NAPOMO Day 6

[tree_and_leaf]

I actually don't know whether or not this is a whole poem, as I know it only from being quoted in Cyprian Smith's book on Eckhart; however, it seems complete in itself.

On whom Thy Name has set its seal,
From him all movement is unfurled:
He is the centre of the wheel,
He is the axis of the world.

Its beauty sways him yet cannot win him.
Transparent motion and poise and glance
Reveal the sanctuary within him
Through the patterned trellises of dance.

Martin Lings.

- Lings appears to have had an extraordinary life; he was a pupil and friend of CS Lewis, lived in Egypt and became a Sufi, was a Shakespeare scholar, and keeper of oriental printed books and manuscripts at the BM (later seconded to the BL).

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

There's a drier life of Smith in the ODNB, for those who have access to it here (http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/95817); for those who don't, my favourite part of it is towards the end:

Lings was a diminutive man. Lewis once likened his movements about Magdalen College to those of a ‘furtive mouse’ (Collected Letters, 2.24). He was also a gentle, serious individual who gave generously of his time to those seeking spiritual guidance. He died of heart failure at his home, 3 French Street, Westerham, Kent, on 12 May 2005, and was buried beneath the garden he had so lovingly tended.

[tree_and_leaf]

Thanks for that - extremely interesting, and not necessarily drier....

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

More structured then, perhaps. The ODNB expands a little on his shared interests with Lewis, and does so deftly - we get the name of the friend in Cairo too.