Focusing Our Inward Eye

Beech Trees at Westonbirt Arboretum

My inspiration

At the start of my blog I wanted to reference Wordsworth's poem. This has inspired me. It is - for me - a brilliant poem. It's short. It's meaning is direct and speaks to me.

I understand the moments of the inward eye; though for me I can find those moments in the moment! More on this later.

The poem wraps up, in a flow of beautiful words, how we should make our lives richer by valuing experiences over things.

What this blog is about

I will write about being under the fluttering trees in vacant or in pensive mood.

I will write about trees, their forms, their presence in Nature, how humans interact with them, how birds, insects and animals live in and around them. 

I will write about how trees are in the landscape and part of the landscape at the same time. It's a matter of the viewer's focus. In fact, it is all about how we focus our inward eye.

I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

By William Wordsworth

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45521/i-wandered-lonely-as-a-cloud