unask

 

 

A break now, for the (long) weekend; the next post will be on Tuesday, July 20, 2010.

 

 

 

a message for you

 

FROM all the rest I single out you, having a message for you:
You are to die—Let others tell you what they please, I cannot prevaricate,
I am exact and merciless, but I love you—There is no escape for you.

Softly I lay my right hand upon you—you just feel it,
I do not argue—I bend my head close, and half envelope it,
I sit quietly by—I remain faithful,
I am more than nurse, more than parent or neighbor,
I absolve you from all except yourself, spiritual, bodily—that is eternal—you
yourself will surely escape,
The corpse you will leave will be but excrementitious.

The sun bursts through in unlooked-for directions!
Strong thoughts fill you, and confidence—you smile!
You forget you are sick, as I forget you are sick,
You do not see the medicines—you do not mind the weeping friends—I am with you,
I exclude others from you—there is nothing to be commiserated,
I do not commiserate—I congratulate you.

 

From Walt Whitman, Leaves of grass

 

 

Hamlet to Ophelia
 

 

doubt that the stars are fire
doubt that the sun doth move
doubt truth to be a liar
but do not, do not doubt I love.

doubt every fire must burn
doubt peace to be a dove
doubt that the tide will turn
but do not, do not doubt I love.

doubt particle is wave
doubt e is mc squared
doubt chaos can behave
but never, never doubt I cared.

doubt that the stars are fire
doubt that the sun doth move
doubt truth to be a liar
but do not, do not doubt I love.

 

William Shakespeare and Deirdre Burton, from Remember Me

 

 

reflection
 

 

We are the time. We are the famous
metaphor from Heraclitus the Obscure.

We are the water, not the hard diamond,
the one that is lost, not the one that stands still.

We are the river and we are that Greek
that looks himself into the river. His reflection
changes into the waters of the changing mirror,
into the crystal that changes like the fire.

We are the vain predetermined river,
in his travel to his sea.

The shadows have surrounded him.
Everything said goodbye to us, everything goes away.

Memory does not stamp his own coin.

However, there is something that stays
however, there is something that mourns.

 

Borges

 

 

pink

 

Blossoms will run away,
Cakes reign but a Day,
But Memory like Melody
Is pink Eternally.

 

Emily Dickinson, Blossoms will run away

 

 

The Mask

 

"PUT off that mask of burning gold
With emerald eyes."
"O no, my dear, you make so bold
To find if hearts be wild and wise,
And yet not cold."
"I would but find what's there to find,
Love or deceit."
"It was the mask engaged your mind,
And after set your heart to beat,
Not what's behind."
"But lest you are my enemy,
I must enquire."
"O no, my dear, let all that be;
What matter, so there is but fire
In you, in me?"

 

W.B. Yeats