David, it's WESTERN Grove, Arkansas ... up near the top westish middle of Arkansas :) ... we're next door to Searcy County. I grew up in Detroit, actually ... so we have gone in opposite directions over the lifetime; you went north .. I went south ..
Nice you've gone in for poetry, actually. Yes,
The Day with the White Mark seems to be about one of Lewis's themes he also mentions somewhere in Surprised by Joy (I think
(duhhh)) about how our moods can be completely unrelated to EVENTS. (This is surely borne out by modern psychiatry and all the talk about neurotransmitters, thyroid, adrenals, serotonin-enhancing foods and drugs, etc.). I remember him saying something about he could have kissed the scullery taps. One of the nice things about Lewis is he focuses on JOY and HAPPINESS and can describe them so well. There was another poem in which he said something like "as if there were transparent earth and you could look down and see transparent tree roots growing in it" (not sure exactly which one!! ... might've been the same one?) somehow the very words transport the mind of the reader into that state of glory he is describing.
I LOVE
The Country of the Blind ... what other poem can anyone think of that describes ... oh ... what it describes, like Lucy trying to tell Peter and Edmond and Susan about Narnia!!!
Best regards,
Jenn