place vs. ground (2)

Still contemplating “place” with Stephen Batchelor’s Confession of a Buddhist Atheist as guide.

One needs to make a conscious shift from delight in a fixed place to awareness of a contingent ground. (Confession, p. 156)

This statement is relevant to vacationers and eco-poets. Your place may get corrupted, or even disappear like the Maldives.

Interesting that Thoreau used the term “ground” (previous post).

Whereas a place can tie you down and close you off, this ground lets you go and opens you up. It does not stand still for a moment. To be supported by it, you have to be with it in a different way. Instead of standing firmly on your feet and holding on tight with both hands in order to feel secure in your place, here you have to dart across its liquid, shimmering surface like a long-legged fly, swim with its current like a fast-moving fish. (Confession, p 128-9).

Is it fair to apply a spiritual concept to poetics? I think so. Some poets of place may effectively express this shimmering sort of contingent groundedness, and others may not. I would like to be able to point to examples.