1.25.2007

Thoreau's Journal: 25-Jan-1858

You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any bread or cake. You must be able to extract nutriment out of a sandheap. You must have so good an appetite as this, else you will live in vain.

1 comment:

Jonathan Wonham said...

I love that. Reminds me of a poem by Francis Ponge called 'Bread' in which he compares the crust of a loaf of bread to the earth's crust:

"The surface of bread is marvellous, first of all because of the almost panoramic impression it gives: as though you held the Alps, the Taurus, or the Cordillera of the Andes in your hands..."

This translation from the French by C.K. Williams in Wake Forest University Press 'Selected Poems'.