The world itself dreams For Plato and many medieval philosophers, imagination was construed primarily as a mimetic act of mirroring, representing, copying. This approach was often associated with deceit and illusion, with confounding original realities with secondary substitutes. By contrast, for Kant and the romantics—including German idealists and existentialists like Sartre—imagination was hailed as a productive force in its own right, the source of all true meaning and value. Bachelard resisted both extremes. For him, imagination was at once receptive and creative—an acoustic of listening and an art of participation. The two functions, passive and active, were inseparable. The world itself dreams, he said, and we help give it voice. Gaston Bachelard, The Poetics of Space imaginationcreativity
Music and Imagination A Book by Aaron Copland www.goodreads.com The Gifted Listener: Composer Aaron Copland on Honing Your Talent for Listening to Music musicimagination
Japanese Death Poems A Book by Yoel Hoffman www.goodreads.com The haikuSpring snowAn entrance, an exitPoppiesCoolness will rise+4 More Graceful Exits: How Great Beings DiePoems of an Indian summerHe only who has lived with the beautiful deathpoetrynaturemelancholyzen
The haiku The haiku describes a single state or event. The time of the haiku is the present. The haiku refers to images connected to one of the four seasons, poetry
An entrance, an exit Empty-handed I entered the world Barefoot I leave it My coming, my going Two simple happenings That got entangled death
Coolness will rise When you have vanquished your selfhood, coolness will rise even from the fire. identity
The way of things It is when one forces principles on the world that one interferes with its natural workings. How things ought to be wisdomnature
Autumn breezes blow One day you are born you die the next – today, at twilight, autumn breezes blow. zen