The Inner Valley

Where they, to seize and occupy the sense; But to a higher mark than song can reach Rose this pure eloquence. And, when the stream Which overflowed the soul was passed away, A consciousness remained that it had left, Deposited upon the silent shore Of memory, images and precious thoughts That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed. ******* ✍ William Wordsworth (Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, 7 April 1770 ~ Rydal Mount, Cumbria, England, 23 April 1850). ◙  Artwork: Arnold Böcklin - ´The Isle of the Dead´ *******  

"People no longer tread over the bare earth. Their hands have drawn away from the grasses and flowers, they do not gaze up to the heavens, their ears are deaf to the songs of birds, their noses are rendered insensitive by exhaust fumes, and their tongues have forgotten the simple tastes of nature.  All five senses have grown isolated from nature. Man's true joy and delight was natural ecstasy. This exists only in nature and vanishes away from the earth. A human environment cannot exist apart from nature, and so agriculture must be made the foundation for living. The return of all people to the country to farm and create villages of true men is the road to the creation of ideal towns, ideal societies and ideal states." *******   ✍    Masanobu Fukuoka (Iyo,Japan, 2 February 1913 ~ Iyo, Japan, 16 August 2008). ◙ George Inness *******  “La gente ya no pone los pies en la tierra. Sus manos se han alejado de hierbas y flores, no dirigen su mirada al Cie...