- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Kindred Spirits
- 2 Intimacy in Language
- 3 Laughter for Dessert
- 4 The Poetry of Ping-Pong
- 5 Days of Chess and Backgammon
- 6 Inventing a Language for Love
- 7 Poetry on the Porch
- 8 All My Trials
- 9 The AIDS Poets
- 10 Oh Did You See the Ashes Come Thickly Falling Down?
- 11 The POEMobile Dreams of Peace
- 12 Free Market Flavor
- 13 The Poetry in Science
- 14 Navigating Transitions
- 15 The Human Unit of Time
- 16 Your Body as Symbol
- 17 Intimations of Immortality
- 18 God Is in the Details
- 19 Breath on the Mirror
- 20 The Best Stories versus My Story
- 21 The Grease Lamp’s Flicker and Flare
- 22 Lion’s Gate
- 23 Rock and Word
- For Further Reading
- Permissions
The Grease Lamp’s Flicker and Flare
The Grease Lamp’s Flicker and Flare
Dark Caves Illuminate
- Chapter:
- (p.227) 21 The Grease Lamp’s Flicker and Flare
- Source:
- The Poetry of Everyday Life
- Author(s):
Steve Zeitlin
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
This chapter suggests that each of our souls is akin to that flickering, wavering light dancing upon the stone pallettes of early humans who painted in dark caves. It says a tiny lamp burns in each of us, flickering as we move through the cave of our experience, illuminating the bones of reindeer and fish, the small images of our daily lives. Our peak moments, however, are like the huge painted images—the aurochs, bison, and bulls—that appear suddenly before us in the flare of our lamps. In these transcendent moments, we witness the grand ideas that shape our path. In modern times, we are far removed from the cave painters' world of ceremony. The cave paintings represent a behest from our ancestors to record our own experiences on the page, canvas, stage, or screen so that others might discover them. Only a few of the many painted caves have been preserved, just as most—but not all—of our artistic works are destined to remain undiscovered.
Keywords: early humans, caves, cave painters, cave paintings, ancestors, art, souls
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Kindred Spirits
- 2 Intimacy in Language
- 3 Laughter for Dessert
- 4 The Poetry of Ping-Pong
- 5 Days of Chess and Backgammon
- 6 Inventing a Language for Love
- 7 Poetry on the Porch
- 8 All My Trials
- 9 The AIDS Poets
- 10 Oh Did You See the Ashes Come Thickly Falling Down?
- 11 The POEMobile Dreams of Peace
- 12 Free Market Flavor
- 13 The Poetry in Science
- 14 Navigating Transitions
- 15 The Human Unit of Time
- 16 Your Body as Symbol
- 17 Intimations of Immortality
- 18 God Is in the Details
- 19 Breath on the Mirror
- 20 The Best Stories versus My Story
- 21 The Grease Lamp’s Flicker and Flare
- 22 Lion’s Gate
- 23 Rock and Word
- For Further Reading
- Permissions