August 23: Love's Primal Scene, Maggie Nelson, from "Bluets"

The half-circle of blinding turquoise ocean is this love’s primal scene. That this blue exists makes my life a remarkable one, just to have seen it. To have seen such beautiful things. To find oneself placed in their midst. Choiceless. I returned there yesterday and stood again upon the mountain.

                    --from Bluets by Maggie Nelson

I have had a long day of work.  I had a long day yesterday.  Tonight, I plan on having a glass of wine and maybe watching an episode of Breaking Bad.  Outside the window right now, I'm staring at a raft of green.  The maples haven't been hit by frost yet, so they're still in full summer ecstasy.  I know the word "ecstasy" is a little overused, but it's the closest I could come to what I'm looking at.

I often worry about being sentimental in my writing.  Words like "joy" and "love" and "heart" and "ecstasy" are good clues that I'm lapsing into romance novel territory.  But those maple leaves are ferociously green and beautiful.

Like Maggie Nelson, Saint Marty sits here, on top of the mountain, gazing at love's primal scene.