Ahead and to the west was our ranger station - and the mountains of Idaho, poems of geology stretching beyond any boundaries and seemingly even beyond the world.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the beauty and vastness of nature, highlighting the significance of exploration and the poetic aspects of the landscape.
Norman Maclean's quote emphasizes the awe-inspiring beauty of the Idaho mountains, describing them as 'poems of geology' that transcend physical boundaries. This perspective invites the reader to appreciate nature not just as scenery, but as a dynamic and ever-evolving narrative, filled with stories that connect us to the world in profound ways.
In practice
In a speech about environmental conservation, one might use the quote to illustrate the beauty we must protect.
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.
Poets talk about "spots of time", but it is really the fishermen who experience eternity compressed into a moment. No one can tell what a spot of time is until suddenly the whole world is a fish and the fish is gone.
As I get considerably beyond the biblical allotment of three score years and ten, I feel with increasing intensity that I can express my gratitude for still being around on the oxygen-side of the earth's crust only by not standing pat on what I have hitherto known and loved. While oxygen lasts, there are still new things to love, especially if compassion is a form of love.
At sunrise everything is luminous but not clear. It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us. You can love completely without complete understanding.
One of life's quiet excitements is to stand somewhat apart from yourself and watch yourself softly becoming the author of something beautiful even if it is only a floating ash.
One great thing about fly fishing is that after a while nothing exists of the world but thoughts about fly fishing
The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.
I bade adieu to mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.
The woods decay, the woods decay and fall.
Lo! sweeten'd with the summer light,_x000D_ _x000D_ The full-juiced apple, waxing over-mellow,_x000D_ _x000D_ Drops in a silent autumn night._x000D_ _x000D_ All its allotted length of days_x000D_ _x000D_ The flower ripens in its place,_x000D_ _x000D_ Ripens and fades, and falls, and hath no toil,_x000D_ _x000D_ Fast-rooted in the fruitful soil.
I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate.
Nature is indifferent to our love, but never unfaithful.
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