An east wind.

East window at noon –

the sound of crickets and a

distant piano.

There once was a time

when the beauty and the music
were all within me.

I sat and listened

to a positive though faint

and distant music.

I sat and listened

possessed by the melody,

a song in my thoughts.

This was a time when

I felt a joy that knew not

its own origin.

A pleasure, a joy, 

an existence which I had

not procured myself.

Astonished, I saw 

that I am dealt with by 

superior powers.

That this earth is a

musical instrument and 

I its audience 

awake to music
calmed like a lake when there is
not a breath of wind.

So without effort
our depths revealed to ourselves
all the world goes by.

We touch this world and
feel exquisite pleasure – our
Maker blessing us.

An east wind. I hear
the clock strike plainly ten
or eleven P.M.

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I have found all things thus far,

persons and inanimate matter, elements and seasons,

strangely adapted to my resources.

Henry Thoreau, A Week (Wednesday)

June 22, 1851 ("There is the calmness of the lake when there is not a breath of wind . . . So is it with us. Sometimes we are clarified and calmed healthily, as we never were before in our lives,. . . so that we become like a still lake of purest crystal and without an effort our depths are revealed to ourselves. All the world goes by us and is reflected in our deeps . . . I awoke into a music which no one about me heard. Whom shall I thank for it ? . . . I feel my Maker blessing me. To the sane man the world is a musical instrument . The very touch affords an exquisite pleasure. ")

July 16, 1851("This earth was the most glorious musical instrument, and I was audience to its strains. To have such sweet impressions made on us, such ecstasies begotten of the breezes ! I can remember how I was astonished. I said to myself, — I said to others, — " There comes into my mind such an indescribable, infinite, all-absorbing, divine, heavenly pleasure, a sense of elevation and expansion, and [I] have had nought to do with it. I perceive that I am dealt with by superior powers. This is a pleasure, a joy, an existence which I have not procured myself.”)

April 18, 1852 ("An east wind. I hear the clock strike plainly ten or eleven P.M."); May 3, 1852
(" The clock strikes distinctly, showing the wind is easterly. There is a grand, rich, musical echo trembling on the air long after the clock has ceased to strike, like a vast organ, filling the air with a trembling music like a flower of sound. Nature adopts it. Beautiful is sound. ")

August 3, 1852 (" At the east window. — A temperate noon. I hear a cricket creak in the shade; also the sound of a distant piano. . . . At length the melody steals into my being. I know not when it began to occupy me. By some fortunate coincidence of thought or circumstance I am attuned to the universe, I am fitted to hear, my being moves in a sphere of melody,

May 23, 1854 ("There was a time when the beauty and the music were all within, and I sat and listened to my thoughts, and there was a song in them. I sat for hours on rocks and wrestled with the melody which possessed me. I sat and listened by the hour to a positive though faint and distant music . . .. When I walked with a joy which knew not its own origin.”)