Here’s a poem that deals directly with pain, from Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. I don’t entirely understand it but I’m intrigued by some of its claims: “And a woman spoke, saying, “Tell us of Pain.” And he said: Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of […]
Monthly Archives: October 2009
And a woman said, “Tell us of Pain”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged cancer, Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates, Gospel of Matthew, Jesus, Kahlil Gibran, Pain, Prophet, Rainer Maria Rilke, Tom Robbins Comments closed
Can We Imagine Another’s Pain?
In Friday’s post I mentioned how we read and discussed the first few pages of Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World in our most recent salon, held to support colleague Alan Paskow as he battles with cancer. Scarry claims that language is inadequate when it comes to physical pain so […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Body in Pain, Book of Showings, cancer, D. H. Lawrence, Death of Ivan Ilych, Elaine Scarry, Julian of Norwich, Leo Tolstoy, Midsummer Night's Dream, Sons and Lovers, Suffering Comments closed
Perpetual Migraines and Julian of Norwich
This is the first of a series of posts I will be writing on literature and pain. There are a couple of reasons why I write about this now. First, in last night’s salon in honor of my cancer-stricken friend Alan Paskow, we discussed the introduction to Elaine Scarry’s The Body in Pain: The Making […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Book of Showings, Four Quartets, Julian of Norwich, Religion, Suffering, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
