[Below I’ve shared my favorite poem and also what I based my website’s name on. Since the internet is always changing, I wanted this available here for both myself and you lovely readers! Enjoy!]
Say More, Speak Like Rain
by Arne Ruste
“Am I perhaps
the only believer now?
I believe in words
I believe in the carrying capacity
of words in the power of their
relativity
I believe in
the parable, the paradox, the poem
and in the stories
of old men
told over fences, and I
believe in the soft
things of this world, in wood and
clay, that they will outlive
steel and concrete
human things are what I
believe in, the penetrating
power of gentleness
and I believe in things
that take a long time to make,
like trees and books
but I no longer believe
in the good deeds
of this world
I no longer believe in
heroism, I believe
in good-naturedness
and in words spoken by simple people,
simple words woven together
like baskets for carrying
I put my stock
in stamp collectors
and the owners
of small shops and
country inns, carpenters
and flower-women
There are no big
words in this world, only
loudmouths and demagogues
The collapse of words is a conceited fiction
Words hold everything together
Words connect everything.
I believe
in café talk and
in coffee-break talk
I believe in prayers, narrow
strips of words, weightless and golden
burnable, spread to the winds
I believe in
confessions whispered in darkness
and in letters
I believe in ballads and in
curses of a sincere heart
I want words
like deep axe cuts and clinging
mallets. I want
words
like shiny stones in my pocket,
words like thrown arrows
I want words
like the years in a worn down
table. Maybe I am the last
believer now:
I believe in blind man’s
never faltering fumbling over a writing
of flaming points”
Translated from the Norwegian by Olav Grinde