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A wealth of hearts

Very quickly we have a range of things to address. Selection is the key. For now just two things.

1. If writing is doing phenomenology, what is that process in terms of what phenomenologists say they do? Here is a characterization for reference and later examination.

Husserlian phenomenology (vs. other brands) is

* a descriptive enterprise, not one that proceeds by way of theory construction;
* clarifying not explaining, to understand what it is to be a thing of this or that sort;
* an eidetic and not a factual inquiry, not concerned to describe all the properties of some particular thing but to uncover what belongs to it essentially as a thing of that kind.
* an object given "in person," or that it apprehends its object against a co-given background or "horizon";
* reactive inquiry, not concerned directly with entities, as are the natural sciences, but with our experience of entities;
* committed to the view that descriptive clarification of the essential conditions for being X cannot be achieved by abstracting from our experience of X but only by attending to how X is given in that experience;
* how "the things themselves," show themselves.
2. For each writing, what is the phenomenon described? Can it be rendered in a word or phrase? This is to say that each is about something--a noema, an X, an it.


The question that "The last poem" addresses is what it is like to discover the heart of love. The phenomenon described is thus, the very heart of love.

This object-poem questions back first with whose description it is.

Answer: That of a speaker, a Christian, a voyager, a gift-giver, a lover, one who is selfish . . .  a writer, a seeker, now one who is aging, a learner, a discoverer. Finally it is my description having vicariously experienced the journey, I reader.

A wealth of hearts in less than 100 words.

Is the subject important to describe what it is like?

It takes its place among many others that recount the same or similar journeys, and therefore share the results in a "love poem."

The form, a poem, traditionally combines thought with feeling. "The last poem" takes what the heart of love is experientially, and perhaps the last feeling is resignation in the face of the truth/reality of the divine.

Comments welcome. "Thud" as phenomenological description in a moment.

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Contributions to the subjects of this journey welcome.

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