{"id":1181,"date":"2023-02-13T01:19:49","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T05:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/may-sartons-stunning-poem-about-the-relationship-between-presence-solitude-and-love-the-marginalian\/"},"modified":"2023-02-13T01:19:49","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T05:19:49","slug":"may-sartons-stunning-poem-about-the-relationship-between-presence-solitude-and-love-the-marginalian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/may-sartons-stunning-poem-about-the-relationship-between-presence-solitude-and-love-the-marginalian\/","title":{"rendered":"May Sarton\u2019s Stunning Poem About the Relationship Between Presence, Solitude, and Love \u2013 The Marginalian"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"posts\">\n<h2>\u201c\u2026and joy instead of will.\u201d<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"byline\">By Maria Popova<\/h3>\n<div class=\"entry_content\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"320\" height=\"473\" class=\"cover alignright size-medium jetpack-lazy-image\" alt=\"Meditation in Sunlight: May Sarton\u2019s Stunning Poem About the Relationship Between Presence, Solitude, and Love\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/thelionandtherose_sarton.jpg?w=660&amp;ssl=1 660w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/thelionandtherose_sarton.jpg?resize=320%2C473&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/thelionandtherose_sarton.jpg?resize=600%2C886&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/thelionandtherose_sarton.jpg?resize=240%2C355&amp;ssl=1 240w\" data-lazy-sizes=\"(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themarginalian.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/thelionandtherose_sarton.jpg?fit=320%2C473&amp;ssl=1&amp;is-pending-load=1\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong>May Sarton<\/strong> (May 3, 1912\u2013July 16, 1995) was thirty-three when she left Cambridge for Santa Fe. She had just lived through a World War and a long period of personal turmoil that had syphoned her creative vitality \u2014 a kind of deadening she had not experienced before. Under the immense blue skies that had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2014\/10\/22\/georgia-okeeffe-southwest\/\">so enchanted the young Georgia O\u2019Keeffe<\/a> a generation earlier, she started coming back to life. Her white-washed room at the boarding house had mountain views, a rush of sunlight, and a police dog and \u201ca very nice English teacher\u201d for neighbors. As the sun rose over the mountains, she woke up each morning \u201csimply on fire\u201d with poetry \u2014 new poems she read to the English teacher, not yet knowing she was falling in love with her. Judy would become her great love, then her lifelong friend and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2023\/01\/25\/may-sarton-dementia\/\">the closest she ever had to family<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Among the constellation of Santa Fe poems composed during this creative renaissance is an especially beguiling reflection on the relationship between presence, solitude, and love, soon published in Sarton\u2019s 1948 poetry collection <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Lion-Rose-Poems-May-Sarton\/dp\/B00LCQVKR8\/?tag=braipick-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong><em>The Lion and the Rose<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/worldcat.org\/title\/2589045\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>public library<\/em><\/a>) \u2014 her first in a decade \u2014 and read here for us by my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/tag\/amanda-palmer\/\">longtime<\/a> poetry co-invocator <a href=\"http:\/\/amandapalmer.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Amanda Palmer<\/a> in her lovely oceanic voice:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"&quot;Meditation in Sunlight&quot; by May Sarton (read by Amanda Palmer) by brainpicker\" width=\"680\" height=\"400\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?visual=true&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F1445390686&amp;show_artwork=true&amp;maxheight=1000&amp;maxwidth=680\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>MEDITATION IN SUNLIGHT<\/strong><br \/><em>by May Sarton<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In space in time I sit<br \/>Thousands of feet above<br \/>The sea and meditate<br \/>On solitude on love<\/p>\n<p>Near all is brown and poor<br \/>Houses are made of earth<br \/>Sun opens every door<br \/>The city is a hearth<\/p>\n<p>Far all is blue and strange<br \/>The sky looks down on snow<br \/>And meets the mountain-range<br \/>Where time is light not shadow<\/p>\n<p>Time in the heart held still<br \/>Space as the household god<br \/>And joy instead of will<br \/>Knows love as solitude<\/p>\n<p>Knows solitude as love<br \/>Knows time as light not shadow<br \/>Thousands of feet above<br \/>The sea where I am now<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Complement with Sarton on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2016\/10\/17\/may-sarton-journal-of-a-solitude-depression\/\">the cure for despair<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2023\/01\/01\/may-sarton-the-house-by-the-sea\/\">how to live openheartedly in a harsh world<\/a>, and her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2017\/12\/01\/may-sarton-canticle-6-considerations\/\">stunning ode to solitude<\/a>, then revisit Amanda\u2019s soulful readings of Jane Kenyon\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2017\/09\/27\/having-it-out-with-melancholy-jane-kenyon-amanda-palmer\/\">meditation on life with and after depression<\/a>, Elizabeth Bishop\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2021\/01\/31\/elizabeth-bishop-one-art\/\">timeless consolation for loss<\/a>, Ellen Bass\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2020\/10\/02\/the-big-picture-ellen-bass\/\">immense and intimate poem of perspective and possibility<\/a>, and Mary Oliver\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themarginalian.org\/2019\/09\/23\/amanda-palmer-mary-oliver-when-i-am-among-the-trees\/\">\u201cWhen I Am Among the Trees.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/hop.clickbank.net\/?affiliate=infohatch&amp;vendor=J1R2C\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10614 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png\" alt=\"Profit Gen\" width=\"400\" height=\"217\" srcset=\"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px.png 400w, https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/profit-gen400px-300x163.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c\u2026and joy instead of will.\u201d By Maria Popova May Sarton (May 3, 1912\u2013July 16, 1995) was thirty-three when she left Cambridge for Santa Fe. She [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parmaks.com\/Resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}