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Saturday 22 May 2010

D. H. Lawrence: Whatever Man Makes


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File:Manta 1860.jpg
 
Woman's fancy manta, Navajo, c. 1850-1865: image by PDTillman, 2009 (Arizona State Museum)




Whatever man makes and makes it live
lives because of the life put into it.
A yard of India muslin is alive with Hindu life.
And a Navajo woman, weaving her rug in the pattern of her dream
must run the pattern out in a little break at the end
so that her soul can come out, back to her.

But in the odd pattern, like snake marks on the sand
it leaves its trail.




File:Sarape 1850.jpg

Classic Navajo poncho/sarape, c. 1840-1860: photo by Arizona State Museum
 
File:Transition 1880.jpg

 
Transitional Navajo blanket, c. 1880-1895: photo by Arizona State Museum

File:Chief's blanket.jpg

 
Historic Navajo chief's style blanket, c. 1870-1880: photo by The Textile Museum, 1976



D.H. Lawrence: Whatever Man Makes, from Pansies, 1929

2 comments:

Curtis Roberts said...

I'm enjoying spending time with this, the poem and the two images in their horizontal, then vertical arrangement. I've always thought that colors tend to look so "untrue" and quite often ugly on the internet, but that isn't the case on Beyond The Pale. I'm not sure how you do it, but it's a real achievement.

TC said...

You have a great eye, Curtis, so I am honoured; especially so, as this post is a design upon a poem about design.