of Martin Luther King Jr., John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Betty Friedan, Harvey Milk, John Glenn, and so many others. Each voice reflective of a nation in change, determined change, always seeking freedom.
And what was our generation fed on: Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers, It’s a Small World after All, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the flower children, and marches . . . against war, for blacks, for women, etc.
All to advance freedom. All for fluidity, openness, expanding the laws for all, a celebration of diversity.
This is the true infinite consanguinity between our country and its people. A reflection of one on the other, a binding of each to each, happily without end.
Fan Ogilvie lives in West Tisbury, and is the former poet laureate for that town.
Comments
Lovely, Fanny
Anne Luzzatto ChilmarkLovely, Fanny
Beautifully said. Too bad our
Linda ChilmarkBeautifully said. Too bad our new government doesn't reflect this hope and the commitment to continue the promise of our country.
Yup
James Lukas CotuitYup
Just visit MV
Walk to the beach over terra firma
The infinite sanguinity will be overwhelming ...
Infinite consanguinity also
Arnie Reisman San Miguel de Allende MexicoInfinite consanguinity also reflected in simple, refined eloquence. Thanks, Fan.
Great piece, Fanny. An ideal
platt staunton CharlottesvilleGreat piece, Fanny. An ideal always worth striving for
Fan:I wish everyone in this
Nick Thorne West TisburyFan:I wish everyone in this Country could read your elegant, passionate, and pointed vision so that they might regain an historical perspective as to who and what Americans are, and the many struggles it endured in its evolution. However, it seems to me that we also have to take a very hard look at what America has become: A generation has been raised with computers, video games, cell phones, and other media bombardment to the point that they appear to be incapable or indifferent to independent thought. Reality television has so dominated the minds of this country that out recent Presidential Election produced what seemed to be the unthinkable. The lessons to be gained by a knowledge of basic History, Literature, Geography, as well as the empathy to be gained by both an awareness of Cultural and International Current and Past Events, appears alarmingly absent in the American populace. I pray for a collective awakening. Nick Thorne
Beautiful and wise, Fan, just
Nancy aronie ChilmarkBeautiful and wise, Fan, just like you❣
So thoughtful and beautiful,
Lynne Berentson New York CitySo thoughtful and beautiful, so like you!
I once produced a poetry
David R White West TisburyI once produced a poetry series in New York called Seasonable Madness, the title taken from a Hart Crane poem. The madness that is now in season confronts and threatens the infinite consanguinity that many of us have taken for granted as the binding force in the social fabric. It will require poet-citizens on the ramparts, dancers and ceramicists storming the beaches, musicians creating the ecstatic and fanfares of resistance. Bring the kids - this is how they'll learn.
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