August 22, 2011

The Abundance of Being

Karnak, Egypt

In spite of Fate, the marvelous abundance
of being, like the brimming land
or like stone figures
built into gateways, bearing up balconies.

Or a bronze bell, lifting its voice
over and over against the dullness of our days.
Or that single column in Karnak, standing
long after the temple fell.

Today this extravagance flashes by
in the blur of our haste,
out of the wide yellow day into the vaulted night.

In that rush it dissolves, leaving nothing behind,
just as a plane overhead makes no mark on the sky.
Only our minds see the curve of its flight.

Sonnets to Orpheus II, 22

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful and fitting for today. Thank you, Lorenzo.

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  2. the summertime blur of experiences that melt quick as a popsicle on the sidewalk astonishes me as it rolls around each year. the larger experiencing of life has passages that are much the same. "this extravagance flashes by". oh yes it surely does. steven

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  3. and this is life.
    and what we do with it.
    we ought do more
    rick

    ReplyDelete

"Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night."

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Go ahead, bloom recklessly!