unask

 

 

a break now, for the long weekend (+); the next post will be on Wednesday August 4.

 

 

 

dawn

 

Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because the dawn has come.

 

Rabindranath Tagore, cited in the wonderful The Welcome Visitor: Living Well, Dying Well, by John Humphrys.

 

 

beyond doubt

 

ELMINA: Yes, love. You of all people knew his love. He never doubted you.
HORATIO: That is true.
ELMINA: So, he knew. Love beyond doubt.

 

From Deirdre Burton and Tom Davis, Remember Me

 

 

darkness

 

O Eros, silently smiling one, hear me.
Let the shadow of thy wings
brush me.
Let thy presence
enfold me, as if darkness
were swandown.
Let me see that darkness
lamp in hand,
this country become
the other country
sacred to desire.

 

From Denise Levertov, Hymn to Eros.

 

 

crystal

 

You are the bread and the knife,
the crystal goblet and the wine.
You are the dew on the morning grass
and the burning wheel of the sun.
You are the white apron of the baker,
and the marsh birds suddenly in flight.

 

From Billy Collins, Litany.

 

 

impermanence

 

Who am I? The Angel of Impermanence. I ride the viewless winds. I am everywhere. I live within the structures of your self, the lattice work of fantasy that you think is you. In the flickering of your thoughts, in the holes between the moments of your mind, I am.

That thought you had yesterday, that joy, that pain, that hunger, that satisfaction, where is it? Gone. I put it away. I made it make sense. I make you make sense. I make you face your self.

I am narrative. I am necessity. I am very nice to you, I take away all your certainties, your precious foolishness, your jewels, your niceties, I surround them with silence. Listen. Pause. Silence. I am here to tell you, that is what truly is.

 

From Remember Me, by Deirdre Burton and Tom Davis