We once had a philosopher named Melville
Who maintained that you fathomed the secrets of the universe,
But his name I only whisper to you, whales.
~ Harold J. Morowitz
(To the Humpback Whales)
to fathom
We once had a philosopher named Melville
Who maintained that you fathomed the secrets of the universe,
But his name I only whisper to you, whales.
~ Harold J. Morowitz
(To the Humpback Whales)
Hi,
I love whales, for such a large animal, they are so graceful to watch under the water. A lovely photo.
One of the blessings of technology and living in our time has been the development of under water cameras. Before we could see whales so gracefully swimming in their deep ocean home, all we could see was glimpses of them as they breached or their carcasses when they were slaughtered for their oil and blubber…
Whispering: what a marvel! Feeling the deep underwater depths of spirit…
Would someday love to tune in to the secrets of the universe the whales are keeping for us…
Barbara – This is an exquisite post, thank you.
I have a CD that has whale song on it — other than silence, it’s one of my favorite things to listen to.
You’re welcome, Laurie! I’ve heard whale songs on nature programs but I never knew one could buy a recording of their music – will definitely be looking into that. 🙂
Imagining that all the questions of the universe could be answered with just one word…
Or perhaps the answer is wordless, a faint whispering…
They’re so enormous but they can move so effortlessly in the water….Amazing creatures.
Walking along the beach in Malibu last week we saw whales feeding and quite close to shore. What a thrill!
Seeing whales feeding from the beach sounds very thrilling, Rosie! I am always dazzled trying to comprehend their size, power and grace… We’ve gone on whale watches before, but it’s nothing like seeing videos of them at home in the sea.
Magnificent image, and I love the last line: ‘But his name I only whisper to you, whales.’
Happy you enjoyed these, Diane! Every August 31-July 1 for the past 27 years Mystic Seaport hosts an overnight stay on the historic *Charles W. Morgan* whaleship. The entire book, Melville’s *Moby-Dick,* is read aloud from cover to cover in honor of his birthday. I keep wanting to go – maybe this will be the year!
http://www.mysticseaport.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.viewPage&page_id=C9BFB69A-0880-5573-4D9E04FA17BE18E8
Hi Barbara! Followed your link from the other site to here 🙂 What a lovely post! I adore whales!
Thank you, Anne! So happy you made it over here, Anne! There has been a lot of confusion since I switched to self-hosting, even though the “self” is actually my son… 🙂 And I’m in the middle of shutting down the genealogy site and transferring everything over to Ancestry.com. I hope I find some more whale quotes for my collection soon…
What majestic creatures. Here’s a happy story about them in the news:
http://news.yahoo.com/northern-california-fishermen-free-entangled-whale-081947123.html
Thank you for the link to the heartwarming story, Tracy! It’s great to know that many fishermen aren’t greedy and do care about the sea and its creatures. I didn’t know that a network of volunteer disentanglement teams exists to help out whales unfortunate enough to find themselves tangled up in fishing nets.
It has been a long time since Boyfriend and I have gone whale-watching – too, too long. The thrill of seeing such gentle, graceful and wise creatures so close is surely unequaled.
Hearing their songs twist through the underwater currents is one of the great definitions of the sea’s mystery.
Whale-watching is thrilling indeed, Aubrey! I think everyone should go on a whale-watch cruise at some point in her life! I’ve ordered a CD of humpback whale songs and am so looking forward to listening to them…