Soliloquy

When I wrote my first post in July of 2004, I thought the word Soliloquy was a perfect name for my blog. At the time, my posts were simply a random collection of thoughts, often focused on writing, and even more often, meandering aimlessly down unfocused paths. This blog post, in reply to a question Gail at Clay and Limestone had tossed out to us, explains in greater detail how I came to choose the word, Soliloquy.

Since then, the focus of my blog has been on all aspects of Nature and gardening, with the odd post about family events or Life, in general. Soliloquy just doesn’t seem like a good fit any more. It is hard to pronounce, often misspelled, fussy to type, and has little to do with Nature or gardening. So, I’ve decided to re-christen my blog: Leaping Greenly.

The phrase “leaping greenly” is taken from a poem by E. E. Cummings, which I quote below in its entirety:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any–lifted from the no
of all nothing–human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

E. E. Cummings, by the way, according to his widow, did not have his name legally changed to “e e cummings”. He did, in fact, write to his French translator that he preferred the capitalized version. Just as a point of interest.

Cummings exhibited “transcendental” leanings his entire life and was a very spiritual man. He would pray in his journals for inspiration for his poetry and art work; he also “prayed for strength to be his essential self”.

Two of Cumming’s beautiful paintings.

I, too, have felt the leaping greenly spirits of trees and revere “…everything which is natural. which is infinite…” In fact, I sometimes, literally, leap greenly! (When nobody’s watching, that is.)

I hope that this name change doesn’t deter my regular readers. I’ll post with both names for a while until my blogging friends are used to the change.

My site URL is the same, my blog feed is the same, and everything on Blotanical should be the same — the only thing you’ll need to change, if you wish, is the name.

Other than that, as Jon Bon Jovi wrote, “It’s all the same, only the names will change…” :-) Come leap greenly with me!